Ananiel, Anânêl (Hebrew/Aramaic: עננאל, Greek: Ανανιας) was the 14th Watcher of the 20 leaders of the 200 fallen angels who are mentioned in the Book of Enoch, an ancient Jewish religious text. The name Ananiel is sometimes translated as "Rain of God" though it is often confused with the name Hananiel. Michael Knibb interprets the name as "cloud of God", Knibb, Michael A.,The Ethiopic Book Of Enoch, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978, repr. 1982. which is the literal meaning of the name in Hebrew. The Arabic form of the name entered the language through Coptic translations from Greek.Peinado, Miguel A. G. and Membrives, Eva M., Aspects of Literary Translation: Building Linguistic and Cultural Bridge in Past and Present, Germany: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2012.
Ananiel was entrusted by God "all the trees of the earth, its plants, the rain, the dew, the heat, the simoom, the wind and as many [atmospheric phenomena] as there are in summer and winter."Peinado, Miguel A. G. and Membrives, Eva M., Aspects of Literary Translation: Building Linguistic and Cultural Bridge in Past and Present, Germany: Narr Francke Attempto Veriag GmbH + Co. KG, 2012. He is also known as an angelic guard of the gates of the South Wind,Davidson, Gustav, A Dictionary of Angels, New York: The Free Press, 1971. one of three gates that control the weather, described in The Book of Enoch.The Book of Enoch, IAP, 2009 Conversely, according to the tradition of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Ananiel is the name of one of the seven holy archangels.
See also List of angels in theology
References
Further reading Davidson, Gustav (1967). A Dictionary of Angels. The Free Press Membrives & Peinado (2012). Aspects of Literary Translation: Building Linguistic and Cultural Bridge in Past and Present. Germany: Gunter Narr Verlag Knibb, Michael (1979). The Ethiopic Book Of Enoch. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (2009). The Book of Enoch. IAP.