Heavenly intermediaries. Jewish origins of early Christology

Within the framework of the concept of divine mediation as a whole, three types of divine intermediaries can be distinguished: (1) Divine attributes and forces (such as wisdom or logos in Philo), (2) Ascended patriarchs and prophets (such as Moses and Enoch), and ( 3) Great Angels (such as Mikhail, Jaeil and [possibly] Melchizedek in the Kumran manuscript 11qmelch) This kind of classification should not be perceived as a strict distinction between different types of divine intermediaries, and I do not want to say in this way that the ancient Jews have developed a system of differentiation of characters based on logical analysis, but this kind of scheme could serve as a working tool for modern researchers in their analysis of their analysis texts and other ways to express religious ideas.

It is obvious that in ancient Judaism you can find a large number of characters acting as intermediaries of God, such as prophets, priests, kings and the Messiah (or Messiah), as well as the hosts of angels, but the types of intermediary figures proposed by me for consideration In this work, there are a number of distinguishing features that could be formulated as follows: all of them are represented either by heavenly origin, or ascended to heaven and their inhabitants, thus, in comparison with the above earthly characters, to more approaching the heavenly status Ascended Jesus, as he was perceived in the early church.

Despite the fact that a huge number of angels also have a heavenly origin, however, these main angelic characters are presented as carriers of the properties and qualities inherent in divine beings, more than earthly characters or hosts of ordinary angels. Moreover, each of the characters identified by us represents God in a very special way and plays a role, secondary only in relation to God, thus standing out among all other ministers of God and intermediaries between Him and people