When did Christians first claim a connection between Jesus and the angel of the Lord?

### Background The phrase מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה (angel of Y-H-V-H) is found several times in the Hebrew bible: > Then the **angel of the Lord** said, “O Lord of hosts, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which you have been angry these seventy years?” Then the Lord replied with gracious and comforting words to **the angel** who spoke with me. (Zechariah 1:12-13) > But when **the angel** stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented concerning the evil and said to **the angel** who was bringing destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” **The angel of the Lord** was standing by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. (2 Samuel 24:16) > **The angel of the Lord** found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.” (Genesis 16:7-8) ### Question It is a relatively common (if not mainstream) Christian belief among most denominations that the "angel of the Lord" found in the Hebrew bible is a pre-incarnate form of Jesus. However this belief appears to post-date the Bible since the New Testament does not make this claim. - When was the angel of the Lord first explicitly identified as Jesus/a person of the Trinity? - Who first made this claim and where did they make it? - What's the history of the co-identification of the "angel of the Lord" with Jesus?