Any angel consume amala and ewedu has no right under heaven

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Any angel who descends low enough to consume amala and ewedu has no right under heaven to feel too high to fart ? or pass feaces.

However, when such supposedly spiritual beings begin to share in our corporeal joys, we mortals have every right to re-scrutinise their credentials.

This we shall do .

Who really are the ?angels? of the Old Testament Bible who ate sumptuous meals and engaged in wrestling bouts with humans?

Some clarifications are crucial here. The Hebrew word, translated into English as ?angel? is ?mal?akiym?. But in truth and in fact, mal? akiym simply means ?messengers?? without any spiritual connotation.

Now, the Greek for ?messengers? is ?angeloi?? without any spiritual connotation. But in translating the Greek Bible to English, rather than translate Greek ?angeloi? correctly as ?messengers?, translators coined from it a new word, ?angel?? with all the spiritual connotations ?angeloi? never had.

So was born the ?myth? of angels.

It is no wonder then that the three messengers (mal?akiym) who appeared to Patriach Abraham by the Oaks of Mamre were called ?men?:

?One day about noon, as Abraham was sitting by his tent, he suddenly noticed three men standing nearby.?

Evidently, Abraham knew they had not been flying but trekking and so their feet could do with some washing and they themselves could do with some rest:

?My lord?stop here for a while. Rest in the shade of this tree while my servants get some water to wash your feet.?

The men not only yielded to the persuasion but they settled down to a sumptuous meal. The meal consisted, in the main, of bread, milk, cheese curds (wara in Yoruba)androasted meat (suya in Hausa).

Okay, okay, they didn?t quite eat amala and ewedu, but the meal was as staple then for distinguished guests among the Iberiym (Hebrews) as amala and ewedu is in Yoruba land today.

Fortunately, the NEW LIVING TRANSLATION of the Holy Bible gives us, in its footnote, an idea of the amount of flour used to make the bread:18 litres. That is, roughly 6 litres for each person. I hope some blessed readers out there are thinking, like me, of the five-litre kegs of petrol common nowadays! With that, we can estimate their stomach capacity and the sizes of these messengers.

These men must be distinguished in some particulars, otherwise, Abraham, a wealthy and powerful man in his own rights, wouldn?t have recognized and ?run?, first to meet them and again ?run? to give orders for their meal.

Within six hours of this encounter, two of the men were hosted to another sumptuous meal by Abraham?s nephew, Lot.

If we knew the distance between the Oaks of Mamre where Abraham camped and Sodom where Lot resided, we would have a clue to the rate at which they travelled, since they covered the distance within six hours.

The missing third was evidently the one identified as the LORD (Yahweh), who stopped to chat with Abraham and who betrayed his non-omniscience and non-omnipresence by admitting that he was on his way to confirm reports brought to him about the sins of Sodom: ?I have heard that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are extremely evil, and that everything they do is wicked. I am going down to see whether or not these reports are true. Then I will know.? (Gen:18:20)

Anyway, we are told that Lot ?set a great feast before them, complete with bread made without yeast.? (Gen19:3 ). Again, our ?angels?, quite good-naturedly submitted to the lavish carnal hospitality.

Then came the depraved men of Sodom: ?All the men of Sodom, young and old?surrounded the house. They shouted to Lot, ?Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out so we can have sex with them.??

Unimpressed by distinguished looks, the men of Sodom knew the ?messengers? were flesh and blood enough to satisfy their depraved sexual desires. Lot himself knew the flesh/physical nature of his guests to know they would come to harm if the Sodomites were allowed to get at them. Thus, Lot made a most desperate proposal: to volunteer two of his virgin daughters to the Sodomites in place of the ?angels? ? knowing full well the girls would probably die in the ordeal. The messengers themselves were careful not to venture out; rather, they stayed behind the door and reached out to pull their host back in. Then they deployed superior technology (miracles in religious parlance) to mesmerise the Sodomites.

What if the Sodomites had cornered the ?angels? in the city square where they had originally planned to spend the night? (Gen: 19:2).

That these men-angels did not have superhuman strength was evidenced by another very interesting episode.

While Jacob, Abraham?s grandson, was returning from his self-exile, he was at a point left alone in his camp, having sent all his family across the Jabbok river:

??and a man came and wrestled with him until dawn. When the man saw that he couldn?t win the match, he struck Jacob?s hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket. Then the man said, ?let me go for it is dawn.?? (Gen 32: 24-26)

Though we are later told (indirectly) that the fellow was an angel and (directly) that he is ?God?, it?s clear the messenger was not physically stronger than Jacob. Even after he had ?played foul? by wounding Jacob, he couldn?t extricate himself from Jacob?s physical grips. He couldn?t even ?vanish? like a spiritual being would have been expected to do in such a desperate situation. He had to beg for his release. We wonder why he was so afraid of the dawn?

It should be noted too that the account consistently referred to the fellow as a man.

The point being made is not that there are no ?messengers? of the spiritual kind; the point is that many of the ?messengers? of Yahweh mentioned in the Old Testament were flesh and blood ? and very human-like.

Who really were these distinguished men?

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