cherub

[cher-uhb]

cherub, plural cherubim, kind of angel. Cherubim were probably thought of in the ancient Middle East as composite creatures like the winged creatures of Assyria. In Jewish tradition, they are described (Ezek. 10) as having four faces and four wings and also as beautiful young men; but late Christian art made plump children of them, as in Raphael's Sistine Madonna. With the seraphim (see seraph) they are said to be in the very presence of God. The color surrounding them is traditionally blue.

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cherub

In Jewish, Christian, and Islamic literature, a celestial winged being with human, animal, or birdlike characteristics. They are included among the angels, and in the Hebrew scriptures they are described as the throne bearers of God. In Christianity and Islam they are celestial attendants of God and praise him continually. Known as karūbūn in Islam, they repeat “Glory to God” ceaselessly, and they dwell in a section of heaven inaccessible to attacks by the Devil. In art they are often depicted as winged infants. Seealso seraph.

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Cherub

A cherub (Heb. כרוב, pl. כרובים, eng. trans kruv, pl. kruvim, lat. cherub[us], pl cherubi[m]) (sometimes pronounced the way it is spelled) is a supernatural entity mentioned several times in the Old Testament (specifically the Torah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah), in the Book of Revelation (a New Testament text), and in numerous modern texts, such as Paradise Lost.

The correct plural can be written as cherubim or cherubs. Because most English speakers are unfamiliar with Hebrew plural formation, the word cherubims is sometimes used as a plural, such as in the King James Bible.

Religious perspectives

Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism includes belief in the existence of angels, including Cherubim within the Jewish angelic hierarchy, as does Conservative Judaism, although some factions in the latter interpret certain liturgical references to Cherubim more figuratively. Yose ha-Gelili holds, when the Birkat HaMazon (Grace after Meals) is recited by at least ten thousand seated at one meal, the special blessing "Blessed is Ha-Shem our God, the God of Israel, who dwells between the Cherubim" is added to the regular liturgy.

The word is also used to refer to the depictions of Cherubim in Solomon's Temple, including the two cherubim that were part of the Ark of the Covenant. The Book of Numbers depicts the voice of God as speaking to Moses from between the two Cherubim atop the Ark ().

Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism generally either drop references to angels or interpret them metaphorically. However, in Kabbalah and in the tenets of Hassidic Judaism and Jewish mysticism, there has long been a strong belief in Cherubim, with the Cherubim, and other angels, regarded as having mystical roles. The Zohar, a highly significant collection of books in Jewish mysticism, states that the Cherubim were led by one of their number, named Kerubiel.

Christianity

In Catholic theology, as per the ideas presented in the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius, the cherubim are second highest rank in the angelic hierarchy, below the Seraphim. In western art, Putti are sometimes mistaken for Cherubim, although they look nothing alike. They are also mentioned in the Bible in the book of Genesis (Gen. 3:24) as the angels who guarded the east side of the Garden of Eden with "a flaming sword which turned every way".

One suggestion (by scholars such as David Rohl) is that the word Cherubim as used to describe the guardians of Eden in Genesis, derives from the word 'karibu' - a warlike tribe.

Contemporary Biblical criticism

Linguistic scholar Roland De Vaux wrote that the term cherubim is cognate with the Assyrian term karabu, Akkadian term kuribu, and Babylonian term karabu; the Assyrian term means 'great, mighty', but the Akkadian and Babylonian cognates mean 'propitious, blessed'. In some regions the Assyro-Babylonian term came to refer in particular to spirits which served the gods, in particular to the shedu (human-headed winged bulls); According to the authors of the Jewish Encyclopedia, Assyrians sometimes referred to these as kirubu, a term grammatically related to karabu.

According to Peak's Commentary on the Bible, a number of scholars have proposed that cherubim were originally a version of the shedu, protective deities sometimes found as pairs of colossal statues either side of objects to be protected, such as doorways. However, although the shedu were popular in Mesopotamia, archaeological remains from the Levant suggest that they were quite rare in the immediate vicinity of the Israelites. The related Lammasu (human-headed winged lions — to which the sphinx is similar in appearance), on the other hand, were the most popular winged-creature in Phoenician art, and so most scholars suspect that Cherubim were originally a form of Lammasu. In particular, in a scene reminiscent of Ezekiel's dream, the Megiddo Ivories — ivory carvings found at Megiddo (which became a major Israelite city) — depict an unknown king being carried on his throne by hybrid winged-creatures. According to archaeologist Israel Finkelstein, the Israelites arose as a subculture in Canaanite society, and hence regarded it is as only natural for the Israelites to continue using Canaanite protective deities.

According to the editors of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, the Lammasu was originally depicted as having a king's head, a lion's body, and an eagle's wings, but due to the artistic beauty of the wings, these rapidly became the most prominent part in imagery ; wings later came to be bestowed on men, thus forming the stereotypical image of an angel. The griffin — a similar creature but with an eagle's head rather than that of a king — has also been proposed as an origin, arising in Israelite culture as a result of Hittite usage of griffins (rather than being depicted as aggressive beasts, Hittite depictions show them seated calmly, as if guarding), and a few scholars have proposed that griffin may be cognate to cherubim, but Lammasu were significantly more important in Levantine culture, and thus more likely to be the origin.

According to the editors of the Jewish Encyclopedia, Early Israelite tradition conceived of the cherubim as guardians of the Garden of Eden, being devoid of human feelings, and holding a duty both to represent the gods and to guard sanctuaries from intruders, in a comparable way to an account found on Tablet 9 of the inscriptions found at Nimrud. In this view, cherubim, like the shedu, were probably originally depictions of storm deities, especially the storm winds. This view is offered as a hypothesis to explain the reason for cherubim being described as acting as the chariot of Yahweh in Ezekiel's dream, the Books of Samuel, the parallel passages in the later Book of Chronicles, and passages in the early Psalms:

"and he rode upon a cherub and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind".

Artistic depictions

There were no cherubim in Herodian reconstruction of the Temple, but according to some authorities, its walls were painted with figures of cherubim; paintings of cherubim continued into Christian art. In Christianity, they are often represented in iconography as faces of a lion, ox, eagle, and man peering out from the center of an array of four wings (Ezekiel 1:5-11, 10:12,21 Revelation 4:8); seraphim have six; the most frequently encountered descriptor applied to cherubim in Christianity is many-eyed, and in depictions the wings are often shown covered with a multitude of eyes (showing them to be all seeing beings). Since the Renaissance, in Western Christianity cherubim have sometimes become confused with putti—innocent souls, looking liked winged children, that sing praises to God daily—that can be seen in innumerable church frescoes and in the work of painters such as Raphael.

References

Bibliography

De Vaux, Roland (tr. John McHugh), Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions (NY, McGraw-Hill, 1961)
Moses Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed Book III, Chap XLV. Dover Publications. Paperback edition. p 356.
Wright, G. Ernest, Biblical Archaeology (Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1957)