I think people got the idea that cherubim were chubby little baby angels due to various artists in Ancient Rome painting them according to mythology (like Cupid, for instance). But in the spiritual realm, cherubim are very sacred angels attending directly to God. They are described as having four faces, that of a lion, an ox, an eagle and a human. They have several pairs of wings; one pair of wings cover their eyes when they are in God’s presence and another pair of wings over 7’ long. They are covered in eyes, whatever that means.
And they have straight legs and hooves. But here is a more realistic picture of the cherubim described in the Word of God.
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Wow, Auntie Ant, this is a powerful picture. Thank you very much for posting it.
I could be wrong (all you Bible scholars out there, please feel free to correct me), but there seem to be 4 kinds of heavenly beings that we associate as being angels that are mentioned in the Bible: the cherubim, the seraphim (who have 6 wings, Isaiah 6), "regular" angels, such as the ones who appeared to people and rolled the stone at Jesus' grave away, and the archangels, such as Michael.
At one time, humans must have known what cherubim looked like, because there were two cherubim facing each other on the Ark of the Covenant, something like this:
Of course, we have no way of knowing what the original depiction on the Ark was like--and now I'm wondering if the original sculptures included the different faces as well.
One thing we do know, however, is that someday, we will be able to see them for ourselves.