Were the two messengers who warned Lot in Genesis 19 created angels or a theophany?
The Dead Sea Valley and a victim of the disaster at Pompeii
It is asserted that the appearance of the Angel of the Lord (the construct form in Hebrew) are usually physical appearances of the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ. There are exceptions, for example in Isaiah 37.36 the angel who executes 185,000 troops in one night was likely an angel of vengeance like the Passover angel of Ex.12.23 and not the Saviour.
The Bible's grounds for this assertion are examined here and here. However some of these arguments might be applied to the two angels who visited Lot in Genesis 19.1. Was this another theophany, and if not what are the indicators of this?
Augustine for example claims(1) that the two sent to Lot to warn him to flee Sodom's imminent destruction were two members of the Godhead appearing in a visible form, for whom he washed their feet and who ate and drank with him (19.2,3). He suggests one was the Son of God the other the Holy Spirit, since they were 'sent', whilst the Father appearing in physicial flesh remains behind with Abraham. The claim is deprecable and results from misreading the text and may lead to much error.
Lot bows low to the ground to the messengers (19.1), a similar form of words as Abraham's greeting of the Theophany in the previous chapter at Mamre (18.2). He bows low with this face to the ground. Lot also uses the plural form of Lord (Adonai) usually only used for YHVH. Abraham's words however were addressed to One Person in the singular. Lot's use of Adonai is used initially in the plural of both messengers (v.2) and then in v.18 as he pleads for mercy the same title is used (in plural) and then he proceeds to address a singular person with 3 singular pronominal suffixes and a singular form of a verb. Only one messenger replies (v.21-22) citing the constraint he is under before acting to destroy the cities.
If Lot is addressing the Son and the Holy Spirit, most exceptionally appearing as a human agent, Who is doing the talking? Augustine suggests, 'Are we here, too, to understand two persons in the plural number, but when the two are addressed as one, then the one Lord God of one substance?'(1) So two distinct human manifestations are addressed in the singular because they are but One representation of God? The implication, if this were true, that there are in fact two distinct gods, two foci of worship, united in One Divine Nature is difficult to evade. The implausible suggestion that the Father was also visible as an incarnate manifestation, Who then separated Himself from two other members of the Godhead assists a grotesque tritheism, even though this is absolutely contrary to Augustine's intention.
No, Lot used the honorific plural to two created angels, the text of verse 18 is crystal clear 'Lot said unto them'. The AV for honourable and ancient reasons chooses to translate the plural as 'my Lord', but the term is plural, and is better translated as 'my Lords', as the similar term was in v.2. Lot then addresses the one chief spokesman of the two, in the singular, perhaps Michael or Gabriel. The earlier disclaimer makes clear that these messengers are sent from YHVH (19.13), and He alone authorises their mission. The similarity of the angel spokesman's receiving of Lot's petition to save Bela (Zoar) to Abraham's plea to YHVH is apparent only. Nowhere does this angel identify himself, unlike Abraham's Mediator Who is identified 8 times explicitly as YHVH (18.1,13,14,17,20,22,26,33). Abraham addresses Him alone as Adonai the plural form reserved usually for YHVH five times (18.3,27,30,31,32), Lot only of both angels in plural. Abraham reasons and pleads with YHVH over the whole principle of justice for the righteous in the case of all five cities, including the worst. Lot offers but a plea for stay on the most minor city for his own relief. Abraham's Friend is the Judge of all the Earth, Lot's guests are but executioners. The switching between singular for YHVH and plural for His delegates in 19.16 underscores this. When YHVH remains with Abraham (18.22), it is but His delegates who descend to Sodom on His behalf. The receipt and granting of Lot's plea is not unlike Moses handling of Pharoah's responses to the plagues, when God describes Moses as a 'god' to Pharaoh Ex.7.1, able to adapt to his leniency or obduracy, either by prior instruction or by inspired wisdom (Ex.8.9,26-7, 10.29). If a human prophet may properly act with such discretion, how much more a destroying angel, and by the same means?
Lot met with two created angels, not YHVH in the flesh, unlike Abraham. That Lot and the inspired narrator switch from singular to plural use, is more easily explained by the context, rather than a strange manifestation of two members of the Trinity, as Augustine suggests, which would readily lend itself to a ditheistic interpretation, despite his nobler aim.
1. Augustine on the Trinity, Book 2, Chapter 12, p.62 of CCEL's pdf file.
