They’re guarding “the way to the tree of life.” Together with the flaming sword, these cherubim serve as the first angelic guardians in the Bible. Cherubim were depicted as frightening animal-human hybrids see Ezek. (Also, cherubs weren’t little babies with wings-those are known in Italian as putti. They’re not delivering messages, and so they’re called cherubim. Today these beings would be classified as angels, but notice that the word isn’t used. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life (Gen. When do we first hear about guardian angels? Immediately after the fall of man, we read: However, since low-ranking spirits have contact with humans, we encountered messengers frequently, and during the Christian age the term angel started being applied to every non-human spirit other than God. Sometimes high-ranking ones are called “sons of God” (Hebrew, bney Elohim) or “princes” (Hebrew, sarim)-as opposed to low-ranking spirits who run errands and deliver messages. The Bible uses other terms for non-human spirits that aren’t functioning as messengers. Similarly some beings existed who were created by God as spirits, but he makes them angels by sending them to announce what he has ordered them ( Expositions of the Psalms 103:1:15). The name of someone’s nature is “human being,” the name of his job is “soldier.”. If you inquire about the nature of such beings, you find that they are spirits if you ask what their office is, the answer is that they are angels. When they are simply spirits, they are not angels, but when they are sent, they become angels for “angel” is the name of a function, not of a nature.
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