who has power over fire,(1) and in another place four angels have power to hurt the earth and the sea.(2) The angels were likewise the instructors of men, and communicated knowledge to the Patriarchs. The angel Gabriel taught Joseph the seventy languages of the earth.(3) It appears, however, that there was one language--the Syriac--which the angels do not understand, and for this reason men were not permitted to pray for things needful, in that tongue.(4) Angels are appointed as princes over the seventy nations of the world; but the Jews consider the angels set over Gentile nations merely demons.(6) The Septuagint translation of Deuteronomy xxxii. 8 introduces the statement into the Old Testament. Instead of the Most High, when he divided to the nations their inheritance, setting the bounds of the people "according to the number of the children of Israel," the passage becomes, "according to the number of the angels of God" [--Greek--]. The number of the nations was fixed at seventy, the number of the souls who went down into Egypt.(6) The Jerusalem Targum on Genesis xi. 7, 8, reads as follows: "God spake to the seventy angels which stand before him: Come, let us go down and confound their language that they may not understand each other. And the Word of the Lord appeared there (at Babel), with the seventy angels, according to the seventy nations, and {110} each had the language of the people which was allotted to him, and the record of the writing in his hand, and scattered the nations from thence over the whole earth, in seventy languages, so that the one did not understand what the other said."(l) Michael was the angel of the people of Israel,(2) and he is always set in the highest place amongst the angels, and often called the High Priest of Heaven.(3) It was believed that the angels of the nations fought in heaven when their allotted peoples made war on earth. We see an allusion to this in the Book of Daniel,(4) and in the Apocalypse there is "war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought, and his angels."(5) The Jews of the time of Jesus not only held that there were angels set over the nations, but also that each individual had a guardian angel.(6) This belief appears in several places in the New Testament. For instance, Jesus is represented as saying of the children: "For I say unto you that their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven."(7) Again, in the Acts of the Apostles, when Peter is delivered from prison by an angel, and comes to the house of his friend, they will not believe the maid who had opened the gate and seen him, but say: "It is his angel" [--Greek--].8 The passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews will likewise be remembered, where it is said of the angels: "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth for ministry on {111}