2. The name of the angels.
"Angel" (מַלְאָך [HEBREW], άγγελος) is an official name (nomen officii), not a designation of the nature of angels. We have a designation of the essence or nature of the angels in the word "spirit" (πνεύμα), as will be further explained. That the name "angel" is an official name, denoting a messenger or messengers, is evident from the fact that men also, especially the preachers of the Word of God, are called angels in the Scriptures. Mal. 2:7: "The lips of the priest shall keep the doctrine, that the law may be sought out of his mouth: for he is an angel of the Lord of hosts." Likewise, John the Baptist is called God's "angel."1505) Christ himself bears the name "angel of the covenant" as the messenger of God κατ' εξοχήν.1506) The question when by the "angel of the Lord" in the Old Testament the Angelus increatus, Christ, is to be understood, was treated at the doctrine of God.1507)
1503) Gerhard remarks, Loci, L. De Creatione et Angelis, § 39, against church fathers who assumed the creation of the angels before the world: Scriptura per spatium antemundanum semper intelligit aeternitatem, ut patet ex Ps. 90; Prov. 8; Ioh. 1 et aliis Scripturae locis. Iam vero angelis non competit aeternitas.
1504) Cf. Luther on Gen. 1:6, St. L. I, 27 f. Gerhard, 1. s., § 40: Quo die angeli sint conditi, scrupulose magis quam utiliter quaeritur.
1505) Mal. 3:1; Matt. 11:10.
1506) Mal. 3:1; Jn. 3:17, 34; 6:40; Gal. 4:4-6.
1507) p. 477 ff. In summary, Gerhard, Loci, L. De Creatione et Angelis, § 37: Quotiescunque vel nomen Iehovae vel divina opera et divinus cultus angelo in Scriptura tribuatur, ibi intelligendus Dei Filius.
604 > Angels [English ed. 500]