Exodus 25:18 - Exposition

Two cherubims . The form "cherubims,'' which our translators affect, is abnormal and indefensible. They should have said either "cherubim," or "cherubs." The exact shape of the Temple cherubim was kept a profound secret among the Jews, so that Josephus declares—"No one is able to state, or conjecture of what form the cherubim were" ( Ant. Jud. 8.3, § 3). That they were winged figures appears from Exodus 25:28 of this chapter, while from other parts of Scripture we learn that cherubim might be of either human or animal forms, or of the two combined ( Ezekiel 1:5-14 ; Ezekiel 10:1-22 ). These last have been with some reason compared to the symbolical composite figures of other nations, the andro-sphinxes and crio-sphinxes of the Egyptians, the Assyrian winged bulls and lions, the Greek chimaerae, and the griffins of the northern nations. But it is doubtful whether the cherubim of Moses were of this character. The most sober of recent inquirers (Bp. Harold Browne, Canon Cook, Kalisch, Keil),while admitting the point to be doubtful, come to the conclusion that they were in all probability, "winged human figures, with human face too." In this case their prototype would seem to have been the winged figures of Ma, the Goddess of Truth, frequently seen inside Egyptian arks, sheltering with their wings the scarabaeus or other emblem of the deity.. In the two ends . Rather, "From the two ends"— i.e; "rising," or, "standing up from the two ends."