Encyclopedia of The Bible – Michael
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Michael

MICHAEL mī’ kəl (מִיכָאֵֽל, LXX and NT Μιχαήλ, G3640, meaning Who is like God?). Scripture refers to ten men and also an archangel with this name. 1. Father of Sethur, a spy from the tribe of Asher (Num 13:13).

2-3. Two persons in the tribe of Gad (1 Chron 5:13, 14).

4. A descendant of Gershon and great-grandfather of Asaph the singer (6:40).

5. A high-ranking person of Issachar (7:3).

6. A citizen of Benjamin (8:16).

7. A captain over a thousand in Manasseh who joined the fighting men of David (12:20).

8. A man of Issachar, father of Omri who was an officer under David (27:18).

9. A prince in Judah who was son of King Jehoshaphat and brother of King Jehoram (2 Chron 21:2).

10. Father of Zebadiah, a leading man who returned to Jerusalem with Ezra (Ezra 8:8).

11. The main Michael is the archangel (Dan 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9; Rev 12:7). The Bible also names Gabriel as a high angel (Dan 8:16; 9:21; Luke 1:19, 26). The apocryphal Book of Enoch names Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel (9:1; 40:9) and numbers archangels at seven (20:1-7; cf. Tobit 12:15). Scripture itself calls Michael “the archangel” (Jude 9) and speaks of “the archangel” (1 Thess 4:16) but never of “archangels.”

Daniel distinctly relates Michael to Israel as prince and guardian over the destinies of that nation (10:21; 12:1). During Israel’s unprecedented “time of trouble” (12:1; cf. Jer 30:7; Matt 24:21), he will be active for her welfare when Satan is seeking to destroy her (Rev 12:7ff.). This seems to be at the outset of the last part of the tribulation period (12:7). The text shows that God has “his angels.” This is no clear proof that Michael is Christ, as some contend. Seiss likens Michael to a general who has his officers and soldiers, though all are under the king, who in this case is Christ.

Jude 9 speaks of Michael resisting the devil, but committing the judgment of him to the Lord. The dispute involved the body of Moses. Specific background for this, nowhere mentioned in the OT, may have been known by 1st-cent. readers because of written or oral traditions. Today it is not certain. Origen, in his work On First Principles (III:2:1), supposed it was taken from “The Ascension of Moses,” a pseudepigraphical writing. Charles lists other parallels between this work and Jude (APOT, II, 412, 413). If Jude did use such a source, the Spirit enabled him to discern as fact what really was true in it. One explanation of Jude 9 is that the devil sought to deny honorable burial to Moses’ body when he died (Deut 34) on the ground that he was a murderer (Exod 2). Michael contended for the body. See other traditions cited by Wolff.

The Jehovah’s Witness group claims that Christ is not God but only an exalted angel, namely Michael. Hengstenberg and some other Protestants have identified Michael with the glorious one in linen (Dan 10:5, 6) and also with the Angel of Jehovah and then Christ. They, however, uphold Christ’s deity. Hengstenberg distinguished the one who appears in linen (10:5) from the one who speaks to Daniel (10:11ff.), equating the latter with Gabriel. Keil reasons on what this writer considers better grounds that the one in linen is more naturally also the one who speaks. From this he goes on to view this one in linen, distinct from Michael (10:13, 21), as the Angel of Jehovah seen in other OT passages (Gen 18:22; 19:1; Zech 3:1ff. etc.). The description here fits that of the Lord (Ezek 1:26-28; Rev 1:13-16). So to Keil and a host of others he is the preincarnate Christ, while Michael is a high angel. Another possibility, followed by Zöckler and many scholars, is that the one in linen is an angel of high rank who cannot be identified by name; not the angel Michael and not Christ.

Bibliography E. W. Hengstenberg, The Revelation of St. John, I (1851), 464-467; KD, Daniel (n.d.); R. H. Charles, APOT, II (1913), 412, 413; E. W. Hengstenberg, Christology of the Old Testament, IV (1956 rp.), 266-271; O. Zöckler, Daniel in Lange’s Commentary, Vol. 7 (1960 rp.), 232, 233; R. Wolff, A Commentary on the Epistle of Jude (1960); J. A. Seiss, The Apocalypse, 15th ed. (n.d.), 305-307; R. Wolff, The General Epistles of James and Jude (1970).