Michael Hebrew for 'Who is like God?' According to Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1 he is an angel representing Israel. His role grows in the last centuries BCE and he is named as the chief adversary of the devil in the War Scroll of the Qumran community and in the NT by Jude 9 and Rev 12:7. Jacob Epstein has powerfully portrayed their combat in a sculpture on the exterior wall of Coventry Cathedral, but significantly the devil seems still able to swipe with his tail.

Michael. In the system of beliefs about angels in N.T. times, an archangel. Jude 9; Rev. 12:7.

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Michael (Heb., ‘who is like God?’), patron angel of Israel, first mentioned by name in Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1. In the nt he is mentioned in Jude 9, where he contends with the devil for the body of Moses, and in Rev. 12:7, where he is at war with the dragon. He figures prominently in Jewish writings of the intertestamental period, including the Qumran War Scroll. It is also used as a human name in 2 Chron. 21:2.