Is the nature of angels spiritual, incorporeal, and eternal?

According to St. John of Damascus , “[the angels] are borne to the regions above and are quite delivered from all material thought … They are circumscribed: for when they are in the Heaven they are not on the earth: and when they are sent by God down to the earth they do not remain in the Heaven. They are not hemmed in by walls and doors, and bars and seals, for they are quite unlimited. Unlimited, I repeat, for it is not as they really are that they reveal themselves to the worthy men to whom God wishes them to appear, but in a changed form which the beholders are capable of seeing. For that alone is naturally and strictly unlimited which is un-created. For every created thing is limited by God Who created it.”⁶⁵¹

According to some Church Fathers, angels have light and incorporeal bodies in comparison to human beings. But when compared to God who is intangible and simple in His nature, they are considered heavy and tangible.

St. Basil the Great says that angels do not have bodies that decay like humans. Angels have no children, youth, or elders, since they remain as they are from the time of their creation. According to St. Luke the Evangelist, “Those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead; neither marry nor are given in marriage; nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the

651 St. John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 2.3 (NPNF II/9:B19; PG 94:869).

resurrection” (Luke 20:35–36). St. John of Damascus believes that angels are eternal, not by nature, but by grace like humans.