The Mighty Angel of Revelation 10

Also known as: The Mighty Angel, The Strong Angel, The Angel with the Little Scroll, The Angel with the Little Book, The Mighty Messenger of Revelation

“Another mighty angel” who comes down from heaven between the sixth and seventh trumpets (Revelation 10), clothed with a cloud, a rainbow over his head, his face like the sun and his feet like pillars of fire. Holding a little open scroll, he sets one foot upon the sea and the other upon the land, cries out with a great voice like a lion, and swears by the eternal Creator that there shall be “no more delay” before the mystery of God is finished. He gives John the scroll to eat — sweet as honey in the mouth, bitter in the stomach — recommissioning the seer to prophesy, in the joy of God’s revelation and the sorrow of the judgment it carries. His glory so resembles the descriptions of the risen Christ that some early writers read him as the Lord Himself, but the text calls him “another angel,” and the dominant Orthodox reading, following St. Andrew of Caesarea, holds him a created messenger who bears God’s authority without being divine by nature — leaving the figure, as Scripture does, without a name.