Mika'el
Beta Israel · numen · Beta Israel traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Mika'el is the foremost of the archangels in Beta Israel angelology, drawn chiefly from the Book of Enoch, which the Beta Israel alone among Jewish communities preserve as canonical scripture in Geez. He is the chief of the angels, the merciful one set over the best part of humankind and over the people of Israel, whom he guards and for whom he intercedes. He stands with Gabriel, Raphael and Fanuel as one of the four presences before the divine throne, and figures among the angels who conduct the patriarch Enoch through the heavens and cast down the fallen Watchers.
Domains
- protection war
- heavenly hierarchy
Powers
- guards and champions Israel
Epithets
- liqä mälaʾəkt Mikaʾel — Michael, chief of the angelsWolf Leslau, Falasha Anthology, Yale University Press, 1951, introduction, pp. xxx–xxxii. (secondary)
Relations
- companion: Gabra'elR. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch, Oxford, 1912, ch. 40. (secondary)
- companion: Rufa'elR. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch, Oxford, 1912, ch. 40. (secondary)
- companion: Fanu'elR. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch, Oxford, 1912, ch. 40. (secondary)
- companion: HenokMichael is among the angels who guide Enoch through the heavens.R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch, Oxford, 1912, chs. 20–24, 71. (secondary)
Sources
- Michael heads the four archangels who stand before the throne of God in the Book of Enoch, canonical to Beta Israel.: Maṣḥafa Hēnok (1 Enoch), Geez, chs. 9–10, 20; ed./trans. R. H. Charles, The Ethiopic Version of the Book of Enoch, Oxford, 1906. (primary)