The sentinel angels are posted at the gates to prevent the unworthy from entering into the presence of the Lord."And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life." (Revelation 21:27)
"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." (Revelation 22:14)
The guardians of the heavenly gates or veils are mentioned in a number of ancient texts. The third-century Christian writer Origen noted that the Orphian Gnostics believed that seven archons guarded the gates by which the soul ascends to heaven (Contra Celsum 6:24-38). ( Compare the seven steps to God mentioned in Questions of Ezra A:19-21.)
According to 3 Enoch 18:3-4, an angel guards each of the doors of the seven heavenly palaces. The angels who guard the doors of heaven are mentioned in 3 Enoch 18:3; Chronicles of Jerahmeel 18:1, cf. 20:1-2; and Hekalot Rabbati 22:1. The guards of the gates of the aeons are also mentioned in Pistis Sophia 32, while Pistis Sophia 86 notes the nine guardians of the treasury of the light, which is the highest of the heavens in Gnostic lore. Even the Bible notes (Revelation 21:12-13) that twelve angels guard the twelve gates of the heavenly Jerusalem. In this respect, these heavenly gatekeepers are paralleled by the Levitic porters (doorkeepers) who served at the tabernacle and in the temple. (1 Chronicles 9:17-27; 15:18; 16:38, 42; 26:1-19; 2 Chronicles 8:14; 23:4-5, 19; 31:14; 34:13; 35:15; Ezra 2:42, 70; 7:7, 24; 10:2?; Nehemiah 7:1, 45, 73; 10:28, 39; 11:19; 12:25, 45, 47; 13:5. The band and officers sent by the chief priests to arrest Jesus were undoubtedly Levitic guards.)
The role of the heavenly sentinels, often called "thrones" because they are sometimes described as sitting on thrones, is noted in the third-century A.D. Apocalypse of Elijah 1:7-11:"Therefore become sons to him since he is a father to you. Remember that he has prepared thrones and crowns for you in heaven, saying, 'Everyone who will obey me will receive thrones and crowns among those who are mine.' The Lord said, 'I will write my name upon their forehead and I will seal their right hand, and they will not hunger or thirst. Neither will the son of lawlessness prevail over them, nor will the thrones * hinder them, but they will walk with the angels up to my city.' Now, as for the sinners, they will be shamed and they will not pass by the thrones, but the thrones of death will seize them and rule over them because the angels will not agree with them." (*The thrones are of the angelic host (cf. Colossians 1:16 and many early Christian pseudepigraphic works). Hence, in ascending heaven, one must "pass by" these angels.) (James H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:736-37.)
In one of the Nag Hammadi texts (Second Treatise of the Great Seth), Jesus promises that those who accept him "will pass by every gate without fear and will be perfected in the third glory." (James M. Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library, 366.)
Epiphanius, a fourth-century bishop of Cyprus, cited the Gospel of Philip as saying, "The Lord revealed unto me what the soul must say as it goeth up into heaven, and how it must answer each of the powers above" (Against Heresies 36:13). (Cited in Montague Rhodes James, The Apocryphal New Testament, 12.)Chapters 33-40 of the Coptic 1 Jeu describe how Jesus instructed the apostles regarding the seals, names, and ciphers (hand-signs) they must use in order to prompt the "watchers" or guardians of the various heavens to open the veils and allow them entry. (The term "watcher" is used in both the Bible and in pseudepigraphic texts to denote angelic guardians around the throne of God.) The account in 1 Jeu 33 is typical. It uses blanks and number-codes to conceal material that should not be revealed.
"When you come to this place, seal yourselves with this seal: This is its name: . . ., while the cipher 70331 (?) is in your hand. Furthermore say this name . . . three times, and the watchers and the veils are drawn back, until you go to the place of their Father and he gives (you his seal and his name) and you cross over (the gate into his treasury)." (Carl Schmidt and Violet MacDermot, The Books of Jeu and the Untitled Text in the Bruce Codex, 83. In 2 Jeu 44, some of the names and seals are given only when one arrives at the various heavenly gates.)
Another revealing passage is found in 1 Jeu 49:
"But when you reach the six aeons [archangels], they will restrain you until you receive the mystery of the forgiveness of sins, because it is the great mystery which is in the treasury of the innermost of the innermost. And it is the whole salvation of the soul. And all those who will receive that mystery will surpass [pass by] all the gods, and all rulerships of these aeons, which are the twelve aeons of the invisible God, for this is the great mystery of the unapproachable one which is in the treasury of the innermost of the innermost. Now because of this, every man who will believe in the Son of the Light must receive the mystery of the forgiveness of sins, so that he will be completely perfected and completed in all mysteries . . . Then again when the pathways are purified I will give to you the mystery of the forgiveness of sins, and its defences and its seals and its ciphers and its interpretations. You yourselves, my disciples, if you have received these, when you are about to come forth from the body you will become pure light. And you will hasten upwards one after another, and go forth to the places in which all the aeons are spread out, until there are none upon the pathways, until you reach the Treasury of the Light. Then the watchers of the gates of the Treasury of the Light see the mystery of the forgiveness of sins which you have performed and its defences and all its injunctions. And they see the seal on your foreheads, and they see the cipher in your hands. Then the nine watchers open to you the gates of the Treasury of the Light, and you go into the Treasury of the Light. The watchers will not speak with you, but they will give you [their] seals and their mystery." (Ibid., 117-119.)
Most of chapter 50 contains a list of the various individuals who will give to the individual their seals, mysteries, and the name of the Treasury of the Light. Regarding the soul's destination, the text says,
"Again you will pass in to their interior to the rank of the veils which are drawn before the great ruler (king) of the Treasury of the Light. They will give to you their great mystery and their seal and the great name of the Treasury of the Light. And they will be drawn back until you cross over and pass into them, until you reach the great Man, he who is the ruler (king) of this whole Treasury of the Light, whose name is Jeu." (Ibid., 122.)
In one of the Nag Hammadi texts, the Apocalypse of Paul (V,2) 23, we find the apostle encountering angels at the gate of each of the ten heavens, who open to him because he was accompanied by the Holy Spirit. When he arrived at the seventh heaven, he encountered an old man who interrogated him. The Spirit instructed the apostle, "Give him [the] sign that you have, and [he will] open for you.' And then I gave [him] the sign . . . and then the [seventh] heaven opened." (James M. Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library, 259.)
In a Mandaean text about the ascent of the soul to the realm of light, the soul is told, "O Soul! You are ascending to the Place of Light, wherefore do you cry to the great and sublime Life? Give your name and your sign which you received from the waves of water." (Werner Foerster, Gnosis: A Selection of Gnostic Texts, translated by R. McL. Wilson (Oxford: Clarendon, 1974), 2:247.)
Jewish lore has similar beliefs. In Hekalot Rabbati 17:1-20:3, the adept passes through the seven doors of the seven heavenly temples, past angels whose name he must give, while presenting a seal, in order to enter the presence of God. The names and seals given to the angels are also mentioned in 3 Enoch 48D:5.
In the Pistis Sophia, the resurrected Christ tells how, when he descended from heaven, "the heavens opened" (Pistis Sophia 4). During the post-resurrection ascension, when he arrived at the gate of the first sphere, the gates opened and the dwellers of the sphere saw "the mystery of their name" on his garment and were surprised that he passed without them knowing (Pistis Sophia 12). The same thing happened in the second sphere (Pistis Sophia 13). When he ascended to the gates and veils of the twelve aeons, both opened for him (Pistis Sophia 14). He then ascended to the veils of the thirteenth aeon, which drew apart for him (Pistis Sophia 29).
A similar story is found in the account of the vision attributed to the prophet Isaiah but thought to have been written in the mid-second century A.D. We learn that Jesus had to give passwords to angels while descending through the seven heavens to be born on earth:
"And those who kept the gate of the (third) heaven demanded the password, and the LORD gave (it) to them in order that he should not be recognized . . . And again I saw when he descended into the second heaven, that there again he gave the password, for those who kept the gates demanded (it), and the LORD gave (it) . . . And again I saw when he descended into the first heaven, that there he gave the password to those who kept the gates . . . And again he descended into the firmament where prince of this world dwells, and he gave the password to those who (were) on the left . . . And I saw when he descended and made himself like the angels of the air . . . he did not give the password." (Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah 10:24-25, 27, 29, 31). (James H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 2:174.)
In some early Jewish stories, the individual ascending to heaven is challenged by one or more angels who threaten to kill him, but is then rescued. Thus, Rabbi Ishmael reported that when he arrived at the heavenly palace, the angels were about to cast him out, but God sent the angel Metraton. "He grasped me with his hand before their eyes and said to me, 'Come in peace into the presence of the exalted King'" (3 Enoch 1:1-5). (Ibid., 1:255-256.)The Jewish Zohar, though compiled in the thirteenth century, contains many elements taken from earlier sources. Zohar Leviticus 78b says,
"Blessed are the righteous in this world and the next, because God desires to honour them and reveals to them profound secrets of the Holy Name which He does not reveal to celestial holy ones (angels). And therefore Moses was able to crown himself among those holy ones and they were not able to touch him, though they are like a burning flame and coals of fire. For otherwise how could Moses have stood among them. When God commenced to speak with Moses, the latter desired to know His holy names, disclosed and undisclosed, each one in fitting manner, and thus he came closer and learnt more than any other man. When Moses entered into the cloud and came among the angels, one named Gazarniel came up to him with flames of fire, with flashing eyes and burning wings, and sought to wound him. Then Moses mentioned a certain holy name which was traced with twelve letters, and the angel was utterly confused; and so with all the others." (Maurice Simon and Harry Sperling, The Zohar (New York: Rebecca Bennet Publications, 1958), 5:86.)
This story seems to be reflected in Zohar Exodus 58a, which says that when Moses went on the mountain, "a certain great angel, whose name, according to tradition, is Kemuel(Camael?), and who is appointed guardian and chief over twelve thousand messengers, sought to attack him. Thereupon Moses opened his mouth and uttered the twelve letters of the Holy Name which the Holy One had taught him at the bush, and the angel departed from him to a distance of twelve thousand parsangs. And Moses walked in the midst of the cloud, his eyes flaming like coals of fire." (Paul P. Levertoff, Maurice Simon, and Harry Sperling, The Zohar (New York: Rebecca Bennet Publications, 1958), 3:180.)
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