Gabriel

Gabriel is named as a heavenly messenger who interprets visions and announces the appointed times. The two surviving notices place him alongside Daniel during the Babylonian and Persian eras.

The Interpreter of Visions

Gabriel is summoned by name to give Daniel the meaning of the ram-and-goat vision: "And I heard man's voice between [the banks of] the Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision" (Da 8:16). He is identified as a figure already known to the seer, with a human form and the capacity for swift motion. In the prayer scene of the seventy weeks, the same figure returns: "yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation" (Da 9:21). The encounter coincides with the hour of the evening oblation, tying the angel's arrival to the rhythm of temple worship.