Why do angels have wings?

[Willum]

A very light topic, admittedly proving its point almost as written.

Why do angels, spiritual entities have wings? Or the need to have them removed?
Obviously because wings are a legacy from a prior mythology, when angels were physical beings.

Just another bit of evidence for the impropriety of the Bible.

Pretty much a QED on the non-existence of angels.

Views of others?

[JehovahsWitness]

However the Bible says angels have wings, this is not open for debate - it is solidly in scripture. The discussion is about why they have wings.

No, that is incorrect, the bible "says" nothing of the sort; the reality is that the bible often (not always) portrays or presents (or pictures) or describes angels as having wings. Whether the bible is actually promoting the ideology ("saying") that angels literally do have wings is a matter of interpretation. I personally do not believe everything in the bible should be interpretated literally so I do not accept the premise.

So to your question: Why do angels have wings?
My answer is : They don't.

You may ask why does the bible often PORTRAY/describe angels as having wings (in dreams and visions) if you like. Possibly someone in the world with a computer interested in answering that question, will do so. Your call.

[ttruscott]

The OP is about WHY they have wings if they are spirits.

They don't have wings as they are non-corporeal but when they or GOD decides they should be seen by a mortal, they manifest their holiness, their strength, their secretive nature and other holy attributes by the means of the visual appearance of wings...

Do not think that the angels of Ezekiel 10:14 Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a human being, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. had four actual faces but he used the visual symbolism of four faces to express the qualities they had from GOD that humans equate with the (worldly) qualities of cherubim (indicating the immediate presence of the God of holiness), a human (symbol for the image of GOD), a lion (emblem of sovereignty), and an eagle (emblem of kingly power, strong and clear sight).

He was seeing spiritual qualities, not physical, expressed in physical form.

[marco]

Look at this post, I mean really guys the OP is not about whether angels have wigs or not, that is the assumption.

The OP is about WHY they have wings if they are spirits.
Claiming they don't is a nice way to say, "since wings are an erroneous concept indicating the God is incorrect, we'll just pretend angels don't have wings so we can ignore this."

However the Bible says angels have wings, this is not open for debate - it is solidly in scripture. The discussion is about why they have wings.

If we're being asked why the creators of angels put wings on them then it was to allow them to traverse the space between Earth and Heaven, which was supposed to be somewhere in the sky.

God isn't given wings because he has the ability to fly without them. As for angels being sprits who don't need wings, I think it is just a technical error. Angels appearing to humans were probably seen as corporeal.

The suggestion that wings are figurative, giving the idea that angels transcend earthly things, is quite nice but I think it is too ornate and sophisticated for the stories in which angels feature.

[Willum]

[Replying to post 22 by ttruscott]

So it is a good point, and acknowledged - however, it isn't only Ezekiel and I can still take it one step further... why would God, in the two books stating the wings of angels, confuse his subjects so much by allowing the Bible to be written as if they did?

Obviously, there are right-minded thinkers, like yourself who will state they are symbolic and necessary communication... on the other hand, there are countless others who will be deceived interpret it as reality.

We run into this problem, back at the assumption of the OP, why do angels have wings if they are spirits?

V/R