Angels play a prominent role in Luke’s writings. Apparently the Jews believed that one’s guardian angel could take their physical shape (for a good discussion of Jewish sources and beliefs about guardian angels, see Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. 2, p. 963; another good source for rabbinical thought and theology and times of Jesus the Messiah). There is no Scriptural basis for this belief. This development of angeology may have come from the concept of fravashi in Zoroastrianism. Much of rabbinical angelology can be traced to this Persian influence. There is some Scriptural evidence for guardian angels for new believers (cf. Matt. 18:10). Angels are servants of the redeemed (cf. Heb. 1:14).
