A Thousand Thousands Served Him:
Exegesis and the Naming of Angels in Ancient Judaism

Olyan, Saul M.

Saul Olyan's book proposes to resolve the riddle of angelology during the last two pre-Christian centuries and the first half-millennium of the post-Christian age. Though the Hebrew Scriptures do record frequently "the angel of the Lord" or "angels," only two, Michael and Gabriel, are listed by name and these only in Daniel 8-12. Whence therefore, Olyan asks, the numerous angels and angelic brigades recorded in the Qumranic and Hekalot texts?

Olyan's answer is that the major source was the exegesis of Scripture. That is to say that many of these theophanic names were drawn out of texts of Scripture by midrashic means, a process that began during the Second Temple period. Examples are the use of Mastema in Jubilees and Qumran texts and the transformation of certain words in the reports of Ezekiel's vision into angelic brigades such as the Galgallim, Hashmallim, and Ophannim. Another source of angelic names are the puzzling words in Scripture, hapax legomena, such as Maasim, Shinanim, and Tapsarim. Instances of exegesis of single names are Abaddon, Doqiel, Hadriel, Lehatim, and Yephephiyya. Thus Olyan argues it was the Jewish exegetical process that served for the naming of angels and angelic brigades rather than the explanations offered in previous theories (e.g., foreign influence, gnosticism, or the problem of divine transcendence and God's inaccessibility to his people).
Olyan's case is convincing for the angelic names that appear in late rabbinic literature and Hekalot texts. He makes no mention, though, of the two hundred rebellious angels and their twenty decarchs, such as Shemihaza(i) and Baraqel, recorded in 1 Enoch 6. Neither would the reader know of the angelic brothers 'Ohyah and Hahyah, of Mahawai the son of Baraqel, or, more importantly, of Gilgamesh or Hubabis (see J. T. Milik, The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumrân Cave 4). To be sure Olyan does refer to Aza(z)el and Mastema, but readers of his book would hardly know of Azazel's role as the counterpart of Enoch in the antediluvian angelology. Olyan does treat the role of Mastema first recorded in Jubilees and its early commentaries, but he makes no mention of Mastema's synonym Belial so frequent in Qumran texts and also in the New Testament. In brief Olyan treats quite adequately the benign angels but ignores the antediluvian rebels.
Inspired by Ezek 1:16, Olyan says, Qumranic exegesis created among others an angelic family called Maasim. There is, however, no reason to believe that maasim in Ezekiel or Qumran refers to angels rather than to angelic acts.
One misses in this monograph any discussion of angelic names in Scripture other than those of Gabriel or Michael. In Genesis 32 and Judges 13 both of the celestial messengers are asked for their names. When Manoah asks the angel the question, "why are you asking for my name?" his answer, "Peli," is obscure. Peli may be the angel's name or an explanation ("It is too wonderful") of why angelic names are not to be revealed to a mortal. The passage in Genesis is different. Here Jacob names the locus of the wrestling Peniel. As Olyan has it Peniel is a mere geographical term not an angelic appellation. However, Jacob's statement, "For I have seen God face to face," strongly suggests that his naming the place Peniel exegeted the angelic name. (4/96)