5. As punishing by command of the Most High the wicked and disobedient.[16]
6. As having the form of men; as eating and drinking.
7. As wielding a sword.
8. As having power to slay.[17]
I do not recollect any instance in which angels are represented in Scripture as instigated by human passions; they are merely the agents of the mercy or the wrath of the Almighty.
After the period of the Captivity, the Jewish ideas concerning angels were considerably extended and modified by an admixture of the Chaldaic belief, and of the doctrines taught by Zoroaster.[18] It is then that we first hear of good and bad angels, and of a fallen angel or impersonation of evil, busy in working mischief on earth and counteracting good; also of archangels, who are alluded to by name; and of guardian angels assigned to nations and individuals; and these foreign ideas concerning the spiritual world, accepted and promulgated by the Jewish doctors, pervade the whole of the New Testament, in which angels are far more familiar to us as agents, more frequently alluded to, and more distinctly brought before us, than in the Old Testament. For example: they are represented—
1. As countless.
2. As superior to all human wants and weaknesses.
3. As the deputed messengers of God.
4. They rejoice over the repentant sinner. They take deep interest in the mission of Christ.