This is a repost of the following article:

https://refutinghereticsblog.wordpress.com/2021/02/11/fathers-and-the-angel/

By: The Trinitarian Ode

CHURCH FATHER QUOTES ON THE MESSENGER/ANGEL OF YAHWEH

Justin Martyr (110-165 A.D.)

Justin Martyr’s Dialogue w/ Trypho Ch. 34 “..although the words of the Psalm expressly proclaim that reference is made to the everlasting King, i.e., to Christ. For Christ is King, and Priest, and God, and Lord, and Angel, and man, and captain (Josh. 5:13-15), and stone, and a Son born, and first made subject to suffering, then returning to heaven, and again coming with glory, and He is preached as having the everlasting kingdom: so I prove from all the Scriptures.”

Justin Martyr’s Dialogue w/ Trypho Ch. 58 “It is again written by Moses, my brethren, that He who is called God and appeared to the patriarchs is called both Angel and Lord, in order that from this you may understand Him to be minister to the Father of all things, as you have already admitted, and may remain firm, persuaded by additional arguments.”

Justin Martyr’s Dialogue w/ Trypho Ch. 58 (Continued): “The word of God, therefore, [recorded] by Moses, when referring to Jacob the grandson of Abraham, speaks thus:… And the Angel of God said to me in the dream, Jacob, Jacob. And I said, What is it, Lord? And He said, Lift up thine eyes,… I have seen what Laban doeth unto thee. I am the God who appeared to thee in Bethel, where thou anointedst a pillar and vowedst a vow unto Me (Gen. 31:11-13).”

Ch. 58 Continued: But Jacob was left behind alone, and the Angel wrestled with him until morning. And He saw that He is not prevailing against him, and He touched the broad part of his thigh; and the broad part of Jacob’s thigh grew stiff while he wrestled with Him (Gen. 32; Hosea 12:2-5).…thou hast prevailed with God, and with men shalt be powerful. And Jacob asked Him, and said, Tell me Thy name. But he said, Why dost thou ask after My name (Gen. 32:29)? And He blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of that place Peniel, for I saw God face to face, and my soul rejoiced.’

Ch. 58 Continued: And when all had agreed on these grounds, I continued: “Moreover, I consider it necessary to repeat to you the words which narrate how He who is both Angel and God and Lord, and who appeared as a man to Abraham (Gen. 22 & 15), and who wrestled in human form with Jacob (Gen. 32), was seen by him when he fled from his brother Esau.

Justin Martyr’s Dialogue w/ Trypho Ch. 59 When I had spoken these words, I continued: “Permit me, further, to show you from the book of Exodus how this same One, who is both Angel, and God, and Lord, and man, and who appeared in human form to Abraham and Isaac, appeared in a flame of fire from the bush, and conversed with Moses (Exo. 3).”
(Can read Ch. 60)
Justin Martyr’s Dialogue w/ Trypho Ch. 61 “I shall give you another testimony, my friends,” said I, “from the Scriptures, that God begat before all creatures a Beginning, [who was] a certain rational power [proceeding] from Himself, who is called by the Holy Spirit, now the Glory of the Lord, now the Son, again Wisdom, again an Angel, then God, and then Lord and Logos; and on another occasion He calls Himself Captain, when He appeared in human form to Joshua the son of Nave (Nun)

Justin Martyr’s Dialogue w/ Trypho Ch. 76 Isaiah calls Him the Angel of mighty counsel (Isaiah 9:6 LXX),…

Justin Martyr’s Dialogue w/ Trypho Ch. 86 ‘Therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.’ For indeed all kings and anointed persons obtained from Him their share in the names of kings and anointed: just as He Himself received from the Father the titles of King, and Christ, and Priest, and Angel, and such like other titles which He bears or did bear.

Justin Martyr’s Dialogue w/ Trypho Ch. 126 “who He is that is called at one time the Angel of great counsel (Isaiah 9:6 LXX), and a Man by Ezekiel, and like the Son of man by Daniel, and a Child by Isaiah, and Christ and God to be worshipped by David, and Christ and a Stone by many, and Wisdom by Solomon, and Joseph and Judah and a Star by Moses, and the East by Zechariah, and the Suffering One and Jacob and Israel by Isaiah again, and a Rod, and Flower, and Corner-Stone, and Son of God, you would not have blasphemed Him who has now come, and been born, and suffered, and ascended to heaven; who shall also come again, and then your twelve tribes shall mourn.

Ch. 126 Continued “Then I went on to say what I had not said before: “And so, when the people desired to eat flesh, and Moses had lost faith in Him, who also there is called the Angel, and who promised that God would give them to satiety, He who is both God and the Angel, sent by the Father, is described as saying and doing these things. For thus the Scripture says: ‘And the Lord said to Moses, Will the Lord’s hand not be sufficient? thou shalt know now whether my word shall conceal thee or not.’ And again, in other words, it thus says: ‘But the Lord spake unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan: the Lord thy God, who goeth before thy face, He shall cut off the nations.’

Justin Martyr’s Dialogue w/ Trypho Ch. 127 “Therefore neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor any other man, saw the Father and ineffable Lord of all, and also of Christ, but [saw] Him who was according to His will His Son, being God, and the Angel because He ministered to His will; whom also it pleased Him to be born man by the Virgin; who also was fire when He conversed with Moses from the bush (Exo. 3). Since, unless we thus comprehend the Scriptures, it must follow that the Father and Lord of all had not been in heaven when what Moses wrote took place: ‘And the Lord rained upon Sodom fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven (Gen. 19:24);’ and again, when it is thus said by David: ‘Lift up your gates, ye rulers; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting gates; and the King of glory shall enter;’ and again, when He says: ‘The Lord says to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool (Psalm 110:1).’

Justin Martyr’s Dialogue w/ Trypho Ch. 128 “And that Christ being Lord, and God the Son of God, and appearing formerly in power as Man, and Angel, and in the glory of fire as at the bush, so also was manifested at the judgment executed on Sodom, has been demonstrated fully by what has been said.”

Justin Martyr’s Dialogue w/ Trypho Ch. 128 “..but it is because I know that some wish to anticipate these remarks, and to say that the power sent from the Father of all which appeared to Moses, or to Abraham, or to Jacob, is called an Angel because He came to men (for by Him the commands of the Father have been proclaimed to men); is called Glory, because He appears in a vision sometimes that cannot be borne; is called a Man, and a human being, because He appears arrayed in such forms as the Father pleases; and they call Him the Word, because He carries tidings from the Father to men: but maintain that this power is indivisible and inseparable from the Father,..”

Justin Martyr’s Dialogue w/ Trypho Ch. 128 And that this power which the prophetic word calls God, as has been also amply demonstrated, and Angel, is not numbered [as different] in name only like the light of the sun, but is indeed something numerically distinct, I have discussed briefly in what has gone before; when I asserted that this power was begotten from the Father, by His power and will, but not by abscission, as if the essence of the Father were divided; as all other things partitioned and divided are not the same after as before they were divided: and, for the sake of example, I took the case of fires kindled from a fire, which we see to be distinct from it, and yet that from which many can be kindled is by no means made less, but remains the same.

Irenaeus of Lyons 102-220 A.D.
(A student of Polycarp of Smyrna who was the disciple of the Apostle John)

Against Heresies Book III, Ch. 6: “And again, when the Son speaks to Moses, He says, I have come down to deliver this people.”

Fragments of Irenaeus Ch. 23: And he mounted upon his ass. Numbers 22:22-23 The ass was the type of the body of Christ, upon whom all men, resting from their labours, are borne as in a chariot. For the Saviour has taken up the burden of our sins. Now the Angel who appeared to Balaam was the Word Himself; and in His hand He held a sword, to indicate the power which He had from above.

Fragments of Irenaeus Ch. 53: “With regard to Christ, the law and the prophets and the evangelists have proclaimed that He was born of a virgin, that He suffered upon a beam of wood, and that He appeared from the dead; that He also ascended to the heavens, and was glorified by the Father, and is the Eternal King; that He is the perfect Intelligence, the Word of God, who was begotten before the light; that He was the Founder of the universe, along with it (light), and the Maker of man; that He is All in all: Patriarch among the patriarchs; Law in the laws; Chief Priest among priests; Ruler among kings; the Prophet among prophets; the Angel among angels; the Man among men; Son in the Father; God in God; King to all eternity. For it is He who sailed [in the ark] along with Noah, and who guided Abraham; who was bound along with Isaac, and was a Wanderer with Jacob; the Shepherd of those who are saved, and the Bridegroom of the Church; the Chief also of the cherubim, the Prince of the angelic powers; God of God; Son of the Father; Jesus Christ; King for ever and ever. Amen.“

Fragments of Irenaeus Ch. 54: “He is the First-begotten, after a transcendent manner, the Creator of man; All in all; Patriarch among the patriarchs; Law in the law; the Priest among priests; among kings Prime Leader; the Prophet among the prophets; the Angel among angels; the Man among men; Son in the Father; God in God; King to all eternity… the Leader of the angelic host; God of God; Jesus Christ our Saviour.”

Melito of Sardis (120-185 A.D.)

Melito of Sardis’ Fragments Ch. 4 “..our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may prove to your love that this Being is perfect reason, the Word of God; He who was begotten before the light; He who is Creator together with the Father; He who is the Fashioner of man; He who is all in all; He who among the patriarchs is Patriarch; He who in the law is the Law; among the priests, Chief Priest; among kings, the Ruler; among prophets, the Prophet; among the angels, Archangel; in the voice of the preacher, the Word; among spirits, the Spirit; in the Father, the Son; in God, God; King for ever and ever. For this is He who was pilot to Noah; He who was guide to Abraham; He who was bound with Isaac; He who was in exile with Jacob; He who was sold with Joseph; He who was captain of the host with Moses;

Tertullian (145-220 A.D.)

Tertullian Against Praxeas Ch. 16 It is the Son, therefore, who has been from the beginning administering judgment, throwing down the haughty tower, and dividing the tongues, punishing the whole world by the violence of waters, raining upon Sodom and Gomorrha fire and brimstone, as the Lord from the Lord (Gen. 19:24)..

Ch. 16 Continued: “..and at Abraham’s tent should have refreshed Himself under an oak; and have called to Moses out of the burning bush (Exo. 3); and have appeared as the fourth in the furnace of the Babylonian monarch (Dan. 3:25) — unless all these events had happened as an image, as a mirror, as an enigma (of the future incarnation)?”

Clement of Alexandria (150-215 A.D.)

Clement of Alexandria’s “The Instructor” Ch. 5 “The Spirit calls the Lord Himself a child, thus prophesying by Esaias: “Lo, to us a child has been born, to us a son has been given, on whose own shoulder the government shall be; and His name has been called the Angel of great Counsel.” Who, then, is this infant child?”

Clement of Alexandria’s “The Instructor” Ch. 5 “For since Scripture calls the infant children lambs, it has also called Him–God the Word–who became man for our sakes, and who wished in all points to be made like to us–“the Lamb of God”–Him, namely, that is the Son of God, the child of the Father.”

Clement of Alexandria’s “The Instructor” Ch. 7 “Who, then, would train us more lovingly than He? Formerly the older people had an old covenant, and the law disciplined the people with fear, and the Word was an Angel; but to the fresh and new people has also been given a new covenant, and the Word has appeared, and fear is turned to love, and that Mystic Angel is born–Jesus… Now the law is ancient grace given through Moses by the Word. Wherefore also the Scripture says, “The law was given through Moses,” not by Moses, but by the Word, and through Moses His servant.”

Novation (200-258 A.D.)

Novation On the Trinity Ch. 18 “Moreover Also, from the Fact that He Who Was Seen of Abraham is Called God; Which Cannot Be Understood of the Father, Whom No Man Hath Seen at Any Time; But of the Son in the Likeness of an Angel.”

Novation On the Trinity Ch. 18 “And since this cannot be applicable or fitting to the Father, who is God only, but may be applicable to Christ, who is declared to be not only God, but angel also, it manifestly appears that it was not the Father who thus spoke to Hagar, but rather Christ, since He is God; and to Him also is applied the name of angel, since He became the “angel of great counsel (Isaiah 9:6 LXX).”

Novation On the Trinity Ch. 19 “That God Also Appeared to Jacob as an Angel; Namely, the Son of God… If the Angel of God speaks thus to Jacob, and the Angel himself mentions and says, “I am God, who appeared unto thee in the house of God (Gen. 31:11-13),” we see without any hesitation that this is declared to be not only an angel, but God also; because He speaks of the vow directed to Himself by Jacob in the place of God, and He does not say, in my place. It is then the place of God, and He also is God.”

Novation On the Trinity Ch. 19 Continued “Moreover, if this is Christ, as it is, he is in terrible risk who says that Christ is either man or angel alone, withholding from Him the power of the divine name,—an authority which He has constantly received on the faith of the heavenly Scriptures, which continually say that He is both Angel and God.”

Novation On the Trinity Ch. 19 Continued “And yet, even after this, the same divine Scripture justly does not cease to call the Angel God, and to pronounce God the Angel…”
“he said, “The God which fed me from my youth even unto this day, the Angel who delivered me from all evils, bless these lads (Gen. 48:15-16).”

Novation On the Trinity Ch. 31 “He therefore is God, but begotten for this special result, that He should be God. He is also the Lord, but born for this very purpose of the Father, that He might be Lord. He is also an Angel, but He was destined of the Father as an Angel to announce the Great Counsel of God (Isaiah 9:6 LXX). And His divinity is thus declared, that it may not appear by any dissonance or inequality of divinity to have caused two Gods. For all things being subjected to Him as the Son by the Father, while He Himself, with those things which are subjected to Him, is subjected to His Father, He is indeed proved to be Son of His Father; but He is found to be both Lord and God of all else.”

Eusebius (265-339 A.D.)

Eusebius’ The Proof of the Gospel Book 1 Ch. 1 IT seems now time to say what I consider to be desirable at present to draw from the prophetic writings for the proof of the Gospel. They said that Christ, (Whom they named) the Word of God, and Himself both God and Lord, and Angel of Great Counsel, would one day dwell among men, and would become for all the nations of the world, both Greek and Barbarian, a teacher of true knowledge of God, and of such duty to God the Maker of the Universe, as the preaching of the Gospel includes.

Eusebius’ The Proof of the Gospel Book 1 Ch. 5 Remember how Moses calls the Being, Who appeared to the patriarchs, and often delivered to them the oracles afterwards written down in Scripture, sometimes God and Lord, and sometimes the Angel of the Lord. He clearly implies that this was not the Omnipotent God, but a secondary Being, rightly called the God and Lord of holy men, but the Angel of the Most High His Father.

Eusebius’ The Proof of the Gospel Book 1 Ch. 5 To which he adds: “16. And Jacob arose in the morning, and took the stone, which he had put under his head, and set it up as a pillar.” Then further on he calls this God and Lord Who appeared to him the Angel of God. For Jacob says: “11. For the Angel of God said to me in a dream, Jacob. And I said, What is it? ” And then: “12. I have seen, he says, all that Laban does to thee. I am the God that was seen by thee in the place of God, where thou anointedst for me there a pillar, and thou vowedst to me there a vow.”

Eusebius’ The Proof of the Gospel Book 4 Ch. 10 He is called as well Eternal High Priest, and also the Anointed (Christ) of the Father, for so among the Hebrews they were called Christs, who long ago symbolically presented a copy of the first (Christ). And when as Captain of the Angels He heads them (Rev. 19:11-19), He is called: “The Angel of Great Counsel (Isaiah 9:6 LXX),” and as Leader of the Armies of Heaven: “Captain of the Host of the Lord (Joshua 5:13-15).”

Eusebius’ The Proof of the Gospel Book 4 Ch. 17 From Exodus. How Jesus, the Successor of Moses, called the Angel, and about to be the Leader of the People, is said to bear the Name of Christ. “20. And behold, I send my angel before thy face, that he may keep thee in the way, that he may bring thee into the land which I have prepared for thee. Take heed to thyself and hearken unto him and disobey him not; for he will not give way to thee, for my name is upon him (Exodus 23:20-21).”

Eusebius’ The Proof of the Gospel Book 5 Ch. 10 That the same Prophet shews more clearly in the Matter of Jacob the said Person to be Lord, Whom also He calls God, and an Angel of God Most High, in addressing Him. THIS Being who here answers him at such length, you will find, if you read on, to be Lord and God, and the Angel of God, from the words Jacob himself says to his wives: “And the angel of the Lord said to me in sleep, Jacob. And I said, Here am I.” And also: “I have seen, he says, all that Laban doeth to thee. I am the God, that was seen of thee in the place where thou anointedst the pillar for me, and offeredst prayer to me.”

Eusebius’ The Proof of the Gospel Book 5 Ch. 10 Therefore He that said before, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy Father, and the God of Isaac, to whom godly Jacob raises the pillar, was indeed God and Lord: for we must believe that which He Himself says. Not of course the Almighty, but the Second to Him, Who ministers for His Father among men, and brings His Word. Wherefore Jacob here calls Him an Angel: “The Angel of God said to me, speaking in my sleep, ‘ I am the God who was seen by thee in this place.’ ” So the same Being is clearly called the Angel of the Lord, and God and Lord in this place. And by Isaiah the Prophet he is called “Angel of Great Counsel,” as well as God and Ruler and Potentate, where His Incarnation is prophesied in the words: “For unto us a child is born, and to us a son is given, on whose shoulder shall be the rule, and his name shall be called the Angel of Great Counsel, Prince of Peace, the Mighty God, the Potentate, the Father of the Age to Come.”

Eusebius’ The Proof of the Gospel Book 5 Ch. 13 ..clearly shewing that the Almighty God Himself, Who is One, was not seen in His own Person; and that He did not give answers to the fathers, as He did to Moses by an angel, or a fire, or a bush, but “as a sufficient God”: so that the Father was seen by the fathers through the Son, according to His saying in the Gospels, “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.” For the knowledge of the Father was revealed in Him and by Him. But in cases when He appeared to save men, He was seen in the human form of the Son,..

Eusebius’ The Proof of the Gospel Book 5 Ch. 15 That it was not an Angel, who gave Answers to Moses, but Some One More Excellent than an Angel. IT will be plain to all that these could not be the words of a mere angel of God. But of what God could they be, but of the One seen by the forefathers, whom Jacob clearly called the Angel of God? And He we know was the Word of God, being called both the Servant of God, and God Himself and Lord.

Eusebius’ The Proof of the Gospel Book 5 Ch. 19 So, then, the command that was given shews that the God Who answered on both occasions was one and the same. Though here He prophesies through the Chief and Captain of His power, and to Moses by the vision of the angel… …what other could be highest of all but the Word of God, His Firstborn Wisdom, His Divine Offspring? Rightly, then, He is here called Chief Captain of the Power of the Lord, as also elsewhere “Angel of Great Counsel,” “Throned with the Father,” “Eternal and Great High Priest.” And it has been proved that the same Being is both Lord and God, and Christ anointed by the Father with the oil of gladness.

Eusebius’ The Proof of the Gospel Book 5 Ch. 28 THIS, too, is like the former prophecies. For the Lord God Himself, the Almighty, says that a Lord will come in His own temple, speaking of another: And He surely means God the Word. And after this also He names Him “the Angel of the Covenant (Malachi 3:1)” of Whom, too, Almighty God teaches that He will Him send forth before His face, saying, “Behold, I send forth my angel before my face.” And this same Being, Whom He has called “My angel,” He calls Lord directly after, and adds, “The Lord shall suddenly come, and the Angel of the Covenant (Malachi 3:1).”

Eusebius’ The Proof of the Gospel Book 5 Ch. 29 HE that has often been named Lord, and God, and Angel, and Chief Captain, Christ and Priest, and Word and Wisdom of God, and Image, this same Being is now called Sun of Righteousness. And we see that the Father that begat Him proclaims that He will rise not on all, but only on those that fear His Name, giving them the light of the Sun of Righteousness as a reward for their fear. He, then, must be God the Word, Who said, “I am the Light of the world”; for He was “the light that lighteth every man coming into the world.”

Eusebius’ “Preparation for the Gospel” Book 7 Ch. 15 “And this Beginning is before all originate things which followed, on which account also they are wont to call it the Image of God, and Power of God, and Wisdom of God, and Word of God, nay further the Great ‘Captain of the host of the Lord,’ and ‘Angel of the great Counsel.’”

Origen (184-253 A.D.)
(Was a student of Hippolytus of Rome, the student of Irenaeus of Lyons, the student of Polycarp of Smyrna, who was the disciple of the Apostle John himself).

Contra Celsum Book 5 Ch. 53 And this was the work of one who, as the prophecy regarding Him said, was not simply an angel, but the Angel of the great counsel: for He announced to men the great counsel of the God and Father of all things regarding them, (saying) of those who yield themselves up to a life of pure religion,

Contra Celsum Book 5 Ch. 58 I do not speak of the desire of those who conspired against the Word, and who wished to put Him to death, and to show to all men that He was dead and non-existent, that His tomb should not be opened, in order that no one might behold the Word alive after their conspiracy; but the Angel of God who came into the world for the salvation of men, with the help of another angel, proved more powerful than the conspirators, and rolled away the weighty stone, that those who deemed the Word to be dead might be convinced that He is not with the departed, but is alive, and precedes those who are willing to follow Him, that He may manifest to them those truths which come after those which He formerly showed them at the time of their first entrance (into the school of Christianity), when they were as yet incapable of receiving deeper instruction.

Contra Celsum Book 8 Ch. 27 “He who by his piety possesses the favour of the Most High, who has accepted the guidance of Jesus, the Angel of the great counsel, being well contented with the favour of God through Christ Jesus, may say with confidence that he has nothing to suffer from the whole host of demons.”

Contra Celsum Book 8 Ch. 34 “Jesus has taught us not to despise even the little ones in His Church, saying, Their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven. And the prophet says, The Angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear Him, and delivers them (Psalms 34:7).”

Gregory Thaumaturgus (213-270 A.D.)

Gregory Thaumaturgus’ “Symposium Book 3 Ch. 4 “Christ Himself became the very same thing, because the Eternal Word fell upon Him. For it was fitting that the first-born of God, the first shoot, the only-begotten, even the wisdom of God, should be joined to the first-formed man, and first and first-born of mankind, and should become incarnate. And this was Christ, a man filled with the pure and perfect Godhead, and God received into man. For it was most suitable that the oldest of the Æons and the first of the Archangels, when about to hold communion with men,”

Athanasius of Alexandria (293-373 A.D.)

Against the Arians Discourse 3 Ch. 25 “yet none of created and natural Angels did he join to God their Creator, nor rejecting God that fed him, did he from Angel ask the blessing on his grandsons; but in saying, ‘Who delivered me from all evil (Gen. 48:15-16),’ he showed that it was no created Angel, but the Word of God, whom he joined to the Father in his prayer, through whom, whomsoever He will, God does deliver. For knowing that He is also called the Father’s ‘Angel of great Counsel”

Against the Arians Discourse 3 Ch. 30 “He here has altered the terms and said, ‘Mine is understanding’ and ‘Mine strength,’ so while He says, ‘Mine is counsel,’ He must Himself be the Living Counsel of the Father; as we have learned from the Prophet also, that He becomes ‘the Angel of great Counsel Isaiah 9:6,’”

St. Hilary of Poitiers (315-368 A.D.)

To discriminate clearly between the Persons, He is called the Angel of God; He Who is God from God is also the Angel of God, but, that He may have the honour which is His due, He is entitled also Lord and God. -On the Trinity IV

Novations’ Apostolic Constitutions (Between 375 & 390 A.D.)

Apostolic Constitutions Ch. 16: the prophecies which were written concerning Him. For that He was to be born of a virgin, they read this prophecy:.. and His name is called the Angel of His Great Council (Isaiah 9:6 LXX), the Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Potentate,..

Ch. 20: Ezekiel also, and the following prophets, affirm everywhere that He is the Christ, the Lord, the King, the Judge, the Lawgiver, the Angel of the Father, the only-begotten God. Him therefore do we also preach to you, and declare Him to be God the Word, who ministered to His God and Father for the creation of the universe. By believing in Him you shall live, but by disbelieving you shall be punished.

Gregory Nyssa (335-394 A.D.)

Gregory of Nyssa’s “Against Eunomius” Book 11 Ch. 3 “Who, by being called ‘Angel,’ clearly showed by Whom He published His words, and Who is the Existent, while by being addressed also as God, He showed His superiority over all things. For He Who is the God of all things that were made by Him, is the Angel of the God over all.”

Gregory of Nyssa Against Eunomius Book 11 Ch. 3 “He Who sent Moses was the Existent Himself, but He by Whom He sent and spoke was the Angel of the Existent, and the God of all else.”

Gregory of Nyssa Against Eunomius Book 11 Ch. 3 “For we too say plainly, that the prophet, wishing to make manifest to men the mystery concerning Christ, called the Self-Existent Angel,..”

Gregory of Nyssa Against Eunomius Book 11 Ch. 3 “But just as our word is the revealer and messenger (or angel) of the movements of the mind, even so we affirm that the true Word that was in the beginning, when He announces the will of His own Father, is styled Angel (or Messenger), a title given to Him on account of the operation of conveying the message. And as the sublime John, having previously called Him Word, so introduces the further truth that the Word was God, that our thoughts might not at once turn to the Father, as they would have done if the title of God had been put first, so too does the mighty Moses, after first calling Him Angel, teach us in the words that follow that He is none other than the Self-Existent Himself, that the mystery concerning the Christ might be foreshown, by the Scripture assuring us by the name Angel, that the Word is the interpreter of the Father’s will, and, by the title of the Self-Existent, of the closeness of relation subsisting between the Son and the Father. And if he should bring forward Isaiah also as calling Him the Angel of mighty counsel”

Gregory of Nyssa Against Eunomius Book 11 Ch. 3 “For as the Angel (or Messenger) gives information from some one, even so the Word reveals the thought within, the Seal shows by Its own stamp the original mould, and the Image by Itself interprets the beauty of that whereof It is the image, so that in their signification all these terms are equivalent to one another. For this reason the title Angel is placed before that of the Self-Existent, the Son being termed Angel as the exponent of His Father’s will, and the Existent as having no name that could possibly give a knowledge of His essence, but transcending all the power of names to express.”

Ambrose of Milan (340-397 A.D.)

Ambrose’s Exposition of the Christian Faith Book 1 Ch. 13 “The heathen king saw in the fire, together with the three Hebrew children, the form of a fourth, like as of an angel, (Daniel 3:25) and because he thought that this angel excelled all angels, he judged Him to be the Son of God, Whom he had not read of, but in Whom he believed.

Ambrose’s Exposition of the Christian Faith Book 1 Ch. 13 “He, therefore, Who said, This is My Son, said not, This is a creature of time, nor This being is of My creation, My making, My servant, but This is My Son, Whom you see glorified. This is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, Who appeared to Moses in the bush, (Exodus 3:14) concerning Whom Moses says, He Who is has sent me. It was not the Father Who spoke to Moses in the bush or in the desert, but the Son. It was of this Moses that Stephen said, This is he who was in the church, in the wilderness, with the Angel (Acts 7:38). This, then, is He Who gave the Law, Who spoke with Moses, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. This, then, is the God of the patriarchs, this is the God of the prophets.”

Theodoret of Cyrus (393-457 A.D.)

The whole passage (Exodus 3) shows that it was God who appeared to Moses. But Moses called Him an “angel” in order to let us know that it was not God the Father whom he saw — for whose angel could the Father be? — but the Only-begotten Son, the Angel of Great Counsel.”

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