The Hierarchy of the Angels according to the Bible: What Is Certain and What Is Systematization

The hierarchy of the angels according to the Bible is less defined than piety usually supposes: Scripture names real angelic categories – seraphim, cherubim, archangels, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers – but nowhere does it organize them into a scale of nine choirs. That famous list is a later systematization, fixed by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and adopted, with some retouching, by Gregory the Great.

Distinguishing what the Bible affirms, what the Fathers debated, and what tradition systematized does not diminish the doctrine: it purifies it. That is the course of this article, made with the sources in hand.

What Does the Bible Really Say about the Angels?

The Old Testament speaks abundantly of angels – about one hundred and forty-nine times, according to the survey gathered by Anne Bernet – but “there was no attempt at classification on the part of the authors of the Old Testament,” and Augustine was already warning that the very name “angel” designates the function of messenger, not the nature [A. Bernet, Enquête sur les Anges]. The categories appear scattered: Isaiah brings the seraphim onstage (in Hebrew śerafim, שְׂרָפִים, “those who burn”), in a vision that iconography has never forgotten: “The seraphim were above the throne; each of them had six wings; with two they covered their face; with two they covered their feet and with two they flew” (Is 6:2, cited in Bernet). Several books allude to the cherubim, guardians of the divine throne, and the epistle of Saint Jude employs the word “archangel” [Bernet, op. cit.].

Saint Paul’s Lists: Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Powers

The most complete survey is in Saint Paul who, formed at the feet of Gamaliel, knew Jewish angelology thoroughly [Bernet, op. cit.]. To the Romans he gives this assurance: “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor virtues, nor things present, nor things to come […] will be able [to separate us from the love of God]” (Rom 8:38-39). In Col 1:16 the Greek terms are precise: thrónoi (θρόνοι, thrones), kyriótetes (κυριότητες, dominions), archaí (ἀρχαί, principalities), exousíai (ἐξουσίαι, powers).

One fact requires academic honesty: in Pauline language, some of these designations at times denote powers hostile to God, and only with an effort of reading were they later connected to the faithful angels [“Saint Michael the Archangel” course, lesson 11, Locus Mariologicus]. Paul is not drawing a celestial organizational chart: he is proclaiming that no power, angelic or not, separates the Christian from Christ.

How Many Choirs? Where the Fathers Diverge

It is here that the comparison of the sources becomes indispensable. The early Fathers do not agree on the number: Irenaeus and Origen defend seven orders – the five named by Paul, plus angels and archangels. The joining of seraphim and cherubim raises the list to nine. Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Seleucia, and Augustine count eight; Eusebius of Caesarea, Chrysostom, and Cyril of Jerusalem count nine; and Gregory Nazianzen reaches eleven [L. S. C. de Sampaio, Noções sobre Angelologia, 1982]. And the same study adds the decisive detail: “even where the total number coincides, the list is not the same”, the fruit of the different identifications proposed. Clement of Alexandria, for his part, attributes to the angels a single nature: the names would reflect only a difference of functions [Sampaio, op. cit.].

Pseudo-Dionysius and Gregory the Great: The Nine Choirs

The figure of nine was finally adopted by Dionysius the Areopagite, the fifth- to sixth-century theologian who wrote under the name of Paul’s disciple, and the architecture of the three triads that art and liturgy consecrated is his [Sampaio, op. cit.]. Gregory the Great recognizes the same nine choirs – angels, archangels, virtues, powers, principalities, dominions, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim – and likewise divides them into three hierarchies, “but in a manner different from the one originally proposed by Dionysius” [Sampaio, op. cit.]. The two greatest authorities of the tradition, therefore, agree on the number and diverge on the arrangement – a clear sign that this is systematizing theology, not revealed data.

The name and the number of the choirs became commonplace above all through liturgical use, in the prefaces of the Mass [“Saint Michael the Archangel” course, lesson 11].

A Hierarchy Measured in Flights: The Rabbinic Witness

Rabbinic literature confirms that ancient Judaism also thought of the angels in degrees, with an unexpected image: speed. In Berakhot 4b the precedence of Michael over Gabriel is discussed on the basis of Is 6:6 and Dan 9:21, and the conclusion is reached: “It was taught in a Tosefta: Michael, as mentioned above, in a single flight; Gabriel, in two flights; Elijah the Prophet, in four flights; and the Angel of Death, in eight flights” [Berakhot 4b, cited in lesson 15 of the “Saint Michael the Archangel” course]. The fewer the flights, the higher the rank: Michael, in a single flight, is at the top.

What Theology Holds Today

Contemporary theology is sober. As for the names of the choirs, “these names, although derived from biblical language, hardly intend to characterize a diversity of roles and therefore offer no possibility of establishing a hierarchical order among the angels” [“Saint Michael the Archangel” course, lesson 11]. This does not deny an order in the angelic world: creation is an ordered structure, and nothing prevents there being among the angels a diversity of gifts and tasks – what escapes our gaze is the exact map of that order. Along the same lines, scholasticism was already debating whether each angel is a unique species (Thomas Aquinas) or whether there are angelic species that group individuals together (Alexander of Hales, Bonaventure, Scotus) [“Saint Michael the Archangel” course, lesson 11].

The essential point stands thus: the existence of the angels belongs to the faith, and the Bible attests diverse angelic categories – from the guardian angel to the seraphim of Isaiah’s vision, by way of the three named archangels. But “the order of the diversity and the hierarchy of the Angels do not qualify as dogmatic matter” [Sampaio, op. cit.]. The nine choirs are a venerable grammar of the tradition for stating a biblical truth: heaven is not an anonymous multitude, it is an army ordered to the service of God.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Bible teach that there are nine choirs of angels?

Not as a closed list. Scripture names seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, archangels, and angels, but it never adds them up into a single scale. The number nine is a systematization of Pseudo-Dionysius, adopted by Gregory the Great.

Who organized the nine choirs of angels?

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, in the fifth to sixth century, fixed the nine choirs in three triads. Gregory the Great recognized the same nine choirs, but grouped the triads differently – the two traditions agree on the number and diverge on the arrangement.

How many choirs did the Fathers of the Church count?

They diverged: there were seven in Irenaeus and in Origen, eight in Gregory of Nyssa and in Augustine, nine in Chrysostom and in Cyril of Jerusalem, and as many as eleven in Gregory Nazianzen – and even when the number coincides, the lists are not the same.

Is the hierarchy of the angels a dogma of the Church?

No. The existence of the angels belongs to the faith of the Church, but their ordering into choirs and hierarchies is not dogmatic matter: it is systematizing theology, respectable and useful, open to discussion.