
A timeline of artistic depictions of Egyptian sun birds (#s 1-11), turned Egyptian gods holding suns (#8), turned Roman saints with sun disc on head (#s 14-15), turned angelic figures with "halos" behind (#s 22-30) and then above (#s 33-46) their head, as we now think of what "angels" are. [3] Modern "angels", according to Massey (1907), are Egyptian sun god birds, turned human soul birds (see: Egyptian human), that were "compounded" and "carried" into the reformed belief systems of Babylonia, Judea, Greece, Rome, and into the modern-days. [2]

A timeline of artistic depictions of Egyptian sun birds (#s 1-11), turned Egyptian gods holding suns (#8), turned Roman saints with sun disc on head (#s 14-15), turned angelic figures with "halos" behind (#s 22-30) and then above (#s 33-46) their head, as we now think of what "angels" are. [3] Modern "angels", according to Massey (1907), are Egyptian sun god birds, turned human soul birds (see: Egyptian human), that were "compounded" and "carried" into the reformed belief systems of Babylonia, Judea, Greece, Rome, and into the modern-days. [2]

In religio-mythology, angel, as contrasted with “demon” (see: Satan; devil), in modern day terms, refers to a fictional, myth-based, semi-divine female spirit-like entity, with wings and a halo, and embodying the power of “good”, originating, in cross-cultural god reduction view of belief systems, from the ancient Egyptian belief in the “benu bird” (see: phoenix), a magical bird thought to carry the sun on its head, following its daily birth, and carry it though the sky during its daily journal.

Overview
In c.3,100BC, Egyptians thought a sun god model, according to which the sun or sun as supreme god was carried in the sky by a bird called the benu bird or benben bird, labeled the “phoenix” by Herodotus (c.450BC).

In c.500BC, Jews, who were a reformed sect of Egyptians, i.e. Is-Ra-El-ites, effected a massive god reduction, similar to that previously attempted by Akhenaten (1300BC), wherein extant supreme gods were turned into a handful of synonymous themed gods, such as El, Amen, Yahweh, YHWH, etc., who were mixed together, in texts, into an confused amalgamation, conceptualize as one god; former classic secondary gods, in the former henotheism scheme, e.g. Atum, Nun, Osiris, etc., were made or rescripted into prophets, such as Adam, Noah, Moses, respectively, via the “god-to-prophet” rescript method (Dunlap, 1858), and the ancient motif of the children of god, e.g. Horus and Set, battling nightly in the forms of the powers of lightness and darkness or good and evil, were re-cast into the story guise of angels and demons. [1]

In c.1820, with the translation of the Rosetta Stone, the detective work of the 150+ religio-mythology scholars ferreted the basics of how Egyptian birds were turned into Christian angels; one example is as follows:

“The human soul never was ‘conceived as a bird’, but might be imaged as a bird, according to the primitive system of representation. The golden hawk, for instance, was a bird which typified the sun that soared aloft as Horus in the heavens, and the same bird in the eschatology was then applied to the human soul in its resurrection from the body. Hence the hawk with a human head is a compound image, not the portrait of a human soul. The celestial poultry that pass for angels in the imagination of Christendom have no direct relation to spiritual reality. A ‘feathered angel’ was never yet seen by clairvoyant vision, and is not a result of revelation. We know how they originated, why they were so represented, and where they came from into the Christian eschatology. They are the human-headed birds that were compounded and portrayed for souls in Egypt [see: Egyptian human], and carried out thence into Babylonia, Judea, Greece, Rome, and other lands.”
— Gerald Massey (1907), Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World: a Work of Reclamation and Restitution in Twelve Books, Volume One (pg. 136) [2]

In the 20th century, after 1920 to 1945, following WWI and WWII, much of this former religio-mythology research, so-intelligently perused by thinkers like Massey and Dunlap, in the 19th century, was pushed underground, classified as "not-acceptable references", generally as religious faith began to blossom.

In the 21st century, per repercussion of this intellectual atrophy, very few modern people understand the mythological origin of angels, and therefore continue to believe in them; the following, from a 2006 Barack Obama campaign speech, is one humorous take on this: [1]

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Quotes
The following are related quotes:

“When you die, you turn into an ‘angel’ with very pretty wings, and god is a boy with a nice white shirt.”
— Girl #5 (2016), “Video of Kids aged 4 and 5 who were asked: What Happens When You Die? For Dying Matters Awareness Week” (1:21-1:40), Keech Hospice Care, Luton, England [1]

“What do you think of this ‘great awakening’, and angels coming down to save us? Like religious stuff people talk about?”
— Armando (2020), “Text to Libb Thims”, Query asked in the context of the third week of the US Coronavirus Quarantine, Apr 2

References
1. Thims, Libb. (2016). Smart Atheism: For Kids (pdf | 309-pgs) (angels, pgs. 99, 113, 191, 273, 284, 287; Girl #5, pg. 5; Obama, pgs. 87). Publisher.
2. Massey, Gerald. (1907). Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World: a Work of Reclamation and Restitution in Twelve Books, Volume One (pg. 136). T. Fisher Unwin.
3. (a) Thims, Libb. (2004). Human Thermodynamics (Volume Three) (§22: Religion and Thermodynamics II, pgs. 611-62) (see: halo article). 330-pgs. (un-finished manuscript) Chicago: IoHT Publishing.
(b) See: "Halo" article for more images, dates, and details.

External links
● Angel – Wikipedia.