Clark Kent...and Angels

Okay, so last time I left off with Michael the Archangel being finally admitted to the canon via the Book of Daniel. But, I asked, why? That is, why was it that at this precise moment that Michael, who had been left out of the Bible for so long, was invited into it?

The answer to that, of course, is obvious. This was a very bad time in Judea-Israel’s history. It was 168 BCE, give or take. The country was in the middle of a civil war, a revolution, and a foreign invasion all going on at the same time. Antiochus IV was trying to stamp out Jewish practices. The Maccabees were trying to stop him...and, in the process, take over the country. Traditionalist Judeans were fighting Hellenizing Judeans (and Greeks) in the streets. Murder, war, and starvation were the order of the day.

About the image: This dramatic image is a Statue of Saint Michael, on facade of the Holy-Trinity Church in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. The photo was taken by Wikimedia Commons contributor Jebulon and released under a share-alike Creative Commons license: Jebulon, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

You may find it on Wikimedia here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Michael_statue_Dreifaltigskeitkirche_Munich.jpg

And what do people do in such situations? When everything seems on the verge of falling apart? And there’s a threat on every street corner and behind every tree? Well, obviously, they long for a Protector. A superhero. Someone wise and strong, and gentle, who will keep the wolves and beasts at arm’s length, heal the sick, comfort the dying, and make things Better.

That *was* Michael. That was what he did. That was what he was made for. And thus, after generation upon generation of invisibility, he emerges fully formed and ready for battle. He is Superman, he is Shazam, she is The Lady With The Lamp and Wonder Woman, he is Santa Claus with a flaming sword.

And, come, let us confess. We wish for him, too. No matter how mature and civilized and sophisticated we may be...there is a part of us that longs for Michael, or some other Man Of Steel or Woman of Titanium to come along and save us. Frankly, that has to be all right. It is part of being human.

Which is why he appears now, in the two hundred years before the birth of Christ. It is also why he is in the book of Daniel. He was there to tell people that, yes, things were tough, and might well get worse, but, in the end, there will be a happy ending.

Still...you may well ask...he’s mentioned only three times in one book of the Old Testament? That’s not so impressive. How did he go from a couple of walk-ons (he doesn’t even get a speaking part) in Daniel to being such a big deal?

Good question. And the answer is, as always, complicated. For one thing, we need to step outside of the canonical Bible for a moment. Remember, there’s Religion, and then there’s religion...there’s the official faith, and then there’s the people’s faith.

So it is that, right now, in 2025, as I sit here at my computer, and I open my browser to the Amazon.com webpage, I can find several editions of the Bible -- King James, American Standard, New Oxford Annotated, and so on. But, I will also find a great many other religious works which are not canonical, but which are popular sellers -- Christian Romances, stories about the Antichrist, stories about the disciples, fiction and non-fiction about Jesus Christ...even comic books. (How many of us first encountered the Antichrist in Chick Tracts?[1])

So too, in the years between 300 BCE and 300 CE, there were a great many religious books and stories that were published...and which were widely read... but which never became part of the canonical Bible. Some of them were what we’d today call best-sellers.

Of these...the top, number one, Greatest Of All Time (GOAT), super-duper page turner pot boiler was...

The Book of Enoch.(2)

Never heard of it, right? Well, it came really, Really, REALLY close to being included in the Bible. In fact, it *is* in one version of the Bible--the Ethiopian Orthodox. (3)

But, everywhere else, it was *eventually* excluded from the canon because it was just too, well, weird. It was absolutely chock-a-block full of wonders and miracles, giants and angels...and that didn’t set well with a lot of folks. Jews excluded it from their Bible as early as the first century CE. Christians hung on to it a bit longer, but then, by the fourth century CE, the Bishops, Fathers of the Church, and other People Who Knew Best, similarly decided it was, just, honestly, unsettling. (4) During the Medieval Period, it was more or less lost and forgotten.

But, in the late fourth century BCE to the fourth century CE, it was big news, indeed!

And three guesses whose name is in the headlines...

More to come.

Footnotes:

1. If you’ve not run across them, “Chick Tracts” are very short pamphlets in comic book form that preach an extremely fundamentalist Christianity. They were created, obviously, by Jack Chick (1924 – 2016). The Antichrist shows up frequently in their pages. They are also noted for their anti-Catholic, anti-Freemason, anti-Muslim, and anti-Secular themes. See the following Wikipedia pages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_tract and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Chick.

2. The Book Of Enoch, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Enoch

3. It survived in the Ethiopian Bible because, apparently, Ethiopia was cut off from the rest of Christianity by the rise of Islam. It, therefore, kept the books which had been considered sacred by earlier versions of Christianity but which were then later rejected. Among these was Enoch.

4. Ironically, Jews rejected Enoch in part because it felt too Christian. But, Christians rejected it because it seemed a little too Jewish. For one thing, there was a “Son Of Man” referenced in the book who didn’t seem to be Christ. That was, they decided, not what folks ought to be reading.

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