Angelic · Archangels / Chief Princes · c. 400 BCE

Gabriel

Also called Gavri'el, Jibril, Jibra'il · also recorded as St. Gabriel the Archangel, Gabriel (archangel), Gibril, Archangel Gabriel, Angel Gabriel, the Archangel Gabriel, the Angel Gabriel, Saint Gabriel, St Gabriel, Gabriel the Archangel, strength of God, the Left Hand of God, Left Hand of God, גבריאל (per Wikidata)

The Trustworthy SpiritAngel of the AnnunciationHe who stands in the presence of God

The messenger. The angel who explains Daniel's visions, announces two births in Luke, and in Islam delivers the entire Qur'an.

Public domain · Jan van Eyck · Wikimedia Commons file page

100attested

Deep source base

CelestialArchangelChristian Jewish Islamic Enochian

Gabriel is the angel of speech. Where Michael acts, Gabriel explains. He is the first angel in the Hebrew Bible given a personal name and a speaking role of any length, and in every later tradition his office stays the same: he arrives, he interprets, he announces. Islam elevates this to its highest possible form — Jibril is the medium of revelation itself. The trumpet of the last day is popularly his in the West, but that office belongs to Israfil in Islamic sources and to no named angel in the New Testament.

Identity

Where does the name come from?

What the name means

Hebrew *gavri-el*, which BDB (1906) glosses as 'man of El'. The commoner English rendering, 'God is my strength', reads the first element as *gevurah*, strength, rather than *gever*, a man, and BDB does not adopt it. Unlike Michael, the name belongs to nobody else in the Hebrew Bible: BDB records only the archangel, at Daniel 8:16 and 9:21.

Where it was actually worshipped

No ancient cult site; venerated through the liturgy rather than at a shrine.

A figure with temples and a figure that only ever existed on a page are different kinds of thing, and the difference is easy to lose once both are entries in a list.

At a glance

Vitals

Also known as

Gavri'elJibrilJibra'ilSt. Gabriel the ArchangelGabriel (archangel)GibrilArchangel GabrielAngel Gabrielthe Archangel Gabrielthe Angel GabrielSaint GabrielSt GabrielGabriel the Archangelstrength of Godthe Left Hand of GodLeft Hand of GodגבריאלThe Trustworthy SpiritAngel of the AnnunciationHe who stands in the presence of God

First attested: Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon · c. 900–100 BCE
Rank: Archangel
Order: Archangels / Chief Princes
Base of operations: No ancient cult site; venerated through the liturgy rather than at a shrine.
Era: c. 400 BCE
Traditions: Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Enochian
Placed in: The Great Archangels The Offices of the Mala'ika

Traits

Direction: West
Domain: Revelation, annunciation, interpretation of visions
Element: Water
Traditional form: Crowned herald bearing a lily or a scroll
Metal of its planet (Agrippa, 1533): Silver — “Amongst tasts, salt, and insipid: amongst Metals, Silver; amongst stones, Crystall, the Silver Marcasite.” (I.24)
Planet: Moon

Stats

Source base100/100

AuthorityChief messenger

Texts naming it5

Powers attributed5

Known connections

Chain of command

The Seven Who Stand

Identified with

Hermes

5 attributed

What is it said to do?

Where these powers cluster

The 5 offices attributed to Gabriel, grouped by kind. Segment width is the share of powers falling in each category.

A bar dominated by one colour means a specialist; an even spread means a figure the sources credit with almost anything.

knowledge2
divination2
martial1

knowledge

divination

martial

Executes Judgment 1 Enoch (The Book of Enoch)

5 texts

Which texts say so, and where do they disagree?

When these texts were written

Each dot is one of the 5 texts that names Gabriel, placed at that text's approximate date.

A wide spread means the figure was carried across many centuries and traditions; a tight cluster means a single period produced the whole record.

5 texts spanning roughly 2,313 years

Where the texts differ

Name: given as Gabriel, Jibril
Rank: given as Man / messenger; One of the holy angels; Angel who stands in the presence of God; The Trustworthy Spirit

Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanonc. 900–100 BCE

GabrielMan / messenger

Sent to make Daniel understand the vision of the ram and the goat, and the seventy weeks.

“Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.”

1 Enoch (The Book of Enoch)c. 300–100 BCE

GabrielOne of the holy angels

Set over paradise and the cherubim; sent against the children of the Watchers.

“And to Gabriel said the Lord: ‘Proceed against the bastards and the reprobates, and against the children of fornication: and destroy [the children of fornication and] the children of the Watchers from amongst men [and cause them to go forth]: send them one against the other that they may destroy each other in battle: for length of days shall they not have.”

New Testamentc. 50–110 CE

GabrielAngel who stands in the presence of God

Announces the birth of John to Zechariah and of Jesus to Mary.

Qur'an & Hadith7th c. CE onward

JibrilThe Trustworthy Spirit

Brings down the revelation upon the Prophet's heart; described with six hundred wings.

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)1913

Gabriel

“Gabriel, "Fortitudo Dei", one of the three archangels mentioned in the Bible. Only four appearances of Gabriel are recorded: (a) In Dan.”

Connections

What is it connected to?

Historical depiction of Hermes, Greek Messenger of the Gods

Identified with Hermes

The messenger office, with Hermes also carrying the thief and boundary functions Gabriel cannot.

Serves The Seven Who Stand

Named among the seven holy angels at 1 Enoch 20.

Placement

Where does it sit in the hierarchies?

The Great Archangels

Approved at Rome, 745 → Gabriel

The messenger.

alongside Michael, Raphael

The Offices of the Mala'ika

The great archangels → Jibril

Brings down the revelation.

alongside Michael, Israfil, Azrael

Afterwards

What did later readers make of it?

The trumpet of the last day became his in Western art and in spirituals, though no scripture assigns it to him — the office belongs to Israfil in Islamic sources and to nobody by name in Revelation.

Kept in its own section on purpose. Everything above is what the cited texts say; this is what was built on top of them afterwards, and blending the two is how most popular demonology goes wrong.

Answered from the sources

Common questions

Which texts mention Gabriel?

ColossiansOne records 5 texts naming Gabriel: Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon, 1 Enoch (The Book of Enoch), New Testament and Qur'an & Hadith, and 1 more. The earliest is Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon (c. 900–100 BCE), which gives the name as Gabriel.

Is Gabriel the same as Hermes?

ColossiansOne records the link as "identified with" rather than as simple identity. The messenger office, with Hermes also carrying the thief and boundary functions Gabriel cannot. Where texts disagree about whether two names denote one figure, the disagreement is shown rather than resolved.

What rank is Gabriel?

The texts do not agree. Gabriel is given as Man / messenger, One of the holy angels, Angel who stands in the presence of God and The Trustworthy Spirit depending on which source is consulted, which is normal for figures that pass through several traditions — each one assigns a rank from its own system rather than inheriting one.

How else is Gabriel spelled?

The name appears as Jibril, Gavri'el, Jibra'il, St. Gabriel the Archangel, Gabriel (archangel) and Gibril, among others. Variation on this scale is the norm: these names cross Ugaritic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin and vernacular transmission, and each step reshapes the spelling. Every profile records the name as each text gives it.

What is Gabriel said to do?

The sources credit Gabriel with 5 distinct powers or offices, including Answers Truly, Reveals Past, Present & Future, Reveals Divine Secrets, Executes Judgment and Bears Messages. Each is attributed on the profile to the text that claims it. ColossiansOne describes what the texts say; it does not endorse the claims or reproduce them as instruction.

How old is Gabriel?

The earliest attestation in this corpus dates to c. 400 BCE. That is when the name first appears in a surviving text, which is a lower bound rather than an origin — a figure known from three tablets was probably named in many more that did not survive. Gabriel is classified as celestial in ColossiansOne.

Nearest in the corpus

If Gabriel is what you came for, these are next

Chosen by proximity rather than by popularity: the same pantheon first, then the same rank, then the same kind of figure.