Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’re going to discuss Uriel: regent of the sun, archangel, presider over Tartarus, flame of God, and angel of September.

We’re going to start off with some rapid fire information; following that we’re going to explore Uriel’s role in scripture, meaning the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, and the Quran; and finally, we’re going to look at Uriel’s role in two apocryphal works: 2 Esdras and the Book of Enoch.

Let’s get into it.

Uriel, whose name means ‘fire of God’, is one of the most important angels in non-scripture biblical lore. Depending on the source, he’s been classified as either a Seraphim or Cherubim, the two angelic choirs closest to God's Throne, and as one of the seven archangels. Other aspects of his power and purview include: presider over Tartarus, archangel of salvation, flame of God, angel of the presence, and angel of the month of September. In Milton’s Paradise Lost, he’s described as the ‘regent of the sun’ and as ‘the sharpest sighted spirit in all of Heaven’. According to Abbot Anscar Vonier, born near the end of the 19th century CE, Uriel is the angel who stands guard with a flaming sword at the entrance of Eden after Adam and Eve are expelled and its paradise becomes lost to humanity.

Canonically speaking, Uriel is absent from scripture. In the Hebrew bible, known as the Old Testament to Christians, no angels are addressed by name. In the New Testament, which accounts for roughly the last quarter of the Christian Bible, only two angles, Michael and Gabriel, are addressed by name, and of those two, only Michael is actually referred to as an archangel, as can be seen in Jude 1:9: “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation …” In Islam, Israfil is the archangel who will blow the trumpet from the holy rock in Jerusalem; though there is no clear Judeo-Christian counterpart, Uriel and Raphael are sometimes associated with him.

Though Uriel doesn’t feature in scripture by name, there are events that feature anonymous angels with whom he is sometimes identified. Lacking specificity, these events, by nature of their substance not being ascribed by name, are left open to theorizing and are, therefore, attributed to any one of a bevy of prominent and powerful angels, depending on the version. Examples include the unnamed angel who wrestles Jacob in Genesis 22:25, “Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn …”, and with the angel who annihilates the Assyrian army in II Kings 19:35, “That night an angel of the Lord went out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp, and the following morning they were all dead corpses.”

Watch the video for the rest!

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