The Enchiridion 59
59 The Bodies Assumed by Angels Raise a Very Difficult, and Not Very Useful, Subject of Discussion PL 40, 260
Further, who will tell with what sort of bodies it was that the angels appeared to men, making themselves not only visible, but tangible; and again, how it is that, not through material bodies, but by spiritual power, they present visions not to the bodily eyes, but to the spiritual eyes of the mind, or speak something not into the ear from without, but from within the soul of the man, they themselves being stationed there too, as it is written in the prophet, “And the angel that spake in me said unto me” (he does not say, “that spake to me,” but “that spake in me”); or appear to men in sleep, and make communications through dreams, as we read in the Gospel, “Behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying”? For these methods of communication seem to imply that the angels have not tangible bodies, and make it a very difficult question to solve how the patriarchs washed their feet, and how it was that Jacob wrestled with the angel in a way so unmistakeably material. To ask questions like these, and to make such guesses as we can at the answers, is a useful exercise for the intellect, if the discussion be kept within proper bounds, and if we avoid the error of supposing ourselves to know what we do not know. For what is the necessity for affirming, or denying, or defining with accuracy on these subjects, and others like them, when we may without blame be entirely ignorant of them?
Angelorum qualia sint in quibus apparuerunt corpora, difficile explicatur. Itemque angeli quis explicet cum qualibus corporibus apparuerint hominibus, ut non solum cernerentur, verum etiam tangerentur; et rursus non solida corpulentia, sed spirituali potentia quasdam visiones, non oculis corporeis, sed spiritualibus, vel mentibus ingerant, vel dicant aliquid non ad aurem forinsecus, sed intus in animo hominis, etiam ipsi ibidem constituti: sicut scriptum est in Prophetarum libro, Et dixit mihi angelus qui loquebatur in me : non enim ait, qui loquebatur ad me; sed, in me. Vel appareant et in somnis, et colloquantur more somniorum: habemus quippe in Evangelio, Ecce Angelus Domini apparuit illi in somnis, dicens . His enim modis velut indicant se angeli contrectabilia corpora non habere: faciuntque difficillimam quaestionem, quomodo patres eis pedes laverint , quomodo Jacob cum angelo tam solida contrectatione luctatus sit . Cum ista quaeruntur, et ea sicut potest, quisque conjectat, non inutiliter exercentur ingenia, si adhibeatur disceptatio moderata, et absit error opinantium se scire quod nesciunt. Quid enim opus est ut haec atque hujusmodi affirmentur, vel negentur, vel definiantur cum discrimine, quando sine crimine nesciuntur?