The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 50

Ver. 11.-The manufacture of the temple furniture. I. THE CHERUIIIM, (Ch. iii.10- 13.) 1. Their appearance. Colossal winged :figures; but whether, like the cherubim of Ezekiel (i. 6) and of John (Rev. iv. 7), possessed of four faceB (of a man, of n lion, of an ox, of an eagle) and six wings, cannot be decided. Probably they had only one face, resembling that of a man. Unlike the cherubim in the tabernacle, which were "beaten out of one piece of gold" (Exod. xxxvii. 7), these were made of olive wood (1 Kings vi. 23), presumably on account of its durability and firmness, qualities which induced the Greeks to select it as the best material out of which to construct idols (see Riehm, 'Haadworterbuch,' art. "Oelbaum "). The woodwork was overlaid with gold. 2. Their dimensions. In height ten cubits (1 Kings vi. 23); their wings were each five cubits long, or twenty cubits in all. They were thus twice as broad as high, and probably altogether double in size to those on the capporeth. 3. Their position. In the holy of holies, their feet upon the ground, their wings touching the walls on either side, and their faces directed towards the interior of the building, i.e. towards the holy place, whence only an intruder could enter the secret shrine. Underneath and between their outstretched wings, the ark, wUh the mercy-seat and the lesser cherubim, were subse- quc:itly placed (eh. v. 8). 4. Their meaning. That similar winged :figures are met with in the mythologies and religions of Oriental peoples, in particular of the Egyptians and Assyrians, does not prove the cherubim of Jewish theology to have been derived from those. That in those the beast-figure prevails, while in these the human face predominates, marks an essential distinction between the two. Hence the notion that among the Hebrews the cherubim had no higher significance than such winged creatures had in Egypt, Assyria, or Babylon-were, in short, merely symbols of the underlying idea common to Oriental religions, that the life of nature is identical with the life of God (Bii.hr)-is to be rejected. So also is the opinion that they were purely mythical figures, like the Egyptian or Greek sphinxes (the former half-man and half- lion, the latter half-woman and half-lion), or like the colossal winged lions at the doors of Babylonian and ABsyrian temples (Hengstenberg, 'Egypt and the Books of Moses,' p.153; Schrader, 'Die Keilinschriften. p. 40). That they represented real beings is now generally believed (Hofmann, Kurtz, Keil, Kliefoth, and others), and appears implied in the passage where they are first mentioned (Gen. iii. 24). 'l'hat they belonged to the same order of super-terrestrial existences as the angels and the seraphim of Scripture &eems a necessary inference, from the fact that all three-angels (Ps, Ix viii. 17), seraphim oII, 1v. 1-22.J 'l'HE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 51