SERAPHIM ( se'r'a-fim ) or SERAPHS, the plural of the Heb. saw-raw!', 'burning' or 'fiery'; Sept. Iepaciolg, in Is. vi:2-6.
(1) Name. The meaning of the word "seraph" is extremely doubtful ; the only word which re sembles it in the current Hebrew is saw-ror, "to burn," whence the idea of brilliancy has been ex tracted. Such a sense would harmonize with other descriptions of celestial beings (e. g. Ezek. i 23; Matt. xxviii :3; but it is objected that the He brew term never bears this secondary sense. lie senius (Thcs. p. 1341) connects it with an Arabic term signifying high or exalted; and this may be regarded as the generally received etymology ; but the absence of any cognate Hebrew term is certainly worthy of remark. The similarity be tween the names Seraphim and Sarapis, led Hit zig (in Is. vi :2) to identify the two, and to give to the former the figure of a winged serpent. But Sarapis was unknown in the Egyptian Pantheon until the time of Ptolemy Soter (Wilkinson's lnc. Eg. iv. 36o, sq.) ; and, even had it been other wise, we can hardly conceive that the Hebrews would have borrowed their imagery from such a source.
(2) They Were Celestial Beings, described as an order of angels or ministers of God, who stand around his throne, having each six wings, and also hands and feet, and praising God with their voices. They were therefore of human form, and like the Cherubim, furnished with wings as the swift messengers of God. As the Seraphim are nowhere else mentioned in the Bible, our concep tions of their appearance must be restricted to the above particulars, aided by such uncertain light as etymology and analogy will supply. We may observe that the idea of a winged human fig ure was not peculiar to the Hebrews; among the sculptures found at Mourghaub in Persia, we meet with a representation of a man with two pairs of wings, springing from the shoulders, and extending, the one pair upwards, the other down wards, so as to admit of covering the head and the feet (Vaux's Nits. and Persep. p. 322). The wings
in this instance imply deification ; for speed and ease of motion stand, in man's imagination, among the most prominent tokens of Divinity.
(3) Occupation. There is much symbolical force and propriety in the attitude in which the Seraphim are described as standing; while two i of their wings were kept ready for instant flight in the service of God, with two others they hid their face, to express their unworthiness to look upon the divine Majesty (comp. Exod. iii:6), and with two others they covered their feet, or the whole of the lower part of their bodies—a prac tice which still prevails in the East when persons appear in a monarch's presence. Their occupa tion was twofold—to celebrate the praises of Jeho vah's holiness and power (verse 3), and to act as the medium of communication between heaven and earth (verse 6). From their antiphonal chant ("one cried unto another") we may con ceive them to have been ranged in opposite rows on each side of the throne.
(4) Relation to Cherubim. Some have in deed identified the cherubim and seraphim as the same beings, but under names descriptive of different qualities; seraphim denoting the burn ing and dazzling appearance of the beings else where described as cherubim. It would be diffi cult either to prove or disprove this; but there are differences between the cherubim of Ezekiel, and the seraphim of Isaiah. which it does not ap pear easy to reconcile. The 'living creatures' of the former prophet had four wings; the 'seraphim' of the latter six : and while the cherubim had four faces, the seraphim had but one (comp. Is. vi :2, 3; Ezek. :5-12). If the figures were in all cases purely symbolical, the difference does not signify; and whether they were so, or not. must be deter mined by the considerations which have been in dicated tinder CHERUB; CHERUBIM (which see).