cherubim
Cherubim are a type of supernatural being in the Abrahamic religions. They are assigned many different roles across numerous depictions. One of their key functions is protecting the entrance of the Garden of Eden.
↻ synthesized from 5 sources
When
- First attested
- 1800 BCE
- Attested period
- -1800 – 2020
- Historical notes
- Mentioned in Islamic texts.
Relationships
- co occurs with
- Mal’akh Yahweh, bnē Elohim, shedu, ofanim, Thrones, Archangels, Bearers of the Throne, Angel of Yahweh, Ziz, mermaids, jinn, Minotaur, griffins, Pegasus, sphinxes, manticore, Anzû, Harpy, Simurgh, Thunderbird, Pamola, Yali, Kamadhenu, Chimera, Lamashtu, Enlil, Sharabha, Apis, Buraq, Lakhmu, Michael, Satan, Gabriel, Raphael, centaur
- allied with
- Lord of the Flame, Seraphim, Ophanim, lamassu
- equivalent to
- shedu
- has aspect
- Bearers of the Throne
- served by
- angels
Mentioned by
Sources
- peer reviewed
Source passages
“when Pharaoh pursued Israel at the Red Sea, God took a cherub from the wheels of His throne and flew to the spot, for God inspects the heavenly worlds while sitting on a cherub. The cherub, however, is "something not material", and is carried by God”
#2156 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5
“Their affiliation is not always clear and sometimes their role is swapped with the cherubim. In a book called Book of the Wonders of Creation and the peculiarities of Existing Things, these angels rank the highest, followed by the spirit, the archangels and then the cherubim.”
#2174 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001
“the cherubim are his throne‑bearers... they are not spoken of as having wings.”
#44083 · extracted by openai/gpt-oss-120b:free