We see them on Valentine Cards, in Christmas art, and decking Victorian manors, little babies with angel wings who are called cherubs. Why had The Church and for that matter holidays become filled with naked babies with wings? Who’s idea was it to put naked babes flying about? Well in The Victorian era it a bunch of Cherubs was suppose to represent the presence of God, which still is very weird. I mean does a flying naked baby make you think of God’s presence? I picture more The Holy Spirit as a dove flying to and fro over people.
The chief issue is Cherub comes Akkadian and Hebrew for a race of Angels called Cherubim. The Cherubim is plural, Cherub is the singular, hence Satan before he fell was the Cherub who Coverath God (Azraiel), “Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.” (Ezekiel 38:14, KJV). These cherubs or Cherubim are not babies, their are tall with four faces and four wings, “and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first living creature was like a lion, the second creature like a calf, the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” (Revelation 4:6-8). In fact in Eastern Churches a Cherub looks like this:
So not only is the Cupid look a like babies with wings hearken to Aphrodite’s henchmen, they cause confusion for the real Cherubim who guard God’s chariot and throne, “Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. Then the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord. The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty[a] when he speaks. When the Lord commanded the man in linen, “Take fire from among the wheels, from among the cherubim,” the man went in and stood beside a wheel. Then one of the cherubim reached out his hand to the fire that was among them. He took up some of it and put it into the hands of the man in linen, who took it and went out. (Under the wings of the cherubim could be seen what looked like human hands.)
I looked, and I saw beside the cherubim four wheels, one beside each of the cherubim; the wheels sparkled like topaz. As for their appearance, the four of them looked alike; each was like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the cherubim faced; the wheels did not turn about[b] as the cherubim went. The cherubim went in whatever direction the head faced, without turning as they went. Their entire bodies, including their backs, their hands and their wings, were completely full of eyes, as were their four wheels. I heard the wheels being called “the whirling wheels.” Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a human being, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. Then the cherubim rose upward. These were the living creatures I had seen by the Kebar River. When the cherubim moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the cherubim spread their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not leave their side. When the cherubim stood still, they also stood still; and when the cherubim rose, they rose with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in them.” (Ezekiel 10:3-17).
More accurate depictions of Cherubs:
There is an alternative passage in Ezekiel that differentiates Cherub:
“And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face was a human face, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.” (Ezekiel 10:14). Another translation replaces Cherub with Ox. But the root word in Hebrew is:
“of a cherub,
הַכְּר֗וּב (hak·kə·rūḇ)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's Hebrew 3742: 1) cherub, cherubim (pl) 1a) an angelic being 1a1) as guardians of Eden 1a2) as flanking God's throne 1a3) as an image form hovering over the Ark of the Covenant 1a4) as the chariot of Jehovah (fig.)z.” (Strong’s Concordance).
Again this makes no mention of naked babies with wings.
It is evident that Cherub is not a naked winged baby but a creature with many wings and different heads. These beings are serious not weird little cupids, and we as Christians need to set the record straight. Amen.
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