https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2014 ... er-ehrman/In short, Paul’s Christology seems to place Jesus in a category of his own, superior and distinct from angels.
Ehrman:
https://ehrmanblog.org/christ-as-an-angel-in-paul-2/I did indeed find Gieschen’s argument that Paul understood Jesus as an angel prior to becoming human extremely provocative and convincing.
Celsus:
Origen:"Let us then pass over the refutations which might be adduced against the claims of their teacher, and let him be regarded as really an angel. "
I think that Ehrman is more correct. What reason had Celsus to lie about what the Christians (all the Christians) believed about the nature of Jesus?And, in the next place, since he considers that he makes a concession in saying of the Saviour, "Let him appear to be really an angel," we reply that we do not accept of such a concession from Celsus; but we look to the work of Him who came to visit the whole human race in His word and teaching, as each one of His adherents was capable of receiving Him. And this was the work of one who, as the prophecy regarding Him said, was not simply an angel, but the "Angel of the great counsel:"
An angel who is ''superior and distinct from angels'' becomes simply an archangel, therefore the Hurtado's efforts to invent one category that applies only to Jesus is reduced to addition of infinity to a sum where there is already infinity:
∞ + ∞ = ∞