SERAPHIM
"To go and see him laid to rest.
God speed his soul! I trust he'll rove
In peace 'mid Seraphim above-"
H.P. Lovecraft, On the Death Of a Rhyming Critic
"The name, a Hebrew masculine plural form, designates a special class of heavenly attendants of Yahweh's court. Many
scholars prefer to derive it from the Hebrew noun saraph, "a fiery and
flying serpent", spoken of in Numbers 21:6; Isaiah 14:29, and the brazen
image of which stood in the Temple in Isaiahs's time."
The Catholic Encyclopedia
"Upon this, the Lord sent serpents among them, with fire in their fangs, that struck at many and killed many of them."
The Holy Bible, Numbers 21
The Holy Bible, Numbers 21
"I
saw the Lord sitting on a throne that towered high above me, the skirts
of his robe filling the temple. Above it rose the figures of the
seraphim, each of them six-winged; with two wings they veiled God’s
face, with two his feet, and the other two kept them poised in flight."
The Holy Bible, Isaiah 6
The Holy Bible, Isaiah 6
"The seraphim are frequently mentioned in the Book of
Enoch, where they are designated as δράκονες
("serpents"), and are always mentioned, in conjunction with the
cherubim, as the heavenly creatures standing nearest to God."
The Jewish Encyclopedia
The Jewish Encyclopedia
You know, I, to be honest, find the seraphim contradictory. Normally in Christianity or Judaism, snakes are presented as evil, as well as dragons. I find it hard to believe that Yahweh or God would actually hire something so frightening to any herptophobe, yet in the end, turned out to be loyal.
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