Angelic · First Sphere · c. 400 BCE
Cherubim
Also called Kerubim, Keruvim · also recorded as כְּרוּב, כְּרוּבִים (per Wikidata)
Guardians of thresholds and bearers of the throne — four-faced in Ezekiel, flanking the mercy seat in Exodus, and nothing at all like the winged infants of later art.
Deep source base
The biblical cherub is a composite guardian beast with clear Ancient Near Eastern parallels in the lamassu and the winged sphinx. Genesis stations them east of Eden with a flaming sword; Exodus has two worked in gold over the ark; Ezekiel gives the full apparition — four faces, four wings, wheels within wheels full of eyes. The chubby putti that took over the word in Renaissance painting are a separate iconographic lineage entirely, and the confusion is now impossible to undo.
Identity
Where does the name come from?
What the name means
Hebrew *keruvim*, plural of *kerub*. BDB (1906) marks the root dubious and offers no derivation inside Hebrew at all, comparing instead the Assyrian *karabu*, 'be gracious to, bless', the adjective *karubu*, 'great, mighty', and *kirubu*, a name for the winged bull set at Assyrian gateways. That is a comparison across languages rather than a derivation within one, and BDB does not present it as settled. The same entry notes, in passing, that the seraphim of Isaiah are probably another form of the same beings.
Where it was actually worshipped
No site of its own. Angels are venerated in the liturgy — a feast day, a dedication, a name in a prayer — rather than housed at a place the way a god is.
A figure with temples and a figure that only ever existed on a page are different kinds of thing, and the difference is easy to lose once both are entries in a list.
At a glance
Vitals
Vitals
Also known as
- First attested
- Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon · c. 900–100 BCE
- Named there as
- Cherubims
- Rank
- Second Choir
- Order
- First Sphere
- Base of operations
- No site of its own. Angels are venerated in the liturgy — a feast day, a dedication, a name in a prayer — rather than housed at a place the way a god is.
- Era
- c. 400 BCE
- Traditions
- Christian, Jewish
- Placed in
- The Nine ChoirsThe Ten Ranks
Traits
- Domain
- Guardianship, the throne-chariot, divine knowledge
- Traditional form
- Four faces — man, lion, ox, eagle — with wings and wheels of eyes
- Sphere
- First
3 attributed
What is it said to do?
Where these powers cluster
The 3 offices attributed to Cherubim, grouped by kind. Segment width is the share of powers falling in each category.
A bar dominated by one colour means a specialist; an even spread means a figure the sources credit with almost anything.
- martial1
- material1
- social1
5 texts
Which texts say so, and where do they disagree?
When these texts were written
Each dot is one of the 5 texts that names Cherubim, placed at that text's approximate date.
A wide spread means the figure was carried across many centuries and traditions; a tight cluster means a single period produced the whole record.
5 texts spanning roughly 1,670 years
Where the texts differ
- Name: given as Cherubims, Cherubim, Kerubim
- Rank: given as Guardians; Second choir of the first sphere; Ninth of ten ranks
- Position in list: 2, 9 depending on the text
Placed at the east of Eden with a flaming sword; bear the throne in Ezekiel's vision.
“He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword.”
Their name signifies fullness of knowledge; they receive and transmit divine wisdom.
One of the nine orders as Gregory enumerates them, named for the office it performs rather than for its rank in contemplation.
Maimonides places them near the bottom of his ten ranks, inverting the Dionysian order.
Placed among the nine orders and assigned a degree of illumination, in the question on the angelic hierarchies (I, q. 108).
Connections
What is it connected to?
Commands Thrones
the Cherubim stand immediately above the Thrones within the first triad, and illuminate them. The claim is transmission of light and knowledge, not command in any military sense.
Commanded by Seraphim
the Seraphim stand immediately above the Cherubim within the first triad, and illuminate them. The claim is transmission of light and knowledge, not command in any military sense.
Placement
Where does it sit in the hierarchies?
Answered from the sources
Common questions
Which texts mention Cherubim?
What rank is Cherubim?
How else is Cherubim spelled?
What is Cherubim said to do?
How old is Cherubim?
Nearest in the corpus
If Cherubim is what you came for, these are next
Chosen by proximity rather than by popularity: the same pantheon first, then the same rank, then the same kind of figure.
Dominions
Fourth Choir · Second Sphere
The administrative choir: they regulate the duties of lower angels and never act directly on the created world.
Gabriel
Archangel · Archangels / Chief Princes
The messenger. The angel who explains Daniel's visions, announces two births in Luke, and in Islam delivers the entire Qur'an.
Michael
Archangel · Archangels / Chief Princes
The warring archangel: prince of Israel in Daniel, captain of the host in Revelation, and the only angel the New Testament calls an archangel outright.
Seraphim
First Choir · First Sphere
Six-winged and burning, they attend the throne directly and sing the trisagion. Their name is the Hebrew verb 'to burn'.
Thrones
Third Choir · First Sphere
The wheels of the chariot — rings of fire studded with eyes, on which divine justice is said to be seated.
Angels
Ninth Choir · Third Sphere
The ninth and closest of the angelic choirs: the ordinary messengers who deal with individual people, and the only rank most human accounts ever describe meeting.
The books behind Cherubim
Every claim on this profile is attributed to one of these. They are public domain, listed oldest first, and each links to a full text where one is freely available.
Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon
Various · c. 900–100 BCE · Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek
Read Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon in full ↗Cover: Public domain · see en:Aleppo Codex; scanned by · Wikimedia file page
De Coelesti Hierarchia (The Celestial Hierarchy)
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite · c. 500 CE · Greek
Read De Coelesti Hierarchia (The Celestial Hierarchy) in full ↗Cover: Public domain · Unknown author · Wikimedia file page
Homilies on the Gospels, Homily 34
Gregory the Great · c. 590 CE · Latin
Read Homilies on the Gospels, Homily 34 in full ↗Cover: CC0 · British Library · Wikimedia file page
Mishneh Torah, Yesodei ha-Torah
Moses Maimonides · c. 1180 · Hebrew
Read Mishneh Torah, Yesodei ha-Torah in full ↗Cover: Public domain · Blaisio Ugolino · Wikimedia file page
Summa Theologiae, Treatise on the Angels
Thomas Aquinas; tr. Fathers of the English Dominican Province · c. 1265-1274 · Latin
Read Summa Theologiae, Treatise on the Angels in full ↗Cover: Public domain · Wikimedia file page
Corpus last revised 29 August 2026. A reference site’s credibility rests on being maintained, so this is the date the sourced records last changed — not the date the page was rebuilt.