Who is the angel, Palmoni?

Who is the angel, Palmoni?

I was reading my Bible and came across an unusual translation in the King James Version. Intrigued, I delved deeper into the reasons behind the translators’ choice of the word “saint” instead of “angel.” I discovered some fascinating insights that I had never known before. However, I must warn you that what I’m about to reveal is like unraveling a never-ending thread. If you’re a serious Bible student, I suggest you take a break now.

The verse in question is Daniel 8:13. "Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?”

The Hebrew word translated as “saint” in this verse is word palmoni (פלמוני), which is known as a hapax legomenon—a word that appears only once in the Bible. In this case, its sole occurrence is in Daniel 8:13. The context for its appearance is a dramatic vision. The prophet Daniel witnessed a conversation between two beings, whom modern translations label as “holy ones” and assume to be angels. They were discussing the duration of the desecration of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, a reference to the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes in the 2nd century BC. One angel inquired about the duration of this tragic state of affairs, and it is in this exchange that the word palmoni appears. Let me transliterate the word so you can see it in the verse.

Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy palmoni said to the one who spoke…

First, let’s address the challenge of translating being who are obviously angels as “saints.” The Apostle Paul used the term “saints” over 40 times in his letters. He viewed all believers as saints, called to be holy in Christ, not just a select few. This usage is evident in addresses like 1 Corinthians 1:2 to the entire church, indicating a general calling rather than official canonization.

The Roman Catholic Church employs the term “saint” in various contexts. The most common usage pertains to Christians who, as outlined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) in paragraph 2683, have “preceded us into the kingdom [of heaven].” When they are canonized, their virtues are publicly recognized and proclaimed. However, this type of “sainthood” is not found in the Bible.

Confusion can arise when readers encounter the word “saint” in Daniel 8:13. Some may assume that these individuals are canonized Christians, but that is not accurate. Instead, they are holy beings, or what we refer to as “angels."

In 1611, with the publication of the King James Version of the Bible, the main text translated the phrase containing “palmoni” as “that certain Saint which spake.” However, tucked away in the margin was a small note offering an alternative, speculative translation: “the numberer of secrets, or, the wonderful numberer.” This interpretation was essentially a creative guess. The translators likely combined the Hebrew words for “wonderful” (péle) and “to count” (manah), given that the angel’s conversation was about a specific number of days. While intended only as a possibility, this single footnote provided the creative spark for an entirely new, mystical tradition: an angel named “Palmoni,” who is the official angel who counts and records God’s calendar.

The issue is that all of this is merely speculative and lacks a biblical foundation. Linguistically, “palmoni” is not a name at all but a clever combination of two other Hebrew words: “pelōnî” and “almōnî,” which appear elsewhere in the Bible in passages such as Ruth 4:1, 1 Samuel 21:3, and 2 Kings 6:8. When combined, the new term simply means “[a certain] one,” “so-and-so,” or, more literally, “whomever it was that was speaking.” In the context of Daniel 8:13, the passage could be translated as “another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking.” Therefore, the word is not a secret name of an angel but a generic placeholder used to refer to the first, unnamed angel. While secretly discovering a hidden angel’s name in Scripture may sound exciting and adventurous, it is merely a fairy tale. This entire mystical tradition was born not from the original text itself, but from a single, speculative note jotted down in the margin by a translator over 400 years ago.

As Always, Keep It Literal.

PTL