Uriel
Uriel ("fire of God") - one of the leading angels in noncanonical lore, and ranked variously as a seraph, cherub, regent of the sun, flame of God, angel of the presence, presider over Tartarus (Hades), archangel of salvatrion (as in II Esdras), etc. In the latter work he acts as heavenly interpreter of Ezre's visions. In Enoch I, he is the angel who "watches over thunder and terror. " In The Book of Adam and Eve he presides over repentance. Uriel "is supposed to be," says Abbot Anscar Vonier in The Teaching of the Catholic Church, "the spirit who stood at the gate of the lost Eden with the fiery sword." The Book of Adam and Eve designates him as this spirit, i.e., one of the "cherubims" of Genesis 3. He is invoked in some of the ancient litanies. He has been identified as the dark angel who wrestled with Jocob at Peniel; as the destroyer of the hosts of Sennacherib (II Kings 19:35; II Maccabees 15:22); as the messenger sent by God to Noah to warm him of the impending deluge ( Enoch I, 10:1-3), all of which feats or missions have been credited to other angels, as elsewhere noted. In the view of Louis Ginzberg, the "prince of lights" in the Manual of Discipline refers to Uriel. In addition, Uriel is said to have disclosed the mysteries of the heavenly arcana to Ezra; interpreted proghecies, and led Abraham out of Ur. In later Judaism, says R. H. Charles (The Book of Enoch), "we find Uriel instead of Phanuel" as one of the 4 angels of the presence. Uriel is also the angel of the month of September and may be invoked ritually by those born in that month. The Magus claims that alchemy "which is of divine origin " was brought down to earth by Uriel, and that is vas Uriel who gave the cabala to man, although this "key to the mystical interpretation of Scripture" is also said to have been the gift of Metatron Milton describes Uriel as "Regent of the Sun" and the "sharpest sighted spirit of all in Heaven" (Paradise Lost III ). Dryden, The State of Innocence, pictures Uriel as descending from heaven in a chariot drawn by white horses. Despite his eminence, Uriel was reprobated at a Church Council in Rome, 745 c.e. Now, however, he is Saint Uriel, and his symbol is an open hend holding a flame. Burne-Jones' painting of Uriel is reproduced as a frontispiece in Duff, First and Second Books of Esdras. The name uriel derives, it is claimed, from Uriah the prophet. In apocryphal and occult works Uriel has been equated or identified with Nuriel, Uryan, Jeremiel, Vretil, Suriel, Puruel, Phanuel, Jehoel, Israfel, and the angel Jocob-Israel. See the pseudepigraphic Prayer of Joseph, quoted in part in Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews V, 310. In this work Jocob says: "When I was coming from Mesapotamia of Syria [sic],Uriel, the angel of God, came forth and spoke: 'I have come down to the earth to make my dwelling among men, and I am called Jocob by name' " The meaning of the foregoing is puzzling, unless Uriel turned into Jocob after wrestling with the patriarch at Peniel; but the incident as related in Genesis 32 suggests a different interpretation. A commentary on Exodus 4:25 speaks of a "benign angel" attacking Moses for neglecting to observe the covenantal rite of circumcision with regard to the latter's son Gershom, the benign angel being identified as Uriel in Midrash Aggada Exodus, and as Gabriel in The Zohar I, 93b. The latter source reports that Gabriel "came down in a flame of fire, having the appearance of a burning serpent, " with the express purpose of destroying Moses "because of his sin." In The Legends of the Jews II, 328, the angel here is neither Uriel nor Gabriel but 2 angels , the wicked Hemah and Af. Uriel is said to be the angel of vengeance that Prud'hon pictured in his "Divine Vengeance and Justice," a canvas to be found in the Louvre. Uriel, "gliding through the Ev'n/ On a Sun beam" (Paradise Lost IV, 555) is reprodused on p.296 from Heyley, The Poetical Works of John Milton. The Uriel in Persy MAcKaye's Uriel and Other Poems is not our angel but William Vaughn Moody, American poet and playwright (1869-1910), to whom the title poem is addressed in memory. the most recent appraisal of Uriel is the one offered by Walter Clyde Curry in Milton's Ontology Cosmology and Physics, where, on p. 93, Professor Curry says of Uriel that he " seems to be largely a pious by not too perceptive physicist with inclinations towards atomistic philosophy." To illustrate in what high esteem Uriel was held, we find him described in the 2nd book of the Siblylline Oracles as one of the "immortal angels of the undying God" who, on the day of judgment, will "break the monstrous bars framed of unyieldeing and unbroken adamant of the brazen gates of Hades, and cast them down straightway, and bring forth to judgment all the sorrowful forms, yea, of the ghosts of the ancient Titans and of the giants, and all whom the flood overtook... and all these shall he bring to the judgment seat... and set before God's seat."
From a book: - A Dictionary of Angels including the fallen angels by Gustav Davidson