Named Early, Then Specifically Condemned by Name

Raguel has an earlier and more explicit textual attestation than several of the other later archangels: the Book of Enoch names him directly among a list of seven holy angels, describing his particular role as one who takes vengeance on the world of the luminaries, generally understood as some form of oversight or punishment connected to the heavenly bodies.

Enoch's standing across Christian tradition varies sharply by church, treated as fully canonical scripture by the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox churches and as apocryphal, valuable historically but not scriptural, by Catholic, most Orthodox, and Protestant traditions, which means Raguel's textual attestation is old and specific but not universally authoritative. His case is also notable for an early institutional reaction: a Western church council held under Pope Zachary in the eighth century specifically named and condemned devotion to a set of angels beyond the three, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, that it accepted as scripturally grounded, and Raguel is generally identified among the names singled out in that condemnation alongside Uriel. This makes Raguel one of the clearer documented examples of a named angel who was not simply forgotten or left out of later Western tradition but was actively identified and rejected by name at a specific council, a more deliberate exclusion than the quieter fading that affected other minor figures.