Are you interested in angels, demons, spirits, ghosts, and monsters? Are you curious about their origins, tales, and influence upon history and on the present day? If so, sit back, relax, and welcome to Southern Demonology, the podcast that explores all of this and more. I have to thank my Discord users for this topic. For recently, there have been two questions that got me thinking about angels. The first was asking how realistic a certain social media post may be.
If you browse through Reddit, Instagram, or Facebook in the past couple of months, you may have run into a video post that claims to show a quote unquote true depiction of what angels look like. The first is a gigantic eyeball surrounded by rings made up of smaller eyes, and the other is a gigantic eyeball that has six wings. The second question was asking if an angel looked the way it did in order to frighten either demons or evil spirits.
Both of these questions got my mind spinning, and after looking through my previous episodes to see if perhaps I had touched on this particular topic before, I realized, much to my chagrin, that even though the word angelogy appears prominently in the Southern Demonology subtitle, I have yet to actually address it. So, dear listeners, guess what we will be doing today? And what better time to do it than on the weekend where all of the major holidays, Easter, Pasach, or Passover, and Ramadan of the Abrahamic religions are occurring at the same time for the first time in 30 years.
Welcome back to Southern Demonology. As always, I'm your host, JJ. If I asked you to envision what an angel looked like, what would flash through your head? Did you see the painting of small babies with wings that are supposed to be cherubim? Or did you see in your mind's eye a statuesque humanoid with wings, maybe dressed in robes, because anyone who is anyone knows that angels wear robes, right? Let's cover the basics first. Going back to the source of the Hebrew Bible, there are two types of angels mentioned.
And for those who are wondering why I didn't mention three, we'll come back to that one. And simply as a heads up, there will be a lot of source material quoted in this episode. The first are the cherubim, angels that appear 91 times in the Hebrew Bible. The word has a rather confusing etymological history, as it probably, according to Randall, is related to the Akkadian word karibu, which is a term that identifies Mesopotamian genie. And yes, you heard me right. Genie. Regardless, cherubim are not baby-faced beings that sit around gazing at flowers.
Rather, these entities are much more fearsome in nature. Have you ever been to a major museum that has a Mesopotamian section, such as the Met in New York? Or have you seen the movie True Lies, where the terrorists smuggle nuclear weapons and giant statues that show beings that have four feet, wings, and a bearded head? That, my friends, is a Lamasu, a guardian entity. Or maybe you're more familiar with the Egyptian equivalent, the Sphinx. The Lamasu has a winged bull's body and the head of a man, whereas Sphinx has a winged lion's body and the head of a human. Both entities are guardians.
Why do I mention these? You have to remember that Israel isn't a nation devoid of history or influence. Ancient Judaism sprang forth from a web of traditions and historicity of the Middle East, and it appropriated concepts from the surrounding area because that is how the world was viewed. In the beginning, the cherubim looked just like the Lamasu or the Sphinx. They had a four-legged body, wings, and the head of a human, and they serve the exact same purpose. They are guardians. But what do they guard? In Genesis 3 and Ezekiel 41, they guard the Garden of Eden.
Genesis 3, 22 through 4 states, Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. We find the same kind of imagery in Ezekiel twenty eight fourteen through sixteen.
With an anointed guardian cherub I placed you. You were on the holy mountain of God. In the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways, from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. In the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence, and you sinned, so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and the guardian cherub drove you out from the midst of the stones of fire. Yet what the cherubim are most famous for is guarding the throne of God. We find that in Isaiah thirty seven sixteen.
O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who art enthroned above the cherubim, thou art the God, thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth. Cherubim also found on the famous Ark of the Covenant, according to Exodus twenty five, sixteen through twenty one. And you shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you. Then you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth, and you shall make two cherubim of gold, of hammered work shall you make them.
On the two ends of the mercy seat, make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end, of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out the wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another. Toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be, and you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. Sadly though for Indiana Jones fans, the cherubim do not look like they did in the movie.
In the film they were humanoid in shape. In reality, they were two guardian beasts. In fact, Metzger advanced the theory that the two cherubim actually stood on their back legs, which is based on the facade of the Hittite sanctuary at Eflatum Penar. Yet before we move away from the cherubim, we have to note another description of them that involves their very concept. As with all things, we stand in the flow of time, and that means all things are subject to change and evolution, and so too were the very image of the angels themselves.
Rather than merely becoming guardians of the throne, the cherubim actually become a chariot throne, and their shape changes as well from the guardian beast to something much stranger. According to the first chapter of Ezekiel, as I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness round about it, and fire flashing forth continuously in all the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming bronze, and from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures, and this was their appearance.
They had the form of men, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings, their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot, and they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands, and the fourth had their faces and their wings thus. Their wings touched one another, they went every one straight forward without turning as they went.
As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man in front, the four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle at the back. Such were their faces, and their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies, and each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go they went, without turning as they went.
In the midst of the living creatures there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches moving to and fro among the living creatures, and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning, and the living creatures darted to and fro like a flash of lightning. Yes, that's a lot to take in. But let's break that down. Each of these cherubim or living creatures have a new appearance now. They have the shape of a person, have four heads, four arms, and four wings.
This change of appearance was necessary in Ezekiel's theology, for if you place each living creature at the corner of a square, they form a box themselves, with the sides formed by arms and wings, and the straight body becoming not just an edge but also a spoke. For remember, in later passages, the book also states that they have wheels. So in essence, this entire structure is now a living chariot that can move in any direction without the cherubim themselves shifting position, for their heads, arms, and wings rest in each cardinal direction.
In its way, Ezekiel is attempting to satisfy the requirement set forth in Genesis that the cherubim can turn in any direction, even though the passage in question relates to the fiery sword rather than the angel. Now we will come back to this, but let's turn our attention to the next classification of angels, seraphim. The word root seems like it should be the Hebrew term sarath, meaning to burn, incinerate, or destroy by fire. Yet this could be a folk etymology rather than the true root. In fact, the root seems to come from the Egyptian word SRF, referring to a serpentine being.
In fact, the source of the iconography is generally agreed to be that of the Egyptian Araya serpent, spelled U-R-A-E-U-S, the stylized rearing cobra that is often depicted upon the headdresses of Egyptian gods and kings. The concept of fire can be linked to the Araya serpent as their poison is their fire they utilize to protect their king or god. The best support for this argument is in the five other places where the Hebrew word seraph appears. In Numbers 21:8. Then the Lord God sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
In Deuteronomy 8:15, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground, where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock. Even Isaiah itself, in chapter 30, verse 6. An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb, through a land of trouble and anguish, from where comes the lioness and the lion, the viper and the flying serpent. They carry their riches on the back of asses and their treasures on the humps of camels to a people that cannot profit them.
In each of these references, it's understood that the word means winged serpent. So why would Isaiah six be any different? We find the best description of the seraphim in Isaiah six. Above him, meaning God, stood the seraphim, six wings, six wings for each. With two it covered its face, and with two it covered its feet, and with two it would fly. And one called to another and said, Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh Adonai Sabos, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is filled with his glory.
According to Keel, instead of protecting God, the seraphim instead need their wings to cover themselves from head to toe so as to not be incinerated by God's glory. Thus, quote, Isaiah uses the seraphim to underscore the supreme holiness of God on the throne, end quote. In this way, Isaiah is flipping the normal imagery of the Areas serpent on its head. Rather than the king or deity needing the snake's protection, God merely utilizes them to underscore his glory. In fact, if we hearken back to the passage in Ezekiel, you'll see the exact same thing.
Even though the living creatures, the cherubim, had four wings, it would only use two of them to fly. The other two it would cover its body under the supposition that it needed to protect itself from the glory that was hiding from within. It also stresses to a point I may have brought up before, but should be underscored again. Coming face to face with an angel is mind-breaking enough, but to come before God's presence, as a former professor of mine once said, you'd be in for a very, very bad day.
So remember when I mentioned that some consider there to be a third type of angel mentioned in the Hebrew Bible? That would be the Ophanim, the wheels are referred to in Enoch's transmogrification of the cherubim, going back to Ezekiel. Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction, their appearance was like a gleaming of a crystal light, and the four had the same likeness, their construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel.
Where they went, they went in any of the four directions without turning as they went. The four wheels had rims and they had spots, and their rims were full of eyes round about, and when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them, and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
Those who went these went, and those who stood these stood, and when those rose from the earth the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheel. That last line is the kicker. For the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. Most scholars do not consider them to be separate entities. Even the DDD, the dictionary of deities and demons of the Bible, do not provide them a separate entry. Yet that's not to say that no one does. Cor Q four oh five, a scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls, deposits them as angels.
And in 1 Enoch 71 7, the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Ophanim are described as quote, the sleepless ones who guard the throne of his glory, end quote. I bring them up now, for I want to go to one last mention of the living creatures, and it unfortunately makes the picture much murkier.
As we head to Revelation 4, we find and round the throne, on each side of the throne are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind, the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle, and the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to sing. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.
So in this simple passage, we get the three types of angels condensed down into a singular form. There are four of the living creatures, just like we saw in Ezekiel. But rather than each one having four heads, now we have one head per entity. Moreover, they had the wings of the seraphim, six of them, and the many eyes of the Ophanim. And there you have it, a brief rundown of the visuals of the angels one finds in the Hebrew Bible. Not sure if you knew that in the beginning the cherubim looked like sphinxes or the Lamasu, or that seraphime like some type of winged fire serpent? Probably.
Or how Revelation decided to mash them all into one singular entity, but hopefully now you do. Or even how the imagery of the angels themselves are not static, but evolve with different viewpoints and time frames. After all, we in present times have now conflated a sphinx with a baby with wings. Finally, to come full circle, remember the second question I mentioned in the very beginning, where if someone asked if angels looked like they did in order to scare demons?
If one follows the strict definition that demons are fallen angels that had rebelled, then I would say no, simply because they too would have looked like that once upon a time. And honestly, we're just scratching the surface with angels. This is only detailing their visuals and job functions within the Hebrew Bible. We still haven't gone past that to see how early Christianity expanded the categories from two to nine and further subdivided those into three spheres, or how there's supposed to be seven archangels, but only four are consistently identified.
If you would like to hear more on this topic, then please rate and follow this podcast on your platform. Contact me on Southern Demonology.com or join our either our Discord server or as a Patreon. You can find all of the details on that as well as six simple steps anyone can follow in order to help out the podcast on our website. Thank you for listening to Southern Demonology. Find us online at Southern Demonology.com where you can find all of our social and podcasting links.
Also, if you have a moment, please feel free to rate this podcast and leave any encouraging feedbacks that you may have. As always, I am JJ, and it has been a pleasure getting to talk to you today.