Gabriel

Gabriel is the messenger among the named angels of the biblical tradition; his name means 'God is my strength.' He first appears in the Book of Daniel: in chapter 8 he is sent to explain the vision of the ram and the goat, and Daniel falls prostrate in terror at his approach; in chapter 9 he comes 'in swift flight' at the hour of the evening sacrifice to expound the prophecy of the seventy weeks. Where Michael commands armies, Gabriel's office is always interpretation and announcement.

Luke 1 records his two most famous appearances. Standing at the right side of the altar of incense, he foretells the birth of John the Baptist to the priest Zechariah, announcing himself: 'I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God.' Six months later he is sent to Nazareth in Galilee, greets the virgin Mary — 'Greetings, favored one' — and announces that she will bear a son and name him Jesus. This Annunciation became one of the most frequently painted scenes in Christian art, Gabriel often holding a white lily for Mary's purity.

In Islam he is Jibril, and his standing is higher still: Muslims hold that it was he who brought the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad in the cave of Hira, and who continued to deliver the scripture over the following two decades. The image of Gabriel blowing the trumpet of doom has no biblical text behind it; it is a later Christian folk tradition, widespread in spirituals and English idiom.