Description

Oil Dedicated to St Raphael (The Archangel for Healing)

St Raphael (/ˈræfiəl/, “God has healed”)[a] an archangel first mentioned in the Book of Tobit and in 1 Enoch, both dating from the last few centuries before Christ. In later Jewish tradition, he became identified as one of the three heavenly visitors entertained by Abraham at the Oak of Mamre.

Not named in either the New Testament or the Quran, but later Christian tradition identified him with healing. As the angel who stirred waters in the Pool of Bethesda in John 5:2-4, and in Islam. Where his name Israfil, he 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 represented on the Ophite Diagram.

In the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) the word ‘מַלְאָךְ’ (malʾāk̠) means a messenger, human or supernatural, and 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 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.