When the later Hebrews wished to represent the presence of Jahweh among them in the Temple at Jerusalem, they adopted the cherubim as the awful symbols alike of His nearness and of His unapproachableness. It is improbable that these works of art had a purely human appearance. Schultz {OT Theol., Eng. tr., 1892, ii. 236) inclines to the view that they were ' composite figures, with the feet of oxen, the wings of eagles, the manes of lions, and the body and face of men.' A. Jeremias (The OT in the Light of the Anc. East, 1911, ii. 126), following Klostermann, thinks it pos- sible that ' the conception is that of four cherubim (two cherubim, each with a double face).' As the symbols were blazoned on the doors, walls, and curtains of the Temple, their general appearance must originally have been quite well known, but time once more threw a veil of mj'stery over them, and Joseishus declares that ' no one can tell or guess what the cherubim were like' {Ant. vill. iii. 3).
LiTERATtiRE. — I. Benzing-er, Heh. Arch.^, 1907, index, s.v. ' Kerube ' ; A. Furtwangler, in Roscher, Lex. i. 2, col. 1742 ff. art. ' Gryps ' ; art. ' Cherub ' in EBi and ' Cherubim ' in HDB.
James Strahan. CHIEF PRIEST.— See Priest.
CHILD, CHILDREN.— See Family.
CHILDREN OF GOD, SONS OF GOD.— Amongst
the many Mays current in antiquity of expressing the relationship existing between God and man
CHILDREN OF GOD
CHILDREN OF GOD
175
(Creator, King:, Lord, Husband, Father), two were derived from human relationships of the family life — God is the Husband or Bridegroom of His people, or He is their Father. With tlie former we are not now concerned. The latter plays a large part in the teaching of the NT. It will be convenient to examine this teaching under four heads : (1) the doctrine of St. Paul, (2) that of the Johannine writings, (3) that of 1 Peter, (4) that of the remain- ing books.
1. St. Paul. — It is natural that we should find in this writer, who was the champion and protagonist of the movement for the extension of Christianity to the Gentiles, the most unrestricted expression in the NT of the sonship of mankind as related to God. In Ac 17^ he bases an argument upon the phrase of the poet Cleanthes 'for we are his ofispring.' If Eph 3^* ' the Father from whom every family in heaven and earth is named ' should more rightly be translated ' of whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named,' * we have here the thought that Fatherhood is an element in the very being of God, and that all other forms of paternity are derived from Him. The words of Eph 4^ ' one God and Father of all ' will then be naturally interpreted of this universal Fatherhood of God. It is, however, natural enough that in a Christian writer this conception of the universal Fatherhood of God should hnd little emphasis, and that it should be of infrequent occurrence, for the concep- tion of sonship was wanted to express a closer and more vital relationship than that between God and unredeemed humanity. St. Paul, therefore, gener- ally uses it to denote the relationship between God and the disciples of Christ, whether Jews or Gentiles. Writing in the stress of the Jewish controversy, he finds it necessary to vindicate the claims of the Gentile Christians to the name ' children or sons of God.' Gentile Christians are ' children of pro- mise' (Gal 4^). It is they who as 'children of promise' are Abraham's seed (Ro 9^). And this sonship had been foretold by Hosea (Ro 9^). To express the process by which the Christian be- comes a son of God, St. Paul takes from current Greek and Roman terminology the metaphor of • adoption ' : + so in Ro 8'* ' ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father ' ; so again in Gal 4'*"^ ' God sent forth his Son . . , that we might receive the adoption of sons . . . and be- cause ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' The metaphor occurs twice besides in connexion with the genesis of the idea of adoption in the mind of God, and with its complete realization in the future. In Eph P St. Paul speaks of God as ' having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself.' In Ro 8^ he speaks of Christians who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, who therefore have already received in some measure the spirit of adoption, as ' wait- ing for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.' He seems to mean that only at the resur- rection, when the body rises incorruptible, will the process of adoption be really completed, and made manifest. Adoption to sonship, then, accoi'ding to St. Paul, presupposes the revelation of the Son of God : ' God sent forth his Son that we might receive the adoption of sons' (Gal 4^). It was effected by the imparting to the disciple of the Spirit of the incarnate Son, or, in other words, of the Spirit of God. ' God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts' (v.") ; 'As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God ' (Ro 8"). This involves real likeness to the Son of God : ' He foreordained them to be conformed to the