How accurately can 使い be translated as "angel"? On jisho.org, is translated with words such as "errand", and the same holds true on translate.google.com. Neither site is offering "angel" as a suggestion. Yet in Matthew 1:20, the phrase: > is found in English as: > . . . an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said . . . Does it mean "angel" or not? Is the Japanese saying something slightly different than "God no angel"? Thanks!

doesn't mean angel in all contexts, but _does_ mean "messenger/bearer/...". In particular, the usual word for "angel" is []{} or []{} = "messenger from heaven". Here you don't have , but "Lord/God".

As snailplane points out in the comments, the phrase "Angel of the Lord" should appear frequently. Wikipedia writes:

> The **Angel of the Lord** (or the **Angel of God** ) is one of many terms in the Hebrew Bible (also: Old Testament) used for an angel. The Biblical name for angel, מלאך _malak_ , which translates simply as "messenger," obtained the further signification of "angel" only through the addition of God's name, as ("angel of the Lord," or "angel of God", Zech. 12:8).

The same in Japanese. translates simply as "messenger" and only obtains the further signification of "angel" only through the addition of God's name (or through the honorific prefix []{}, as in ssb's answer). In that sense, the Japanese seems to be faithful to the original Hebrew.