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A seraph (Hebrew שרף, SRF; in the plural seraphim, שרפים, SRFYM) is one of a class of celestial beings mentioned once in the Old Testament (Tanakh), in Isaiah. Later Jewish imagery perceived them as having human form, and in that way they passed into the ranks of Christian angels.
Isaiah (6:1-3) records the prophet's a vision of the Seraphim:
- "... I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the Seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew."
In the vision the seraphim cry continually to each other, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory" (vi.3). The "foundations of the thresholds" of the Temple were moved by the sound of their voices.
This is the sole occurence of the word "seraphim" in the canonic Hebrew Bible. Since there is no explication of seraphim, it is clear that listeners recognized the beings that were mentioned. The name is unparalleled, but heavenly beings with multiple wings are often represented in art of Israel's neighboring cultures in the Ancient Near East.
The 2nd-century BCE Book of Enoch also mentions the Seraphim, but the term used is the Greek drakones (δράκονες meaning "serpents"). Enoch was never accepted in the Hebrew canon, but it was widely read and quoted by early Christians. From the usage of the word "saraph" in this late text, some speculative exegesis identifies as seraphim the snakes responsible for the deaths of the blaspheming Israelites in Numbers chapter 21.
While there is no explicit references to seraphim in the New Testament, in the Book of Revelation (4:8) is a description clearly drawn from Isaiah:
- "And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to sing 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come!".
Like the seraphim of Isaiah, these angels sing the Trisagion and bear six wings. If these are Seraphim, then they are again identified with animals.
Seraphs in Christian theology
In medieval Christian theology, the Seraphim belong to the highest order, or angelic choir, of the hierarchy of angels. They are said to be the caretakers of God's throne, continuously singing Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, i. e. "holy, holy, holy" — cf "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His Glory" (Isaiah 6:3). This chanting is referred to as the Trisagion.
As they were developed in Christian theology, seraphim are beings of pure light and have direct communication with God. They resonate with the fire symbolically attached to both purification and love. The etymology of "seraphim" itself comes from the word saraph. Saraph in all its forms it is used connotes a burning, fiery state. Seraphim are often depicted as six wings radiating from a center, which conceals either a body or possibly the lack of one.
From the text of The Celestial Hierarchy, written by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite:
- The name Seraphim clearly indicates their ceaseless and eternal revolution about Divine Principles, their heat and keenness, the exuberance of their intense, perpetual, tireless activity, and their elevative and energetic assimilation of those below, kindling them and firing them to their own heat, and wholly purifying them by a burning and all-consuming flame; and by the unhidden, unquenchable, changeless, radiant and enlightening power, dispelling and destroying the shadows of darkness.
It is here that the Seraphim are described as being primarily concerned with keeping Divinity in its perfect order. They are described as being the angels of love, light and fire. According to tradition they are so bright and powerful that to look at them would instill one with pure fright. Because of this, the only beings known to benignly interact with the Seraphim are of divine nature themselves - the prophet Isaiah, the Lord and Lady, and other angels. The Seraphim without question are the closest in all of heaven to the throne of God, and their primary function is to circle the throne of God in perpetual adoration, with their singing rocking the palace of Heaven to its foundation (Isaiah 6:4).
Members of this Angelic Order
Seraphim in fiction
See also
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