The "angel of the Lord" - can someone confirm...

Carmen Gauvin-O'Donnell · 2025-04-26T10:46:27+00:00

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please, that there is no reference in Scripture to it specifically being "the angel of the Lord" who went through Egypt at the first Passover - that I may have seen it said that way, but it was in a movie or TV show or documentary or something, NOT Scripture? I've done a search of the use of the expression in Scripture but thought I'd get the question out there for anyone else who may have more in-depth knowledge.

It's in the context of a database I've been building for years of every biblical reference that supports the idea of the Trinity, in case anyone was wondering. In Ex 12:12, God says He will go through Egypt, and I thought for sure that elsewhere there is a reference to the fact that it was the angel of the Lord who went through Egypt, see?!

Thanks in advance, kidlets! 😀

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GaoLu

Exodus 12:23: "For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you".

Is destroyer implying an angel? Perhaps it is a thing and not a person. Hard to know.

John

Michael Heiser goes into great detail on that in his numerous books and other teachings.

Relating this to the Trinity you might find this lecture interesting …

https://youtu.be/DpewrL8oo-A

DMB

Kidlet here. I have better luck with 'messenger of yahweh' (OT). Judges 2:1 specifically.

I like the donkey seeing the angel of the Lord! Whoa, girl!

NichtnurBibelleser

Perplexity says:

"While Exodus 12:23 refers to "the destroyer" (ha-mashḥit), later interpretations and some translations (e.g., Good News Translation) explicitly identify this agent as the angel of the LORD"

See also here.

DMB

Though hard to imagine the author equating 'the destroyer' and the messenger of YHWH as synonymous. Killer angel.

Interpretation is interpretation.

MJ. Smith

Okay, I know AI answers are verbotten but I used AI looking for a book I recall that equated Angel to God in an Abrahamic epic episode. I received this bit from the synopsis of a Logos smart search … a reminder that it can be useful

The "angel of the Lord" plays a significant role in both the Passover and other key events in biblical history. During the first Passover in Egypt, this angel was sent to destroy the firstborn of Egypt, but passed over the houses of Israelites who had marked their doorposts with lamb's blood[1][2]. This event was commemorated in the Passover celebration, which Jesus later transformed into the Last Supper[1]. The angel of the Lord also appears in other important moments in the Old Testament, such as guiding Moses and stopping Abraham from sacrificing Isaac[3]. In some interpretations, the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament is considered a manifestation of the pre-incarnate Christ[3][4]. The angel's role as a destroyer is further emphasized in later biblical accounts, such as in Chronicles where it is described as "working destruction" over Jerusalem[5]. The movement of the angel of the Lord from Gilgal to Bochim in the book of Judges is also noted as significant, marking a transition from a place of remembrance to one of judgment[4].
[1] Jason Lee, Angelia Mickle, and Michael E. Sherr, Scripture and Scrubs: A Christian Calling to Healthcare (Brentwood, TN: B&H, 2025), 99.
[2] William Perkins, ed. Randall J. Pederson et al., The Works of William Perkins (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2017), 305.
[3] Clinton E. Arnold, Acts, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, vol. 2B, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 39.
[4] Eric C. Redmond, Exalting Jesus in Judges and Ruth, ed. David Platt, Daniel L. Akin, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2023), 16.
[5] Michael S. Heiser, Angels: What the Bible Really Says about God’s Heavenly Host (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018), 65.

Note only one of the resources is one I would normally use and that the answer emphasizes @DMB's point about interpretation being interpretation. If one enters the query "angel of the Lord" Passover into the chatbot of your choice you will get a multi-part nuanced response as to why the Exodus passage is interpreted as Angel of the Lord. Consider these passages Exodus 12:23 "the destroyer"; Psalm 78:49 "destroying angels"; Hebrews 11:28 "the destroyer of the firstborn"; 2 Samuel 24:15–17 "angel of the Lord". Use the "analogy of faith" (analogia fidei) principle (does that break the theological rule?) and the commentaries in your collection to answer your question. Factbook has a fairly comprehensive entry for "angel of the Lord" which also adds useful information.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1367601#Comment_1367601

Hmm … your imagination seems to have a filter purchased separately in the super-mega-deluxe package 'cuz:

DESTROYER, THE (מַּשְׁחִית, mashchith). A word used to describe Yahweh’s destructive power against the Egyptian firstborn in Exod 12:23 and Heb 11:28. This destroyer may be the same as the angel who struck the Israelites with plague in 2 Sam 24:16–17, or the Assyrians in 2 Kgs 19:35 or Isa 37:36). Paul describes the force that caused the plague in Num 16:46–49 as the “destroyer” (1 Cor 10:10), as does the deuterocanonical Wisdom of Solomon (Wis 18:22–25).
John D. Barry et al., eds., “Destroyer, the,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

DESTROYER, dē̇-stroi′ēr: In several passages the word designates a supernatural agent of destruction, or destroying angel, executing Divine judgment. (1) In Ex 12:23, of the “destroyer” who smote the first-born in Egypt, again referred to under the same title in He 11:28 RV (AV “he that destroyed”). (2) In Job 33:22, “the destroyers” (lit. “they that cause to die”) = the angels of death that are ready to take away a man’s life during severe illness. No exact ║ to this is found in the OT. The nearest approach is “the angel that destroyed the people” by pestilence (2 S 24:16, 17 ║ 1 Ch 21:15, 16); the angel that smote the Assyrians (2 K 19:35 = Isa 37:36 ║ 2 Ch 32:21); “angels of evil” (Ps 78:49). (3) In the Apoc, “the destroyer” is once referred to as “the minister of punishment” (RV; lit. “him who was punishing”), who brought death into the world (Wisd 18:22–25). (4) In 1 Cor 10:10, “the destroyer” is the angelic agent to whose instrumentality Paul attributes the plague of Nu 16:46–49.
In later Jewish theology (the Tgs and Midr), the “destroyer” or “angel of death” appears under the name Sammael (I.e. the polson of God), who was once an archangel before the throne of God, and who caused the serpment to tempt Eve. According to Weher, he is not to be distinguished from Satan. The chief distinction between the “destroyer” of early thought and the Sammael of later Judaism is that the former was regarded as the emissary of Jeh, and subservient to His will, and sometimes was not clearly distinguished from Jeh Himself, whereas the latter was regarded as a perfectly distinct individuality, acting in independence or semi-independence, and from purely malicious and evil motives. The change was largely due to the influence of Pers dualism, which made good and evil to be independent powers.
D. Miall Edwards, “Destroyer,” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, ed. James Orr et al. (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915), 833–834.

DESTROYER, THE [Heb mašḥı̂t (מַשְׁחִית); Gk ho olothreutēs (ὁ ὁλοθρευτης)]. The Destroyer is a superhuman agent of destruction mentioned in Exod 12:23 and 1 Cor 10:10. In Exodus the Destroyer is an angelic agent who is sent by God to kill the firstborn of Egypt as the tenth plague. However, the distinction between God himself and the angel is unclear. In 12:13 God himself destroys (same root) the firstborn, and in 12:27 he slays (nāgap) the firstborn. Ps 78:49–51 speaks of a company of destroying angels executing the tenth plague. Heb 11:28 recalls this incident using the participle “the one destroying” (ho olothreuōn).
The Destroyer is illustrative of the OT concept that God uses angels to execute his judgment. An angel destroys the people of Jerusalem with a plague because of David’s census (2 Sam 24:16; 1 Chr 21:7–22:1) and destroys 185,000 soldiers of Sennacherib’s army (2 Kgs 19:35; 2 Chr 32:21; Isa 37:36; Sir 48:21; 1 Macc 7:41). The vision of Ezekiel 9 is of angels executing judgment on Jerusalem and Judah.
In 1 Cor 10:10 Paul admonishes the Corinthians not to grumble as some of the Israelites did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. It is unclear if Paul refers to Num 14 or 16:41–50, but the latter is preferred because it speaks of the destruction of the people by a punishing plague sent from God. It is also unclear if the Destroyer is an angel or Satan himself. If the Destroyer is an angel it could be a type of angel that executes God’s judgment, or the title for a specific angel that did so. A type of angel is supported by the rabbinic use of mašḥı̂t as a term, among others, for an angel of destruction. It was an outgrowth of the rabbinic concept that God’s mercy and wrath is put into effect by opposing groups of angels. A specific angel is supported by the presence of the definite article. Also, in postexilic Judaism mašḥı̂t is sometimes used as a designation for a specific angel of destruction (Str-B 3:412–16). Later the angel Satan is identified as an agent of destruction (Wis 2:24; John 8:44; 1 Cor 5:5 [olethros]; Heb 2:14; cf. 2 Cor 12:7; 1 Thess 2:18; 1 Pet 5:8). It at least can be said that in the recollection of the incident of Num 16:41–50 in 4 Macc. 7:11 and Wis 18:20–25 the figure is an individual destroyer.
In the Hebrew Bible, LXX, and early Christian texts “the destroyer” (the participial form of šāḥat, šādad, hāras, olothreuō, and diaphtheirō) can also be used to designate a human agent of destruction, whether an individual, group, or nation (Job 15:21; Isa 21:2; 49:17; Jer 48:8, 15, 18; Rev 11:18; see also ETOT 2: 201–2; and TDNT 5:167–71).
Duane F. Watson, “Destroyer, The,” in The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 159–160.

Now, mind you, my first reaction was similar to your's which is an example of why I've learned to double check first reactions (and become pedantic?)

Bradley Grainger (Logos)

I know AI answers are verbotten but I used AI looking for a book … I received this bit from the synopsis of a Logos smart search

You can quote AI-generated responses from Logos in posts on the Logos forums (particularly since they cite their sources and are pretty clearly taken from the application when quoted).

The point of the AI guideline is to ask people to refrain from copy-pasting an "answer" from a chatbot without attribution as the primary content of their post. (If you think ChatGPT generated a particularly insightful answer to a query, I don't personally have a problem with your clicking the "Share" link in ChatGPT and posting a link here; people can choose to click to read it if they want.)

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1367628#Comment_1367628

And your quote is destroyer-ingly poor logic (dogma-based)? I'm surprised.

MJ. Smith

And your quote is destroyer-ingly poor logic (dogma-based)? I'm surprised.

😁I don't disagree.