ἰσάγγελος

From the study of Luke 20:36

Range of meaning

'Equal to angels', 'on a par with angels', 'angel-like'. It joins ἴσος (equal, the same as) to ἄγγελος (messenger, angel). It means being level with angels in some respect. It never means turning into an angel.

Against the English

KJV 'equal unto the angels' (following Tyndale and the Latin 'aequales angelis') keeps the 'equal' part, though a modern reader may hear equal rank or authority. BSB, NIV, NASB and WEB say 'like the angels', which is natural but weaker. YLT 'like messengers' is etymologically right but loses the heavenly sense the context needs.

How it drifted

Popular imagery pictures angels as winged, disembodied spirits, and popular piety holds that the dead become angels. Both make 'like angels' sound like 'turned into angels' or 'made bodiless'. The Greek states a likeness in one respect, and the sentence says which: they cannot die.

Used elsewhere in the period

This is the only New Testament use, and the word is rare before it. Philo uses the equivalent phrase ἴσος ἀγγέλοις ('equal to angels') of Abraham on leaving mortal life (On the Sacrifices of Cain and Abel 5). Later Christian writers (e.g. Clement of Alexandria) use ἰσάγγελος of the perfected saints. The parallels in Mark 12:25 and Matthew 22:30 say ὡς ἄγγελοι ('as angels in heaven'). Luke's single compound word is more pointed. The underlying idea is Jewish: 1 Enoch 15:6–7 says the heavenly spirits were given no wives because they are immortal, while wives were given to mortal men so that children would carry on their line. 2 Baruch 51:10 says the righteous 'will be made like the angels'. 1 Enoch 104:4–6 promises they will be 'companions of the hosts of heaven'.