No, Michael may be a name that is used prophetically about events related Jesus. But Jesus was never an angel, and did not exist before birth as Michael.
Jesus, a man conceived 2000 years ago, not before.
To know Jesus as he is presented in the Bible records we need to be understand that Jesus did not exist before birth. Not as the archangel Michael, and not in any other form.
Some churches, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, claim that the angel Michael in the book of Daniel was Jesus. But the New Testament makes it clear that Jesus was conceived of a virgin descended from David, and began his life as a baby who grew in knowledge like any other human.
Who was Michael?
In the book of Daniel the archangel Michael does not actually appear to Daniel in his visions. Instead the unnamed angel with the appearance “like a child of men” in Daniel 10:16 who does appear to Daniel mentions that Michael, the defending angel of Israel, came to assist him in fighting with the heavenly chief prince of Persia and chief prince of Greece. Evidently the nations of Persia and Greece do not literally have angelic defenders, so this is symbolic language describing God’s control over the destiny of the nations.
This archangel Michael is mentioned again in Daniel 12:1-3
“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”
The prophecies of Daniel 12 are referenced again in Revelation 12:7 “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back.” Many people read this literally, as if it were describing a historical event. But clearly Revelation is a book of prophecy and these events must happen after the time of John when they were written.
None of these three passages specifically link Michael – a symbolic defender archangel of Israel – with Jesus.
Nevertheless Daniel 12:1-3 is often inferred to be prophetic of Jesus returning to raise the dead.
This may be correct. Even if the first short-term fulfillment of Daniel 12 relates to the national resurrection of Israel when the Jews returned to their land after 70 years in Babylon, then Daniel 12:1-3 could also still have a greater long-term fulfillment when Christ comes to raise the dead and rule on earth as king.
But again, prophecy is prophecy and symbol is symbol. Applying Daniel 12 to Jesus would still be a symbolic prophecy of future events. It would not be a literal statement that Jesus existed before birth as the archangel defender of Israel who fought with the archangel princes of Persia and Greece.
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