archangel
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Also known as: Gavriʾel, Gibrāʾīl
Written and fact-checked by
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: •Article History
Gabriel, in the three Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—one of the archangels. Gabriel was the heavenly messenger sent to Daniel to explain the vision of the ram and the he-goat and to communicate the prediction of the Seventy Weeks. He was also employed to announce the birth of John the Baptist to Zechariah and to announce the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary (an event often referred to as the Annunciation). It is because he stood in the divine presence that both Jewish and Christian writers generally speak of him as an archangel. In the apocalyptic Books of Enoch “the four great archangels” are Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel, though elsewhere they are said to number seven. Gabriel’s feast is kept on September 29. Both Gabriel’s name and his functions were incorporated into Islam from Judeo-Christian tradition. (See Jibrīl.) His name is mentioned in the Qurʾān only three times, but various epithets in that scripture are widely recognized as referring to him.
