An Historical Summary of Angelic Hierarchies from Part VII: The “Seven” Thrones in In Operibus Sigillo Dei Aemeth by David Richard Jones.

“It is also clear from these references that the description and function assigned to the Thrones became a means of accounting for the symbols and metaphysics of the visions of Ezekiel and probably to a lesser degree similar visions of Daniel.” [via]

Consider also:

  1. “St Paul’s usage of the term Thrones in this context indicates that it must have had meaning within then-current metaphysics. Though it is possible that the context of Colossians is an entirely mundane and political one, thones, and even dominions, principalities, and so on have been interpreted by subsequent Christian theologians in an almost entirely metaphysical way.”
  2. “It is in the Celestial Hierarchy that the Thrones become situated and defined with the structure of subsequent Christian metaphysics, and from this context that essentially all further elaborations are derived. The Thrones and their celestial functions are given in chapters II, V–VII, and XI of the Celestial Hierarchy, wherein they are described as being symbolically represented by ‘some kind of fiery wheels above the heavens, or material thrones upon which the Supreme Deity may recline,’ and further as great wheels, covered with numerous eyes, marking the end of the uppermost choir or hierarchy of angels where the emanations from God begin to take on material form.”
  3. “If these three sets of letters are correlated inward to the three angelic hierarchies given in Liber Secundus then the correspondence would be Thrones to the Circumference, Thrones to the Septagon, and Holy Sevenfold Table and Angels to the Isosceles Triangles and Mysterious Sevenfold Table.”
  4. “In any case, this passage of Paul’s is the principle reason for the elaborate development attributed to St. Denis or Pseudo-Dionysus, in his Celestial Hierarchy and in passing as a matter of introduction in his Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. Conversely, the work of Pseudo-Dionysus is concerned with putting Judeo-Christian angelology in the context of Platonic metaphysics and cosmology.”
  5. “As we have noted, these terms came with a metaphysical connotation from a prior sectarian Hebrew apocalyptic context. It is also possible that these terms had similar meaning in the context of the Middle Platonic cosmology and theurgy that was familiar to Paul’s Hellenistic audience, and about the development of which we unfortunately know little, but which was to come to fruition in the Chaldean Oracles and the works of Iamblichus and Proclus.”