Since we are using the traditional Angelic Hierarchy as our organizational tool, we come to the inhabitants of the First Sphere, the courtiers of Yahweh in the Third Heaven.
Before we begin, I should caution you that, when describing the Heavenly Realm, the Bible uses a lot of symbolism.
So it is possible that the Cherubim and Seraphim as seen in visions were just symbolic representations of amorphous heavenly beings, or even just ideas about the nature of God. But I'm going to write this article from the perspective of these being real heavenly beings, and the forms described in Scripture being their literal heavenly bodies.
We'll start with the Cherubim.
Though popular culture has turned them into pudgy little winged Cupids, the description given in the book of Ezekiel... differs somewhat.
In Ezekiel 1:5-11, each Cherub had four wings and four faces: that of a man, that of a bird, that of a lion, and that of a bull.
Dr. Michael S. Heiser writes that the four faces symbolize the chief constellations of the four seasons, which also represented the four corners of the earth and the four cardinal directions. If true, this theory makes the Cherubim the rulers of the stars, which of course represent angels.
One thing I notice when studying ancient literature is that strange animals are often described as chimeras. For instance, otters were described as dog/fish hybrids.
Of course, that was just a style of description, right? You can't describe a weird animal so you say that its head looked like a horse head, but its leg were more like tiger legs. Nevertheless, it led to lots of strange mythical creature legends and artwork.
So perhaps, when describing these heavenly Cherubim, Ezekiel was just doing the best he could, using earthly animals as analogies.
Other scholars have pointed out that, since Heavenly Beings are spirits, they don't have a specific form, and can manifest in different ways. It does seem that heavenly beings appear in slightly different forms at different times to different people.
For instance, Ezekiel 10:14-15 specifically says that it is describing the same 'living creatures' that Ezekiel had seen 'on the banks of the river Chebar.' And yet the description replaces the face of an ox with that of a cherub. Whatever that means.*
*Perhaps these Throne-Cherubim are a specific type of Cherub, and the normal kind has only an ox head (AKA a 'cherub head'). If this is the case, normal Cherubim would bear passing resemblance to Minotaurs.
So what do these creatures do? What's their job? To answer that, we'll look at their other appearances in the Bible.
The Hebrew for 'Cherub' and for 'Cherubim' appears 91 times in the Old Testament, so we won't be able to examine every single mention, but we'll hit the highlights.
The first time we see them is in the Garden of Eden. They are placed there by God to guard the way to the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:24, Ezekiel 28:14).
We learn in Ezekiel 28 that there were guardian cherubim there even before the Fall. My belief is that they were there to keep out Satan, and at that time the edges of the Garden of Eden were the borders of God's holy realm where no evil exists. When next they are encountered, however, God's holy of holies is confined to the edges of his Throne, as even the Divine Council is filled with demons and servants of Leviathan.
But at the end of Revelation, in the New Heavens and the New Earth, we see God's throne once more (Revelation 22:1-5), and there is no description of guardian cherubim or anything of the sort. God is in the very city, right among mankind, who serve him and see the very face of God in all its glory, and themselves have been made gods, and co-rulers with him over an empire of angels. Everything has been renewed and made holy, and all wickedness destroyed in the Lake of Fire.
Cherubim are also featured on the Ark of the Covenant, where they seem to be a simplified design, with only one face each (Exodus 25:20). The design was probably some type of human/lion chimera.
Seeing as the Ark of the Covenant is symbolic of God's Throne (the entire temple is symbolic of the cosmos) it shouldn't surprise us that they are also bearers of Yahweh's actual throne in the third heaven (Psalm 80:1, Psalm 99:1).
In 2 Samuel 22:11 and Psalm 18:10, Yahweh is actually described as riding on a Cherub!
Artifacts from the Ancient Near East show a lot of images of winged lions with human heads, often seen as bearers or guardians of the thrones of gods. The Egyptian and Greek Sphinxes are derived from this idea. Most scholars now believe to the Cherubim to be conceptually related to these creatures.
Another Cherub-like creature is the Babylonian lamassu, a protective spirit with eagle's wings, a lion's body, and a king's head.
In Jewish tradition, Cherubim are given very high status, and are often said to have been the first things created in the universe. However, as you can see in the quote below, their lesser status compared to Seraphim developed quite early on.
Leviticus Rabbah xxii.; Eccl. Rabbah x. 20: When a man sleeps, the body tells to the neshamah (soul) what it has done during the day; the neshamah then reports it to the nefesh (spirit), the nefesh to the angel, the angel to the cherub, and the cherub to the seraph, who then brings it before God.
Speaking of Seraphs- what are they?.
Of the traditional groups in the first sphere, Seraphim are usually imagined as the highest ranking, as heavenly courtiers who are allowed the most insight to the councils of God and can look him directly in the face.
In the actual Scriptures, however, Seraphim play a rather more minor role- they serve as attendants to God.
Here are all the references to them in the entire Bible:
Isaiah 6:2: Above him stood the Seraphim. Each had six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
Isaiah 6:6: Then one of the Seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
That's literally it. No description other than that.
So they could look like anything, just with a face and feet and six wings, right?
Not exactly. The exact same Hebrew 'seraph' is also used in the following passages:
Numbers 21:6: Then Yahweh sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.
Numbers 21:8: Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Make a venomous snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten, when he sees it, will live."
Deuteronomy 8:15: He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock.
Isaiah 14:29: Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod that struck you is broken, for from the serpent's root will come forth an adder, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.
Isaiah 30:6: an oracle on the beasts of the Negeb. Through a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the adder and the flying fiery serpent...
So you see, the word 'Seraphim' has more implications than the translation lets on. "Fiery flying serpent" is particularly interesting.
We've seen in the case of Leviathan and the tanninim that spiritual beings often take on the forms of real, physical creatures. Many have theorized that Seraphim are the 'good' versions of the Leviathan (the Devil) and his helpers (Job 9:13), since both are described in serpentine terminology.
So you see, there is a deeper significance when the Israelites started worshiping the snake statue, naming it Nehushtan. The context of the word indicates that the Israelites may have misused Nehushtan as an idol to the Seraphim (humans often fall into worship of heavenly beings), or perhaps even the Cosmic Serpent himself.
That the statue should be used for such a purpose is even more abominable when you consider that it was meant as a symbol of Christ (John 3:14-16).
Interestingly, after discussing the Negeb as a habitat of adders and seraphim, Isaiah 30 goes on to call Egypt 'Rahab', a name for Leviathan.
Egypt seems to be an important location in terms of Seraphim, and many have pointed out similarities between Seraphim and the Egyptian uraeus.
Uraei were a symbol of the Egyptians gods, especially the Pharaoh. Even the arms of Tutankhamen's throne are two wings of a four-winged uraeus. Since Moses came from Egypt, he would have been familiar with this motif, and indeed, the practice of using uraei to defend against snakes is Egyptian as well.
And here we come to a question: If Seraphim are snakes, why does Isaiah 6:2 say that they had feet? And 6:6 says they have hands! That sounds more like a humanoid than a snake! So how can we equate them with fiery flying serpents and uraei?
In fact, uraei were often portrayed with human hands and feet (and sometimes even a human face!) when they needed to accomplish tasks requiring such body parts. At other times they were just normal snakes.
So, since fire is a symbol of Heaven, doesn't it make sense for heavenly Seraphim to be fiery, winged serpents, who (when necessary) manifest with humanoid feet and hands? In Ezekiel's case, they would have needed hands to give Ezekiel the coal, and he might have need feet to perch on the altar in order to grab it out!
Either that, or the heavenly Seraphim took the form of snakes as they should have been.
Before the Fall, snakes apparently had legs (since Yahweh cursed them in Genesis 3:14 to crawl on their stomachs). For all we know, the pre-Fall snakes had six wings, too.
Though it is viable for the "snakes" that Moses encountered to have been normal snakes, called fiery as a figure of speech because of their bite (think of fire ants), there is actually good evidence for the existence of winged, serpentine animals in the Egyptian region.
Herodotus wrote: "There is a place in Arabia... where I went to learn about the winged serpents. When I arrived there, I saw innumerable bones and backbones of serpents... This place... adjoins the plain of Egypt. Winged serpents are said to fly from Arabia at the beginning of Spring, making for Egypt... Their wings are not feathered but very like the wings of a bat. I have now said enough about things that are sacred."
For me, personally, serpentine creatures with wings like bat wings sound a heck of a lot like Pterodactyls. And since there are reports of Pterodactyls being spotted in Egypt in recent years, it all just sort of lines up.
The Assyrian King Esarhaddon wrote of a campaign he made to Egypt: "(There were) two headed serpents, [whose attack] (spelled) death- but I trampled and marched on... in a journey of two days (there were) green serpents whose wings were batting."
Anyway, there seems to be a three-way comparison between symbolic Seraphim (representing Egypt and Leviathan), animal Seraphim (like what attacked the Israelites), and heavenly Seraphim (the court servants of God).
Most likely, the whole idea of Seraphim is Egyptian in origin, and whether the animals that attacked Moses were snakes, dragons or what, Moses definitely made the connection between the bronze Nehushtan and the Egyptian uraei (which supposedly kept away snakes).
So, way later, when Isaiah saw a vision of fiery flaming serpentine spirits he called them Seraphim because they resembled the uraei-based Nehushtan (which he would have seen, as it was kept as an artifact even up to his time). It is also possible that the animal Seraphim were actually some kind of fallen or earthly version of the heavenly Seraphim, and that they were the inspiration for the uraei.
The point is that the Biblical Seraphim are attested outside Isaiah or scripture, and that their appearance is not up to conjecture but can rather be divined base on their origins.
Ophanim ('wheels') are the third official class of beings in the Third Heaven.
However, their actual existence as a type of Heavenly Being is called into question when one looks at the passage about them:
Ezekiel 1:15-21: As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike.
Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not change direction as the creatures went. Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.
When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
When the creatures moved, they also moved; when the creatures stood still, they also stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
Topaz:
Another passage that is usually held to refer to these Ophanim or Galgalim is found in Daniel.
Daniel 7:9 “As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze.
So, obviously the Ancient of Days is Yahweh. The reason there are multiple thrones being set in place is because this is a meeting of the Council of the Gods. Anyway, the throne of Yahweh is flaming, as are its wheels. Now it may seem strange for a throne to have wheels, but that was actually common at that time. Kings and gods would ride around in throne-chariots.
Now, from these passages there doesn't seem to be much indication that these are distinct beings. In fact, it seems clear to me that the wheels in both passages are either inanimate objects or extensions of the Cherubim ('the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels').
Eyes are often used as symbols of stars, with the Sun being described as the eye of God, and the lesser stars presumably being the eyes of lesser divinities. The word translated 'eyes' in this passage is commonly translated 'sparkling' in Ezekiel 10:9.
The eyes in the wheels of the Ophanim represent the authority of the Cherubim over the stars of the circles of heaven, and since these cosmic rulers are portrayed as menial guards of Yahweh's throne, the passage shows God's infinite superiority over the host of heaven.
Nevertheless, traditional interpretation holds these to be a type of 'angel,' a view affirmed by the Book of Enoch.
Many have equated them with another supposed class of beings known as Thrones.
Colossians 1:16: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
1 Peter 3:22: [Christ] has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
People figured that, since Peter mentions authorities (equated with the 'dominions' of Colossians) and powers in context with angels, it is only reasonable to assume that the other two (thrones and principalities) are also Heavenly Beings of some kind.
Here's my problem with that interpretation.
Colossians 1:16 is talking about ALL things created, and it is specified that this includes not only things in Heaven, but also things on earth. Not only things invisible, but things visible as well.
Since we know from 1 Peter 3:22 that authorities/dominions and powers are spiritual, it only makes sense to conclude that thrones and principalities refer to human enemies of God. Presumably, Thrones would be evil kings and heads-of-state, not some kind of heavenly beings.
But we're still left with authorities and powers, right? Surely we can include them in our ranking.
Ephesians 6:12: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
This verse specifies that it is not talking about flesh and blood enemies (i.e. humans, such as Thrones and principalities), but against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms and the demonic powers here on earth.
And here's the problem: it specifies that the 'rulers and authorities' are evil!
1 Peter 3:22 isn't about Jesus getting to be in change of heaven. He's God! He's been in charge of Heaven this whole time!
What is happening is that Jesus has finally defeated the demons and overthrown Satan. The enemies, the rulers and authorities of evil, have been conquered and subjected.
Revelation 12:7-9: Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
So none of these things are heavenly beings. Thrones and principalities are evil human rulers, dominions and powers are demonic authorities (perhaps akin to the 'Princes' mentioned in Daniel, see later articles).
And that concludes our study of the four traditional types of Heavenly Beings in the First Sphere.
We had the Cherubim (four-faced guardians of God's Throne), the Seraphim (God's serpentine servants and courtiers), the Ophanim (actually just part of the Cherubim, but still fun to mention), and the Thrones (which are actually just bad human kings like Nero or whatever).
SO I guess it really just comes down to the Cherubim and Seraphim, which fits better anyway, as the two groups of servants in Yahweh's Heavenly Court, just below the Logos and alongside the Archangels.
But there's something confusing about these guys.
In Revelation, we read about four 'living creatures' guarding God's Throne. At first glance we think- ah! The Cherubim. But read the description of them:
Revelation 4:7-8: The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings.
These four creatures each have one face only- and it's almost as though the Old Testament tetramorphs have broken up into four separate creatures! The initial creature had a lion face, a bull face, a human face, and a bird face. Each of Revelation's four beings has one of those faces.
But the idea here is not division, rather unification. We'll discuss this more thoroughly in later posts, but just know that a major overtone of Revelation is the passing away of the old cosmic order, and the unification of all things to God, specifically the gentiles and all the nations being no longer separated but part of God's Kingdom.
These four living creatures are a unification of the Cherubim, the Seraphim, and the Ophanim.
Though the semblance to Cherubim is the most obvious, we also see that they are are 'covered with eyes all around,' paralleling Ezekiel's description of the Ophanim as having 'eyes all around.'
They also had six wings, just like the Seraphim did, and like the Seraphim their job is praising God, not guarding him. Specifically, they repeat the words of the Seraphim of Isaiah 6:3, calling God 'Holy, Holy, Holy.'
The only two times this chant appears in Scripture is when the Seraphim say it in Isaiah, and when the Living Creatures say it in Revelation.
I also notice that, though the lion, eagle and ox tetramorphs are described as 'like an [insert X animal],' the man tetramorph is just said to have 'a face like a man.'
It is possible that this peculiar nonconformity shows that the man had a serpentine body, perhaps that of a dragon or other nachash, and with a fiery aura, making him truly a seraph, a fiery flying serpent.
It is also interesting that the creatures merge traits of the world above (six wings and eyes all around) with traits from Earth (lion, ox, human and eagle heads).
They represent the fact that the world of heavenly beings is finally united with the world of man, in the New Heavens and the New Earth where 'there is no sea (Revelation 21:1).' That is, the crystal firmament or 'sea' separating the Third Heaven and God's holiness from the rest of the cosmos has been removed, just as the curtain of the tabernacle was torn in two, and all God's Kingdom, celestial and earthly, is united in common worship of their Creator.
Revelation 5:13 : Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"
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