A cherub is one of the supernatural beings who directly assist God according to Brahmanic religions. In the Jewish angelic hierarchy, cherubim occupy the ninth rank (second lowest) in Maimonides’ Mishne Torah (12th century), and the third rank in Kabbalistic works such as Beritmenuja (14th century). De Coelesti Hierarchia places them in the highest rank alongside Seraphim and Thrones.
Their legs were straight, the soles of their feet like the hooves of a bull, shining like polished brass. Later tradition attributes a variety of physical appearances to them. Some early midrashic literature conceives of them as non-corporeal.
In Western Christian tradition, cherubim have been associated with putti (derived from Cupid, classical Eros), giving rise to representations of cherubim as small, chubby, winged children.
In Islam, cherubim are the angels closest to God. Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall pointed to Ru as one of the noblest among the cherubim. Others are the Throne Bearers or the archangels. In Ismailism, there are seven cherubim, comparable to the Seven Archangels.
Through the influence of the Septuagint, “cherubim” was used in earlier English versions, also as a singular, therefore the plural was made to sound like “cherubim.” The etymology of the word cannot be determined.
1. The Hebrew Bible
Cherubim are the most frequently occurring heavenly creatures in the Hebrew Bible, with the Hebrew word appearing 91 times. Despite these many references, the role of cherubim is never explicitly clarified. While Hebrew tradition must have conceived cherubim as guardians of the Garden of Eden (guarding the way to the Tree of Life), they are often described as performing other roles; for example, in the book of Ezekiel, they carry the throne of Yahweh.
2. In Christianity
Baroque cherub from the church in Scharten, Upper Austria, Altar of the Crucifixion Cherubim are considered in traditional Christian angelology to be angels of the second highest order in the ninefold celestial hierarchy. De CoelestiHierarchia (ca. 5th century) lists them alongside Seraphim and Thrones. In Western art, cherubim were associated with the angel and the Greco-Roman god Cupid/Eros, with representations as small, fat children with wings.
Artistic representations of cherubim in early Christian and Byzantine art sometimes diverged from the descriptions in the scriptures. The oldest known representation of the tetramorphic cherubim is the 5th-6th century mosaic in the apse of the Church of Hosios David in Thessaloniki.
This mosaic is an amalgamation of Ezekiel’s visions in Ezekiel 1:4-28, Ezekiel 10:12, Isaiah’s seraphim in Isaiah 6:13, and the six-winged creatures in Revelation 4:2-10.
3. In Islam
Cherubim (al-Karubiyyin) are not mentioned in the Quran, but they appear in Islamic traditions within the Miraj literature and in Qisas Al-Anbiya. Cherubim are commonly found in the sixth heaven or identified with the Throne Bearers. Cherubim continually praise God with the tasbih: “Glory to Allah!” They are described as shining brighter than any of the lower angels can imagine.
4. As Guardians of Paradise:
In Genesis 3:24, after Adam’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, God places the cherubim to the east of the garden, along with a flaming sword “to guard the way to the tree of life.”
In their role as guardians of Paradise, cherubim are analogous to the winged bulls and lions of Babylon and Assyria, colossal figures with human faces guarding the entrance to temples (and palaces), just as in Egypt, the entrances to sanctuaries are protected by sphinxes.
But the Babylonian colossi are called lamassu, or shedu; so far, no designation has been found in the Assyrian language that comes close to the Hebrew kerubh. Nor are the winged figures, half human and half animal, found on both sides of the “sacred tree” in Babylonian and Persian art called that.
Thus, a Babylonian origin for the Hebrew cherubim is neither proven nor refuted. If we look for other analogies that, of course, do not indicate a borrowing on the part of the Hebrews, we can mention the fabulous griffins (grupes), generally represented with the heads and wings of an eagle and the body and hindquarters of a lion. The Greeks believed that they inhabited Scythia and jealously guarded that country’s gold.
5. The garden as the dwelling place of the gods:
If we read between the lines of the account of Paradise in Ge (compare Genesis 3:8), the Garden of Eden, the primitive dwelling place of man, is revealed as something more than that:
It was apparently the dwelling place of God. In the polytheistic story of the creation of the world and the early life of man, which, although in many respects analogous (compare Genesis 3:22), lacks the more spiritual notions of Hebraism, the garden was the dwelling place of the gods who alone had access to the tree of life from whose fruit they derived their immortality.
Adam, before the fall, is conceived as a superhuman being; for while he is forbidden to taste the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the way to immortality is open to him; for it is only after transgressing the divine command that he deserves death and becomes mortal. The choice between immortal innocence and mortal knowledge was before him; he chose death with knowledge.
6. Cherubim as Assistants to the Deity:
The mythical elements of the Paradise story are even more evident in Ezekiel 28:13, where the fall of the king of Tyre is compared to that of primitive man. The garden is located on a sacred mountain of Elohim (= God for Ezekiel, but gods in the primitive source), the “mountain of assembly” of Isaiah 14:13, high above the stars in the recesses of the North.
It is a wonderful place, adorned with all kinds of precious stones. There, man, perfect from the day he was created, resplendent in beauty, outstanding in wisdom, walks among the fiery stones, like a cherub with outstretched wings. The cherubim are apparently the attendants of the Deity, beautiful angels, of whom man was to be one:
But he fell from glory and was cast out of the sanctuary he had defiled. Some of the angelic assistants of the Deity within are located in Genesis, to serve as guardians of the inaccessible sacred garden.
7. As throne bearers:
As attendants of God, they carry the throne upon which He descends from His high dwelling place. Thus, in the description of a theophany in Psalm 18, we read: “He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and thick darkness was under His feet. He rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, He was exalted in the wings of the wind.” (Psalms 18:9,10)
Therefore, the Lord, or, as it is said in the full title, the Lord of Hosts, has the repeated style of “He who sits (broken) upon the cherubim” (Psalms 80:1; 99:1; 1 Samuel 4:4, and elsewhere). There are certainly no traces here of bull figures:
Bulls do not fly; the underlying conception is, it seems, rather that of the storm cloud. Compare with Psalms 104:3: “He who makes the clouds his chariot; who walks on the wings of the wind.” The Hebrew for “chariot” is rekhubh, a kind of inverted kerubh. In Ezekiel’s Vision:
But the function of the cherubim as bearers and movers of the divine throne is more clearly highlighted in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezekiel 1, with which we compare Ezekiel 10).
In chapter 1, the prophet designates them as “living creatures” (chayyoth); but upon hearing God’s words addressed to the “man clothed in linen” (Ezekiel 10:2), he realizes that the living creatures he saw in the first vision were cherubim (Ezekiel 10:20); Therefore, in Ezekiel 9:3.
The cherubim represent the spirit, or the will, in the wheels:
In the direction of the spirit, the wheels rise from the bottom and the chariot moves upward (Ezekiel 1:19; 10:16). The cherubim are thus the moving force of the vehicle.
8. Relationship with seraphim and other angels:
Ezekiel’s cherubim are clearly related to the seraphim in Isaiah’s opening vision (Isaiah 6). Like the cherubim, the seraphim are God’s attendants when He is seated on a high and exalted throne; they are also winged creatures.
Like the Levites in the sanctuary below, they sing a hymn of worship: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.”
In the Book of Enoch, the cherubim, seraphim, ophannim (wheels), and all the angels of power constitute the “host of God,” the guardians of his throne, the singers of praise who attribute blessing to the “Lord of spirits.”
“with the archangel Gabriel at their head (see Isaiah 61:10;). And so, in the daily Jewish liturgy, the seraphim, the ophannim, and the “living creatures” constitute the heavenly choir which, as the chosen ministers of the living God, ready to do the will of their creator with trembling, sing in sweet harmony the Three Times Holy.
In the Talmud, cherubim are depicted as having the image of young men (with a fanciful etymology, ke mas rubh, “like a young man”; Cukk 5b; Chag 13b), while according to the Midrash, they have no definite form but appear indistinctly as men or women, or as spirits and angelic beings (Ge rabba ’21).
9. In Revelation 4:
The “four living creatures” of Revelation 4:6 are clearly modeled on Ezekiel, with additional touches from Isaiah. Full of eyes in front and behind, they stand in the midst of the throne and around it. One resembles a lion, another a calf, the third a man, and the fourth a flying eagle.
10. Ornamental cherubim in Solomon’s temple:
In Solomon’s temple, two gigantic images of cherubim made of olive wood overlaid with gold, ten cubits high, stood in the innermost sanctuary (the debhir) in front of the door, whose wings, five cubits each, extended, two of them joined together in the center of the room to form the throne, while two extended to the walls (1 Kings 6:23-28; 8:6,7; 2 Chronicles 3:10-13; 5:7,8).
The Chronicler depicts them as the chariot of the Lord (1 Chronicles 28:18). There were also images of cherubim carved on the gold-covered cedar planks that formed the inner walls of the temple and on the olive wood doors (1 Kings 6:29,35; 2 Chronicles 3:7); also on the bases of the portable laver, alternating with lions and oxen (1 Kings 7:29-36). According to the Chronicler, they were also woven into the veil of the Holy of Holies (2 Chronicles 3:14).
11. In Ezekiel’s temple:
Ezekiel depicts the inner walls of the temple as carved with palm trees and alternating cherubim, each with two faces, the lion looking to one side and the man to the other (Ezekiel 41:18-25).
In the Tabernacle:
In the Tabernacle, there were two cherubim made of solid gold on the golden slab of the “cover” or “mercy seat,” facing each other, with their wings spread upward, to form a throne on which the glory of the Lord appeared, and of which He spoke (Exodus 25:18-22; 37:7-9; Numbers 7:89; Hebrews 9:5).
There were also cherubim woven into the texture of the inner curtain of the Tabernacle and the veil (Exodus 26:1,31; 36:8,35). There were no cherubim in Herod’s temple, but the walls were painted with figures of them (see Talmud Yoma ’54a). In Josephus’ time, no one knew what the biblical cherubim looked like (Ant., VIII, iii, 3).
