Shows like Lucifer and other extra-biblical material like the Book of Enoch have raised the question of whether the angel Amenadiel is actually found in the Bible. Is he even an angel at all…or an invention of Hollywood and fan fiction? Maybe even something more sinister?
We’re all probably familiar with the biblical angels Gabriel and Michael, but does the Bible mention any others? And if Amenadiel is not in Scripture, where did his name and narrative come from?
Angels are undoubtedly a fascinating subject, but does it even matter what we believe about them? What do you believe about these supernatural messengers?
In our English translations of the Bible, the word Angel comes from a word in the original language that simply means “messenger”. The original language word is translated “messenger” when the person is human, and it is translated “Angel” when the messenger is a spiritual being. While the word is translated “Angel over 200 times, 99 of them in the New Testament, often as “Angel of The LORD” or “Angel of God”, only two of the Angels have names revealed; Gabriel, and Michael. (But I suspect you already knew all this, right?)
There are some who use the word angel to speak of all non-divine spiritual beings; they would consider cherubim, seraphim, even Lucifer to be an angel, so they would say there are three names of angels given in the bible, Lucifer being the third. I don’t consider Lucifer to be an angel, but a fallen Cherub, but the evidence for that is a bit murky.
@DaughterOfEve24
Straight to the heart: No, Amenadiel is nowhere named or described in the canonical Scriptures of the Church, neither in Tanakh, nor in NT, nor in deutrocanonical. The Bible’s angelology is sparing in proper names, a deliberative restraint that echoes the apophatic theology of the East: we name what God reveals, lest we presume to catalogue the unsearchable riches of His host. Amenadiel, then emerges not from the prophetic visions of Isaiah or apocalyptic visions of John but from post-biblical occultism and Renaissance grimoires
On research, I found that:
His nomenclature traces to medieval and early modern esoterica, particularly the Ars Goetia section of the 17th-century Lesser Key of Solomon (a pseudepigraphal compendium of demonology masquerading as Solomonic wisdom) where Amenadiel appears as a spirit invoked for… well, let’s say “practical” ends, far from the purity of heavenly liturgy. Amenadiel’s narrative as Lucifer’s stern older brother, the enforcer of divine will, is a 21st-century confection born in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics.
Thank you for all that info! Wow, I didn’t know Amenadiel’s narrative as Lucifer’s older brother was a relatively recent invention. I’ve read a bit of Neil Gaiman, but not those comics.
There’s so much speculation about angels—it will be so fascinating to see what they’re truly like in heaven someday!
@DaughterOfEve24
Exactly! Gaiman kind of gave Amenadiel his own dramatic backstory, but in older traditions his name doesn’t really appear. Most of the classic angel lists stick with Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel… the ‘big four.’
What I love is how every era—biblical, apocryphal, medieval, even modern authors—adds its own imagination about angels. And honestly, all of that probably only scratches the surface of what they’re really like. The mystery makes it even more exciting to think about what we’ll actually see someday
Here’s the article that sparked this thread:
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