CHERUBIM

CHERUBIM, is also another title by which the angels of God are designated ; its etymon being derived from the Hebrew, and signifies, fulness of knowledge. According to some expositors the term is taken from a Chaldaic word denoting youth. Others, give it the meaning of swiftness of flight as angels have usually appeared with the appendage of wings. Others, again, attribute to it the same root as Rabbi, a teacher, implying the extent of knowledge and vast intelligence possessed by angels, represented also by eyes in the mysterious and apocalyptic visions of Ezekiel and St. John. Full of eyes round about, and before, and behind, and within.

The first mention of cherubim recorded in the Scripture, is in 3d chapter of Genesis and 24th verse,from which we learn they were divinely appointed as sentinels to guard the approach to the garden of Eden immediately upon the disobedience and apostacy of our first parents.

Respecting the history, the character, the nature and the design of the cherubim, much ingenuity has been exercised, learning expended, and an abundance of theological controversy and speculative explanations indulged. Those which Moses, by divine authority, was commanded to prepare and place at each end of the mercy-seat or propitiatory, and which overshadowed the ark, with expanded wings, in the most holy place of the Jewish tabernacle, # were very splendid figures, made of pure and solid, beaten and burnished gold. — Exodus xxv. 18, 19. The original import of their name, together with their form or shape, excepting that they were alata animata, winged creatures, is not definitely ascertained. The opinion of Grotius, that they resembled the figure of a calf, or the supposition of Bochart and Spencer, that they partook more of the character of the bull, than anything else, is as groundless as it is infelicitous.* Josephus states that they were extraordinary creatures, of a figure unknown to mankind. The opinions of critics founded upon the 10th verse of the 1st chapter of Ezekiel were, that they were figures composed of various creatures, as a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. But we are not furnished with any decided evidence that the figures placed in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle were of the same description as those symbolical representations which appeared, in a vision, to the prophet Ezekiel. The contrary rather seems to be indicated, in asmuch as they looked down upon the mercy-seat, which is an attitude not well adapted for a four -faced animal, like the emblematical cherubim which Ezekiel beheld. The cherubim of the sanctuary were two in number, one at each end of the mercy-seat, which, with the ark, was placed exactly in the middle, between the north and south sides of the tabernacle. It was here that atonement was made and God rendered propitious, by the high priest sprinkling the blood upon and before the mercy-seat. — Lev. xvi. 14, 15. Here the glory of God was manifested, and here, he met the high priest, and through him, maintained intercourse with his chosen people. — Exodus xxv. 22 ; Numb. vii. 89. From hence he gave forth his oracles ; whence the whole place was called debir, from the root debar, which signifies to speak, because God who dwelt between the cherubim, declared his mind from hence, when he was consulted, by the high priest, with urim and thummin. These cherubim had feet whereon they stood, and which were joined in one continued beaten work to the ends of the mercy-seat, covering the ark, so that they were entirely over and above it. Those in the tabernacle were wrought solid gold, But of small dimensions ; whilst those in the magnificent temple of Solomon were of great magnitude, fabricated from the wood of the olive tree, or tree of oil, overlaid with gold, and whose expanded wings extending the entire breadth of the oracle or altar piece, being twenty cubits broad. — 1 Kings vi. 23-28 ; 2 Chron. iii. 10-13.

They are also styled cherubim of glory, not from the beauty or excellency of the material of which they are composed, but from constituting a glorious symbol of the Divine Presence or Shechinah which rested between them. As this glory resided in the inner tabernacle, and as the figures of the cherubim represented the angels who surrounded the manifestation of the Divine Presence in the world above, that tabernacle was rendered a suitable emblem or image of the court of heaven, in which light it is alluded to throughout St. Paul's epistle to the Hebrews.*

The disciples of Mr. Hutchinson strenuously contended that the cherubim are emblematical representations of Jehovah himself, or rather of the Trinity of persons in the Godhead, with man received into the divine essence. To which objections have been raised ; — that God being a pure spirit, without parts or passion, perfectly separate and remote from all matter, should require Moses to make material * and visible images of himself is highly improbable, and counter to the repeated interdictions to the Israelites, as well as the more direct prohibition enacted in the second command of the decalogue delivered from the summit of Mount Sinai, amidst thunder and lightnings, blackness, and tempest, and the awful voice of the trumpet waxing louder and louder, a Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image, or likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth." Add to this, that in all places in Scripture where the cherubim are specified, God is expressly distinguished from them. The Lord placed at each end of the Garden cherubim, and a flaming sword. He rode upon a cherub and did fly. He sitteth between the cherubim. The glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was to the threshold of the house. Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house ; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory. And again, Then the glory of the Lord * departed from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim.

 In all the foregoing passages the glory of the Lord, that is, the shekinah, the sublime symbol of his presence is carefully distinguished from the Cherubim ; without the slightest intimation being afforded, that they were images or emblematical representations of the incomprehensible Jehovah. Mr. Parkhurst's elaborate attempt to sustain Mr. Hutchinson's sentiments, involve contradiction, and are much too fanciful for the sobriety of Christian judgment to obtain a ready reception.

In conformity with the opinions of many eminent divines, the cherubim are supposed to represent the angels that surrounded the Divine Presence in heaven ; and accordingly their faces were directed towards the mercy-seat where God was declared to dwell ; whose glory the angels in the tabernacle of the upper sanctuary always behold, and upon which their eyes are continually fixed, as they are also on Christ, the true propitiatory, which mystery of Redemption, They desire to look into, and evidently signified by the cherubim being turned inward, and their eyes steadfastly fixed, in the attitude of inspection, on the mercy-seat.

In Ezekiel's vision, the cherubic figures are obviously connected with the dispensations of providence, and they have, therefore, appropriate forms emblematical of strength, wisdom, swiftness, and constancy, requisite for holy angels, as ministering spirits to execute the designs of God ; but in the sanctuary they are associated with the administration of the purposes of grace, and accordingly appear more properly in the representative character of adoring angels.

Some commentators have agreed that zoa, or the living ones (mistranslated " beasts, ") are hieroglyphical representations, not of the characteristics of angels, but those of genuine Christians during the suffering and active periods of the Church of Christ. The first a lion, signifying their undaunted courage in undergoing the torture of martyrdom ; the second, a calf, indicative of unwearied patience and constant labor ; the third, having the face of a man, expressive of circumspection, prudence, and compassion ; the fourth, a flying eagle, to imply activity, penetration, and vigor — representing, likewise, the extensive ministration of angels, in
whatever appertains to the providential events and circumstances attending the progress of Christianity.

The wheels which composed a part of the august machinery of EzekiePs vision, have been regarded as representing the throne of the Deity. The involution of the wheels intimate, their rolling every way, with the perfect freedom of locomotion, showing how well adapted were the forms of the cherubim for the service of conducting the throne — their faces turning every way.

The eyes* in the wheels are significant of the dispensations of Providence controlled by infinite wisdom ; and the glittering splendid hues or tints radiated from them, fitly represent the dazzling brightness of those illustrious and attendant spirits that encircle the divine majesty of Jehovah. 

A modern divine considers that " there is no foundation in the Scripture for the opinion that cherubim and seraphim are distinct orders of angels. The two names are merely distinctive of two attributes attaching to the same order of *beings — their nearness to Jehovah, and the glorious effulgence of their celestial nature."

Dean Woodhouse, in his translation of the Apocalypse, pronounces with much confidence a similar opinion, stating that the description of living creatures in Rev. iv. 6, is improperly rendered, and which he proceeds to prove by a comparison of several particulars ; and that the living creatures of Saint John, are the same celestial intelligences with those described by Isaiah and Ezekiel, showing by the resemblance of the description, that the seraphim of Isaiah and the cherubim of Ezekiel are reconciled in the similitude or character of the living creatures of St. John's apocalyptic vision, to wit : 1st. The number of living creatures is the same as described by the prophet ; but Ezekiel already intimates the indistinctness of the vision, and the difficulty of expressing by similitudes taken from earthly things ; for he says, " As it were the likeness of four living creatures."

2. Here both writers concur in expressing this indistinctness. John says, " In the midst of the throne, and round about the throne," as if he could not fix the exact station of these heavenly attendants. Ezekiel says, " In the midst," and at the same time expresses the uncertainty of their position.

3. The abundance of eyes is the same in both writers, though not described exactly in the same manner. From both, it appears that no part of these heavenly ministers are without eyes. The eyes, that wonderful part of animal creation, the inlets of knowledge and intelligence, are innumerable, and thus express infinite superiority of understanding to anything which is earthly.

In the vision of Ezekiel, the cherubim had each four wings ; in that of Isaiah and Saint John, they have six.With reference to the propriety of the difference, Grotius remarks, that " the seraphim of Isaiah have twc more wings than the cherubim of Ezekiel, because they are represented as being more 'immediately in the presence of God ; and therefore each of them is furnished with twain to cover his face before such transcendent brightness." Here, also, what was wanting in Ezekiel's description is supplied by that of Isaiah. The seraphim sung the praises of God without intermission.

After this comparison of concordant passages of Scripture, we shall have little hesitation in determining the nature and species of these living creatures of the Apocalypse. They are the same with those in Isaiah and Ezekiel ; and Ezekiel has settled that point, by declaring expressly that they are cherubim, and that he knew them to be cherubim. They are the highest order of angelic beings, attending nearly upon the throne, and speaking thence with the voice of thunder, which is the voice of God. They are so near to the throne, so intermingled with its dazzling splendor, that human faculties must fail in attaining any precise and adequate idea of them.

Notwithstanding the confidence with which the Dean has supported his views regarding the identity of the living creatures seen by Ezekiel and those glorious spirits beheld in the vision of Isaiah, we leave them to the judgment of those who are conversant with the difficulties of reconciling the differences of theological controversy, and submit his diatessaron accordingly.

Withdrawing, from the turbid and agitated waters of polemical theology, how much serener, more delightful, consolitary and animating is the contemplation that these illustrious, resplendent, benevolent and sympathizing spirits are ever active on our behalf, and constantly interpose for our welfare, in every temptation, trial, affliction, seasons of despondency, privation, and sorrow ; — softening to our overpowered spiritual apprehension, the insufferable glory and ineffable grandeur of the Divine Majesty,* by whom they are commissioned, with errands of mercy and grace, to carry forward the benignant purpose of almighty goodness, forbearance and loving-kindness, comprehended in the great and wonderful mystery of Godliness — the Redemption.! * "

For the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them. The chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousand of angels.

In connection with the foregoing statement, it will be only requisite that we briefly enumerate the other titles of distinction by which the angelic Intelligences of the celestial hosts are designated in the sacred Scriptures.

Author: George Clayton Jr. 1854