Angels in ancient Judaism

Mainstream current orthodox theology in Judaism dictates that angels and humans can never cohabit as angels are non physical manifestations of the will of God who do not have free choice to decide anything, never mind being able to physically cohabit with humans. Besides for current theology that cohabiting is due to our bad desires which we need to wipe out and destroy, as one Rabbi put it, cohabiting is only there in order to keep the species alive.

I think this is a relatively new concept, by new I mean that it has developed and evolved over the last 2000 years.

Prior to that time the belief that angels could mix with humans is clearly evident in some places and hinted at in other places.

Perhaps the most famous example is in the end of the first Parsha in Genesis, where it describes the Sons of Elohim lusting after the daughters of man.

Recently in an article I saw on TheTorah.com it was pointed out that Shimson, is also suggested that his father was an angel, and after careful reading of the verses I would concur that it does indeed seem to imply that the angel caused the woman to become pregnant. So much so that even one of the classic commentators on the page of the Mikroei Gedolah Nach is bothered by her suddenly becoming pregnant and makes a comment that the verse does not mean that she is already pregnant but that she would become.

In the Midrash we find too that angels have free will and can sin as per the Midrashim on the ebove quoted verses in Genises.

Only in later times, I would suggest around the time of the Rambam do we find this idea of angels being human like frowned upon. And gradually we have come to our current dogma which we are taught that angels are but the wish of God.

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