thumb|Et ortodoks ikon av de de syv erkeenglene.fra venstre til høyre: [[Jegudiel, Mikael, Rafael, Barakiel. Under Kristus i Mandorla Kjeruber og Serafer.]]
'''Uriel''' (אוּרִיאֵל, hebraisk «Guds flamme» eller «Guds lys», ''Auriel/Oriel'') er i henhold til den rabbanittiske tradisjonen og noen kristne tradisjoner en av erkeengel. 

== Historie ==
Uriel nevnes første gangen på apokryfisk bok som har fått navnet «Esras Apokalypse» eller «Fjerde Esra» hvor det fortelles at Uriel har blitt sendt til jorden for å gi Esra åpenbarelser. Hans attributt er en pergamentsrull eller en bok. Hans navn kan være analogt til Uriah. I apokryptisk, kabbalistisk og okkulte verk har Uriel vært likestilt eller sammenblandet med flere andre navn. Et eksempel på et annet navn er '''Sandalfon'''.

De engler som nevnes i eldre bøker i den hebraiske bibel er uten navn. Faktisk har rabbi Mikael og Rafael som nevnes med navn i de skrifter som over tid ble kanonisert.

== Beskrivelse ==
Uriel er kjent som den frelsende erkeengel. Han står med et brennende sverd ved inngangen til det tapte Eden. Hans symbol er en åpen hånd som holder en flamme som han tilbyr som kjærlighetens flamme til alle sjeler.

I feminine medhjelper, Aurora, med et lys av purpur og gull, den såkalte sjette stråle. Denne strålens kvaliteter er tjeneste og presteskap, fred, vennskap, oppstandelse og guddommelig dømming av alt som er ondt.

250px|thumb|[[Fresco by Dionisius depicting the Archangel Uriel. (Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos, Ferapontov Monastery, Russia).]]
'''Uriel''' ('''אוּרִיאֵל''' "Fire of God", Auriel/Oriel (light of god) Christian traditions. His name may have analogies with ''Uriah''.  

In apocryphal, kabbalistic and occult works Uriel has been equated or confused with Raphael.

==Name and origins==
The angels mentioned in the older books of the Gabriel, Michael and Raphael, are mentioned by name in the scriptures that gradually became accepted as canonical. 

Where a fourth archangel is added to the named three, to represent the four cardinal points, Uriel is generally the fourth (''Jewish Encyclopedia''). Uriel is listed as the fourth angel in Christian Gnostics (under the name Phanuel), by Gregory the Great, and in the angelology of Pseudo-Dionysius. Uriel is the third angel listed in the ''Testament of Solomon'', the fourth being Sabrael.

Uriel also appears in the ''Second Book of Esdras'', an apocryphal addition in the tradition of apocalyptic literature made to ''Esdras'', in which the prophet Ezra asks God a series of questions, and Uriel is sent by God to instruct him. According to the Revelation of Esdras, the angels that will rule at the end of the world are Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, Raphael, Gabuthelon, Beburos, Zebuleon, Aker, Arphugitonos. The last five listed only appear in this book and nowhere else in apocryphal or apocalyptic works.

thumb|left|Uriel, right, in the [[Virgin of the Rocks (Louvre version) by Leonardo da Vinci, 1483-86.]] 

In Christian apocryphal gospels Uriel plays a role, differing between sources, in the rescue of Jesus's cousin John the Baptist from the Massacre of the Innocents ordered by King Herod. He carries John and his mother Saint Elizabeth to join the Holy Family after their Flight into Egypt. Their reunion is depicted in Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks.

Uriel is often identified as a cherub and angel of repentance.<ref>Book of Adam and Eve</ref> He "stands at the Gate of Eden with a fiery sword,"<ref>Abbot Anscar Vonier, 1964. 'The Teaching of the Catholic Church'</ref> or as the angel who "watches over thunder and terror."<ref>1 Enoch?</ref> In the ''Apocalypse of Peter'' he appears as the Angel of Repentance, who is graphically represented as being as pitiless as any demon. In the ''Life of Adam and Eve'', Uriel is regarded as the spirit (i.e., one of the cherubs) of the third chapter of Genesis. He is also identified as one of the angels who helped bury Adam and Abel in Paradise.

Stemming from medieval Jewish mystical traditions, Uriel has also become the Angel of Sunday (''Jewish Encyclopedia''), the Angel of Poetry, and one of the Holy Sephiroth. It was Uriel who wrestled Peniel and Uriel is depicted as the destroyer of the hosts of Sennacherib. 

The prayer of Jospeth in the ''Legends of the Jews'' reads "Jacob - ”When I was coming from Mesopotamia of Syria, Uriel, the angel of God, came forth and spoke: ‘I have come down to earth to make my dwelling among men, and I am called Jacob by name.’”" 

He checked the doors of the Pit during the End Times and led Abraham to the West.

In modern and only marginally Christian Phanuel "face of God." He is often depicted carrying a book or a papyrus scroll representing wisdom. Uriel is a patron of the Arts.

200px|thumbnail|''Angelic Council'' (Ангелскй Собор). [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox icon of the seven archangels. From left to right: Jegudiel, Gabriel, Selaphiel, Michael, Uriel, Raphael, Barachiel. Beneath the mandorla of Christ Emmanuel are representations of Cherubim (blue) and Seraphim (red).]]

In the liturgical calendar (for those churches which follow the Julian Calendar, November 8 falls on November 21 of the modern Gregorian Calendar). In addition, every Monday throughout the year is dedicated to the angels.

In Thomas Heywood's ''Hierarchy of Blessed Angels'' (1635), Uriel is described as an Angel of the Earth. Heywood's list is actually of the Angels of the Four Winds: Uriel (south), Michael (east), Raphael (west) (serving also a governor of the south, with Uriel), and Gabriel (north). He is also listed as an Angel of the four winds in the medieval Jewish ''Book of the Angel Raziel''<ref>''Sepher Rezial Hemelach''</ref> which lists him as Usiel (Uzziel); according to it, this book was inscribed on a sapphire stone and handed down from Seraph to Metatron and then to Adam.

At the Council of Rome of 745, Pope St. Zachary, intending to clarify the Church's teaching on the subject of angels and curb a tendency toward angel worship, condemned obsession with angelic intervention and angelolatry, but reaffirmed the approval of the practice of the reverence of angels. This synod struck many angels' names from the list of those eligible for veneration in the Church of Rome, including Uriel. Only the reverence of the archangels mentioned in the recognized Catholic canon of scriptures, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, remained licit.  

In the first half of the 11th century Bulgarian followers of the dualist heresy called Bogomilism who lived in the dukedom of Ahtum in present day Banat invoked Uriel in rituals. This is witnessed by St. Gerard, Roman Catholic bishop of the area after 1028.

In Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's translation of ''The Golden Legend'', Uriel is one of the angels of the seven planets. Uriel is the angel of Mars. He is also listed as such in Benjamin Camfield's ''A Theological Discourse of Angels'' (1678).<ref>Canfield, ''A Theological Discourse of Angels, Wherein Their Existence, Nature, Number, Order and Offices, are modestly treated of...''</ref>

Possibly Uriel's highest position is that of an Angel of Presence, Prince of Presence, Angel of the Face, Angel of Sanctification, Angel of Glory. A Prince of the Presence is an angel who is allowed to enter the presence of God. Uriel along with Suriel, Jehol, Zagagel, Akatriel, Metatron, Yefefiah, Satanel, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Nathanel (Zathael) holds this position. The Angel of His Presence title is often taken to mean Shekinah but it and the other terms mentioned are also often used as alternate names for the angel Metatron. R. H. Charles comments in his translation of ''The Book Of Enoch'' that in later Judaism "we find Uriel instead of Phanuel" as one of the four angels of the presence.

A scriptural reference to an angel of presence is found in Isaiah 63:9 — <blockquote>''In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.''</blockquote>

==In Enoch==

The Book of Enoch, which presents itself as written by Raguel, Michael, Saraqâêl, Gabriel, and Remiel.