Meet Mr. Resheph (Part 2)

You’ll recall that I left off last time writing about Resheph, a North Semitic deity of war and healing that showed up in the religion of Ancient Israel, but who is today almost unknown. And I’m finally going to get around to saying outright what I’ve been hinting at all along.

But before I do that...let’s run a comparison.

We’ve got Michael the Archangel. And we’ve got Resheph. Michael the Archangel is the Angel of War who defends God and casts Satan into hell. And Resheph is a minor god or maybe a spirit of war who defends Yahweh and destroys His enemies.

Michael has a flaming sword. Resheph is associated with weapons (including swords) and his name means Flame.

Michael is a patron saint of soldiers, sailors, police officers, fire fighters, and first responders. Resheph is called upon to protect soldiers, sailors, and others who maintain order.

Michael is one of the saints associated with doctors, nurses, EMTs, paramedics, and healers in general, and he is invoked directly to cure the sick. Resheph can cure people of plague and disease.

Michael is a defender of the innocent and the powerless. Resheph came to be a protector of the common people and the poor.

And, finally, Michael is frequently (if not always) depicted as a handsome chap, young, glowing with good health, and blessed with movie star looks. Resheph was depicted as a handsome, stalwart man with a nicely trimmed beard, and wearing a crown.

So...

See what I’m getting at here? I mean, that’s a heck of a lot of parallels.

Quite simply...and remember, again, I’m not a Biblical scholar...but when I look at that list, I just can’t help thinking that Resheph *was* Michael. Or, at the very least, that Resheph was the pattern upon which Michael would be based. He was the inspiration for the angel.

Or, if you like, Michael was there all along, and just waiting for his cue to come on stage.

And that cue is what I’m going to talk about next. Because, I think, that he was quietly waiting for the children of Israel to move closer to what we think of as genuine monotheism, and for Yahwism to evolve, becoming more closely like genuine Judaism.

And that’s because for Michael to enter the picture...

People would have to realize they needed angels.

More to come.

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Special Note #1: Again, I’m treating Michael here as though he were a literary character. Those who are included to read the Bible literally could be offended by that. I don’t mean in any way to question people’s’ faith. So, if you would prefer, simply assume that Michael existed, as Michael, all along. And I’m only dealing with the way that he was written and talked about over the course of time.

Special Note #2: There is another reason that I think Resheph is Michael, and that is because he...unlike almost all the other members of the Yahwist pantheon... is actually recalled in the Bible, and in a positive way. But the evidence is so Biblical Literature nerdy that I hesitate to bore you with it. So, I’ll put it below as an addendum that you can read or skip as you see fit.

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Addendum: Resheph in the Bible

As I said above, one of the reasons that I think Resheph is Michael is that he isn’t edited out of the Hebrew Bible as time goes on. (He *is* removed from most English language translations of the Bible, but that’s for other reasons). The fact that Resheph stays in the Bible, even after the Babylonian Captivity, when strict monotheism is the order the day, is telling.

Thus, Resheph shows up in Deuteronomy 32:24, which describes the horrors to be unleashed on Israel for its worship of alien gods. In English, in the King James Version, the line is, “They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.” But, in the original, it’s “Wasted with hunger, devoured by Resheph and Qeteb [another spirit of death--mjt], and bitter destruction. I will let loose the fangs of beasts against them, with the venom of crawling things in the dust” (מְזֵי רָעָב וּלְחֻמֵי רֶשֶׁף וְקֶטֶב מְרִירִי; וְשֶׁן-בְּהֵמֹות אֲשַׁלַּח-בָּם עִם-חֲמַת זֹחֲלֵי עָפָר).

He shows up as well in the Book of Habakkuk 3:5, where the prophet Habakkuk has an awe-inspiring vision of God in His role as Warrior. In the King James Bible, it reads “Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.” Except, in Hebrew its “Before him went pestilence, and Resheph followed at his feet” (לְפָנָיו יֵלֵךְ דֶּבֶר, וְיֵצֵא רֶשֶׁף לְרַגְלָיו).

And he is in Psalm 78:48, in which the Psalmist talks about God’s plagues upon Egypt before Exodus. In King James Version, it is, “He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.” But, in Hebrew it is (very roughly) “He delivered their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to the flaming arrows of Resheph” (יִסְגֹּר לַבָּרָד בְּעִירָם, וּמִקְנֵיהֶם לָרְשָׁפִים).

I should admit that some scholars argue that in these verses, Resheph isn’t really being presented as a separate being, but rather he is merely a turn of phrase. That is “Resheph” is just a word meaning “plague” or “fire.” And it would make sense. The names of deities and spirits do tend to shade into ordinary words over time. For instance, we all say “Wednesday” and “Thursday” without thinking that they mean, technically, Wotan’s Day and Thor’s Day.

Yet, I’m going to keep to my interpretation of these. In them, Resheph seems too much like an independent being to be read as a mere figure of speech.

The Mesopotamian god Nergal

About the illustration: This is neither Resheph nor Michael. It is Nergal, a very ancient god of death and plague worshipped in Mesopotamia from the days of Bronze Age Sumer until the Classical period. Scholars generally suspect that he if wasn’t the direct inspiration for Resheph, then the two gods did swap characteristics now and then, the way that medieval authors took the Celtic Arthur and gave him Latin, French, and Christian characteristics.

So, who knows? Maybe you could say that Nergal is to Resheph what Resheph is to Michael.

This picture is from Wikimedia and is Umbisaĝ, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons. The file URL is https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Nergal.png. The page URL is https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nergal.png. For more on Nergal himself, see “Nergal,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nergal

Copyright©2026 Michael Jay Tucker

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