Raphael's name means God has healed, and his first mission involved a fish
The archangel Raphael first appears in the Book of Tobit and 1 Enoch, texts from roughly the 3rd to 2nd century BC. In Tobit he travels disguised as a man named Azariah, using a remarkable fish both to bind the demon Asmodeus and to restore Tobit's sight.
His name comes from the Hebrew root meaning to heal, and healing is his specialty across traditions. In 1 Enoch he is placed in charge of every disease and wound, and he binds the armies of Azazel before hurling them into a valley of fire. In the oldest layer of 1 Enoch he is one of four named archangels; in Tobit he counts himself among seven.
Angels were not always named. The Hebrew word mal'akh simply meant messenger, human or divine, with no individuality or ranks. After the Babylonian exile a graded hierarchy developed, the Greek word for archangel first surfaced in 1 Enoch, and the Talmud records that the angels' names came back with the Jews from Babylonia.
The Babylonian Talmud makes Raphael one of the three visitors Abraham hosted at Mamre, near Hebron: Michael walked in the middle, Gabriel on the right, Raphael on the left. Each carried a single mission, and Raphael's was to heal Abraham after his circumcision and to rescue Lot, which the commentator Rashi counted as one task because both deeds saved people. A Midrash adds that he once bore the name Libbiel, meaning God is my heart.
Neither the New Testament nor the Quran names him, but Christian tradition casts him as the angel who stirred the healing waters of the Pool of Bethesda. In Islam he is Israfil, identified with the angel of Quran 6:73 who stands forever with a trumpet at his lips, waiting to announce the Day of Judgment. He also features on the Gnostic Ophite Diagram, and the medieval philosopher Maimonides placed him in his hierarchy of angels.
Source: Raphael (archangel)
