One of seven archangels, one of the chief princes, Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts, represented as a lion.
Micha-El(God)
Mika’il (Mikal) – Quran
Translates to something akin to “protector of God,” symbolizing God’s strength and protection.
Mathias de Stefano
And then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven and saw much blood being shed upon the earth, and all lawlessness being wrought upon the earth.
And they have gone to the daughters of men upon the earth, and have slept with the women, and have defiled themselves, and revealed to them all kinds of sins. And the women have borne giants, and the whole earth has thereby been filled with blood and unrighteousness.
The Book of the Watchers
Disgusted by all this, “the Gods” decided to have a Great Flood to rid the earth of the Nephilim and other ghastly creatures (according to the Book of Enoch. The Bible says that the Nephilim are bound “in the valleys of earth” – beneath the earth?- until Judgement day).
In “The Book of the Watchers,” the archangel Michael is depicted as a leader among the angels and a figure of authority and righteousness.
He plays a crucial role in God’s decision to imprison the rebellious Watchers. Michael is often portrayed as a mediator who communicates God’s judgments and also as a protector who stands up against the evil deeds of the fallen angels.
7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.
8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.
9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power
Revelation 12:7-12
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
11 They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short.”
But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.
Daniel 10:13
Michael prevented Isaac from sacrifice by his father by substituting a ram in his place. He saved Jacob, while yet in his mother’s womb, from death by Samael. He later prevented Laban from harming Jacob.
Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 310–320 – 403) in his Coptic-Arabic Hexaemeron referred to Michael as a replacement of Satan. Accordingly, after Satan fell, Michael was appointed to the function Satan served when he was still one of the noble angels.
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe Michael to be another name for Jesus in heaven, in his pre-human and post-resurrection existence.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
1 Thessalonians 4
Islam
Michael in Islam is tasked with providing nourishment for bodies and souls and is also responsible for universal or environmental events, and is often depicted as the archangel of mercy. He is said to be friendly, asking God for mercy toward humans and is, according to Muslim legends, one of the first to obey God’s orders to bow before Adam.
Gnostics
In the Secret Book of John, a second-century text found in the Nag Hammadi codices of Gnosticism, Michael is placed in control of the demons who help Yaldabaoth create Adam, along with six others named Uriel, Asmenedas, Saphasatoel, Aarmouriam, Richram, and Amiorps. According to Origen of Alexandria in his work Against Celsus, Michael was represented as a lion on the Ophite Diagram.
