Winged Thoughts Section Four: Angel Attire

Section Four: Angelic attire.

A large percentage of what is written about angel encounters focuses on their appearance. You can read through many texts where people speak about people, and you'll not find mention of their appearance. The difference between these two types of accounts is that angels appeared significantly less mundane than known people.

Sometimes they shined. In most instances, the angels seemed somewhat, though not completely like men. Where something stood out as unusual, that is where the writers went to the extra effort to record it. Let's see – it's kind of like a man, it's really bright, and the eyes are freaky – yeah, I better write this down.

The most common detail in these accounts is what the angels wear. Angelic attire recurs with such regularity that it begs investigation. Angels did not dress in the every day oily rags; tatters were not in fashion for the ascended. What they wore was definitely worth writing about.

We get this from Wikipedia: Linen was sometimes used as currency in ancient Egypt. Egyptian mummies were wrapped in linen because it was seen as a symbol of light and purity and as a display of wealth. Some of these fabrics, woven from hand spun yarns, were very fine for their day, but are coarse compared to modern linen.

Daniel 10:5, 6, 7, 16 and 18 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen . . . His body also was like the Beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude. And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips . . . Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me.

The writer of the account listed above was not too clear on the man-likeness of the angel, but he was absolutely certain that it was dressed in linen. That was the first thing the writer wrote. I don't think the angel was trying to make a fashion statement, but linen did speak of a higher tax bracket. Anyone who wore linen had an air of prominence and authority. Now, back in the day, linen may not have been naturally white. Notably, white linen may have involved a lot of extra work. In the following verse, what is noteworthy is mentioned first. The angelic attire was top quality. The very fact that it was recorded speaks of its remarkability. It stood out.

John 20:12 And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

Of course, white may have been deliberately added for its symbolic importance. White signifies purity, white signifies the light from above, white signifies the soul. White equals Holy. It was clothing rare enough to merit mention. Like the verse above, the verse below mentions not a single angel, but a pair of them. I wonder, does that have a correlation to Jesus sending out his apostles in pairs?

Acts 1:10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel. 

No particular effort is employed in the description of the clothing, only that it is was clothing. This leads me to believe angels wore the style of the day. Yet, it drew attention. It was memorable. Was the clothing so absolutely white that it reflected the sun? Did the clothing glow rather than reflect? For that matter, how bright does bright have to be to get noticed? Remember, these people lived out in the sun. A certain level of brightness was commonplace and thus taken for granted. Yes, Cornelius was inside his house, but hey, it was the middle of the afternoon.

 Acts 10:30 And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing.

This instance is notable for two reasons. First is the fact that Cornelius was awake and busy with the activity of prayer. Second is the description of the angel. It was not like the appearance of a man, but clearly seen and concisely tagged as a man. Was bright, shining apparel the angelic norm? I have asked whether the apparel reflected or glowed. Following is a verse that suggests glowing. It also supports the thought that normal white clothing took some work, and was a service that required payment. Fullers worked for a living; if you wanted white, you paid for it.

Mark 9:3-8 And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them. And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus.

I include the clothing of Jesus because he has impressed me as having certain angelic qualities. Glowing, or the brightening of apparel suggests great energy – at the very least, a higher wavelength of the visible spectrum. Beyond that, I am always amazed at this verse because I find it hard to believe that the apostles could recognize Moses and Elijah.

There were no pictures to go by. Sure, Moses had a head full of white hair, but he could not have been the only one thus described. And Elijah was a lot like John the Baptist – all that crude hairiness and the leather girdle. Not to be irreverent, but, if Elijah had been inducted into the halls of glory, would he not have received a white garment to replace the girdle? Crudeness in heaven works against all our preconceptions – at least, give the man a wax!

At any rate, angels glow just like Jesus. Even dead patriarchs and prophets shine in some accounts. What I want to ask here is this: is it the shining apparel that causes the people of old to assume they have had an angelic encounter? Are shining clothes just that, or are they something so out of the ordinary that the writers could not help but interpret the encounter as angelic?

I have cast about in my mind for clothing that might shine without necessarily having to glow. I don't mean to go all alien gray here, but a space suit does come to mind. There are specialized suits today that are plasticized, or made of shiny synthetics that would fit the bill. However, clothing that covered the whole body would have warranted inclusion in the written account. Clothing that covered the legs were not commonly worn in those days. So, here is another account of a pair of men with clothing that was bright and shiny. It is a question to bear in mind: did they say what they said based on the clothing?

 Luke 24:4, 5 & 23 Two men stood by them in shining garments: And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.

A clear picture of what angels wore would be just peachy. While we wait for that revelation, our next verse at least shows us that there was variety in their attire. Being from the book of Revelation, we keep in mind that the accounts could have been from trance states or dreams. Yet, even in a dream, an angel appeared either as a man or like a man. They were clothed usually in glorious white linen. The following verses describe angels wearing girdles. Maybe They let Elijah keep his girdle, after all.

On close inspection of these verses, we see clearly that they are girdles, unlike our preconceptions. They don't go around the belly at all. They are, in fact, more like vests, in that they go around the chest area. They are reminiscent of the vest of priests. One very off the wall thought is that these were female angels. Whatever the case, the girdles were very lavish, for they seemed to be of gold. Or, perhaps it was only a yellow linen that glowed.

Revelation 15:1 & 6 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels, having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.

So, angels wear girdles. What was the significance of these attachments? Back in the day, their significance may have been readily understood. For the rest of us, we may have a clue in the fact that the seven angels came out from the temple. The temple is where one finds God. Note that there were seven angels, and resist the urge to generalize them under the notion that Hebrews invoked the number seven to indicate completeness. Think, rather, of the seven spirits or minds of God.

Note, also, the character of the angels. These angels did not carry vials, or any other object for that matter, that could have been 'filled'. These angels only had the plagues. What we see is that the angels were filled with the wrath of God. We see angry angels intent on righting wrongs. That may be one of the more telling aspects of the nature of angels – that they can be filled with the character of God.

That character can be wrath or benevolence, but the angels take it upon themselves in a very personal manner. When people describe a garment as being white as snow, that is something we can get our minds around. We know what snow looks like; we know how white it is. The whiteness of snow can be photographed; it can be scientifically measured. In the following account where two women witness an angel, snow white clothing is just a part of the encounter.

The angel seen by Magdalene and the other Mary was described as lightning. Does that mean the angelic skin was brighter than the clothing? Lightning is pretty bright. Is a time frame indicated, as if the angel flashed, leaving behind an after-image in the eyes of the witnesses? The rolling away of the stone was recorded in association with an earthquake. Was the earthquake responsible? Should we associate the bright appearance of the angel to the earthquake? Do angels always glow when they manipulate matter?

As I recall, there was also an earthquake at the death of Jesus. Did invisible angels cause that earthquake? Here it is.

Matthew 28:1-5 The angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow.

Of course, the power involved in a resurrection could possibly be the cause of both lightning and a stone-rolling quake. Since we know that lightning actually travels from the ground to the sky, in direct strikes, we might easily attribute an angel sitting on the stone to the afterimage of a direct strike.

I once saw a transformer blow; the afterimage was bright and lasted quite a while. But, lightning does not speak. In the encounter, the angel spoke to the two women. Interestingly, what the angel said indicates a close relationship between men and angels. The angel called Jesus 'the Lord'. God is quoted as saying “ I am the Lord, that is my name”. Both men and angels worship Christ as Lord.

Not all angels wear linen, it seems. Our next reference points to an angel dressed in a cloud. Now, right off the bat, we recall the angel of the Lord that the Israelites knew for forty years. By night, that angel was a column of fire, but by day a column of cloud. This mighty angel of Revelation, clothed with a cloud, seems very nearly an elemental apparition. Does the cloud clue us in as to the rank of the angel? Does the inclusion of the rainbow indicate the color of the cloud? At first, I thought of rainbows associated with dark rain clouds. Then I thought of rainbows as following the rain; they come after the storm and are seen against a clearing sky, with background cumulus so high as to reflect all the brightness of the sun.

Of course, the rainbow may be the symbol of God's promise to man never again to destroy us with a flood. That being the case, the inference might be that destruction by fire is near. Indeed, the feet are as pillars of fire – and feet, as we know, are what touch the Earth. Pillars of fire are also reminiscent of God in the Exodus accounts. I am even inclined to associate this vision with the vision of Ezekiel.

Revelation 10:1 and 7 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

As to something coming down from heaven, the feet would be seen first, and seem to be more prominent than the head. One would need to look up into the bright sky. A landing spacecraft might appear like pillars of fire, with the body of the ship shrouded in smoke, and refracted sunlight encircling the top of the craft. I'm not saying that is what it was; it's just a thought. There have been certain recurring aspects to the accounts listed in this section of the study. The angels are either tagged as men, or like men.

They dress in linen, an expensive fabric of the day. The linen is either very white, shiny or else it glows. Often the appearance of the flesh, eyes, and hair is changed to match the glowing of the apparel. It is taken from most of the accounts that the 'mighty' angels are impressive, even troubling. Lastly, just like those young men armed with bikes, backpacks, and ties, the angels travel in pairs. There may be an edict that lesser endowed angels may not go into the Earth alone.

It can be dangerous down here. Recall that some angels have been wrestled by men, and the men got the upper hand. Angels interact with one another, while men are allowed in on the conversation. Some ask questions, while others answer, or approach God for a decision. The writers cannot help but be drawn in; it is a dynamic enactment.

Daniel 12:5-7 There stood other two, And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? . . . he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven.

Now, we know that linen was expensive. Rarely do we read of men dressed in linen, although we assume the rich were so clothed. Even in accounts of royalty, or men of high station, writers of the Bible seemed not to care what people wore; it was enough that they were dressed. In accounts of angel encounters, the wearing of linen seems important enough a matter to mention, so I ask this: what divides men from angels?

Mark 14:51-52 And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: And he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.

It may seem a stretch to consider the young man an angel, but I think the mention of linen is not as often used for men as it is for angels. Still, the young man could have been the rich man who sold all to follow Christ. We might be tempted to think that if it was an angel, the angel should have had the mastery and not the young men. However, in certain other accounts, angels have been wrestled to the ground.

Why I mention this is because it follows closely on the heels of Christ's prayer in the garden. Christ was having a hard time during the prayer, and an angel came to minister to him in some way. As we slide effortlessly into our next section, where we consider the actual work that angels do, we accept the possibility that the angel remained for a while. We accept the possibility that the angel may have rushed in to further assist.