In this description of the development of Israel’s doctrine of Angels, and of Zechariah’s contributions to it, we have not touched upon the question whether the development was assisted by Israel’s contact with the Persian religion and with the system of Angels which the latter contains. For several reasons the question is a difficult one. But so far as present evidence goes, it makes for a negative answer. Scholars, who are in no way prejudiced against the theory of a large Persian influence upon Israel, declare that the religion of Persia affected the Jewish doctrine of Angels “only in secondary points,” such as their “number and personality, and the existence of demons and evil spirits.”[930] Our own discussion has shown us that Zechariah’s Angels, in spite of the new features they introduce, are in substance one with the Angels of pre-exilic Israel. Even the Satan is primarily a function, and one of the servants of God. If he has developed an immoral character, this cannot be attributed to the influence of Persian belief in a Spirit of evil opposed to the Spirit of good in the universe, but may be explained by the native, or selfish, resentment of Israel against their prosecutor before the bar of Jehovah. Nor can we fail to remark that this character of evil appears in the Satan, not, as in the Persian religion, in general opposition to goodness, but as thwarting that saving grace which was so peculiarly Jehovah’s own. And Jehovah said to the Satan, _Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan, yea, Jehovah who hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee! Is not this a brand plucked from the burning?_ FOOTNOTES: [889] So Robertson Smith, art. “Angels” in the _Encyc. Brit._, 9th ed. [890] So already in Deborah’s Song, Judg. v. 23, and throughout both J and E. [891] Cf. especially Gen. xxxii. 29. [892] Judg. vi. 12 ff. [893] Robertson Smith, as above. [894] 2 Sam. xiv. 20. [895] Exod. xiv. 19 (?), xxiii. 20, etc.; Josh. v. 13. [896] 2 Sam. xxiv. 16, 17; 2 Kings xix. 35; Exod. xii. 23. In Eccles. v. 6 this destroying angel is the minister of God: cf. Psalm lxxviii. 49_b_, _hurtful angels_—Cheyne, _Origin of Psalter_, p. 157. [897] Balaam: Num. xxii. 23, 31. [898] vi. 2-6. [899] Vol. I., p. 114. [900] ix. [901] xl. 3 ff. [902] xliii. 6. [903] Zech. i. 18 ff.; Ezek. ix. 1 ff. [904] Zech. i. 8: so even in the Book of Daniel we have _the man_ Gabriel—ix. 21. [905] i. 9, 19; ii. 3; iv. 1, 4, 5; v. 5, 10; vi. 4. But see above, pp. 261 f. [906] i. 8, 10, 11. [907] iii. 1 compared with 2. [908] iii. 6, 7. [909] vi. 5. [910] i. 9, etc. [911] iii. 1. _Stand before_ is here used forensically: cf. the N.T. phrases to _stand before God_, Rev. xx. 12; _before the judgment-seat of Christ_, Rom. xiv. 10; and _be acquitted_, Luke xxi. 36. [912] iii. 4. Here the phrase is used domestically of servants in the presence of their master. See above, p. 293, n. 826. [913] ii. 3, 4. [914] Hab. ii. 1: cf. also Num. xii. 6-9. [915] First Vision, i. 12.