in the Apocrypha, a leading angel, sometimes ranked as an archangel with Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. Because his name in Hebrew means “fire of God,” or “light of God,” he has been variously identified in Jewish traditions as an angel of thunder and earthquake, as the wielder of the fiery sword in driving Adam and Eve from Eden, as the destroyer of the hosts of Sennacherib, as the figure who enlightens Ezra with visions, and, generally, as an angel of terror, prophecy, or mystery. John Milton in Paradise Lost described Uriel as “Regent of the Sun” and the “sharpest sighted spirit of all in Heaven”; but Christian tradition has generally paid little attention to Uriel.