Expermental Search and Archangels
I asked Expermental Search-- "How many archangels were there in the Bible?" I got conflicting answers. Some entries say 4 others say 7. I am trying to find the biblical and historical evidence for this question. Any suggestions?
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Search Results | Logos Bible Software
archangels in the bible? have a look at a biblical concordance0 -
Some entries say 4 others say 7
Which means that resources in your library provide different answers. The experimental search is a SEARCH not an AI answer engine - it doesn't answer anything. It simply improves the results of a search.
I am trying to find the biblical and historical evidence for this question.
Biblical? See Jude 9 and 2 Esdras 4:36 for the only explicit answers unless you use a canon that includes 1 Enoch. In that case read the first few verses of 1 Enoch 20. Historical? I assume you mean including the scriptures of other Abrahamic religions as I would not expect you to be considering grimoires. There are a couple of archangels in the Quran, at least one archangel of import in Kabbalah ... an archangelish creature or two in the not-Abrahamic Zoroastrianism (Parsi) and probably some gnostic sects. The Key of Solomon and The Lesser Key of Solomon are probably your best bets of the grimoire front. In short, be careful that you know enough about what you are asking about to recognize reasonable answers versus more-than-I-really-needed-to-know answers such as I gave (without AI assistance). And be careful to ask questions that you can reasonably expect to have answers (see yesterday's Abraham's offspring thread).
Please understand that my rant is not directed at you but rather at all who are too willing to confuse an AI assisted search with an AI answer bot, and too willing to assume AI provides solid answers in Bible/comparative religion fields of study. Actually I was trained for this rant by my Father's rants on people so dependent upon calculators that they did not recognize obviously erroneous results i.e. had no sense of what the answer ought to approximately be. Calculators don't know input is erroneous; AI doesn't know assumptions are false.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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Actually I was trained for this rant by my Father's rants on people so dependent upon calculators that they did not recognize obviously erroneous results i.e. had not sense of what the answer ought to approximately be. Calculators don't know input is erroneous; AI doesn't know assumptions are false.
Thanks for the added anecdote about calculators and your father. Sounds like he and I would have been good friends! I was working on my masters in physics when calculators began showing up in the classrooms at the university. I was working as a TA in a number of labs. I was always astonished at how many students would come with answers, very confidently I might add, that were so completely wrong, both in mantissa value and exponent value. I had been well trained with a slide rule and so it was second nature to do both order of magnitude calculations as well as rough estimates to know when answers made sense and so I could never imagine how someone could be so completely wrong with the result they had just gotten from their calculator and be completely clueless about it.
For God and For Neighbor
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[Y][:D]
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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Thanks MJ for your help. I am trying to find the Christian and biblical answer to "How many archangels are there?"
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Some entries say 4 others say 7
Which means that resources in your library provide different answers. The experimental search is a SEARCH not an AI answer engine - it doesn't answer anything. It simply improves the results of a search.
So the experimental search just searches our books and matches words in our search question? hmmm
xn = Christan man=man -- Acts 11:26 "....and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch".
Barney Fife is my hero! He only uses an abacus with 14 rows!
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So the experimental search just searches our books and matches words in our search question?
Exactly it does some sophisticated choice of synonyms and sophisticated weighing of results which makes it much more useful than the standard search in many situations, but not all. And, IIRC, it searches resources we do not own. But it is still a SEARCH. I am very pleased with its results and think it will be a great addition to the Logos/Verbum tool box ... if we can keep users from confusing it with GoogleBard or ChatGPT. A voltage meter is not a Phillips screwdriver ... one provides a measurement (answer); the other is a tool that is very useful for Phillips screws.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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I am trying to find the Christian and biblical answer to "How many archangels are there?"
Think of this as your personal "how many angels can dance on a pin?" ... The Bible provides no answer. Any Christian answer is subject to many qualifications. And, unless you wish to invoke an archangel by means of a magical spell, there is no pressing application that requires one to have an answer. Or put more bluntly, don't waste your time trying to find an actual answer; rather, have fun exploring the thought of the variety of people who've seriously tried to find an answer. It is a very interesting endeavor as I hope my initial answer hinted at.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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Think of this as your personal "how many angels can dance on a pin?"
Which, interestingly, Pelikan reports that there is no documentation that medieval theologians actually ever contemplated that one.
Pelikan, Jaroslav. 1978. The Growth of Medieval Theology (600–1300). Vol. 3. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, p. 293.
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Thanks for the replies everyone. I really appreciate it.
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