Angels of Punishment and the Sword of God: Symbols of Justice or Tyranny?

Abstract

It is the inherent ambiguity of the imagery in Genesis 3.24 and Matthew 10.34 that provides the focus of this article, addressing the theme of Sacred and Sacrilegious by investigating how these biblical passages were used to express negative apprehensions of God and Christianity. The poets Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Thomas Love Peacock, along with the artist J.M.W. Turner, take the sacred images of the Sword of God and the avenging angel, literal representations of the Glory of God, and reinterpret them in a sacrilegious manner.