Rabbi Singer on Whether Jesus Is the Angel of the Lord
Reflecting on what the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud teaches
I’m a regular viewer of Rabbi Singer’s YouTube channel. His Brooklyn wit, never fails to entertain. He will not suffer fools gladly.
Not all Christians agree, but scholar Michael Heiser (and many others) claims the angel of the Lord in the Hebrew Bible is Jesus. Rabbi Singer’s responses to this view are evaluated below.
Meaning of Malach (angel)
Rabbi Singer points out that the Hebrew word malach (or angel) means messenger. So we need to put aside Renaissance paintings of winged creatures!
Malach can refer to ‘spiritual’ messengers like the angels Gabriel or Michael. But also describes humans sent to do a duty — such as the spies hidden by Rahab (Joshua 6:17).
What the New Testament teaches about the angel of the Lord
His main argument is that the New Testament denied Jesus was the angel of the Lord. Before we look at Rabbi Singer’s approach, it’s worth reviewing Jesus’ teaching.
Malach means, “one who is sent”. Jesus describes himself as sent by God in Matthew (for example, 10:40, 15:24, 21:37), Mark (for example, 9:37, 12:6), Luke (for example 4:18, 4:43, 9:48, 10:16) and John (for example 3:34, 4:34, 5:23, 5:24, 5:30, 5:36, 5:37, 5:38). Yet, he is no ordinary messenger (malach):
“Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. (John 5:19–20, NIV)
Jesus was sent by the Father. He could do “nothing by himself”. He only did what the Father showed Him to do.
Is Rabbi Singer right, a sent one of God cannot be God? Yet, has any other sent one (malach) claimed “whatever the Father does the Son also does”?
Does Hebrews 1:5 deny Jesus is the angel of the Lord?
We can now move to Rabbi Singer’s argument — that Hebrews 1:5 denies Jesus is the angel of the Lord:
For to which of the angels did God ever say,
“You are my Son;
today I have become your Father”? (Hebrews 1:5, NIV)
At first glance, he seems to have a point. But reading a few verses earlier will help us understand what the writer of the Hebrews meant:
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.(Hebrews 1:1–2, NIV)
God has sent many messengers. But there is one who is unique, greater than all others, his Son. In the New Testament, the Greek word (aggelos) is also used to refer to the angel Gabriel but also to human messengers like John the Baptist (Matthew 11:10).
Jesus “The one they pierced”?
Rabbi Singer focused on one passage from the Hebrew Bible — Zechariah 12:10.
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.” (NIV)
He argued that John’s Gospel denied this passage was about Jesus. Instead, it was about a Roman soldier:
Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.” (John 19:34–37, NIV)
I have no idea how Rabbi Singer came to this conclusion — nor does he justify his interpretation of John 19. John’s Gospel cited the earliest Jewish translation — the Septuagint — to claim Jesus was the one Zechariah prophesied about. The one who would bring healing to Israel through his death.
Zechariah 12:10 — who is the pierced one?
A passage in the Talmud will help show how early Jewish tradition interpreted Zechariah 12. Sukkah 52a suggests Zechariah prophesied about a Messianic figure — Messiah ben Yosef. A faithful servant who would die and rise again.
Michael Brown, scholar of Near Eastern languages, pointed out that the mourners are turning to God. He is the only one referred to in the first person in Zechariah 12 (e.g. “I will keep a watchful eye on Judah” v4):
“They will look on me the one they have pierced.” It is perfectly clear, therefore, that the me in this verse is the Lord himself — as rendered in the Jewish translations cited above [Sukkah 52a and the Septuagint] — suggesting the real possibility that the Hebrew text is speaking about the Lord Himself who was pierced. (Michael Brown, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, Volume 3, p150)
Angel of the Lord is Elohim
Hebrew Bible scholar Michael Heiser has shown there are many other passages in the Bible about the angel of the Lord. He is referred to as elohim (God) and the divine name — the four-letter word, yud-hey-vav-hey (יהוה) that Orthodox Jews often refer to as HaShem (the name).
Rabbi Singer partly addresses this issue. He acknowledges that angels are sometimes called God in the Hebrew Bible. Mostly, elohim refers to the God of the Bible — but Rabbi Singer is correct that there are occasions when prophets or judges are addressed by that title:
HaShem is using angels in the Bible, angels are called God in the Bible but that’s a different matter. It could be confusing for some people. In Tanach, those angels, those prophets, those judges who represent God are called God in Tanach.
Yet, he did not account for why the angel of the Lord was referred to as HaShem many times. No one, but the God of the Bible, is addressed with the divine name.
Angel of the Lord and the divine name
I have written about the angel of the Lord in more detail here. For a more comprehensive guide to these Hebrew Bible passages, see scholars Dr Michael Heiser and, Messianic Jew, Dr Michael Brown.
Throughout the Hebrew Bible, there is a person sent by HaShem who spoke with God’s people face-to-face, for example, Moses and Joshua (Exodus 33:11), and Abraham (Genesis 18). However, there is another person, also addressed as HaShem who no one can see and live (Exodus 33:20). John’s Gospel summarised these verses this way:
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. (John 1:18)
Jesus is the angel of the Lord who speaks face-to-face with his people. He reveals the Father who no one has ever seen.
There are many references to the angel of the Lord throughout the Torah. For example, in Exodus there is the malach who has the name of HaShem in him. He will protect and forgive Israel’s sins:
I am sending an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have made ready. Pay heed to him and obey him. Do not defy him, for he will not pardon your offenses, since My Name is in him; (Exodus 23:20–21, New Jewish Publication Society (NJPS)
The passage gets even more intriguing:
Then He [HaShem] said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD [HaShem], with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel, and bow low from afar…Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel ascended; and they saw the God of Israel: under His feet there was the likeness of a pavement of sapphire, like the very sky for purity.” (Exodus 24:1, 9–10; NJPS)
Why does HaShem say to Moses — “come up to the LORD” (verse 1)? It would be more natural to say “come up to me”. Verses 9–10 show Moses will meet with a different person (also the LORD) — face-to-face.
The identity of the angel of the Lord
Does this sound too fanciful? When people like Moses “see” HaShem face-to-face is this metaphorical? Like if the US president sends an ambassador to deliver a message to the UN — it’s as if the President has spoken to them face-to-face?
The analogy doesn’t quite work, but some Jewish scholars interpreted these passages that way. Yet not all — Ramban (Nahmanides) denies this. Archangels Gabriel and Michael are never addressed by the sacred name of the Creator — only the angel of the Lord.
A passage in the Talmud answered the question we asked above, why didn’t HaShem say “come up to me” in Exodus 24? Rav Idi identified the person who met Moses and Aaron as the angel Metatron (“the guide”) (Sanhedrin 38b) who is later called the “God of Israel” (Exodus 24:10).
Daniel Boyarin, Professor of Talmudic Culture, University of California, Berkeley provided interesting commentary on this passage:
It is important to note that Rav Idi does not deny the existence of Metaṭron; he does not finally, cannot it seems, deny even the power of Metaṭron, of his capabilities as Second God. What he claims, rather, is that Israel has rejected such worship, even refused to entrust Metaṭron with leading them in the ̣ desert.
Rav Idi understood the angel of the Lord was sent by the Lord. But he was like no other messenger — he was addressed by the divine name. But we no that he cannot be a second God (Deuteronomy 6:4). HaShem is a plurality of persons united in the one divine name.
The angel of the Lord, in Zechariah 12, was also the one who would be pierced for the salvation of his people (Sukkah 52a). The angel of the Lord sounds a lot like the Jesus presented in the Gospels.
