Herein we provide quotations and citations on Cherubim from Philo of Alexandria (20 BC-50 AD). The fuller complete result consists of quotations of those sections within the text that refer to Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, Devil, Satan, demons, serpent and dragon. The point is not to elucidate these references but to provide relevant partial quotations and citations. See my section on Angels here, Cherubim and Seraphim here, Satan here and Demons here.
Cherubim in Philo of Alexandria’s The Cherubim, Questions and Answers on Genesis, On the Life of Moses and On Flight and Finding.
The Cherubim Part 1
I “And God cast out Adam, and placed him opposite the paradise of happiness; and he placed there the cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of Life
IV Then also, “The flaming sword and the cherubim have an abode allotted to them exactly in front of paradise.”
VI But God very appropriately assigns to the cherubim and to the flaming sword a city or abode in front of Paradise.
VII But we must now consider what the figurative allusions are which are enigmatically expressed in the mention of the cherubim and of the flaming sword which turned every way…Accordingly, by one of the cherubim is understood the extreme outermost circumference of the entire heaven…But the other of the cherubim is the inner sphere.
VIII This, then, is one of the systems, according to which what is said of the cherubim may be understood allegorically…And may we not say, according to another way of understanding this allegory, that the two cherubim are meant as symbols of each of the hemispheres?
IX Now, of this ruling authority and of this goodness, being two distinct powers, the cherubim were the symbols, but of reason the flaming sword was the symbol…And do thou, O my mind, receive the impression of each of these cherubims unadulterated, that thus becoming thoroughly instructed about the ruling authority of the Creator of all things.
Questions and Answers on Genesis, I
57 Why God places a cherubim in front of the Paradise, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life? (#Ge 3:24). The name cherubim designates the two original virtues which belong to the Deity, namely, his creative and his royal virtues.
On the Life of Moses, II
XX But the ark is the depository of the laws, for in that are placed the holy oracles of God, which were given to Moses; and the covering of the ark, which is called the mercy-seat, is a foundation for two winged creatures to rest upon, which are called, in the native language of the Hebrews, cherubim, but as the Greeks would translate the word, vast knowledge and science. Now some persons say, that these cherubim are the symbols of the two hemispheres, placed opposite to and fronting one another, the one beneath the Earth and the other above the Earth, for the whole heaven is endowed with wings.
On Flight and Finding
XIX The images of the creative power and of the kingly power are the winged cherubim which are placed upon it. But the divine word which is above these does not come into any visible appearance, inasmuch as it is not like to any of the things that come under the external senses, but is itself an image of God, the most ancient of all the objects of intellect in the whole world, and that which is placed in the closest proximity to the only truly existing God, without any partition or distance being interposed between them: for it is said, “I will speak unto thee from above the mercyseat, in the midst, between the two Cherubim.”
In the next segment, we will consider Philo on the Devil, Serpent and Dragon.