Q&A 1515 – Angels before Humans?

Guest response by Joe Sciortino

I'm not sure, but if God's angels were truly created by him to be "messengers and ministering spirits to men" (Hebrews 1:14) then I'm not sure if angels were needed before the creation of man, which would seem to mean that man was created first. On the other hand in Job 38:4-7 we read “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? ... When the morning stars sang together, And all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?" Since "morning stars and heavenly beings" (aka in Hebrew "the sons of God") appear to be references to angels, and they sang and shouted when the Earth was created (and according to Genesis 1 the Earth was created before humans), then the angels must have been created before humans. Similarly, since Satan (or just the King of Tyre?) was thrown out of heaven to earth (Ezekiel 28:13-17), it also would seem to indicate that angels came before men - unless there was some time between that occurring and the previous creation of Adam and Eve! Then the cherubim might have been sent to earth to guard Adam and Eve from re-entering Eden.

One more thought: Because another function of angels is to worship God around His throne (Rev. 5:11-14), they may have been in existence eons before God created the world, worshipping Him and serving Him.

Certainly it is hard to imagine that God "needed" messengers, ministers, or even worshippers apart from humankind. After all, how could the love and adoration of angels, no matter how many, match up to the love between the three personages of the triune God? Nonetheless, it seems that the subject of angels surfaces throughout history and remains a stumbling block for some (many?) as to Christ's identity and deity (Hebrews 1, the Qumran community's beliefs, Justin Martyr's dialogue with Trypho, some writings of Tertullian, Jehovah's Witnesses et al).