Is Barachiel a Hebrew or a Greek name?

Hebrew in origin, from barak and el. The -iel spelling is the Greek form the Septuagint gave Elihu’s father, and later Christian writers kept it for the archangel.

Is Barachiel mentioned in the Bible?

Only as a man’s name. Elihu’s father in Job 32:2 and 32:6 is Barachel in Hebrew and Barachiel in the Greek Septuagint. No biblical book names an angel Barachiel.

How is Barachiel written in Hebrew?

The biblical name is בַּרַכְאֵל, Barachel. Behind the Name gives the angel’s name as ברכיאל.

Why do Russian sources write Varakhiil?

Russian took the name from Greek Βαραχιήλ and reads the Greek beta as v, so the same name becomes Варахиил, Varakhiil.

Is Barakiel the same name as Barachiel?

Often, because Barakiel spells the usual English pronunciation of Barachiel. The same letters can also stand for Baraqiel, a name built on the Hebrew word for lightning, so the source has to show which one it means.

What Does the Name Barachiel Mean, and Why Is It Spelled So Many Ways?

Barachiel is a Hebrew name built from two parts, the verb barak, “to bless,” and el, “God.” Its oldest use belongs to a person: Barachel the Buzite, whose son Elihu answers Job in Job 32, and whom the Greek translation of that chapter calls Barachiel.

The angel came much later. Orthodox tradition honors an archangel Barachiel at its November 8 feast of the archangels, with lists, icons and prayers of his own. This entry follows the name: what it means, how Greek, Latin and Russian writers spelled it, how it is pronounced, and which look-alike spellings come from a different Hebrew word.

Quick Facts

Meaning: “God has blessed” or “blessing of God”
Hebrew root: barak, “to bless,” joined to el, “God”
In the Bible: Barachel, the father of Elihu, in Job 32:2 and 32:6
Greek form: Βαραχιηλ in the Septuagint of Job; Βαραχιήλ in Orthodox usage
Russian form: Варахиил, Varakhiil, with the short form Варахий
Different root: Baraqiel and Baraqel, from baraq, “lightning”

What does the name Barachiel mean in Hebrew?

Barachiel means “God has blessed” or “blessing of God.” The first part is the Hebrew verb barak, “to bless,” and the second is el, “God,” the ending shared by Hebrew angel names such as Michael and Gabriel.

The two English readings come from two ways of parsing the same letters. Strong’s lexicon glosses the biblical form Barachel as “God has blessed,” a short sentence with God as its subject. The Orthodox Encyclopedia translates the angel’s name as “blessing of God,” taking the first part as a noun.

Nothing in the name marks it as an angel’s. Hebrew built ordinary personal names from the same verb: Baruch, “blessed,” was Jeremiah’s scribe (Jeremiah 32:12), and Berechiah, “Yah blesses,” was the father of the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 1:1). Barachiel belongs to that family of names, and its only biblical bearer is a man.

A wide woven basket heaped with red and yellow apples on a wooden kitchen table — Apples in a woven basket. Jewish practice says a berakhah, a blessing formed from the same verb barak, before eating the fruit of a tree.

Is Barachiel in the Bible, or only Barachel?

The Hebrew Bible names no angel Barachiel. Its only bearer of the name is Barachel the Buzite, father of the young speaker Elihu, who appears twice, in Job 32:2 and 32:6.

The spelling Barachiel begins in that same verse. The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, writes the father’s name Βαραχιηλ, Barachiel, with an i before the final el, and Brenton’s English translation of the Septuagint keeps “Elius the son of Barachiel.” Behind the Name treats this Greek form as the first appearance of the spelling.

The Latin Vulgate writes “Heliu filius Barachel,” and the King James Version and later English Bibles also print Barachel. A reader who meets Barachiel in a Bible is reading the Greek Old Testament or a translation of it, and the person named is still Elihu’s father.

Its el ending puts Barachel among the Hebrew names mistaken for angels by readers who take every -el name for an angel’s. Job 32 gives him no words and no role beyond being Elihu’s father, so the chapter cannot serve as evidence for the archangel, whose name comes from later church tradition.

How did the name travel from Hebrew into Greek, Latin and Russian?

Each language fitted the name to its own alphabet, and those changes account for most of the spellings in print.

Hebrew writes the third consonant of Barachel with kaf, which after a vowel sounds like the ch in Scottish loch; Strong’s transliterates the name bāraḵ’ēl. Greek scribes regularly wrote that sound with chi, as they did in Μιχαηλ, Michael, so the Septuagint spelled the name Βαραχιηλ. Latin writers copied chi as ch, which is why Barachiel has a ch that was never meant to sound like the ch in church.

The angel’s name reached Latin readers in the West through the Apocalypsis Nova, a book of visions circulated in Rome in the early sixteenth century under the name of the Franciscan Amadeus of Portugal. Its seven archangels include Barachiel, spelled in the Greek way with -iel.

Orthodox usage kept the Greek form, which the Orthodox Encyclopedia gives as Βαραχιήλ. Russian took the name from Greek and read beta as v, the sound it has in later and modern Greek, so the Russian church writes Варахиил, Varakhiil, with a short form Варахий, Varakhiy. English spellings that begin with V, such as Varachiel, follow this Russian line.

Barachiel across languages and sources
Source	Form	Who it names
Hebrew Bible, Job 32:2	בַּרַכְאֵל, Barachel	Elihu’s father
Septuagint, Job 32:2	Βαραχιηλ, Barachiel	Elihu’s father
Latin Vulgate, Job 32:2	Barachel	Elihu’s father
Apocalypsis Nova, Rome, early 1500s	Barachiel	One of seven archangels
Orthodox Greek usage	Βαραχιήλ	Archangel of the November 8 feast
Russian Orthodox usage	Варахиил, Varakhiil	The same archangel

Every biblical form names Elihu’s father, and the archangel belongs to the Christian lists of seven. Hebrew mystical writing also has an angel Barakiel, a prince of the second heaven in 3 Enoch 17:3, and whether that name shares the blessing root is part of the spelling question below.

How do you pronounce Barachiel, and is Barakiel the same name?

English speakers usually say the ch as k. Behind the Name gives the pronunciation bahr-ahk-ee-el, and Strong’s gives the biblical Barachel as baw-rak-ale. Writing the name the way it is spoken produces Barakiel, which is why many English books treat Barakiel as a plain respelling of Barachiel.

That respelling can hide a different word. English k also stands for the Hebrew letter qof in names built on baraq, “lightning”: Barak, the commander Deborah summons in Judges 4:6, has a lightning name. A Barakiel printed with k can therefore come from either root, and Barakiel sorts out the angels that belong to the lightning word.

Gustav Davidson’s A Dictionary of Angels (1967) shows how easily the two merge. Its Barachiel entry only points to Barakiel, and the Barakiel entry glosses the whole group, Barachiel included, as “lightning of God.”

Which spellings are the blessing name?
Spelling	Hebrew root	Same name as Barachiel?
Barachel	barak, “to bless”	Same name, used for a man in Job 32:2
Varachiel, Varakhiil	barak, “to bless”	Yes, through Greek and Russian
Barakiel	barak or baraq	Only when the source means the blessing name
Baraqiel, Baraqel, Baraqijal	baraq, “lightning”	No, a different word

A q in the spelling settles the question, since careful transliterations keep q for qof. A k settles nothing, so the text the name comes from decides which root it carries.

What Does the Name Barachiel Mean, and Why Is It Spelled So Many Ways?

Quick Facts

What does the name Barachiel mean in Hebrew?

Is Barachiel in the Bible, or only Barachel?

How did the name travel from Hebrew into Greek, Latin and Russian?

How do you pronounce Barachiel, and is Barakiel the same name?

Frequently Asked Questions

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