Is Barakiel the same as Barachiel?

Sometimes. Many English books use Barakiel as a respelling of Barachiel, the blessing name, and Odeberg spells the prince of the second heaven in 3 Enoch 17:3 with k. The lightning angel of 3 Enoch 14:4 and the Watcher of 1 Enoch 6:7 are spelled with q and come from a different word.

Is Barakiel the angel of lightning?

The angel appointed over the lightnings in 3 Enoch 14:4 is Baraqiel, whose Hebrew name is spelled with qof, the letter of baraq, “lightning.”

How should Barakiel be spelled?

Keep the spelling of the source being quoted. When the root is known, Baraqiel marks the lightning names and Barachiel the blessing name, while Barakiel alone leaves the root unclear.

Does Barakiel bring good luck?

The luck role comes from Davidson’s 1967 dictionary, which credits Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal for invoking Barakiel in games of chance. Neither 3 Enoch, 1 Enoch nor Orthodox tradition gives him that role.

Who Is Angel Barakiel, and Why Do Sources Give Him Different Roles?

Q: Is Barakiel a fallen angel?

The Watcher Baraqel, ninth chief in 1 Enoch 6:7, is one of the angels who came down to earth in that book. The blessing archangel Barachiel and the princes of 3 Enoch are not fallen angels.

Barakiel is an English spelling shared by angels in three different texts, and the Hebrew letter hidden behind its k decides which one a source means. Hebrew has two words that sound alike in English: barak, “to bless,” written with kaf, and baraq, “lightning,” written with qof.

Names from the lightning word belong to the angel over the lightnings in 3 Enoch and to Baraqel, one of the Watcher chiefs of 1 Enoch. A name from the blessing word belongs to Barachiel, the archangel of Orthodox tradition, whose English spellings include Barakiel. Sources give Barakiel different roles because they are describing different figures, and one modern dictionary joined them under a single heading.

Quick Facts

Blessing root: barak, “to bless,” spelled with kaf
Lightning root: baraq, “lightning,” spelled with qof
3 Enoch 14:4: Baraqiel, appointed over the lightnings
3 Enoch 17:3: Barakiel, prince of the second heaven
1 Enoch 6:7: Baraqel, ninth chief of the Watchers
Merged in: Davidson, A Dictionary of Angels (1967), page 69

Does Barakiel mean blessing or lightning?

Either, depending on the Hebrew letter the k stands for. The blessing verb barak ends in kaf, the noun baraq, “lightning,” ends in qof, and Strong’s lexicon lists them as separate words, H1288 and H1300.

English writes both letters as k, so most books lose the difference. Two biblical names show what is at stake: Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe, means “blessed” (Jeremiah 32:12), while Barak, the commander Deborah summons in Judges 4:6, means “lightning.” Add el to either word and the result can be printed as Barakiel.

The two roots behind Barakiel
Hebrew word	Final letter	Meaning	Names built on it
barak, בָּרַךְ	kaf	to bless; also to kneel	Baruch; Barachel (Job 32:2); Barachiel
baraq, בָּרָק	qof	lightning, a flash	Barak (Judges 4:6); Baraqiel (3 Enoch 14:4); Baraqel (1 Enoch 6:7)

Scholarly translations keep the letters apart by writing q for qof, which is why they print Baraqiel and Baraqel for the lightning names. A spelling with k or ch cannot settle the meaning on its own, so the text a name comes from has to decide it.

A copper lightning conductor strap fixed with a bracket to the stone wall of an old building — A copper lightning conductor strap on a stone wall. Baraq, the Hebrew word behind Baraqiel, occurs 21 times in the Hebrew Bible and is most often translated “lightning.”

Which angel rules the lightning in 3 Enoch?

Baraqiel does. In Hugo Odeberg’s 1928 translation of 3 Enoch, chapter 14 lists “the rulers of the world” who trembled when Metatron was exalted: Gabriel over fire, Baradiel over hail, Ruchiel over the wind, and “Baraqiel who is appointed over the lightnings” (14:4).

The names in that list are built from what each angel rules. Baradiel carries barad, the word Odeberg glosses as hail at 34:1, and Baraqiel carries baraq. The Ben-Yehuda dictionary of Hebrew quotes the Hebrew of the same list and spells the name ברקיאל, with qof, “an angel who is appointed over the lightnings.”

Chapter 17 names a different Barakiel. Seven princes rule the seven heavens, and in verse 3 “Barakiel, prince of the host, is appointed over the second heaven,” called Raqia. Odeberg prints this name with k, the letter he uses for kaf in Mikael and Kokbiel, while he writes q for qof in Ziqiel and Shatqiel. On his spelling, the prince of the second heaven carries the blessing root.

The same chapter shows how loosely these names were copied. Verse 1 lists the seven princes as Mikael, Gabriel, Shatqiel, Shachaqiel, Bakariel, Badariel and Pachriel, while verse 3 gives Barakiel for the second heaven and Pazriel for the first. Behind the Name even lists Pachriel as a variant of Barachiel, although in 3 Enoch 17 that name belongs to the prince of another heaven.

The Orthodox Encyclopedia cites both chapters, 3 Enoch 14 and 17, in its entry on Varakhiil, the Russian form of Barachiel, so one Orthodox reference work reads both angels as the blessing archangel. On Odeberg’s spelling, only the chapter 17 prince can share Barachiel’s root.

Is Barakiel a fallen angel?

Only when a source means the Watcher of 1 Enoch, whose name is printed Baraqel or Baraqijal. 1 Enoch 6:7 lists him ninth among the chiefs of the angels who came down on Mount Hermon and took human wives, and 1 Enoch tells the story of these Watchers in chapters 6 to 11.

His name is built on the lightning word. R. H. Charles, in the notes to his 1912 edition, glosses Baraqijal as “lightning of God” and notes that a Watcher’s name often reflects his duties. The translation by George Nickelsburg and James VanderKam bears this out at 8:3, where “Baraqel taught the signs of the lightning flashes,” beside Kokabel with the signs of the stars and Shamsiel with the signs of the sun.

Charles’s own translation of that verse reads “Baraqijal (taught) astrology,” so English readers find two different lessons for the same Watcher depending on the edition. 1 Enoch 69:2 names him again, as “the ninth Baraqel,” in a later list of the same angels.

The Watcher carries a lightning name in every edition, and 1 Enoch never connects him with a blessing angel. The suggestion that he and Barachiel are one figure appears in Davidson’s dictionary.

Why do angel dictionaries give Barakiel so many roles?

Most of the roles go back to one entry in Gustav Davidson’s A Dictionary of Angels (1967). On page 69 the entry is headed Barakiel, lists Barachiel, Barbiel, Barchiel, Barkiel and Baraqiel as other forms of it, and glosses the whole group as “lightning of God,” so the blessing spelling and the lightning spelling share one heading and one meaning. Under that heading Davidson gathers roles from sources centuries apart:

Archangel. “One of the 7 archangels,” the place Orthodox tradition gives the blessing name Barachiel.
Prince of the second heaven. The Barakiel of 3 Enoch 17:3.
Ruler of lightning. The Baraqiel of 3 Enoch 14:4.
Seraph, month and planets. One of four ruling seraphim and the February angel, and ruler of Jupiter, Scorpio and Pisces, with Benjamin Camfield’s Theological Discourse of Angels cited for Scorpio.
Luck. Invoked with Uriel and Rubiel “to bring success in games of chance,” which Davidson credits to Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal.

The Barachiel entry itself holds only a cross-reference to Barakiel. The Baraqijal entry ends with “Cf. Barakiel, of which Baraqijal may be merely a variant,” so one heading gathers the Orthodox blessing archangel, two angels of 3 Enoch and, tentatively, a Watcher.

None of the older texts Davidson draws on gives one angel all of these roles. The English Wikipedia article on Barachiel cites Davidson and gives the blessing archangel the second-heaven role from 3 Enoch, so the combined figure now appears under the blessing name as well.

Which clues show whether a source means Baraqiel, the Watcher or Barachiel?

The role a source names usually identifies the figure faster than the spelling does, because each older text gives its angel one job.

Matching a Barakiel reference to its figure
What the source says	Figure	Where it comes from
Appointed over the lightnings	Baraqiel	3 Enoch 14:4
Prince of the second heaven, Raqia	Barakiel	3 Enoch 17:3
Ninth Watcher chief; taught lightning signs or astrology	Baraqel, Baraqijal	1 Enoch 6:7, 8:3 and 69:2
Blessing, white roses, the November 8 feast	Barachiel, Varakhiil	Archangel Barachiel in Orthodox tradition
February, Scorpio or Pisces, games of chance	Davidson’s combined Barakiel	A Dictionary of Angels (1967) and the handbooks it cites

When a source gives neither a role nor an original spelling, the name cannot be assigned, and both roots stay open. Writing Baraqiel for the lightning angels and Barachiel for the blessing archangel keeps the distinction visible for the next person who copies the name.