With respect therefore to the Cherub I will offer my opinion as far as I have been enabled to form it from reading. The name Cherub appears to me to signify that florid countenance which we see in girls and young men in the blossom of their age. For this reason angels are represented in pictures as infants. So that by cherubim you may understand angels, as heavenly beings, appearing with a blooming countenance, and with brow free from wrinkle or sign of sorrow, and smoothly extended with joy, wearing a face plump and full with gladness, whether it be a human face or any other. The name Cherub therefore is a general appellation, a term which does not apply to any order of angels in particular, as Dionysius dreams, but has reference only to their general appearance, because they present themselves to men with a juvenile and florid aspect.
And this indeed is the opinion of the Jews themselves, who assert that KERUB is a Chaldaic term and that the letter Kappa is a servile letter, and that RUB signifies a beautiful youth, who has a full and florid face; and they affirm that the angels are called KERUBIM, as representing their florid and joyful and delightful countenance or appearance; and thus they are generally represented in paintings.
In like manner the name Seraphim is a general appellation of angels; a name derived from fire or burning on account of the quality of their form, as is shown in Numbers 21:6, where Moses says, "And the Lord sent HANNECHASCHIM HASSERAPHIM, 'fiery serpents' among the people;" or, "serpent Seraphim" (serpentes Seraphim); that is, "serpents burning or on fire." So that we may here understand Seraphim or fiery angels; that is, angels not only beautiful in their full and florid face, as are Cherubim, but also fiery or shining as the angel is represented in the Gospel to have been, which sat on the stone at the tomb of our Lord, of whom Matthew says, "His countenance was like lightning," Math. 28:3; and as angels are also described by the Psalmist, when he says, "Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire," Ps. 104:4. And again, it is said, Luke 2:9, "That when the angel of the Lord came to the shepherds, the glory of the Lord shone round about them." Of the same description also was the countenance of Christ at his transfiguration on Mount Tabor, of whom it is said, "And his face did shine as the sun," Math. 17:2. The same also shall be our countenances, when we shall be raised again at the last day to enter into the glory Christ hath prepared for us.
With respect to what is written in the Books of Kings concerning "the Cherubims overlaid with gold," Cherubici certini, we are there to understand these full and blooming countenances of angels, together with their wings, 1 Kings 6:28. Not that angels really have wings, but because they cannot otherwise be described. Hence it is that we find, Is. 6:6, that the angel, who comes flying with a joyous and beautiful countenance, such as angels are described on pictures of tapestry, is called CHERUB. And if to this full and florid countenance there be added also brightness, such as was the shining countenance of Stephen, full of joy and delight, so that nothing but rays of joy dart from the eyes, such angels are called Seraphim.
Such as these shall we also be. Our countenances shall shine as bright as the mid-day sun. There shall be no wrinkle, no contracted brow, no watery eyes; but as it is written, Rev. 21:4, "and God shall wipe all tears from our eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." Let us therefore hold fast this hope and live in the fear of God, until, being delivered from this life of affliction, we shall live that angelic and eternal life which is to come. Amen! Amen!
CHAPTER IV.
PART I. GENERATION, MARRIAGE, BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF CAIN AND ABEL.
I. Thus have we at length waded through that mighty sea of matter, in doing which, all who have made the attempt have so greatly sweated and toiled, and this sweat we also have fully experienced. To us however the whole way was much more direct and plain, because, throwing aside all allegories, we have followed throughout the historical and proper sense of every passage. Whereas, the most commentators have not regarded that proper sense, but have made Origen, Dionysius and others their teachers, rather than Moses himself; and so have deservedly wandered out of the way. The things which now follow in the divine record are plainer than the preceding and admit of less dispute; and therefore they tend more to support my view of the sacred narrative; because every one must plainly say that the intent of Moses was not to put forth a host of allegories, but simply to write a history of the primitive world.