Yahoel (Church Slavonic: Иаоилъ, reconstructed Greek: Ιαοὴλ, reconstructed Hebrew: יהואל or יואל;[1] also spelled Jahoel, Jehoel, etc. in English and Yaoel in French) is the name of an angel appearing in the Old Church Slavonic manuscripts of the Apocalypse of Abraham, a pseudepigraphical work dating from after the siege of Jerusalem (70).[2] The name is thought to be a compound of the Tetragrammaton and ʔēl, the Hebrew word for 'God'.[1] He is an associate of Michael (Apoc. Abr.10:17) charged to restrain Leviathan and destroy idolaters (10:10–14).[3]
Another later pseudepigraphical rabbinical work ascribed to Ishmael ben Elisha, Hebrew 3 Enoch 48d, gives Yahoel as one of the 70 names of Metatron, which makes sense in light of the character and role of Yahoel in the Apocalypse of Abraham.[4]
In the 13th century, kabbalistic Berith Menucha of Abraham Merimon of Granada Yahoel is the angel of fire.
Several popular dictionaries of angels, such as Gustav Davidson's A dictionary of angels: including the fallen angels (1967) repeat the claim that Jehoel was (in unidentified Jewish texts) the chief angel of the Seraphim. No source for this claim is forthcoming.
See also
References
- ^ a b Alexander Kulik (2004) Retroverting Slavonic Pseudepigrapha: Toward the Original of the Apocalypse of Abraham, p. 55–56 fn.
- ^ Christopher Rowland, Christopher R. A. Morray-Jones The mystery of God: early Jewish mysticism and the New Testament 2009 Page 53 "It speaks of the angel Yaoel who appears to Abraham and takes him to heaven, an angel who has God's name dwelling in him: I am called Yaoel by him who moveth that which existeth with me on the seventh expanse of the firmament, ..."
- ^ Peter R. Carrell Jesus and the angels: angelology and the christology of the Apocalypse of John p55
- ^ Bernard Barc ed. Colloque international sur les textes de Nag Hammadi: Québec, 22–25 août 1978
