Which archangels are actually named in the Bible shared by Catholics and Protestants?

Only two: Michael, named in Daniel 10:13, Daniel 12:1, Jude 1:9, and Revelation 12:7, and Gabriel, named in Daniel 8:16, Daniel 9:21, Luke 1:19, and Luke 1:26 — the only angels called by name in the books every Christian tradition accepts as canonical Scripture.

Is Raphael in the Bible?

Yes, but with a canon difference worth knowing: Raphael is named throughout the Book of Tobit, part of the Catholic and Orthodox biblical canon but not included in the Protestant Old Testament — so whether Raphael counts as "biblical" depends on which tradition's canon is in view.

Is Uriel named in the Bible?

Not in any canon used by a major Christian tradition today. Uriel appears in 2 Esdras (also called 4 Ezra), a Jewish apocalyptic text outside the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant canons alike — which is why devotion to Uriel rests on a much less settled textual foundation than devotion to Michael, Gabriel, or Raphael.

What does the word 'archangel' actually mean?

It comes from the Greek archangelos, "chief" or "ruling" angel — the same arche root behind [Principalities](/blog/en/angels/the-principalities/), reflecting a shared sense of primacy even though later tradition treats them as separate, neighboring ranks.

Where do the Archangels rank among the nine choirs of angels?

Eighth — second from the bottom, just above the ordinary Angels and just below the Principalities — part of the traditional "third hierarchy," the tier later theology associates with direct ministry to the created world and to humanity.

The Archangel Choir

The only choir with real names attached

Every other rank in this series is a category: a Throne, a Dominion, a Power, known collectively rather than individually. The Archangels are different. Daniel describes "Michael, one of the chief princes" coming to his aid (Daniel 10:13, NIV); Jude refers matter-of-factly to "the archangel Michael" disputing with the devil (Jude 1:9, NIV); Gabriel introduces himself to a startled priest in the Temple with his own name: "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you" (Luke 1:19, NIV). No Throne or Dominion gets a line of dialogue like that anywhere in Scripture. This site covers all four of the most commonly named archangels individually — Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel — while this article looks instead at what it means for "archangel" to be a rank at all.

Francesco Botticini, "The Three Archangels and Tobias," c. 1470, Uffizi Gallery, Florence — public domain.

Not all four rest on equally solid biblical ground

It's worth being precise about something that often gets flattened in casual description: these four names don't all carry the same scriptural weight. Michael and Gabriel appear in books every Christian tradition — Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant alike — accepts as canonical Scripture. Raphael is different: he's named throughout the Book of Tobit, which is part of the Catholic and Orthodox Old Testament but excluded from the Protestant canon, so his biblical status genuinely depends on which canon a reader is using. Uriel stands furthest out on that spectrum — he isn't named in any canon used by a major Christian tradition today, appearing instead in 2 Esdras (also known as 4 Ezra), a Jewish apocalyptic text outside every major Christian canon. None of that makes devotion to Raphael or Uriel illegitimate within the traditions that honor them — but it does mean "the four archangels" is a devotional grouping built across several different levels of textual authority, not four names with identical scriptural footing.

"One of the seven"

Tobit itself hints that the tradition once imagined even more named archangels than the familiar four. Speaking to Tobit and his son, Raphael identifies himself directly: "I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ready and enter before the glory of the Lord" (Tobit 12:15, NRSVCE). Seven is a suggestive number, and later Jewish and Christian tradition did propose additional names to fill it out — but Scripture and the wider canon of accepted texts never actually settle on all seven, which is a large part of why popular devotion has stayed focused on the small handful of archangels who do have clear names and stories attached to them.

What "archangel" means as a rank

The word itself comes from the Greek archangelos — "chief" or "ruling" angel — sharing its root with Principalities, the choir directly above it in the traditional nine-rank system first laid out by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the 6th century. In that system, Archangels rank eighth of nine: above the ordinary Angels who make up the lowest and final choir, but below the Principalities, in what tradition calls the "third hierarchy" — the tier most directly engaged with ministering to the created world and to humanity, rather than the closer contemplation of God assigned to the highest tier of Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones. That ranking, like every other in this series, is the work of later systematic theology reading between the lines of scattered scriptural references — not a hierarchy the Bible spells out on its own.

Why this rank feels different from the rest

There's a simple reason the Archangels feel more vivid than the other eight choirs: named beings with dialogue and a plotline are, for most readers, inherently more memorable than an unnamed category glimpsed once in a list. Michael leads armies; Gabriel announces a birth; Raphael walks the length of a journey disguised as a fellow traveler. That's the advantage of a story over a category — and it's worth remembering, while reading about the Dominions, Virtues, Powers, or any of the other unnamed ranks in this series, that their comparative obscurity says more about how Scripture happened to record them than about their standing in the traditional hierarchy itself.