In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel (Hebrew: גַּבְרִיאֵל, Gavri'el Gaḇrîʼēl, God is my strength; Arabic: جبريل, Jibrīl or جبرائيل Jibrāʾīl) is an archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.
Gabriel is mentioned in the Bible once in the Old Testament and once in the New. In the Old Testament, he appears to the prophet Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions (Daniel 8:15–26, 9:21–27). In the Gospel of Luke, Gabriel appears to the virgin Mary and to Zechariah, foretelling the births of Jesus and John the Baptist, respectively (Luke 1:11–38).
Daniel does not explicitly identify Gabriel as an angel: he is a visionary figure whom Daniel calls "the man Gabriel". In the Gospel of Luke, Gabriel is referred to as "an angel of the Lord". (Luke 1:11) But Christians of the Catholic traditions call him an archangel, following terminology developed in the Intertestamental period, especially the Book of Enoch. In the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, the archangels Michael, Raphael and Gabriel are considered saints.
In Islam, Gabriel (Jibra'il) is believed to have been the angel who revealed the Qur'an to the Prophet Mohammed in the period of 23 years.
Read more about Gabriel: Judaism, Intertestamental Literature, Islam, Mormonism, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the word gabriel:
“I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.”
—Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)