Mythology & Religion Power Ranking TOP100
I wrote a book ranking the most powerful gods, monsters, and heroes from world mythologies, religions, and legends in order of strength! Of course, the rankings reflect a fair amount of my personal opinion, but the reasoning behind each placement is grounded in the actual lore and episodes from each mythology, so I think it makes for a fairly convincing read.
In this series, I’d like to introduce some of the characters featured in the book’s ranking. There are plenty of other characters beyond the ones covered here, so I think anyone interested in mythology, religion, or legends will find it an enjoyable read!
Rank 19: Michael (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and related religions)
Overview
Michael is an angel appearing in the Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, serving God as an “Archangel.” He is referred to together with Gabriel and Raphael as the “Three Archangels,” or with the addition of Uriel as the “Four Archangels.” Various other groupings exist, including the “Seven Archangels.” Without exception, Michael appears in all of these lists, which shows how uniquely special his standing is within these religions.
Angels are classified into hierarchical ranks known as the “angelic hierarchy.” From highest to lowest, these are: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels.
By this schema, Michael would rank second from the bottom. However, this entire hierarchy was a system devised by later theologians attempting to systematically categorize angels — the original scriptures only mention “angels” and “archangels,” and Michael is the only one explicitly named an “archangel” (figures like the Seraphim appear by name, but whether they are angels and whether they have a higher rank is not stated anywhere in scripture).
Even Gabriel and Raphael are not designated archangels in the Bible. Therefore, based strictly on scripture, Michael is the highest-ranking angel.
Many people may assume that angels are lesser beings than the gods of world mythology, and that assumption is both partly right and partly wrong.
“Angels” are beings specific to the Abrahamic religions, serving only the One God. As such, angels do not appear in other mythologies with multiple gods (polytheism), which instead feature subordinate deities, spirits, divine beasts, and the like in service roles.
So angels are lower than God (the One God), but not necessarily lower than “gods” (deities of other mythologies). And the power angels wield is not inferior to that of gods from other traditions. Michael himself led an army against Satan’s forces and achieved victory.
Ranking Reason
In fantasy fiction such as anime and games, angels are often used as easily deployed servants of a god — but in the original Judaism and Islam, angels have very little in the way of individual personality, functioning more like mechanisms that execute God’s commands.
In that sense, a combat angel is closer to a “weapon designed to destroy evil.”
Because of this, angels are often said to lack the “inherent divinity” that other mythological gods possess — making them clearly distinct from gods, even if their power is comparable.
Michael has a larger number of battle-related episodes than other angels. In Judaism, he is Israel’s guardian angel; in Christianity, he appears as the commander of God’s heavenly forces in battle against Satan. From these depictions, Michael is considered to hold the greatest power among all angels, and he did indeed lead his forces to victory over Satan’s army.
In other words, Michael effectively serves as God’s agent of divine judgment.
If Michael had defeated Satan one-on-one, it would naturally follow that Michael is stronger than Satan. But the victory was achieved army against army, and moreover, the number of angels who rebelled with Satan was almost certainly far smaller than those who remained loyal — meaning Michael’s side held an overwhelming numerical advantage. So claiming that Michael is individually stronger than Satan is not straightforward.
Even so, defeating Satan’s entire army demonstrates that Michael undoubtedly possesses power comparable to Satan’s, and I judged this ranking position to be appropriate.
