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SERAPHIM

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 661 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SERAPHIM , the imaginary supernatural guardians of the See also:

threshold of Yahweh's See also:sanctuary, only mentioned in Isa. vi. (See also:Isaiah's See also:vision). Their See also:form is not described, but they have not only six wings (See also:verse 2), but hands (verse 6) and feet (verse 2). They are of See also:colossal height, for they overtop Him who is seated on the high See also:throne; and with a See also:voice that shakes the thresholds they proclaim the Trisagion, like the four " living creatures " (cf. CHERUnns) in Rev. iv. 6-8. Probably in the lost See also:Hebrew See also:text of See also:Enoch xx. 7 " seraphim " stood where the Ethiopic and the See also:Greek give " the serpents " or " the dragons "; See also:Paradise, serpents and See also:cherubim are here made subject to See also:Gabriel. In See also:late Jewish writings, more recognized than " Enoch," they are classed among the celestials with the cherubim and the 'ophannim (" wheels," cf. Ezek. i.). Now as to their origin and significance. They may originally have had a See also:serpent form, for it is difficult not to regard " seraphim " as originally (as in Num. xxi.

8) = " serpents "; cf. also the flying serpents of Israelitish See also:

folklore in Isa. xiv. 29. If so, Isaiah has transformed and ennobled these supernatural guardians of sacred things and persons. The Nehushtan " broken in pieces under See also:Hezekiah (2 See also:Kings xviii. 4) may have given an impulse to the See also:prophet's See also:imagination. Was it not a greater thing to ennoble them than to destroy their See also:artistic See also:representation ? There is no precise Babylonian or See also:Egyptian See also:equivalent, though attempts have been made to produce points of contact with Babylonian or Egyptian beliefs. See further Enc. Bib. " Seraphim," and cf. Duhm's Jesaia, ed. 2 (1902), on Isa. vi.

(T. K.

End of Article: SERAPHIM

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