In the earlier Old Testament texts the bene elohim were gods, but subsequently they became angels,[49] the "messengers" (malakim), whom Jacob sees going up and down a "ladder" (actually a celestial mountain) between heaven and Earth.[50] In earlier works the messengers were anonymous, but in the Second Temple period (539 BCE–100 CE) they began to be given names, and eventually became the vast angelic orders of Christianity and Judaism.[3] Thus the gods and goddesses who had once been the superiors or equals of Yahweh were first made his peers, then subordinate gods, and finally ended as angels in his service.[44]