The nine choirs of angels (seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels and angels), are the ranks of the celestial hierarchy in Christian angelology. The ordering into three triads of three comes from the Celestial Hierarchy of the writer known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, composed around the late fifth or early sixth century. The individual names are drawn from scattered scriptural references that the text gathered into a system.
Facts
Overview
- Entries in the Atlas
- 19
- Size of the Traditional Set
- Nine choirs, in three triads of three 1
Origins
- Origin Period
- c. 500 Pseudo-Dionysius, The Celestial Hierarchy 1
- Place of Origin
- The Greek-speaking eastern Church, most probably Syria: the author writes in Greek and is placed in the late fifth or early sixth century. 1
- Whose Classification This Is
- The ordering of the nine choirs into three triads of three is the Celestial Hierarchy's, a Greek work of about the year 500 by an anonymous author writing under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite. The individual names are gathered from scattered scriptural references. Pseudo-Dionysius, The Celestial Hierarchy (c. 500) 1
Structure
- Structure
- Three triads of three: seraphim, cherubim and thrones; dominions, virtues and powers; principalities, archangels and angels. Each triad receives illumination from the one above it and passes it to the one below. 1
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The Nine Choirs of Angels
The nine choirs of angels (seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels and angels), are the ranks of the celestial hierarchy in Christian angelology, arranged in three triads of three. The seraphim, nearest to God, burn with love; the lowest choirs, the archangels and angels, are those most concerned with human affairs.
The ordering comes from the Celestial Hierarchy attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, a work of around the fifth or sixth century, and was taken up by later theologians such as Thomas Aquinas, becoming the standard scheme of Western Christian thought about the angels.
Hierarchy and function
The hierarchy expresses a Neoplatonic vision of graded being: the divine light passes down through the ranks, each choir receiving illumination from those above and transmitting it to those below, with the highest contemplating God directly and the lowest carrying out his errands in the world. The scheme influenced medieval cosmology, art and the mapping of the heavens.
The atlas gives each choir its rank, its nature, and its function in the hierarchy. The archangels, who form one of the nine choirs but are treated as major figures in their own right, and the wider hosts of spirits, are treated in their own categories.
Enter a year to compare these entries as the atlas records them at that moment. Leave it empty for the present. A year before the common era is entered with a minus sign, so 44 BCE is minus 44.
Dionysian Choirs
9
Kabbalistic Choirs
10