SERAPHIM. Heavenly beings referred to in the Old Testament in connection with the vision of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a high throne. " Above Him were standing the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With twain he was covering his face. and with twain he was covering his feet, and with twain he was flying." As th;s (Isa. vi. 2) is the only mention of the Seraphim in the Old Testament, their precise nature is doubtful. An identical word. found in the Singular, means " a (fiery) serpent." In Isaiah xiv 29, xxx. 6 it occurs in the expression " flying serpent " (or, dragon). This would suggest that the Seraphs were serpentine in form. It would appear also from Isaiah vi. that these attendants on Jehovah had human hands and voices and six wings. The Seraphim have been compared with the Egyptian Seref, a winged griffin, which is represented as the guardian of graves, etc., and, according to Pietschmann, was a feature in the religion of Syria as well as in that of Egypt. Assyriologists compare the name sharrdpu, "the burner," which is used of the Babylonian solar fire-god Nergal (q.v.). Cheyne (Encyclopaedia Biblica) inclines to the view that the Seraphim were originally serpents (cp. Isa. xiv. 29; Nu. xxi. 8). " Arabian and Hebrew folklore placed flying serpents, with burning venemous bite, in the desert, and Hebrew mythographers may have represented winged serpents as the guardians of the dwelling of the Deity."
But why should we seek to ascribe any particular form to the Seraphim? They were probably thought of simply as " dazzling (burning; Hebrew sdraph " to burn ") ones." Their brightness was so dazzling that probably as a rule no form could be distinguished. In so far as the picture seen by Isaiah assumed a form, it took the shape of six wings, two at the top, two at the bottom, and one on either side. It is useless to seek a parallel figure in mythology and folklore. The Seraphim, as seen by Isaiah, belong, like Moses' vision of the burning bush (see BURNING BUSH), purely to the realm of psychic phenomena. True, we are told that one of the Seraphim flew to Isaiah with a live coal in his hand and touched his mouth with it. But the words were hardly intended to be taken literally. It is not possible to describe in human speech the kind of experience that Isaiah had. When the attempt is made to do so, words have to be used which are in reality quite inadequate and very liable to be misunderstood. See Encycl. Bibl.; Hastings' D.B.; O. C. Whitehouse, Isaiah in the " Century Bible."