Cherubim Angel: What are the Cherubim in the Bible? (Verses)

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman

Cherubim angel discussions through the ages have made these beings among the most fascinating creatures portrayed in the Bible. These supernatural beings are intimately connected with God in the Hebrew Bible, although their descriptions make them so otherworldly that it can be difficult for modern people to even conceive of them. So what are the cherubim?

In this article, I’ll explore multiple facets of the cherubim, from the etymology of their name to their divine functions and how they differ from other supernatural beings in the Bible. By comprehending the cherubim, we will be able to grasp how ancient Jews and Christians believed that God interacted with the world and humanity.

What Are the Cherubim in the Bible?

Our English word cherubim (pronounced CHAIR-oo-beem) is the plural of the word cherub (an “-im” ending on a Hebrew noun makes it plural). It is derived from the Hebrew word kerubh, which was transliterated into kheroub in Greek and, finally, cherub in Latin.

The word’s original etymology is uncertain to this day. In his book Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions, Roland De Vaux argued that it came from the Babylonian word karâbu meaning “auspicious”. In her book Of Wing and Wheels: A Synthetic Study of the Biblical Cherubim, Alice Wood notes that French scholar Édouard Paul Dhorme believed the term was derived from the Assyrian word kāribu, which referred to a class of celestial beings who mediated between the gods and human beings.

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This may be the true origin of the word cherub since the cherubim are a class of angels,  appearing both in Judaism and Christianity. There are, in fact, nine ranks of angels according to early Christian sources. Although they are not all listed in one place in the Bible, early Jewish and Christian interpreters gathered together the names of these ranks of angels from various biblical references. The earliest list of all nine types of angels as a hierarchy comes from a 5th-century Christian author known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Aeropagite, in his book about angelology titled On the Celestial Hierarchy:

Highest Rank:

• Seraphim
• Cherubim
• Thrones

Middle Rank:

• Powers
• Dominions
• Authorities

Lowest Rank:

• Principalities
• Archangels
• Angels

As you can see, this Cherubim angel positioning makes these beings one of the highest in the hierarchy, second only to the seraphim in Christian angelology. Conversely, though, highly-influential Jewish author Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah reversed this order, placing the cherubim as the second-lowest class of angels in his list.

As an aside, our ideas of what cherubs look like are usually based on Renaissance paintings of chubby, infants with wings. The origin of this image is the Renaissance revival of ancient Greek art and culture. Among other figures, Renaissance artists thus painted divine beings known as the putti, beings painted or sculpted as naked male children with wings in ancient art. These somehow became identified during this era with the cherubim. As we’ll see, though, this is not how cherubim are depicted in the Bible.

So, now that we’ve established that the cherubim are types of angels, let’s look into what the Bible says about their functions and physical characteristics.

What Roles Did Cherubim Fill?

The first biblical reference to the cherubim comes in the book of Genesis. After Adam and Eve sin, God

Because the verse says “cherubim” and not “cherub,” it’s clear that God posted at least two of them to guard the tree of life. It would seem, then, that the cherubim were believed to be angelic guards or soldiers.

Later in Exodus, when God is telling the Israelites how to construct their mobile temple known as the Tabernacle, he tells them to hang a curtain inside to separate the room where the ark of the covenant is kept.

There is still no description of the appearance of the cherubim here, but the fact that God wants them depicted on the entrance to such a holy part of the Tabernacle indicates their importance as guardian figures. In Exodus 25, by the way, God had ordered that the ark of the covenant be decorated with two cherubim made of gold on either side of its lid.

These cherubim on the ark are referred to in 1 Kings 8:6-7, when King Solomon has the ark, which was normally kept in a special secluded room, brought into an assembly on a festival day.

That text indicates Cherubim were still considered, even as mere statues, to serve a protective or guardian function, in this case guarding the ark of the covenant.

In Psalms 18:9-10, however, the cherubim are seen to perform a different duty. In this Psalm the author, traditionally believed to be King David, relates how he called upon God to rescue him and God came:

Descending to the earth, God somehow rides on a cherub as if it is a beast of burden or a type of vehicle. This is the first time the Bible mentions this function but not the last.

In the strange, celestial visions of the prophet Ezekiel, we again see the cherubim serving as God’s vehicle, this time bearing his wheeled throne:

By the way, cherubim angels, as weird as they appear and as fiercely as they guard the tree of life, are considered unremittingly good in the Bible, since they function entirely as servants of God.

What Did Cherubim Look Like?

Based on the passage from 1 Kings 8:6-7, it seems clear that the cherubim were depicted with wings.

Then, in 10:20-22, we see our first detailed description of the appearance of the cherubim:

Although the description is fairly clear, it’s still somewhat hard to imagine these strange beings since we have no point of reference to such creatures in our world. However, this will prove to be the clearest depiction of the cherubim in the Hebrew Bible. Any New Testament descriptions of them (i.e., Rev. 4:6-8, Heb. 9:5) are entirely dependent on those images from the Hebrew Bible.

How Are the Cherubim Different From the Seraphim?

Because they are both part of the highest rank of angels (in Christianity, anyway), it can be difficult to distinguish between the cherubim and the seraphim. However, the book attributed to the prophet Isaiah provides a description of the seraphim, which gives us some points of comparison. In this passage, Isaiah, like Ezekiel, is experiencing a vision:

The seraphim here differ from the cherubim in two ways. First, they each have six wings instead of the cherubims’ four. Next, they seem to have a function of holy praise here not described in depictions of the cherubim. But they perform a further function as well. When Isaiah wails that as a sinful man, it is dangerous for him to see God,

While the cherubim guard places for the Lord and carry him about, the seraphim praise God and even serve as go-betweens between God and human beings. The power to forgive Isaiah’s sins is clearly not granted by the seraph, but rather by God with the seraph as his mediator.

This may be why Pseudo-Dionysus and others saw the seraphim as higher in the hierarchy of angels than the cherubim: they connect God’s power to humanity. Additionally, he said that each rank of angels performed different functions. While the highest rank, including the cherubim, were closest to God and his power and wisdom, the second rank — powers, dominions, and authorities — are leaders and warriors. The lowest rank, however, generally serve as divine messengers to and guardians of humanity.

Conclusion

When the Hebrew Bible’s authors wrote the cherubim angel verses, they conceived these beings as filling important roles and detailed them early in the biblical canon.  When God expels Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden for their sin, he assigns cherubim to guard the path to the tree of life. This indicates that one of their functions was to protect holy things. That role is equally apparent in the way that the ark of the covenant contains statues of cherubim on its lid, and the curtain separating the holiest part of the Tabernacle from the rest is painted with cherubim as well.

A further function appears especially clearly in the book of Ezekiel, where the cherubim are seen flying God’s throne around, much in the way that a beast of burden would pull someone in a cart. Moreover, Ezekiel depicts the cherubim as each having four faces and four wings, with human-like hands beneath each of the wings.

While the seraphim are shown praising God and performing a mediative function between God’s might and humanity, it seems that the cherubim function as guards and vehicles, not specifically interacting with human beings at all in the Bible.