Angels or Men?
Rabbi Yehudah ben Shomeyr
Then
the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
Matt. 4:11
When one leaves the familiar paths of Christendom and begins walking the
Hebraic path of the Natsari and as one’s mind and spirit is transformed, the
Brit Chadasha (New Testament) is read a fresh, as if a brand new book and
things jump out that previously seemed uneventful or even mundane.
In the passage above we may envision a renaissance artist’s depiction of
heavenly winged angelic beings cradling Yeshua in their arms as they feed him
honey cakes and give him a cruse of water after His 40 day Temptation and Fast.
But perhaps this is yet another example of Gentile misinterpretation of Scripture.
I know that angelic beings exists and appear in Scripture doing the
bidding of the Almighty Creator, but has Christianity read angels where there
are none? For example, by now it is well established that the “angels” of the
seven “churches” in the book of Revelation, is actually the Rabbi’s and or
congregational leaders of the seven synagogues and or messianic assemblies. For
what good would it do for Yochannon (John) to write to angelic protectors of
these seven congregations and not to the leaders themselves? The Greek word for
angel can also be translated as messenger and is translated so in the Aramaic translation.
In like manner, is Matthew 4:11 really speaking of winged angelic beings
or mere mortal messengers that ministered to Yeshua after His temptation in the
desert? Again, the Greek word in this passage translated in the English as
angel is the word that could be translated as messenger and is such in the Aramaic
translation of Matthew.
To get to the bottom of this let us look at the preceding verses.
This “exceedingly
high mountain” spoken of here is believed to be among the desert mountains and
caves of the Essene of the Qumran Community occupied. The same ones that
produced the famous Dead Sea Scrolls and the very desert community it was
believed Yochannon the Immerser (John the Baptizer) and Yeshua’s cousin, was a part
of. So it was very likely the very private Essenes were aware of and were
tracking Yeshua movements in their back yard.
To further
the case that these “angels” in Matthew 4:1 were actually Essenes of the desert
Qumran Community, let us look at verse 12 of Matthew chapter 4.
Now
when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;
- Matt. 4:12
Seeing as verse 11 speaking of the angels is right to verse 12 speaking
of Yeshua’s cousin Yochannon’s arrest, does it not make sense that Yeshua heard
it from these Essene messengers/angels that assisted Him after His Temptation
and Fast and who likely knew Yochannon personally, seeing as he was formerly a
part of their community? Of course it does. It is more likely these “angels” of
Matthew 4:11 was actually men.
