Cherub

Cherub (Heb. k'rûb), in the plural Cherubim or Cherubs, is the Hebrew name of a winged creature with a human countenance, which in the Scriptures is almost always represented in connection with Jehovah, and especially as drawing his chariot-throne. In Scripture the cherubim appear to be quite distinct from the angels, who are Jehovah's messengers, while the cherubim are found where God himself is personally present, and are the living bearers of God manifesting himself in his glory on the earth. It is possible to trace a development both of their form and their significance. While they are always conceived as living creatures, their perfectly free power of movement seems to suggest a connection with the thunder-clouds which reveal to the world the majesty of God. In the 18th Psalm it is said Jehovah 'rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, he flew swiftly upon the wings of the wind;' and elsewhere the clouds are called the chariot of Jehovah. To the Hebrew idea of the cherub (in this aspect of it) is allied the Indian conception of the bird Garuda, the swift bearer of Vishnu, and the swift-winged four-footed bird which in Æschylus carries Oceanus through the ether, as well as the (later) Greek and Roman representations of the griffins bearing Apollo or Artemis. According to Sayce, the word is probably connected with the Assyrian kirubu, the name denoting the winged bull which guarded the house from the entrance of evil spirits, and at the same time with kurubu, the 'circling' bird—i.e., according to Franz Delitzsch, the vulture. Phœnicia took the idea from Babylonia, and the two cherubs made for Solomon (1 Kings vi. 23-28) were wrought by Phœnician artificers. Cherubim are mentioned in the Old Testament as guards of Paradise; a cherub with a flaming sword hindered the return of the expelled human pair. In the Holy of Holies cherubim wrought in embossed metal were represented above the mercy-seat, or covering of the Ark of the Covenant, so that they appeared to rise out of it. Figures of cherubim were also wrought into the hangings of the Holy of Holies. The cherubim that appear in the visions of Ezekiel and the Revelation of John depart much from the early representations. In Ezekiel they have the body of a man, whose head, besides a human countenance, has also that of a lion, an ox, and an eagle; they are provided with four wings, two of which serve to fly, while the other two cover the body; four human hands and arms are under the wings, and the whole body, before and behind, and on the hands and wings, as well as the wheels of their chariot, is spangled with innumerable eyes. In the Revelation, four cherubim, covered with eyes, and having six wings, surround the throne of Jehovah; the first has the face of a lion, the second of an ox, the third of a man, and the fourth of an eagle. As the Gospel is a unity, but fourfold, the four elements of the cherub came to be divided among the four evangelists, the human countenance being the symbol of Matthew, the lion of Mark, the ox of Luke, and the eagle of John. Most Jewish writers and Christian Fathers conceived the cherubim as angels; and Dionysius the Areopagite, in his Celestial Hierarchy, makes them a separate class in the first hierarchy. Most theologians also considered them as angels, until Michaelis showed them to be a poetical creation. Herder, in his Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, compared them to the griffins that watch treasures and other fabulous figures. In Christian art they are generally represented as sexless figures, with wings from the shoulders, the legs also being either covered by wings, or having wings substituted for them. Very often they have also an aureole round the head.