Angels-Gabriel

Gabriel, one of the four archangels named in Hebrew tradition, is
considered one of the two highest-ranking angels in Judeo-Christian
and Islamic religious lore. Apart from Michael, he is the only angel
mentioned by name in the Old Testament.
The name Gabriel, which means “God is my strength,” is of
Chaldean origin and was unknown to the Jews prior to Babylonian
captivity. In the original listing of 119 angels of the Parsees, Gabriel’s
name is missing. The Sumerian root of the word gabri is gbr or gubernator,
meaning “steersman” or “governor.” Gabriel, who is described as
possessing 140 pairs of wings, is the governor of Eden and ruler of the
cherubim. He is the angel of the Annunciation and the Resurrection,
as well as an angel of mercy, vengeance, death, and revelation.
Gabriel is a unique archangel in the sense that it is almost certain
that she is the only female in the higher echelons. In addition,
Gabriel is said to sit on the left hand side of God, whose dwelling is
popularly believed to be residing in the seventh heaven (or, sometimes,
the tenth heaven). This is further evidence of her being female.
The essentially female character of Gabriel is once again confirmed in
popular lore, which tells of how she takes the invariably protesting
soul from paradise, and instructs it for the nine months while it
remains in the womb of its mother.
Muhammad claimed it was Gabriel—Djibril in Arabic—who dictated
the Koran to him, sura by sura. Muslims consider Gabriel the spirit of truth, but devout Muslims would hardly
agree to his female gender.
Jewish legend claims that it was Gabriel
who dealt death and destruction to such sinful
cities as Sodom and Gomorrah. According to
Talmud Sanhedrin 95b, it was also Gabriel who
prevented Queen Vashti from appearing naked
before King Ahasuerus and his guests in order
to bring about the election of Esther in her
place. Moreover, according to Jewish legend the
three holy men Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah
were rescued from the furnace by Gabriel,
although Michael is credited in other sources.
In Daniel, chapter 8, Daniel falls on his
face before Gabriel to learn the meaning of the
encounter between the ram and the heg-hegoat
(the oracle of the Persians being overthrown
by the Greeks). Gabriel later appears
again to Daniel to tell him of the coming of the
Messiah, a message that half a millennium later
he repeats to Mary in the Annunciation.
Gabriel is identified by Cabalists as “the
man clothed in linen” in Dan. 10:5–21. She is
the prince of justice in rabbinic literature,
whereas she is called the angel of war by Origen in De Principiis I, 81.
Jerome equates Gabriel with Hamon, and according to Milton,
Gabriel is chief of the angelic guards placed over Paradise. Gabriel is
identified as the man-God-angel who wrestled with Jacob at Peniel,
although this antagonist has often been identified with other angels.
According to an Islamic legend, when the dust from the hoofprints
of Gabriel’s horse was thrown into the mouth of the golden calf
(Exodus, chapter 32), the calf at once became animated. Some Christian
critics have claimed that Muhammad confused Gabriel with the
Holy Ghost. Bernard Bamberger, in Fallen Angels (1952), asserts that
Gabriel once fell into disgrace for “not obeying a command exactly as
given, and remained for a while outside the heavenly Curtain.”
In Midrash Eleh Ezkerah, Gabriel figures in the tale of the legendary
ten Jewish sages, one of whom, Rabbi Ishmael, ascends to heaven
and asks Gabriel why they merit death. She replies that they are
atoning for the sin of the ten sons of Jacob who sold Joseph into slavery.
According to the testimony of Joan of Arc, Gabriel inspired her
to go to the succor of the king of France and also persuaded her to help the Dauphin. In The Golden Legend (1851)
Longfellow depicts Gabriel as the angel of the
moon, who brings humanity the gift of hope. In
more recent times Gabriel is the angel who
allegedly visited Father George Rapp, leader of
the 2nd Advent community in New Harmony,
Indiana, and left his footprint on a limestone
slab preserved in the yard of the Maclure-Owen
residence in that city.
Considered the chief ambassador of God to
humanity, Gabriel is most commonly portrayed
pursuing this role and therefore in the company
of the recipient of one or other of her missions.
In Christian art the most common of these
themes is the Annunciation, when the angel
reveals to Mary that she is to be the Mother of
the Christ. Rembrandt, among others, painted
a canvas of the celebrated encounter. In earlier
paintings of this great event, Gabriel is usually
pictured as a majestic figure, richly attired,
sometimes wearing a crown and bearing a
scepter. Her right hand is usually extended in
salutation, while the Virgin Mary sits submissively.
However, from about the fourteenth century,
the roles are somewhat reversed, in that Mary becomes the more
prominent of the two figures, as though already Queen of the Angels
and Gabriel therefore her dutiful subject. In these later depictions
Gabriel carries, instead of the scepter, a lily as a symbol of the purity of
the Virgin or sometimes a scroll inscribed with the opening words, in
Latin, of the Ave Maria.