As far as I know the question has been bandied about but never answered. Please justify / explain the reasoning for your answer.
2007-10-04 09:02:01 · 5 answers · asked by frodo 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I thought it was the head of a pin, but it almost doesn't matter. The point of this ancient Jewish philosophical debate is to examine the extent of God's creative and sovereign will (I think - but I'm not Jewish, so I stand to be corrected.) If God is God and he can create out of nothing by his word, and he is sovereign, then he could command any number of angels to simultaneously dance on the head of a pin (of whatever size), and they would. Knowing the Jewish penchant for mathematically biblical calculations, I'll hazard their answer at 144,000. My answer is - however many it takes!
2007-10-04 09:16:52 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋
The nature of this medieval philisophical question is not to arrive at a PARTICULAR answer, only to prove whether or not the number is finite or infanite.
In the middleages, it was heresy to discuss the true nature of God, but angels, being of the same sort as God were fair game. Therefore, to decide if God were made of a substantial material - and therefore 'real' - they wanted to know if this material that the angels were also made of took up actual space, and if a certian finite number could fit on the head of a pin, then God must be real.
2007-10-04 09:17:12 · answer #2 · answered by conchobor2 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
3,,,
2 to dance on it and one to pin it on the tail of the donkey
2007-10-04 09:14:26 · answer #3 · answered by cristelle R 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Twelve. That's how many I saw last night, but it was pretty dark.
2007-10-04 09:06:24 · answer #4 · answered by magix151 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
None.
Angels are imaginary.
2007-10-04 09:05:16 · answer #5 · answered by Simon T 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋