The ideal picture, then, which Ezekiel's de scription would lead us to form of the cherub, is that of a winged man, or winged ox, according to the particular phase it exhibited or the particu lar direction from which it was seen.
(9) Corruption of Early Worship. Whether the golden calf constructed by Aaron might be— not the Apis of Egypt—but a representation of the antediluvian Cherubim, as some suppose, from its being made on 'a feast to the Lord,' and called 'the gads of Israel' (Exod. xxxii:5), and whether Jeroboam, in the erection of his two calves, intended a schismatic imitation of the sacred symbols in the Temple of Jerusalem, rather than the introduction of a new species of idolatry (I Kings xii :28), we shall not stop to inquire. But as paganism is a corruption of patriarchal worship—each nation having added something to its own taste and fancy—perhaps we may find a confirmation of the views given above of the compound form of the cherubim in the strange figures that are grouped together in the heathen deities.
The numerous ox-heads, for instance, in the statue of the ancient Diana, and particularly the Asiatic idols, almost all of which exhibit several heads and arms attached to one person, or the heads of different animals combined, afford a col lateral proof, similar to the universal prevalence of sacrifice, that the form of the primitive cheru bim has been traditionally preserved and ex tended over a large portion of the world.
The opinions concerning the design of the cherubim are as diversified as those relative to their form. All are agreed that they had a sym bolical meaning, although it is not easy to ascer tain it. The ancients, as well as the fathers, considered that they had both a physical and a metaphysical object. Thus, for instance, Philo regarded them as signifying the two hemispheres, and the flaming sword the motion of the planets; in which opinion he is joined by some moderns, who consider them to have been nothing more than astronomical emblems—the Lion and the Man being equivalent to Leo and Aquarius—the signs of the zodiac (Landseer, Sab. Resear. p.
315). Irenmus views them as emblematic of sev eral things, such as the four elements, the four quarters of the globe, the four gospels, the four universal covenants (Adv. Haeres. iii :it). Ter tullian supposed that the cherubic figures, par ticularly the flaming sword, denoted the torrid zone (Apol. cap. 47). Justin Martyr imagined that the living creatures of Ezekiel were sym bolical of Nebuchadnezzar, the Assyrian mon arch, in his distress; when he ate grass like an ox, his hair was like a lion's, and his nails like a bird's claws (Quaest. xliv). And Athanasius sup posed that they were significant of the visible heavens (Quaest. ad. Antioel. cxxxv). The opin ions of the moderns may be reduced to three systems. Hutchinson and his followers consider the cherubim as emblems of the Trinity, with man incorporated into the Divine essence.
But the grand objection to this theory, where it is at all intelligible, is that not only are the cherubim, in all the places of Scripture where they are introduced, described as distinct from God, and no more than His attendants, but that it represents the Divine Being, who is a pure spirit, without parts, 'passions, or anything material, making a visible picture of himself, when in all ages, from the beginning of time, he has ex pressly prohibited 'the likeness of anything in heaven above' (See Parkhurst. Heb. Lexicon, sub voce). Another system regards the cherubim as symbolical of the chief ruling powers by which God carries on the operations of nature. As the heaven of heavens was typified by the holy of holies in the Levitical tabernacle (Heb. ix :3-12, 24-28).
(10) Literature. The subject is extensively discussed in the standard works on the Theology of the Old Testament, by Oehler, Smend, Schultz, Dillmann ; and on the Archeology, by Nowacic and Benzinger. See also Clievne s 'Excursus' in vol. ii. of his Isaiah, and his notes on the word in Com. on Psalms.