Commentaria in Exodum
It is asked fifthly, whence are they called Cherubim, what does Cherubim signify in Hebrew? I answer: They are called Cherubim not from the Chaldee rub, or rabio, that is boy, as if cherub were the same as kerub, that is, like a boy, as Rabbi Kimchi will have it, and our Alcazar, Apocalypse chap. 4, p. 383, where he explains thus: Cherub, he says, that is, as a boy, that is as a son, or as a minister, continually standing by God, ready for all his service: for it is certain that Cherubim is not a Chaldee but a Hebrew name. But they are called Cherubim from the multitude of strength, glory, knowledge and wisdom, as St. Dionysius teaches, Celest. Hierarch. chap. 7. Ezech. 27; Philo, book On the Life of Moses; Origen, hom. 5 and 41 on Num.; Anastasius, serm. On the Mother of God; Augustine, on Psalms 17 and 89; Theodoret, on Ezech. chap. 10, verse 20; Philastrius, Heresy 102; Sophronius in the Encomium of the Angels, tome 2 of the Library of the Holy Fathers; Isidore, Bede and others everywhere, Fathers as well as interpreters of Holy Scripture, and likewise the Scholastic Doctors, by the common consent of all. For these constantly assert that Cherubim, according to the order of angels, is so named from knowledge. Holy Scripture itself sufficiently intimates it, Ezech. 28:17, where, addressing the king of Tyre and calling him Cherub, it says: “Thou hast lost thy wisdom;” and verse 3, mocking his pride, in which the Cherub claims knowledge for himself: “Behold thou art wiser than Daniel, no secret is hidden from thee. In thy wisdom and in thy understanding thou hast made thyself strength,” etc. Further, Cherub signifies a multitude of knowledge, from the root, as Pagninus will have it, nachar, that is, he knew or recognised, and rab, that is, much. Hence the Abbot Bessarion, when dying, said: “A monk ought to be all eye, like the Cherubim.” Again, Cherub is like kerab, that is, like a rab or rabbi, that is, like a wise man, powerful, honoured and glorious. For rab, or rabbi, signifies a great man, who is strong in wealth, power, knowledge, glory. Hence it is said of the king of Tyre, Ezech. 28:14: “Thou a cherub stretched out,” as if to say: Thou, O king of Tyre, who art rab, and glorious as the Cherubim, and who with the wings of thy power and dominion stretched out protectest very many subject peoples, as the Cherubim protect the ark and the propitiatory. The name Cherub also alludes by metathesis to the root kabbir, that is, manifold, namely in knowledge, strength, form and figure: for the Cherubim had four faces, as I said on Ezech. 1.
Thirdly, Cherub by metathesis alludes to rekeb, that is, chariot: for the Cherubim attended and adorned the chariot of the glory of God; and to rokeb, that is, riding, that is, a prince, moderator, governor. For these of old were borne on horses, and as we rule a horse with the reins, so these govern the people by their laws. Such are the angels, who rule the world, and as a chariot of divine providence moderate, move and drive it. So Mercer, Goropius Becanus, and after them our Jerome Prado on Ezech. chap. 1, nay they hold this to be the primary and genuine etymology of Cherubim.
Fourthly, Cherub by metathesis, and by commutation of the kindred letters beth and pe, alludes to caphar and capporeth, that is, to the propitiatory: for the Cherubim were a part of it, and as it were its canopy. Finally Cherub alludes to the four animals expressed in Cherub, namely to the lion, calf, man and eagle. For Cherub, by metathesis and by commutation of the letter beth into the kindred pe (for both are labials and of almost the same sound), is the same as kephir, that is, lion; and the same as kepar, that is, like a calf; and the same as kerab, that is, like a powerful man and prince. Finally, by Hebrew anagrammatism atbash (in which the letters of the alphabet are exchanged with each other in backward order, for example aleph, which is first from the beginning, is exchanged with tau, which is first from the end; and beth, which is second from the beginning, is exchanged with schin, which is second from the end: in which manner Jeremias chap. 51, verse 41, calls Babel itself Sesach), kerub is the same as kescer, and kescer, by apheresis of the letter nun, which is wont to be in words beginning with nun, is the same as kenescer, that is, like an eagle. Thus, then, Cherub, as in its form so in its name, includes and expresses the appearance of four animals.
Morally, the Cherubim are the symbol of wisdom, which excels other things, and alone is fit for government. For the wisdom of God, in governing this universe, “reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly.” This is the form of the best government. Wouldst thou govern best? govern as God, mightily and sweetly. Hence Solomon earnestly begs this wisdom of God, Wisdom 9. Hear Horace, book 1, epist. 1:
In short, the wise man is inferior only to Jove: rich, free, honoured, handsome, in fine king of kings.
Plato said that commonwealths would be happy if either the wise governed them, or their rulers studied wisdom. And Aristotle says: “To be wise is the part of him who rules.” Wouldst thou then be a Cherub? wouldst thou be wise, that thou mayest govern thyself and others? Hear first Apuleius: “The wise man,” he says, “is neither puffed up in prosperity nor cast down in adversity.” And Seneca, epist. 60: “The wise man,” he says, “is fortified and watchful against every assault: whether poverty, whether grief, whether disgrace, whether pain make the attack, he will not retreat. Undaunted he will go against them, and among them. The wise man is full of joy, cheerful, calm and unshaken, he lives on equal terms with the gods.” And epist. 72: “The wise man conquers fortune by virtue.” And epist. 7: “The blow of an evil foreseen comes softly. The wise man accustoms himself to coming evils, and what others make light by long suffering, he makes light by long thought.”
Secondly, Isocrates to Nicocles on the kingdom: “The wise,” he says, “are those who can both manage affairs dexterously, and mix with men agreeably, and are not disturbed by the changes of life: they know how to bear adversity as well as prosperity moderately.”
Thirdly, Lactantius, book 3, chap. 30: “He who wishes,” he says, “to be wise and happy, let him hear the voice of God, learn justice, know the mystery of his birth, despise human things, look up to divine, that he may be able to attain that highest good for which he was born. The highest wisdom therefore is in this one thing, that man know and worship God.”
Fourthly, St. Gregory Nazianzen in his Apology: “The first wisdom,” he says, “is a praiseworthy life, and a mind pure before God, through which the pure are joined to the Pure, and the holy associated with the Holy.”
Fifthly, the Delphic Apollo, and Cicero, book 1 On the Laws: “Wisdom,” he says, “is: know thyself.”
Sixthly, Cicero, book 1 On the Ends: “Wisdom,” he says, “is the art of living, which drives sadness from the mind, which does not suffer us to shudder with fear; under its guidance we can live in tranquillity, the fire of the desires being quenched.” Likewise: “Wisdom is to conquer anger, to conquer oneself.”
Seventhly, Cicero, book 3 Tusculan.: “To the wise man,” he says, “nothing in human affairs can seem great, to whom all eternity and the magnitude of the whole world are known.” Wouldst thou then be wise? despise time and temporal things, think of the eternal and of eternity. The same Cicero, Paradox 4: “The wise mind,” he says, “fenced about as by walls with greatness of counsel, endurance of human things, contempt of fortune, and all the virtues, cannot be conquered or stormed.” And book 4 Tusculan.: “A man temperate, constant, without fear, without grief, without lust, he is the wise man.” Rightly the Poet: “He is wise to whom virtue has savour.”
Eighthly, Archytas: “Wisdom,” he says, “is the knowledge of divine things, and prudence in human things, and in those that regard life.”
Ninthly, St. Gregory, book 10 Moral. chap. 26: “The wisdom of the just,” he says, “is to feign nothing by ostentation, to open the mind in words, to love true things as they are, to avoid false, to show good freely, to bear evil more willingly than to do it, to seek no revenge for any injury, to count insult a gain for truth’s sake. But this simplicity of the just is derided. For what seems more foolish to the world than to show the mind in words? to simulate nothing by cunning contrivance? to return no injuries for insult? to pray for those who revile? to seek poverty? to leave possessions? not to resist him who seizes? to offer the other cheek to him who strikes?”
Now wouldst thou examples of wisdom? Alexander the Great, seeing Diogenes lying in his tub: “O vessel,” he said, “stored with wisdom?” Diogenes argued that the wise man lacks nothing by this syllogism: “All things of friends are common. The gods lack nothing: the wise are their friends; therefore the wise lack nothing, but all things are theirs, as well as the gods’.” But by the same syllogism one asking something might be refused: Why dost thou ask, having all things? but he would have answered: “I do not ask, but ask back.” So Laertius, book 6.
Aristotle used to say that the wise man suffices for himself, because all things that are others’ are also his, who has friendship and communion with all.