all angels. In Daniel the princes or guardian angels of the heathen
nations oppose Michael the guardian angel of Judah. But in Tobit we
find Asmodaeus the evil demon, [Greek: to poneros daimonion], who
strangles Sarah's husbands, and also a general reference to "a devil
or evil spirit," [Greek: pneuma].[29] The Fall of the Angels is not
properly a scriptural doctrine, though it is based on Gen. vi. 2, as
interpreted by the Book of Enoch. It is true that the _bn[=e] Elohim_
of that chapter are subordinate superhuman beings (cf. above), but
they belong to a different order of thought from the angels of Judaism
and of Christian doctrine; and the passage in no way suggests that the
_bne Elohim_ suffered any loss of status through their act.

The guardian angels of the nations in Daniel probably represent the
gods of the heathen, and we have there the first step of the process
by which these gods became evil angels, an idea expanded by Milton
in _Paradise Lost_. The development of the doctrine of an organized
hierarchy of angels belongs to the Jewish literature of the period 200
B.C. to A.D. 100. In Jewish apocalypses especially, the imagination
ran riot on the rank, classes and names of angels; and such works as
the various books of Enoch and the _Ascension of Isaiah_ supply much
information on this subject.

[v.02 p.0006]

In the New Testament angels appear frequently as the ministers of God
and the agents of revelation;[30] and Our Lord speaks of angels
as fulfilling such functions,[31] implying in one saying that they
neither marry nor are given in marriage.[32] Naturally angels are most
prominent in the Apocalypse. The New Testament takes little interest
in the idea of the angelic hierarchy, but there are traces of the