What are Seraphim?
By Dr. Nicholas J. Schaser
In Isaiah 6, the prophet has a vision of God accompanied by “seraphim” (שרפים; Isa 6:2, 6). The Bible describes a variety of heavenly beings alongside the Lord, including “angels” (מלאכים; malakhim), “spirits” (רוחות; ruhot), and “cherubim” (כרבים), but seraphim are distinct from these entities insofar as they bear the Hebrew name for a poisonous “snake” (שרף; saraph). But since serpents have a history of working against the divine will (e.g., the animal in the garden of Eden), why would Isaiah associate snake-like creatures with the presence of God?
Isaiah recounts that as he “saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted, and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Above him were six seraphim (שרפים). Each had six wings; with two they covered their face, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying” (6:1-2). After Isaiah expresses fear at being a “man of unclean lips” in the presence of God (6:5), he sees that “one of the seraphim (שרפים) had in his hand a live coal in tongs taken from upon the altar” (Isa 6:6). Touching the coal to the prophet’s lips, the seraph tells him, “Your iniquity has been turned away and your sin has been purged (תכפר; tekhupar)” (6:7). Since blood is the mechanism by which sin is purged according to the Torah, it is reasonable to assume that because it had come from the sacrificial “altar” (מזבח; mizbeah) the coal had absorbed the atoning blood that eliminated Isaiah’s iniquities.
It may seem strange that serpentine figures are the conduits of atonement, but “seraph” (שרף) is not the same word as the “snake” (נחש; nahash) who talks with Eve in Eden. Still, it’s clear that the divine entourage before Isaiah has affinities with serpents, since ancient Egyptian inscriptions refer to a snake-like being who attends to divine thrones and whose name coheres with the Semitic root-word in Isaiah (s-r-f). Since the seraphim are “high and exalted” with God in the temple, this prophetic scene may recall the incident in the wilderness when God tells Moses to create a “seraph” (שרף) atop a pole so that any of the Israelites who looked up to it would be saved from deadly snake bites (Num 21:8). In Isaiah, the prophet is similarly saved from certain death when, in a state of moral impurity, he sees the Lord (Isa 6:5)—a scenario that people were not meant to survive (cf. Exodus 33:20). Thus, when it comes to the serpentine beings whose origin is with God, it seems that seraphim enacted the healing power of Heaven for humanity.
You can learn more profound insights (CLICK HERE for more)
