Seraph

What it is

A seraph belongs to the heavenly beings of Ancient Judaism, and the word has a place in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. One is a saraph in Hebrew, from a root meaning 'burning'; the plural is seraphim. Jewish lists of angels put them among the higher ranks, and Christian writers give them the top choir. Isaiah's temple vision is the single passage in the Hebrew Bible where the word names a heavenly being: six-winged figures at God's throne, calling out that God is holy. Christian art and writing about heaven returned to that scene for centuries.

Where it comes from

The noun saraph occurs seven times in the Hebrew Bible, twice in Numbers, once in Deuteronomy and four times in Isaiah, and it mostly means a serpent. Why a word for burning also names a snake is disputed: writers suggest the colours of certain species, or the heat of a venomous bite. The plural appears in Numbers and in Isaiah, but only Isaiah uses it of an angel. A growing body of opinion traces the winged figures back to Egyptian cobra emblems of royalty and divine authority, carried into Canaan and copied on Judean seals of the early monarchy, some of them four-winged; whether those images stand behind Isaiah's angels is still argued.

How it is done

No technique summons a seraph; they belong to vision and to liturgy. In Isaiah's account one of them takes a live coal from the altar, touches the prophet's mouth and announces that his guilt is gone. The chant heard in that scene, a threefold acclamation of holiness, was carried into synagogue prayer, where it is said in the Kedushah during the repetition of the Amidah and in other prayers. Christian worship and theology echo the same cry.

Tools and materials

Wings are the seraph's defining feature. Isaiah's figures have six: one pair hides the face, one covers the feet, and the last two are used for flight. Some scholars read the covered 'feet' as a euphemism for the genitals, a sense the Hebrew Bible sometimes gives that word. In the Second Book of Enoch the related heavenly singers called chalkydri, or 'brazen hydras', have twelve wings. Fire and light are the other marks: a coal from the altar purges Isaiah's lips, and later writers call the seraphim flame and unstoppable brightness.

What it is for

Christian teaching holds that seraphim attend God's throne, keep order in heaven and purify what lies below them by their heat. In Jewish mysticism their work is self-emptying: knowing how far they stand from absolute divinity, they burn away, rise towards God and return. For Isaiah the encounter meant forgiveness, since the coal removed his guilt. Pico della Mirandola, writing in 1487, held the burning seraph up as a model of what a person might become through love of the Creator.

Who does it

Those who write about seraphim are chiefly theologians, commentators and mystics rather than ritual specialists. Maimonides, a twelfth-century scholar, set them fifth in a ladder of ten ranks of angels. Pseudo-Dionysius, whose Celestial Hierarchy fixed their fiery character for medieval readers, drew on Isaiah and on rabbinic tradition. Origen read them as a picture of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Thomas Aquinas and his Franciscan contemporary Bonaventure both reasoned from their fire and their six wings, and Pico della Mirandola made them a human ideal in the Renaissance.

Peoples and places

The imagery took shape in ancient Israel and Judah: Judean seals of the eighth century BCE show winged serpents with human features, and Isaiah's vision is set in an idealized Solomon's Temple. The seraphic cry remains part of Orthodox Jewish liturgy; Conservative congregations keep references to angels, though not every member reads them literally, and Reform and Reconstructionist Jews generally treat angel imagery as symbolic. Christian churches put the seraphim in the highest choir. Islamic writing spells the name sarāfiyun and mentions the seraphim in a hadith.

What people believe

The setting is a throne, not a spell. Seraphim stand in God's presence and voice a threefold declaration of holiness. In the Kabbalistic scheme they belong to Beriah, the first created world, the realm of divine understanding, while the Hayot of Ezekiel's vision, marked by the faces of lion, ox and eagle, sit below them in Yetzirah, the world of formation. Their burning is understood as the effect of knowing how distant they are from Atziluth, absolute divinity. Medieval Christian writers describe them as pure light with direct access to God.

When it is done

The threefold holy cry from Isaiah's vision is repeated in daily Jewish prayer, at the Kedushah in the Amidah repetition and in several other prayers. In the Second Book of Enoch the winged singers called chalkydri, listed beside the seraphim, are said to burst into song when the sun comes up. Their praise is otherwise described as continuous, offered day and night, and is not tied to a festival or a season.

How scholars and sceptics see it

Study of the seraphim is divided. One Hebrew scholar argues that the Hebrew Bible grants them no angelic status at all, and that they become a class of divine messengers only in later works such as the Celestial Hierarchy and the Summa Theologiae. Others trace the imagery to Egyptian cobra emblems passed through Canaan, a link still under debate, since a serpent form sits awkwardly with Isaiah's figures, which have heads, limbs and voices. The proposal that the covered feet are genitals is one attempt to settle that mismatch. Origen's reading was later branded heretical.

Compare and confuse

Seraphim are usually named next to cherubim, and the Book of Enoch pairs the two as the creatures nearest God's throne. Readers also meet them beside the Hayot of Ezekiel and the four living creatures of Revelation, which carry six wings and eyes all over. The singular saraph in the Hebrew Bible often means a snake, and Isaiah once uses it for a 'fiery flying serpent', which may explain why the Ge'ez term Akyəst, meaning serpents or dragons, is also applied to them.

Today

Seraphim remain part of the angelology of Orthodox Judaism, and the Kedushah keeps Isaiah's cry in daily worship. Conservative Judaism retains teaching about angels in its liturgy, while Reform and Reconstructionist congregations tend to read the images as metaphor. Christian theology still counts them the highest choir. The name has also been taken by monastics: Seraphim of Sarov received it on entering the Sarov monastery, and later converts to Orthodox monasticism adopted it too.

Questions people ask about Seraph

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle

• Seraph on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data