Hebrew word · H1403

גַּבְרִיאֵל

gavri'el

Gabriel

A personal name made of two parts: gever, 'man, strong man, warrior' (from the root g-b-r, 'be strong, prevail'), and 'el, 'God.' The middle -i- can be read as 'my' ('God is my strong one / my hero') or as a linking vowel common in old names ('man of God,' 'strong one of God').

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

Gabriel = "warrior of God" or "man of God"

an archangel; the angel God used to send messages of great importance to man; sent to Daniel, to Zacharias, and to Mary

Also named: Gabriēl (Γαβριήλ "Gabriel" G1043)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Daniel 8:16

Range of meaning

A personal name made of two parts: gever, 'man, strong man, warrior' (from the root g-b-r, 'be strong, prevail'), and 'el, 'God.' The middle -i- can be read as 'my' ('God is my strong one / my hero') or as a linking vowel common in old names ('man of God,' 'strong one of God'). Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) list both options. Either way the name says strength and it says God.

Against the English

Every English version simply writes 'Gabriel.' Nothing is mistranslated, but English readers lose the wordplay with v.15, where Daniel sees 'one with the appearance of a gever.' In Hebrew the hearer notices that the man-like figure is named 'Gavri-el.'

How it drifted

The name has gathered later images: 'the archangel Gabriel,' the Christmas angel of Luke 1, the winged and often soft or feminine figure of Renaissance art, and the folk tradition of Gabriel blowing the last trumpet. Daniel calls him none of these things. Here he simply looks like a man (8:15; cf. 9:21, 'the man Gabriel').

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Hebrew Bible Gabriel appears only in Daniel 8:16 and 9:21. Named angels appear in Jewish writing after the exile: 1 Enoch 9:1 (Michael, Sariel/Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel) and 1 Enoch 20 list him among the chief angels. The Dead Sea Scrolls War Scroll (1QM 9:15–16) puts the names Michael, Gabriel, Sariel and Raphael on the shields of the towers. Tobit names Raphael. In the New Testament Gabriel says he 'stands in the presence of God' (Luke 1:19) and announces the births of John and Jesus (Luke 1:19, 26). The New Testament calls only Michael an 'archangel' (Jude 9).

Where it appears

Daniel · 2

  1. Daniel 8:16 גַּבְרִיאֵ֕ל O Gabriel

    And I heard the voice of a man calling from between the banks of the Ulai: “Gabriel, explain the vision to this man.”

    Here: The person being addressed. This is the first time any angel is named in the Hebrew Bible. The name is built from gever ('strong man') plus El ('God'). It echoes v.15, where the figure looked 'like a gever.' The man-shaped figure turns out to be 'God's strong man.'

  2. Daniel 9:21 גַּבְרִיאֵ֡ל Gabriel

    while I was still praying, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.

    Here: A proper name, probably meaning 'God is my strong one' or 'man/hero of God.' It plays on geber ('man') in 8:15. This is one of the first two times the Hebrew Bible names an angel (with Michael in chapter 10).

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.