Abstract
The cherub is a type of creature mentioned some 90 times in the Hebrew Bible, where it is portrayed as being closely associated with the God of Israel and serving as the predominant motif in Israelite iconography. This paper surveys the rich history of attempts to determine the form of the cherub, in both textual and iconographic sources, from the fourth century to the twenty-first. The cherub has been interpreted as a winged human (child or adult), a bird, a winged bovine, a griffin, a winged sphinx, and a composite creature in general. The last two identifications, which prevail in contemporary scholarship, are rejected, and a path to a correct identification is proposed.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 26-38 |
| Journal | Biblica |
| Volume | 96 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| State | Published - 2015 |