How many angels are there?

Answer

Only three angels are identified by name in the Bible: Gabriel «And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. », (Daniel 8:16), Michael the archangel «But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. », (Daniel 10:13), and Lucifer the fallen angel «How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! », (Isaiah 14:12). Yet angelic beings are mentioned at least 273 times in 34 books of the Bible. While we don’t know exactly how many angels there are, we do know from Scripture that an exceedingly large number of angels exist.

The book of Hebrews describes a multitude of angels in heaven that are too great to count: “You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering” «but ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, », (Hebrews 12:22, NLT). Other Bible translations use terms like “innumerable” (ESV), “myriads” (CSB), and “thousands upon thousands” (NIV) to quantify this enormous throng of angels. The impressive picture expands in the book of Revelation: “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircle

…ed the throne and the living creatures and the elders” «And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; », (Revelation 5:11). Other Bible versions use “myriads of myriads” (ESV) and even “millions” (NLT) here to express how many angels there are in heaven.

While the Bible leaves the precise number of angels unspecified, some believe there could be as many angels in existence as the total number of humans in all of history. This theory is based on Matthew 18:10: “Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father” (NLT). The passage seems to suggest that individual people, or at least children, have guardian angels to protect them. It’s possible, though, that Jesus was speaking here only in general terms regarding the function of angels as protectors of children. In any case, Scripture is clear that angels do guard and protect human beings (Psalm 34:7; Psalm 91:11-12; Matthew 18:10; Acts 12:9-15).

The Bible describes different classifications of angels. Some angels—the cherubim and seraphim—are described as winged creatures. Cherubim primarily attend the throne of God as guards, while it seems the seraphim attend His throne by offering worship and praise. (Ezekiel 1:4-28; 10:1-22; Isaiah 6:2-6). The Bible speaks of angels of light «And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. », (2 Corinthians 11:14) and fallenAngels (2 Peter 2:4;Jude 1:6).

Angels fulfill various roles in the Bible. Some angels are messengers of God “I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven;”, (Daniel 4:13). Other angels are servants of God (Psalm 103:20;Hebrews 1:7;Psalm 104:4). “Watcher angels” are mentioned in the book of Daniel “I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven;”, (Daniel 4:13,17, 23). Angels are often depicted as the military “hosts” of the celestial armies (Jeremiah 5:14;Jeremiah 38:17;Jeremiah 44:7;Hosea 12:5). At other times, angels are referred to as “sons of the mighty” “For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?”, (Psalm 89:6) or “sons of God” “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.”, (Job 2:1).

A few passages of Scripture describe angels as stars (Revelation 9:1;Revelation 12:4;Job 38:7-8;Daniel 8:10;Judges 5:20). The concept of stars may provide our best indication of how many angels exist. If angels are like the

Stars in heaven, they are too numerous to count. Moses says in Deuteronomy 33:2 that the Lord came to speak to him from Sinai with “myriads of holy ones,” or angels. How many are myriads? The main definition of myriad as an adjective is “innumerable,” or “countless.” Psalm 68:17 says the angels of God number “tens of thousands, thousands and thousands” (CSB). Clearly, the writer has difficulty even approaching an estimate of the number of angels in existence.