To the ancient world, the sun, moon, and stars were seen as living creatures, not just balls of gas or rocks in space. That is why pagan cultures worshipped them, but to the Israelites, they were just members of the host of heaven who served God. Who are the Hosts of Heaven? According to the Bible, there are Angels, Cherubs, Seraphs, and Sons of God in the Heavens. There are various beings in heaven, and they differ in appearance and roles. To the Bible believers, the spiritual beings in heaven are not gods, but servants of the Most High God. However, to the pagan nations, they were seen as part of a pantheon of gods. That’s how other ancient tribes ended up worshipping them as deities and praying to them, which the Bible frowns upon, even in the New Covenant (Colossians 2:18, Hebrews 1:14).
Elohim:
Elohim (אלוהים) is the plural version of Eloah (אלוה), which means god in the generic sense. In scriptures that say “you shall have no other ‘gods’ before me”, the word “gods” is translated from the Hebrew Elohim. For example, Deut 10:17 says For Adonai (the Lord) your God is God of gods and Lord of lords. ‘God of gods’ is translated from Elohim of Elohim. However, Elohim has another linguistic function that allows it to function as a singular. Usually, “im” at the end of a word in Hebrew makes the word plural, like “s” at the end of a word in English. However, some words can function as concretized abstract plurals. Meaning they take the plural form but are functionally singular. The Hebrew word for water, “Mayim” (מַיִם) functions the same way. Mayim has “im” on the end, but it often refers to a singular body of water. Concretization can be both singular and plural. In English, we have concretized singular words like “sheep”. When there are multiple of them, we still use the word “sheep” instead of “sheeps” because of this system.
Genesis 1:1 uses the word Elohim to reference the God of the Bible, but it is treated as plural later in verses like Genesis 1:27, where the text is translated as “let us make man in our image”. Even though the regular usage of the word is plural in this case, it is singular. There are various interpretations of this. Some suggest this plural usage is God referring to the collective of all of the Heavenly Host (angels and such). In Judaism, it is viewed that God is the head of heaven’s army, and that Elohim is being used as a royal “we”. There are examples for this in other scripture passages, like Isa 19:4, when God says he will hand Egypt over to a cruel master (in Hebrew it uses the plural for masters Adonim).
Similarities to this concept exist in the New Testament as well. Paul says that Christ is the head of the church and the church is the body of Christ (Ep 4:11-16). Likewise, one interpretation of Genesis 1:1 is that Elohim is referring to the whole of all of heaven’s inhabitants, sons of God, cherubs, seraphs, angels, etc, and God is simply the head of heaven. In various scriptures in the Old Testament, God is referred to as the “Lord of heaven’s Army or Lord of hosts,” which would fit with that concept. However, Humans are explicitly made in the image of God, not angels, cherubim, and seraphim, so that idea falls short. Then there is the Christian view that this is about the Godhead, also known as the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. This concept is revealed in the gospels (Matthew 28:19, John 1:1, John 10:30, John 14:8-20). In other words, Genesis 1 talks about the singular one God, but it includes anyone he is talking to in heaven who is with him. Both of these explanations for the plural Elohim in Genesis 1 can be true simultaneously. As a Christian I believe God is talking to at least one of the beings who are with him in the beginning that is apart of the Godhead who is equal to him which would be the “Word” (the Son) who is with God and considered a part of God since the beginning according to John 1:1. Yet from an Old Testament perspective, before the knowledge of the son and the nature of the Holy Spirit had been fully revealed, God can be seen as speaking to the other heavenly host, specifically the “sons of God” mentioned in Genesis 6:4 and Psalms 82. For more on the Trinity, check this out.
Angels (Messengers):
Angels in the Bible appear as human-looking. There are numerous stories where angels appear but are merely called men because they look like people (Gen 18:1-2, and 22). Hebrews 13:2 suggests that angels can go unrecognized on earth, living amongst people even today. However, when they appear in visions and dreams, they are illuminated and can be scary (Dan 10:4-7, 10-11, Acts 10:3 & 30). Angels DO NOT have wings. When an angel in Acts 10 visited Cornelius, he described him as a “man with dazzling clothes” but never mentioned wings. It’s hard to imagine that he would omit something like wings when describing a winged human and only focus on his clothes. Anyone can wear fancy clothes, but how many people have wings? If you saw a human with fancy clothes, you wouldn’t think much of it, but if you saw a human with wings, that is not something you would forget or omit when telling others about it. Think about Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19, the two angels led Lot and his family out of harm’s way, but they didn’t pick them up and fly them away like superheroes; they ran on foot. Angels in pre-4th-century artwork are not depicted with wings. In the 4th Century, wings were added to depictions of angels. This and many other changes came about with the European Romanization of Christianity, which reinterpreted Jewish aspects of Christianity. For example, Cherubs were made to look like Cupids (babies with wings).
Linguistics lesson: The English word “Angel” comes from the Greek word Aggelos (ἀγγελος), which means messenger. In Hebrew, it’s Mal’ak (מלאך). This is a generic word used to refer to both human messengers and God’s messengers. In Genesis 32:1-3, it says, “Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels (Heb. mal’ak) of God met him. Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim. Then Jacob sent messengers (Heb. mal’ak) before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. It refers to both the spiritual messengers of God, like the one whom Jacob wrestled, and the human ones sent by Jacob to Esau. English translations like the KJV have a convention of distinguishing heavenly messengers from earthly messengers by keeping Angel untranslated for divine messengers and translating the word to its English equivalent for humans. Similar to how Western Bible English translations capitalize the G in God to distinguish it from pagan gods. In Hebrew, there are no capital letters, so in Hebrew, God and god are both written as Elohim (אֱלֹהִים), one must use context clues to distinguish. Although usually God is called the Lord God or Adonai, to distinguish him from pagan gods in Hebrew texts.
Cherubs and Seraphs:
Cherubs and Seraphs are depicted with wings and are always seen in God’s presence, usually near his throne. These are not Angels because they are not Messengers; they usually stay in God’s presence. Meanwhile, Angels travel between heaven and Earth to deliver messages. The word Angel itself is simply the Greek word for Messenger.
Cherubs move around God’s throne room, and humans don’t typically interact directly with them like angels; prophets usually see them through dreams and visions. The closest direct interaction of cherubs on earth is in Gen 3:24 when a Cherub is sent to guard the Garden in Eden after the fall of humanity. God’s presence was in the garden, so that is why they came close in that, but since then, they have not appeared on the grounds of the Earth, in the Bible. Cherubs are described as 4-legged animals with different animal heads at various times, resembling creatures from other cultures like the Sphinx of the Greeks and Egyptians, the Shedu of Assyria, and Mushushu of Babylon. They have wings, sometimes two and sometimes four (Exodus 25:20 & 1 Kings 6:27, Ezekiel 41:18, Ezekiel 10:14). Images of Cherubs are symbolically placed throughout the Tabernacle and Temple. They are embroidered on the curtains of the tabernacle (Exodus 26:1), on the veil that marked off the holy of holies (Exodus 26:31). Gold replicas of them are bounded to the lid of the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:17-22), as well on in the walls of the Temple (1 Kings 6:29) and as larger gold statues in the Temple (1 Kings 6:23-28). In Revelation 4:6-9, the cherubs have six wings like the seraphs in Isaiah 6. Many European churches have paintings of these little Cupid-looking things and call them Cherubs. But Cherubs are not babies, and they don’t look like Cupid. Cupid is a pagan deity. We mustn’t use pagan imagery based on Greco-Roman mythology (images of Cupid or nymphs) to define the host of Elohim (God) because then the biblical understanding of them gets lost.
Seraphs are serpent-like creatures with six wings (Isaiah 6:1-6). We can find similar images of flying serpents in various pagan myths around the world, like Shenlong in China or Quetzalcoatl from the Mesoamerican religions. There are theories that Satan was a seraph since he deceived humans as a serpent. Although Ezekiel 28:13 calls him an anointed cherub.
Sons of God (Divine Council):
The Sons of God (sometimes referred to as the Divine Council) are a group of beings that sit in heaven observing the world and offering ideas for judgment to God. They are sometimes referred to as angels and other times as “Sons of God”, or “congregation of the saints”, etc. Let’s look at Psalm 89:5-7 in three different translations just to show how it is rendered.
Ps 89:5 [NLT] All heaven will praise your great wonders, Lord; myriads of angels (assembly of the “holy ones”) will praise you for your faithfulness. 6 For who in all of heaven can compare with the Lord? What mightiest angel is anything like the Lord? 7 The highest angelic powers stand in awe of God. He is far more awesome than all who surround his throne.
Ps 89:5 [KJV And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. 6 For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord? 7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.
Ps 89: [CJB] 6 (5) Let the heavens praise your wonders, Adonai, your faithfulness in the assembly of the angels. 7 (6) For who in the skies can be compared with Adonai? Which of these gods can rival Adonai, 8 (7) a God dreaded in the great assembly of the holy ones and feared by all around him?
The most common translation of them is “sons of God.” The Hebrew text in the following passages says Benei Elohim (בְּנֵ֣י אֵלִ֑ים) or Sons (Ben) of God (Elohim):
Ps 29:1 Honor the Lord, you heavenly beings [Sons of God]; honor the Lord for his glory and strength. Job 1:6 One day the members of the heavenly court [Sons of God] came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them. 7 “Where have you come from?” the Lord asked Satan. Satan answered the Lord, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”
Job 38:7 as the morning stars sang together and all the angels [Sons of God] shouted for joy? NOTICE: The angels are the singing stars, but the Sons of God (divine council) are shouting.
These are the Host of Heaven.
Resources:
The Bible Project series on Biblical spiritual beings
More on Elohim as a Singular
Explanation of Elohim