Phanuel

The chapters that name Phanuel belong to the Book of Parables, a section of 1 Enoch generally dated to the turn of the era. Its four angels of the Presence are one of the clearest early expressions of the idea that particular angels stand immediately before God — an idea Scripture itself touches when Raphael says he is one of the seven holy angels who enter before the glory of the Holy One (Tobit 12:15).

The name did not survive in that form. As R. H. Charles observes in his note to this chapter, in later Judaism Uriel appears where the Book of Enoch had Fanuel. The fourth place in the group remained; the name attached to it changed.

The Orthodox Church venerates eight archangels by name — Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Selaphiel, Jegudiel, Barachiel, and Jeremiel. Phanuel is not among them.

The theme assigned to him — that repentance has an angelic advocate, and that the accusers are held back from the throne — is not itself foreign to Orthodox thought. Christ says there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10), and the Church prays to its own guardian angels for exactly this help. What has no standing is the name, and the elaborate court it belongs to.

The identification with Uriel is a fact about the transmission of these texts, not a warrant for reading Orthodox teaching about Uriel back into Phanuel. The Church received Uriel; it did not receive this name.

The standard English editor of the Book of Enoch notes plainly that in later Judaism Uriel is found in place of Fanuel. Modern reference works often repeat the identification, and it is the reason the name turns up in lists of archangels that Orthodoxy does not recognise.

The safe reading is the modest one: the fourth place among the angels of the Presence was durable, and the name filling it was not. Nothing about Uriel's standing in the Church transfers to Phanuel on that account.

The Church did not keep this name. It did keep the conviction underneath it — that repentance is not a solitary act, that the angels attend it, and that they rejoice over it. That conviction rests on the Gospel and on the Church's prayers, not on this book.

• 1 Enoch 40:9–10 (extra-biblical) — Named as the fourth of the four angels of the Presence, set over the repentance and hope of those who inherit eternal life.
• 1 Enoch 54:6; 71:8–9 (extra-biblical) — Named again among the four in the visions of judgement and of the end.
• Genesis 32:30 — Peniel — "the face of God" — the construction behind the name.
• Tobit 12:15 (Deuterocanonical) — Raphael names himself one of the seven holy angels who enter before the glory of the Holy One — the canonical form of the idea the Book of Enoch elaborates.
• Luke 15:10 — There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents — the scriptural warrant for the theme, without the name.

Orthodox teaching is not one undifferentiated body of claims. What Scripture states, what the Church prays, what the Fathers taught, and what later writers explain are distinct registers — this page keeps them apart so you can see what each statement rests on.