Cherubim
Guardians with four faces and four wings, set to keep people out — and nothing whatever like the winged infants of later painting.
The first cherubim in the Bible are posted at the east of Eden with a flaming sword to stop anyone getting back in. They are guards. Ezekiel describes them at length: four faces each — a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle — four wings, calves' feet burnished like bronze, and wheels full of eyes that move with them. Two were beaten out of gold on the lid of the ark, facing each other with wings touching, and God is repeatedly said to be enthroned between them. The chubby winged babies called cherubs in European art come from Renaissance putti and have no connection to the text at all — which is worth knowing before reading a single verse about them.
Where it appears
See also
- Living creatures — The same four faces, seen again in Revelation
- Ark of the covenant — The two on its cover