Seraphim

(seraph singular, seraphim plural)

The highest ranking angels, closest to God and singing his praise day and night. Many-winged, many-eyed fiery serpents? What texts do the seraphim appear in and what do these texts say about the seraphim?

## Texts

### Isaiah

Dates

"1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;

   the whole earth is full of his glory.”

4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”"

Isaiah 6:1-8 NIV

## Relation to the Cherubim and the Living Creatures

On the pages for the Cherubim and other places I have discussed the similarities between the cherubim, the living creatures and the seraphim. Perhaps I should create a page simply for this discussion... Perhaps the page for tetramorphs? Undecided.

The similarities in role, and position. Around the throne of God. The similarity in the number. There are 4 of each of these creatures. The similarity of eyes. The second time Daniel speaks of cherubim they are covered in eyes. The seraphim are covered in eyes and the living creatures of Revelation are covered in eyes.

## Snakes

Should I have a section on etymology? I suppose each subject should. I think it should be later on on each page- allow the context of the word is used in to inform the meaning first? Then discuss the possible literal meanings of the word or name...

"Seraph" has two definitions that are generally leveled against each other. "Snake" and "to burn. It is common today to see seraphim defined as "the burning ones." Meanwhile elsewhere in Isaiah seraph is translated as snake. Why is it not translated or defined as snake when describing these beings around the throne of God? To me it seems like mental gymnastics trying to avoid having such a pagan scene in the Bible with flying serpents attending God. But, seraph is only used in Isaiah- and the less a word is used the more people can argue about its actual meaning. I've heard that "burning one" comes from a verb that is similar to "seraph"- and there is an idea that the word "seraph" for snake came from the verb "saraph" to burn because the venom of snake burns- especially that of spitting cobras when the venom lands in one's eyes. Obviously more research needs to be done- find the sources for linguists discussing the meaning of seraph and their reasons for doing so.

The flying serpent throne guardians of Egypt. The signet rings of Canaan with serpents. The supposed connection between Egypt and the book of Isaiah. Useful charts in their "Who wrote the Bible" video mentioned the merged kingdom theory of Israelite history. That one of the kingdoms had a more Mesopotamian inspiration while the other was more influenced by Egypt. Thus explaining the apparent similarity of cherubim to the lamassu and the similarity of the seraphim to the serpents of Egypt.

Discovered that both Numbers and Deuteronomy also use "seraph." It was pointed out that on the plural "seraphim" is used in the "angel" passage of Isaiah- meanwhile only the singular "seraph" is used elsewhere in assumedly non-supernatural contexts.

## Texts

### Deuteronomy

Dates

"15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock."

Deuteronomy 8:15 NIV

### Numbers

Dates

"6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”"

Numbers 21:6-8 NIV

### Isaiah

Dates

Obviously the above passages in Isaiah as well as the following:

"29 Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,

   that the rod that struck you is broken;

from the root of that snake will spring up a viper,

   its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent."

Isaiah 14:29 NIV

"6 A prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev:

Through a land of hardship and distress,

   of lions and lionesses,

   of adders and darting snakes,

the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs,

   their treasures on the humps of camels,

to that unprofitable nation,"

Isaiah 30:6 NIV

## Thoughts

It is interesting that seraphim get such a fleeting mention in the cannon.

Strange- I was certain Isaiah described the seraphim as being covered in eyes- but this exceedingly brief mention barely describes them at all- and if one is to be accurate- there is no mention of eyes here. 6 wings. 2 cover their faces. 2 cover their feet. (still curious of the likelihood of this being a euphemism) With the last 2 wings they fly. They have hands because one has a live coal in their hand (I guess technically 1 hand at least) and hands that can operate tongs. They can also speak as evidenced by the tri-whatever that fancy word is. Holy, holy, holy. Triskelion? No that's the thing in Marvel. There is also the part their name plays in their description. Do you adhere to snakes or fire? Snakes seem historically and culturally accurate- but snakes have neither hands for feet- which the seraphim have at least 1 and 2 of respectively. Course the humanoid portrayal is more popular today. It also seems to be what all the early Christians portrayed. Idk what the earliest Christians thought- though if they were Jewish- they likely thought angels. Enoch pairs the cherubim and seraphim with hydras and phoenixes- so Enoch had at least some serpents flying around in Heaven.

Need to explore the alleged Egyptian influence on Isaiah. What else in Isaiah has an Egyptian flavor? Are there aspects of this vision that portray God as a Pharaoh rather than a Mesopotamian king?