Deutsche Schule Tokyo Yokohama Bibliothek
東京横浜独逸学園 - 図書館

Cherub series 2 - Guardian Angel Bnd2

Aikhler, Raʿanan 1980-

Cherub series 2 - Guardian Angel Bnd2 - 370

The cherub is a type of creature mentioned some 90 times in the Hebrew Bible, where it is portrayed as a predominant motif in Israelite iconography. This paper surveys the attempts to determine the form of the cherub, in both textual and iconographic sources, from the fourth century to the twenty-first. The cherub has been interpreted as a winged human (child or adult), a bird, a winged bovine, a griffin, a winged sphinx, and a composite creature in general. The last two identifications, which prevail in contemporary scholarship, are rejected, and a path to a correct identification is proposed.

10.2143/BIB.96.1.3183407 doi