v_public_angelic_beings: 57
This data as json
| rowid | entity_id | canonical_name | tradition | category | primary_domains | short_note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 57 | ENT_ISR_SARIEL | Sariel | Israelite/Second Temple | Angelic Being | spirits; transgression; divine oversight; cosmic accountability; lunar course; Dead Sea Scrolls | Sariel (also Saraqael, Suriel, Saraiel; "Command/Prince of God") is the sixth archangel in the council of 1 Enoch 20:6: "Saraqael, one of the holy angels, who is set over the spirits, who sin in the spirit." His domain is the oversight of spirits who transgress — a category distinct from the Watchers (who are fallen angels proper) and the human dead (Remiel's domain): Sariel governs the intermediate category of sinning spirits who violate their divine mandate. Sariel appears prominently in the Dead Sea Scrolls: in the War Scroll (1QM 9:15-16), the four archangels Michael, Gabriel, Sariel, and Raphael are named on the shields of the four towers of the eschatological battle formation of the Sons of Light, making Sariel the fourth-named archangel in DSS angelology (where Uriel from Hebrew Bible tradition is replaced by Sariel). This DSS attestation is significant because the War Scroll represents a militarized, eschatological angelology that may pre-date or be roughly contemporary with the finalization of 1 Enoch. Sariel also appears in the Aramaic Levi Document and in Hekhalot literature. His domain over sinning spirits connects him to the tradition of spirit oversight that eventually develops into the guardian-angel and demon-accountancy theologies of rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity. Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination (2016) pp. 79-82; Nickelsburg (2001) pp. 297-299. |