The Archangel Sariel
http://seraphim.com/the-archangel-sariel.html
Well known within the Judaic faith, Sariel is one of the great and mighty archangels. The name Sariel is Hebrew in origin, and translated into English it means Command of God, Commandment of God, or God's Angelic Commander. Depending on which religious translation you come across, you might see the name Sariel spelled as Suriyel, Suriel, Sahariel, Esdreel, Juriel, Sauriel, Saraqael, Sourial, Jariel, Surufel, Suruel, Seriel, Surya, or Sarakiel. Most of these spelling variations are derived from the many Dead Sea Scrolls translations that exist today. Occasionally the archangel Sariel will even be confused with other angelic figures such as Saraqael, Metatron, Ariel, or Uriel, however it is important to understand the Sariel is completely different than the aforementioned beings. First mentioned in the ancient Book of Enoch, it is said that Sariel is one of the four holiest archangels, and that he's of eternity and trembling.
Similar to his angelic brothers Metatron and Raphael, the archangel Sariel is a princely angel, as well as a great healer. It is also stated that he is one of the great and benevolent angels of death, which guide departed souls through the afterlife or spiritual world. Some even believe that it was Sariel who collected the soul of Moses after he died. Moses was even said to have received all of his heavenly knowledge from the archangel Sariel, with the one minor exception being the angel Zazagel. Now despite this very important role that Sariel plays within the Judaic or Jewish faith, he is not widely recognized within Christianity due to the fact that he is only mentioned in the Book of Enoch, which as you probably know is not considered to be canonical scripture by most Christians. Some later Christian academics have even gone so far as to list Sariel as one of the fallen angels, which obviously means that he is currently a demon in hell serving under Lucifer.
Although Sariel is not widely recognized within Christianity as an official archangel, he does exist within some fringe Christian inspired texts that have been derived from the Book of Enoch. In these texts, it is said that Sariel is one of the five angels of death, and that he occasionally goes by the name Apollyon. With regard to the Book of Enoch, there are many contradictory translations and interpretations that exist, so creating religious text using it as the scriptural basis, is almost always going to result it in being discredited from the get go by mainstream Christianity. What is interesting however, is that within some Enoch translations Sariel is called Asaradel, Araziel, or Arazyal, which has lead some to believe that he might in fact be the Islamic archangel Azrael, which seems to share many of the same powers and attributes as Sariel. Unfortunately however debates such as this will likely never be conclusively solved.
Outside of the realm of religion, the archangel Sariel is quite popular as a contemporary cultural icon. The angel has recently appeared in Japanese danmaku video games, where in several instances he has even appeared as a female character. Sariel also is featured within the highly acclaimed strategy fun RPG game entitled Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor, where he acts as a main boss or warlord. In most of these games Sariel is only loosely based on the Abrahamic interpretation of him, as he appears as a grim reaper in Shin Megami Tensei, which obviously isn't a particularly angelic interpretation. Sariel also appears within numerous Japanese anime series, but again most of these characters don't appear to be inspired by the Book of Enoch, and seem to mostly be playing on the holy archangel's namesake. That concludes this very brief article of Sariel, I hope that you enjoyed it. Do be sure to browse through our other articles.
© 2018 Created by The Community.
Powered by
