כרב, plural כרבים. It appears, from Gen. iii, 29, that this is a
name given to angels; but whether it is the name of a distinct class of
celestials, or designates the same order as the seraphim, we have no
means of determining. But the term _cherubim_ generally signifies those
figures which Moses was commanded to make and place at each end of the
mercy seat, or propitiatory, and which covered the ark with expanded
wings in the most holy place of the Jewish tabernacle and temple. See
Exodus xxv, 18, 19. The original meaning of the term, and the shape or
form of these, any farther than that they were _alata animata_, “winged
creatures,” is not certainly known. The word in Hebrew is sometimes
taken for a calf or ox; and Ezekiel, x, 14, sets down the face of a
cherub as synonymous to the face of an ox. The word _cherub_, in Syriac
and Chaldee, signifies to till or plough, which is the proper work of
oxen. _Cherub_ also signifies strong and powerful. Grotius says they
were figures much like that of a calf; and Bochart, likewise, thinks
that they were more like the figure of an ox than any thing beside; and
Spencer is of the same mind. But Josephus says they were extraordinary
creatures of a figure unknown to mankind. The opinion of most critics,
taken, it seems, from Ezek. i, 9, 10, is, that they were figures
composed of parts of various creatures; as a man, a lion, an ox, an
eagle. But certainly we have no decided proof that the figures placed in
the holy of holies, in the tabernacle, were of the same form with those
described by Ezekiel. The contrary, indeed, seems rather indicated,
because they looked _down_ upon the mercy seat, which is an attribute
not well adapted to a four-faced creature, like the emblematical
cherubim seen by Ezekiel.
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 that God was rendered propitious by the high
priest sprinkling the blood upon and before the mercy seat, Lev. xvi,
14, 15. Here the glory of God appeared, and here he met his high priest,
and by him his people, and from hence he gave forth his oracles; whence
the whole holy place was called דביר, _the oracle_. These cherubim, it
must be observed, had feet whereon they stood, 2 Chron. iii, 13; and
their feet were joined, in one continued beaten work, to the ends of the
mercy seat which covered the ark: so that they were wholly over or above
it. Those in the tabernacle were of beaten gold, being but of small
dimensions, Exod. xxv, 18; but those in the temple of Solomon were made
of the wood of the olive tree overlaid with gold; for they were very
large, extending their wings to the whole breadth of the oracle, which
was twenty cubits, 1 Kings vi, 23–28; 2 Chron. iii, 10–13. They are
called “cherubim of glory,” not merely or chiefly on account of the
matter or formation of them, but because they had the glory of God, or
the glorious symbol of his presence, “the Shekinah,” resting between
them. As this glory abode in the inward tabernacle, and as the figures
of the cherubim represented the angels who surround the manifestation of
the divine presence in the world above, that tabernacle was rendered a
fit image of the court of heaven, in which light it is considered every
where in the Epistle to the Hebrews. See chapters iv, 14; viii, 1; ix,
8, 9, 23, 24; xii, 22, 23.
The cherubim, it is true, have been considered by the disciples of Mr.
Hutchinson as designed emblems of Jehovah himself, or rather of the
Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, with man taken into the divine
essence. But that God, who is a pure Spirit, without parts or passions,
perfectly separate and remote from all matter, should command Moses to
make material and visible images or emblematical representations of
himself, is utterly improbable: especially, considering that he had
repeatedly, expressly, and solemnly forbidden every thing of this kind
in the second commandment of the moral law, delivered from Mount Sinai,
amidst thunder and lightning, “blackness, darkness, and tempest,”
pronouncing with an audible and awful voice, while “the whole mount
quaked greatly, and the sound of the trumpet waxed louder and louder,
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor the likeness of any
thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water
under the earth.” Hence the solemn caution of Moses, Deut. iv, 15, &c:
“Take ye good heed unto yourselves, (for ye saw no manner of similitude
on the day the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the
fire,) lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the
similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, of any beast
that is on the earth, of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, of any
thing that creepeth on the ground, of any fish that is in the waters.”
Hence God’s demand by his prophet: “To what will ye liken me, or shall I
be equal, saith the Holy One?” And hence the censure of the inspired
penman, Psalm cvi, 20: “They changed their glory into the similitude of
an ox that eateth grass.” Add to this, that in most or all of the places
where the cherubim are mentioned in the Scriptures, God is expressly
distinguished from them. Thus, “He,” the Lord, “placed at the east of
the garden cherubim, and a flaming sword,” Gen. iii, 24. “He rode on a
cherub and did fly,” Psalm xviii, 10. “He sitteth between the cherubim,”
Psalm xcix, 1. “He dwelleth between the cherubim,” Psalm lxxx, 1. We
also read of “the glory of the God of Israel going up, from the cherub
whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house,” Ezek. ix, 3. And
again, “The glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and the court was
full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory,” Ezek. x, 4. And again, “The
glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold, and stood over the
cherubim,” Ezek. x, 18. In all these passages the glory of the Lord,
that is, the Shekinah, the glorious symbol of his presence, is
distinguished from the cherubim; and not the least intimation is given
in these passages, or any others, of the Scripture, that the cherubim
were images or emblematical representations of him. Mr. Parkhurst’s
laborious effort to establish Mr. Hutchinson’s opinion on the subject of
the cherubim, in his Hebrew Lexicon, _sub voce_, is so obviously
fanciful and contradictory, that few will be converted to this strange
opinion. It seems much more probable that, as most eminent divines have
supposed, the cherubim represented the angels who surround the divine
presence in heaven. Accordingly, they had their faces turned toward the
mercy seat, where God was supposed to dwell, whose glory the angels in
heaven always behold, and upon which their eyes are continually fixed;
as they are also upon Christ, the true propitiatory, which mystery of
redemption they “desire,” St. Peter tells us, “to look into,” 1 Peter i,
12: a circumstance evidently signified by the faces of the cherubim
being turned inward, and their eyes fixed on the mercy seat. We may here
also observe that, allowing St. Peter in this passage to allude to the
cherubic figures, which, from his mode of expression, can scarcely be
doubted, this amounts to a strong presumption that the cherubim
represented, not so much one order, as “the angels” in general, all of
whom are said to “desire to look into” the subjects of human redemption,
and to all whose orders, “the principalities and powers in heavenly
places, the manifold wisdom of God is made known by the church.” In
Ezekiel, the cherubic figures are evidently connected with the
dispensations of providence; and they have therefore appropriate forms,
emblematical of the strength, wisdom, swiftness, and constancy, with
which the holy angels minister in carrying on God’s designs: but in the
sanctuary they are connected with the administration of grace; and they
are rather adoring beholders, than actors, and probably appeared under
forms more simple. As to the living creatures, improperly rendered
“beasts” in our translation, Rev. iv, 7, some think them a
hieroglyphical representation, not of the qualities of angels, but of
those of real Christians; especially of those in the suffering and
active periods of the church. The first a lion, signifying their
undaunted courage, manifested in meeting with confidence the greatest
sufferings; the second a calf or ox, emblematical of unwearied patience;
the third with the face of a man representing prudence and compassion;
the fourth a flying eagle, signifying activity and vigour. The four
qualities thus emblematically set forth in these four living creatures,
namely, undaunted courage, unwearied patience under sufferings, prudence
united with kindness, and vigorous activity, are found, more or less, in
the true members of Christ’s church in every age and nation. But others
have imagined that this representation might be intended to intimate
also that these qualities would especially prevail in succeeding ages of
the church, in the order in which they are here placed: that is, that in
the first age true Christians would be eminent for the courage,
fortitude, and success, wherewith they should spread the Gospel; that in
the next age they would manifest remarkable patience in bearing
persecution, when they should be “killed all the day,” like calves or
oxen appointed for the slaughter; that in the subsequent age or ages,
when the storms of persecution were blown over, and Christianity was
generally spread through the whole Roman empire, knowledge and wisdom,
piety and virtue, should increase, and the church should wear the face
of a man, and excel in prudence, humanity, love, and good works; and
that in ages still later, being reformed from various corruptions in
doctrine and practice, and full of vigour and activity, it should carry
the Gospel, as upon the wings of a flying eagle, to the remotest nations
under heaven, “to every kindred, and tongue, and people.” This is a
thought which deserves some consideration. The four great monarchies of
the earth had their prophetic emblems, taken both from metals and from
beasts and birds; and it is not unreasonable to look for prophetic
emblems of the one kingdom of Christ, in its varied and successive
states. Perhaps, however, the most reasonable conclusion is, that, like
the “living creatures” in the vision of Ezekiel, they are emblematical
of the ministrations of angels in what pertains to those providential
events which more particularly concern the church.
name given to angels; but whether it is the name of a distinct class of
celestials, or designates the same order as the seraphim, we have no
means of determining. But the term _cherubim_ generally signifies those
figures which Moses was commanded to make and place at each end of the
mercy seat, or propitiatory, and which covered the ark with expanded
wings in the most holy place of the Jewish tabernacle and temple. See
Exodus xxv, 18, 19. The original meaning of the term, and the shape or
form of these, any farther than that they were _alata animata_, “winged
creatures,” is not certainly known. The word in Hebrew is sometimes
taken for a calf or ox; and Ezekiel, x, 14, sets down the face of a
cherub as synonymous to the face of an ox. The word _cherub_, in Syriac
and Chaldee, signifies to till or plough, which is the proper work of
oxen. _Cherub_ also signifies strong and powerful. Grotius says they
were figures much like that of a calf; and Bochart, likewise, thinks
that they were more like the figure of an ox than any thing beside; and
Spencer is of the same mind. But Josephus says they were extraordinary
creatures of a figure unknown to mankind. The opinion of most critics,
taken, it seems, from Ezek. i, 9, 10, is, that they were figures
composed of parts of various creatures; as a man, a lion, an ox, an
eagle. But certainly we have no decided proof that the figures placed in
the holy of holies, in the tabernacle, were of the same form with those
described by Ezekiel. The contrary, indeed, seems rather indicated,
because they looked _down_ upon the mercy seat, which is an attribute
not well adapted to a four-faced creature, like the emblematical
cherubim seen by Ezekiel.
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 that God was rendered propitious by the high
priest sprinkling the blood upon and before the mercy seat, Lev. xvi,
14, 15. Here the glory of God appeared, and here he met his high priest,
and by him his people, and from hence he gave forth his oracles; whence
the whole holy place was called דביר, _the oracle_. These cherubim, it
must be observed, had feet whereon they stood, 2 Chron. iii, 13; and
their feet were joined, in one continued beaten work, to the ends of the
mercy seat which covered the ark: so that they were wholly over or above
it. Those in the tabernacle were of beaten gold, being but of small
dimensions, Exod. xxv, 18; but those in the temple of Solomon were made
of the wood of the olive tree overlaid with gold; for they were very
large, extending their wings to the whole breadth of the oracle, which
was twenty cubits, 1 Kings vi, 23–28; 2 Chron. iii, 10–13. They are
called “cherubim of glory,” not merely or chiefly on account of the
matter or formation of them, but because they had the glory of God, or
the glorious symbol of his presence, “the Shekinah,” resting between
them. As this glory abode in the inward tabernacle, and as the figures
of the cherubim represented the angels who surround the manifestation of
the divine presence in the world above, that tabernacle was rendered a
fit image of the court of heaven, in which light it is considered every
where in the Epistle to the Hebrews. See chapters iv, 14; viii, 1; ix,
8, 9, 23, 24; xii, 22, 23.
The cherubim, it is true, have been considered by the disciples of Mr.
Hutchinson as designed emblems of Jehovah himself, or rather of the
Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, with man taken into the divine
essence. But that God, who is a pure Spirit, without parts or passions,
perfectly separate and remote from all matter, should command Moses to
make material and visible images or emblematical representations of
himself, is utterly improbable: especially, considering that he had
repeatedly, expressly, and solemnly forbidden every thing of this kind
in the second commandment of the moral law, delivered from Mount Sinai,
amidst thunder and lightning, “blackness, darkness, and tempest,”
pronouncing with an audible and awful voice, while “the whole mount
quaked greatly, and the sound of the trumpet waxed louder and louder,
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor the likeness of any
thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water
under the earth.” Hence the solemn caution of Moses, Deut. iv, 15, &c:
“Take ye good heed unto yourselves, (for ye saw no manner of similitude
on the day the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the
fire,) lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the
similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, of any beast
that is on the earth, of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, of any
thing that creepeth on the ground, of any fish that is in the waters.”
Hence God’s demand by his prophet: “To what will ye liken me, or shall I
be equal, saith the Holy One?” And hence the censure of the inspired
penman, Psalm cvi, 20: “They changed their glory into the similitude of
an ox that eateth grass.” Add to this, that in most or all of the places
where the cherubim are mentioned in the Scriptures, God is expressly
distinguished from them. Thus, “He,” the Lord, “placed at the east of
the garden cherubim, and a flaming sword,” Gen. iii, 24. “He rode on a
cherub and did fly,” Psalm xviii, 10. “He sitteth between the cherubim,”
Psalm xcix, 1. “He dwelleth between the cherubim,” Psalm lxxx, 1. We
also read of “the glory of the God of Israel going up, from the cherub
whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house,” Ezek. ix, 3. And
again, “The glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and the court was
full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory,” Ezek. x, 4. And again, “The
glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold, and stood over the
cherubim,” Ezek. x, 18. In all these passages the glory of the Lord,
that is, the Shekinah, the glorious symbol of his presence, is
distinguished from the cherubim; and not the least intimation is given
in these passages, or any others, of the Scripture, that the cherubim
were images or emblematical representations of him. Mr. Parkhurst’s
laborious effort to establish Mr. Hutchinson’s opinion on the subject of
the cherubim, in his Hebrew Lexicon, _sub voce_, is so obviously
fanciful and contradictory, that few will be converted to this strange
opinion. It seems much more probable that, as most eminent divines have
supposed, the cherubim represented the angels who surround the divine
presence in heaven. Accordingly, they had their faces turned toward the
mercy seat, where God was supposed to dwell, whose glory the angels in
heaven always behold, and upon which their eyes are continually fixed;
as they are also upon Christ, the true propitiatory, which mystery of
redemption they “desire,” St. Peter tells us, “to look into,” 1 Peter i,
12: a circumstance evidently signified by the faces of the cherubim
being turned inward, and their eyes fixed on the mercy seat. We may here
also observe that, allowing St. Peter in this passage to allude to the
cherubic figures, which, from his mode of expression, can scarcely be
doubted, this amounts to a strong presumption that the cherubim
represented, not so much one order, as “the angels” in general, all of
whom are said to “desire to look into” the subjects of human redemption,
and to all whose orders, “the principalities and powers in heavenly
places, the manifold wisdom of God is made known by the church.” In
Ezekiel, the cherubic figures are evidently connected with the
dispensations of providence; and they have therefore appropriate forms,
emblematical of the strength, wisdom, swiftness, and constancy, with
which the holy angels minister in carrying on God’s designs: but in the
sanctuary they are connected with the administration of grace; and they
are rather adoring beholders, than actors, and probably appeared under
forms more simple. As to the living creatures, improperly rendered
“beasts” in our translation, Rev. iv, 7, some think them a
hieroglyphical representation, not of the qualities of angels, but of
those of real Christians; especially of those in the suffering and
active periods of the church. The first a lion, signifying their
undaunted courage, manifested in meeting with confidence the greatest
sufferings; the second a calf or ox, emblematical of unwearied patience;
the third with the face of a man representing prudence and compassion;
the fourth a flying eagle, signifying activity and vigour. The four
qualities thus emblematically set forth in these four living creatures,
namely, undaunted courage, unwearied patience under sufferings, prudence
united with kindness, and vigorous activity, are found, more or less, in
the true members of Christ’s church in every age and nation. But others
have imagined that this representation might be intended to intimate
also that these qualities would especially prevail in succeeding ages of
the church, in the order in which they are here placed: that is, that in
the first age true Christians would be eminent for the courage,
fortitude, and success, wherewith they should spread the Gospel; that in
the next age they would manifest remarkable patience in bearing
persecution, when they should be “killed all the day,” like calves or
oxen appointed for the slaughter; that in the subsequent age or ages,
when the storms of persecution were blown over, and Christianity was
generally spread through the whole Roman empire, knowledge and wisdom,
piety and virtue, should increase, and the church should wear the face
of a man, and excel in prudence, humanity, love, and good works; and
that in ages still later, being reformed from various corruptions in
doctrine and practice, and full of vigour and activity, it should carry
the Gospel, as upon the wings of a flying eagle, to the remotest nations
under heaven, “to every kindred, and tongue, and people.” This is a
thought which deserves some consideration. The four great monarchies of
the earth had their prophetic emblems, taken both from metals and from
beasts and birds; and it is not unreasonable to look for prophetic
emblems of the one kingdom of Christ, in its varied and successive
states. Perhaps, however, the most reasonable conclusion is, that, like
the “living creatures” in the vision of Ezekiel, they are emblematical
of the ministrations of angels in what pertains to those providential
events which more particularly concern the church.