Second City Standard · The Book of Enoch · Chapter 20
The Seven Holy Archangels and Their Assignments
Chapter 20 names the seven archangels who preside over the cosmos — Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Saraqael, Gabriel, and Remiel — and assigns each a specific office.
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Book of Enoch Chapter 20: Modern Reading
And these are the names of the holy angels who keep watch.
Uriel, one of the holy angels, is set over the world and over Tartarus.
Raphael, one of the holy angels, is set over the spirits of humanity.
Raguel, one of the holy angels, takes vengeance on the world of the luminaries.
Michael, one of the holy angels — the one set over the best part of humankind, and over chaos.
Saraqael, one of the holy angels, is set over the spirits of the children of humanity who sin in the spirit.
Gabriel, one of the holy angels, is set over Paradise, the serpents, and the cherubim.
Remiel, one of the holy angels, whom God has set over those who rise from the dead.
What Happens in Book of Enoch Chapter 20?
Chapter 20 names the seven archangels who preside over the cosmos — Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Saraqael, Gabriel, and Remiel — and assigns each a specific office.
What Does Chapter 20 Mean?
Chapter 20 organizes the invisible administration of the world. Every domain that matters in 1 Enoch — humans, the dead, the luminaries, Paradise, chaos — is assigned to a specific archangel.
The list is one of the earliest structured angelologies in Jewish literature and stands behind much later Christian and Islamic tradition.
Historical and Biblical Context
The seven-angel list is preserved with small variations across Ethiopic and Greek manuscripts.
Later Christian tradition (e.g., Pseudo-Dionysius) draws on this and related lists to build its hierarchies.
Key Ideas
Angels have portfolios.
Each name in Chapter 20 corresponds to an assigned domain, not a general job description.
Judgment and mercy are distributed.
Raphael tends spirits, Raguel enforces vengeance — the same system contains both.
Remiel and the resurrection.
The chapter explicitly assigns an angel to those who rise from the dead — an early institutional reference to resurrection.
Questions Raised by the Chapter
Why 'seven'?
Seven is used across Enoch (mountains, stars) and Ancient Near Eastern cosmology as a marker of completeness.
Are these the same seven Christians later called archangels?
There is overlap — Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel — but the exact list varies by tradition.