Raphael (archangel)
archangel featuring in Book of Tobit
Raphael (UK: RAF-ay-əl, US: RA(Y)F-ee-əl; "God has healed") is an archangel first mentioned in the Book of Tobit and in 1 Enoch, both estimated to date from between the 3rd and 2nd century BC. In later Jewish tradition, he became identified as one of the three heavenly visitors entertained by Abraham at the Oak of Mamre. He is not named in either the New Testament or the Quran, but later Christian tradition identified him with healing and as the angel who stirred waters in the Pool of Bethesda in John 5:2–4, and in Islam, where his name is Israfil, he is understood to be the unnamed angel of Quran 6:73, standing eternally with a trumpet to his lips, ready to announce the Day of Judgment. In Gnostic tradition, Raphael is represented on the Ophite Diagram. Raphael is an archangel of healing.
Origins in post-exilic literature
In the Hebrew Bible, the word Hebrew: מַלְאָךְ (mal'ākh) means messenger or representative; either human or supernatural in nature. When used in the latter sense it is translated as "angel". The original mal'akh lacked both individuality and hierarchy, but after the Babylonian exile they were graded into a Babylonian-style hierarchy and the word archangelos, archangel, first appears in the Greek text of 1 Enoch. At the same time the angels and archangels began to be given names, as attested in the Talmudic statement that "the names of the angels were brought by the Jews from Babylonia", attributed to Shimon ben Lakish or Rabbi Hanina respectively.
Raphael first appears in two works of this period, 1 Enoch, a collection of originally independent texts from the 3rd century BC, and the Book of Tobit, from the early 2nd century BC. In the oldest stratum of 1 Enoch (1 Enoch 9:1) he is one of the four named archangels, and in Tobit 12:11–15 he is one of seven.
His name derives from the Hebrew root רפא (r-p-ʾ) meaning "to heal", and can be translated as "God has healed".
The public source identifies “Raphael (archangel)” as archangel featuring in Book of Tobit. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Raphael, archangel and featuring.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q56951. VIAF identifies the subject as 37728471. The Library of Congress control number is n2014010236. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Raphael (archangel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.