YahoelYahoel (Church Slavonic: Иаоилъ, reconstructed Greek: Ιαοὴλ, reconstructed Hebrew: יהואל or יואל;[1] also spelled Jahoel, Jehoel, etc. in English and Yaoel in French) is the name of an angel appearing in the Old Church Slavonic manuscripts of the Apocalypse of Abraham, a pseudepigraphical work dating from after the siege of Jerusalem (70).[2] The name is thought to be a compound of the Tetragrammaton and ʔēl, the Hebrew word for 'God'.[1] He is an associate of Michael (Apoc. Abr.10:17) charged to restrain Leviathan and destroy idolaters (10:10–14).[3] Another later pseudepigraphical rabbinical work ascribed to Ishmael ben Elisha, Hebrew 3 Enoch 48d, gives Yahoel as one of the 70 names of Metatron, which makes sense in light of the character and role of Yahoel in the Apocalypse of Abraham.[4] In the 13th century, kabbalistic Berith Menucha of Abraham Merimon of Granada Yahoel is the angel of fire. Several popular dictionaries of angels, such as Gustav Davidson's A dictionary of angels: including the fallen angels (1967) repeat the claim that Jehoel was (in unidentified Jewish texts) the chief angel of the Seraphim. No source for this claim is forthcoming. See alsoReferences
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