Temeluchus is one of the tartaruchi

Tartaruchi

Tartaruchi are the keepers of Tartarus , according to the 4th century, non-canonical Apocalypse of Paul. The author describes them as using one hand to choke damned souls, and the other using an "iron of three hooks"...

, the chief angel

Fallen angel

Fallen angel is a concept developed in Jewish mythology from interpretation of the Book of Enoch. The actual term fallen angel is not found in either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament. Christians adopted the concept of fallen angels mainly based on their interpretations of the Book of...

 of torment (and possibly Satan

Satan

Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

 himself), according to the extracanonical

Biblical canon

A biblical canon, or canon of scripture, is a list of books considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular religious community. The term itself was first coined by Christians, but the idea is found in Jewish sources. The internal wording of the text can also be specified, for example...

 Apocalypse of Paul

Apocalypse of Paul

The Apocalypse of Paul is a 4th-century text of the New Testament apocrypha. There is an Ethiopic version of the Apocalypse which features the Virgin Mary in the place of Paul the Apostle, as the receiver of the vision, known as the Apocalypse of the Virgin...

. In addition to being described as "a merciless angel, all fire," Temeluchus also has the surprising designation as a caretaking angel set over children at birth or during infancy.

He is mentioned in chapter 15 and chapter 18 as God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

 is rendering judgment:

15 [...] Just is the judgment of God, and there is no respect of persons with God, for whoever has done his mercy he will have mercy on him, and who has not had mercy, neither will God have mercy on him. Let him therefore be delivered to the angel Temeluchus that is set over the torments, and let him cast him into the outer darkness where is weeping and gnashing of teeth, and let him be there until the great day of judgment.

18 [...] Let that soul be delivered into the hands of Temeluchus, and he must be taken down into hell. Let him take him into the lower prison and let him be cast into torments and be left there until the great day of judgment.

In chapter 34, he is seen torturing the soul of a gluttonous

Gluttony

Gluttony, derived from the Latin gluttire meaning to gulp down or swallow, means over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, intoxicants or wealth items to the point of extravagance or waste...

 and lust

Lust

Lust is an emotional force that is directly associated with the thinking or fantasizing about one's desire, usually in a sexual way.-Etymology:The word lust is phonetically similar to the ancient Roman lustrum, which literally meant "purification"...

ful priest:

34 Yet again I looked upon the river of fire, and I saw there an old man who was being dragged along, immersed up to the knees. And Temeluchus came with a great fork of fire with which he pierced the entrails of that old man.

In chapter 40, he is seen tormenting men and women who committed abortion

Abortion

Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

 and infanticide

Infanticide

Infanticide or infant homicide is the killing of a human infant. Neonaticide, a killing within 24 hours of a baby's birth, is most commonly done by the mother.In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible...

:

40 [...] I looked and I saw other men and women upon a spit of fire, and beasts tearing at them, and they were not suffered to say: Lord, have mercy on us. And I saw the angel of torments Temeluchus laying most fierce torments upon them saying: Acknowledge the Son of God. For it was told you before, but when the scriptures of God were read to you, you paid no attention: where the judgment of God is just, for your evil doings have taken hold of you, and brought you into these torments.

His mention in chapter 40 of the Apocalypse of Paul is foreshadowed in the earlier, fragmentary Apocalypse of Peter

Apocalypse of Peter

The recovered Apocalypse of Peter or Revelation of Peter is an example of a simple, popular early Christian text of the 2nd century; it is an example of Apocalyptic literature with Hellenistic overtones. The text is extant in two incomplete versions of a lost Greek original, one Koine Greek, and an...

:

And all they that are in torment will say with one voice: have mercy upon us, for now we know the judgment of God, which he declared to us before, and we didn't believe. And the angel Temeluchus will come and chastise them with yet greater torment, and say to them: Now do you repent, when it is no longer the time for repentance, and nothing of life remains.

Temeluchus' name is sometimes rendered as Aftemelouchos, Aftemeloukhos, Tartaruchus, Tatirokos, Temelouchos, and T'ilimyakos.

He appears again in 2 Meqabyan

Meqabyan

I, II, and III Meqabyan are three books in the Ethiopian Orthodox Old Testament Biblical canon....

12:13 (considered canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church), just as the evil king Tsirutsaydan is proclaiming his own immortality:

And before he finished speaking this thing, the Angel of Death whose name is called T'ilimyakos alighted and struck his heart. He died in that hour. As he didn't praise his Creator, he was separated from his beautiful lifestyle and perished, arising from the abundance of his arrogance and the evil of his works.