(i.e., the mighty one of God), the heavenly messenger who was sent to Daniel to explain the vision of the ram and the he-goat (Dan. viii.), and to communicate the prediction of the Seventy Weeks (Dan. ix.). Under the new dispensation he was employed to announce the birth of John the Baptist to his father Zacharias, and that of the Messiah to the Virgin Mary (Luke i.) Both by Jewish and Christian writers Gabriel is accounted one of the archangels, though the Scriptures affirm nothing positively respecting his rank.