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MICHAEL (‘Who is like God?’).—1. Father of the Asherite spy (Num_13:18). 2. 3. Two Gadites (1Ch_5:13 f.). 4. The eponym of a Levitical guild of singers (1Ch_6:46). 5. Name of a family in Issachar (1Ch_7:3; 1Ch_27:18). 6. Eponym of a family of Benjamites (1Ch_8:10). 7. A Manassite chief who joined David at Ziklag (1Ch_12:20). 8. A son of king Jehoshaphat (2Ch_21:2). 9. The father of Zebadiah (Ezr_8:8, 1Es_8:34). 10. The archangel. See next article.
MICHAEL (‘the archangel’).—Although reference to angels and their visitations is common in the OT, especially during transition periods (e.g. the period of the Judges and that of the Captivity are specially noticeable for angelic appearances), the name Michael is not found until the later period, when the angelic office was divided into two parts, which were assigned to individual angels. In the Rabbinical traditions Michael figures considerably. He is connected with many incidents in the history of Moses, especially his burial (cf. Deu_34:6), when he disputed with Satan, who claimed the body by reason of the murder of the Egyptian (Exo_2:12). In the OT he is alluded to several times in the Book of Daniel (Dan_10:13; Dan_10:21; Dan_12:1) as ‘one of the chief princes,’ ‘the prince,’ and ‘the prince which standeth for the people,’ and he is opposed to the prince-angels of Persia and of Greece. He is here regarded as the guardian of the Israelites in their opposition to polytheism and foreign innovations.
In the NT Michael is found fighting in heaven (Rev_12:7) against the dragon, ‘him that is called the devil and Satan,’ and is typical of the warfare which is the special work of the Church on earth. In the passage in Jude (Jud_1:9) a definite reference is made to the tradition already mentioned, ‘Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee’ (cf. Zec_3:1 for a similar incident).
T. A. Moxon.