The Origins of Angels with Mika Ahuvia

Many within the realms of Magic, Spirituality, and Mysticism are well aware of heavenly messengers which are called Angels. While many are familiar with the depictions of them as winged celestial beings, their origins and deeds are a bit less well known in today’s world. Angels were incredibly important to the Ancient Jewish peoples, and more recent scholarship has begun to uncover to what extent Angels played a role in the nascent Judaic worldview. One of these scholars is my guest for this show- Author and professor Dr. Mika Ahuvia!

Dr. Mika Ahuvia is an associate professor of Classical Judaism in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. She teaches courses in Jewish Studies, Comparative Religion, and Global Studies. She received her Ph.D. in religion from Princeton University in 2014, specializing in the formation of Judaism and Christianity in late antiquity. Her recent book On my Right Michael, On my Left Gabriel: Angels in Ancient Jewish Culture was released in 2021 and is a fantastic work which elucidates so much about these Heavenly Messengers!

Listeners of WMiT? can now get a 30% Discount on Dr. Ahuvia’s amazing Book On my Right Michael, On my Left Gabriel: Angels in Ancient Jewish Culture! If Angels are interesting to you, or if they have some part to play in your worldview (Magical or otherwise) you need to read this book! Use the code 21W2240 at Checkout if you order from the link below!

Show Notes

• Dr. Mika Ahuvia talks about her book in this wonderful YouTube video. Well worth a watch and educational in its own right!
• Angels in antiquity: Judaism’s long relationship with heaven’s haloed helpers
• Angelology in the Jewish Encyclopedia
• The Development of Jewish Ideas of Angels: Egyptian and Hellenistic Connections by Annette Evans – Well worth a read. All of it
• The Origins of Jewish Beliefs in Angels by Annette Evans
• Ophanim– All those “Bibically Accurate Angels” memes? Yep they’re Ophanim
• Seraphim in the Jewish Encyclopedia
• The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Vol. 1: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments by James Charlesworth – The best translation of The Book of Enoch, as well as a wonderful version of the Testament of Solomon as a bonus
• The Book of Enoch translated by R. H. Charles
• The Sin of the Watchers
• From Sumer to Abraham: The Story of the Angels
• A Gathering of Angels: Angels in Jewish Life and Literature by Morris Margolies
• Angels: A History by David Albert Jones
• Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism by Howard Schwartz – This is just an amazing book and the stories within are fantastic
• The Origins of Jewish Mysticism by Peter Schäfer
• The Ancient Jewish Mysticism by Joseph Dan
• Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature by Annette Reed
• Magic Bowls of Antiquity
• Shalom Aleichem
• Metatron is Not Enoch: Reevaluating the Evolution of an Archangel by Yakir Paz
• Lesser Gods of the Ancient Near East and Some Comparisons with Heavenly Beings of the Old Testament – There’s some interesting info here if you wish to pick through it
• Ancient Angel Magic: The Sefer HaRazim – Esoterica
• Angels: A History of Angels in Western Thought – A somewhat simplified account is given here which isn’t bad, just a bit incomplete
• The Great Angel: A Study of Israel’s Second God by Margaret Baker – An interesting hypothesis