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Bible Dictionaries
Cherubim
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (χερουβίμ)
Among the symbolic ornaments of the Tabernacle the writer of Hebrews mentions ‘the cherubim of glory overshading the mercy-seat’ (Hebrews 9:5). In Solomon’s Temple there were two colossal cherubim whose out-spread wings filled the most holy place (1 Kings 6:23-28), but in the ideal description of the Tabernacle two much smaller figures are represented as standing on the ark of the covenant itself (which was only about four feet long), facing each other and overshadowing the place of God’s presence. The cherubim were ‘das beliebteste Ornamentstück der Hebräer’ (Benzinger, Heb. Arch., Freiburg, 1894, p. 268). It is significant that while precise directions are given regarding their material, position, and attitude, nothing is said of their shape except that they were winged. Their enigmatic form made them fitting symbols of the mysterious nature of the Godhead. Originally, no doubt, they were far from being merely allegorical. They had lived long in the popular imagination before they came to be used as religious emblems. They were mythical figures probably suggested by the phenomenon of the storm-cloud, in which God seemed to descend from heaven to earth, the thunder being the rushing of their wings and the lightning their flashing swords (cf. Psalms 18:10-11). While Lenormant (Les Origines, 1880-84, i, 112f.) and Friedrich Delitzsch (Wo lag das Paradies?, 1881, p. 150f.) connect them with the winged bulls which guarded the entrance to Assyrian palaces, others associate them with the Syrian griffins (probably of Hittite origin) which were supposed to draw the chariot of the sun-god (Cheyne, Encyclopaedia Biblica i. 745). Behind the cherubim of Ezekiel (10:1f.) which are the original of the ‘living creatures’ of Revelation 4:6-8, there may be the signs of the zodiac (Gunkel).
When the later Hebrews wished to represent the presence of Jahweh among them in the Temple at Jerusalem, they adopted the cherubim as the awful symbols alike of His nearness and of His unapproachableness. It is improbable that these works of art had a purely human appearance. Schultz (OT Theol., Eng. translation , 1892, ii. 236) inclines to the view that they were ‘composite figures, with the feet of oxen, the wings of eagles, the manes of lions, and the body and face of men.’ A. Jeremias (The OT in the Light of the Anc. East, 1911, ii. 126), following Klostermann, thinks it possible that ‘the conception is that of four cherubim (two cherubim, each with a double face).’ As the symbols were blazoned on the doors, walls, and curtains of the Temple, their general appearance must originally have been quite well known, but time once more threw a veil of mystery over them, and Josephus declares that ‘no one can tell or guess what the cherubim, were like’ (Ant. viii. iii. 3).
Literature.-I. Benzinger, Heb. Arch.2, 1907, index, s.v. ‘Kerube’; A. Furtwängler, in Roscher [Note: oscher Roscher’s Ausführliches Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie.] , Lex. i. 2, col. 1742ff. article ‘Gryps’; article ‘Cherub’ in Encyclopaedia Biblica and ‘Cherubim’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) .
James Strahan.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Cherubim'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/c/cherubim.html. 1906-1918.
