02_eichler_nuovoImpaginato+eliminata_nota24)_DEF_copiaaaaa_26_38 28/04/15 11:32 Pagina 29 CHERUB: A HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION 29 Isa 6,2, which declares that Isaiah’s seraphim (~yprf) had wings 4. Similarly, David Kimhi (c. 1160-1235) and Gersonides (1288-1344) maintained that the cherubim of the laver stands take the form “of a human, except that they have wings”, with Gersonides also alluding to Ezek 1,10 5. Regarding other cherubim, both Kimhi and Gersonides followed the Talmud in specifying that they have the faces of boys 6. The identification of cherubim as winged humans, whether adults or children, found early expression in Jewish and Christian visual art. An unprovenanced seal in the British Museum depicts an oblong rectangle surmounted on either end by inward-facing, winged, humanoid herms of unclear age, and marked with what is apparently a misspelling of the word tetragrammaton 7. The image is adapted from the “Altar of Rome and Augustus” at Lyon, which was depicted in a similar manner on Augustan and Tiberian coins. The design suggests that the seal was engraved when these coins were current, i.e. the first century CE, and the inscription points to a Jewish origin. Many scholars have identified the picture as rep- resenting, in addition to the Lyon altar, the biblical ark with its two cherubim, which are said in the tabernacle account to have been arranged in the same position (Exod 25,17-21 = 37,6-9 + 40,20) 8. In a recent treatment, however, Jeffrey Spier rejects this idea as fan- 4 M. MARGULIES (ed.), Midrash Haggadol on the Pentateuch. Exodus (Jerusalem 1956) [Hebrew] 580. 5 Commentaries on 1 Kgs 7,29, in M. COHEN (ed.), Mikra’ot Gedolot ‘Haketer’. Kings I & II (Ramat-Gan 1995) [Hebrew] 55, 57. 6 Kimhi: commentary on 2 Chr 3,10, in e.g. Miqra’ot Gedolot (New York 1946) [Hebrew] V, 280. Gersonides: commentary on Gen 3,24, in M. COHEN (ed.), Mikra’ot Gedolot ‘Haketer’. Genesis. Part I (Ramat-Gan 1997) [Hebrew] 57; on Exod 25,18, in ID., Mikra’ot Gedolot ‘Haketer’. Exodus. Part II (Ramat-Gan 2007) [Hebrew] 73; on 1 Kgs 6,23, in ID., Kings, 43. 7 C.W. KING, The Gnostics and Their Remains. Ancient and Mediaeval (London 1887) pl. H fig. 2; online: https://archive.org/stream/gnosticsandtheir 00kinguoft#page/n507/mode/2up [cited 15 June 2014]. 8 KING, Gnostics, 441-442; C. BONNER, Studies in Magical Amulets, Chiefly Graeco-Egyptian (Ann Arbor, MI 1950) 29; E.R. GOODENOUGH, Jewish Sym- bols in the Greco-Roman Period. Vol. 2: The Archaeological Evidence from the Diaspora (New York 1953) 241-242; ID., Vol. 4: The Problem of Method (New York 1954) 133; M. SMITH, “Old Testament Motifs in the Iconography of the British Museum’s Magical Gems”, Coins, Culture and History in the Ancient World. Numismatic and Other Studies in Honor of Bluma L. Trell (eds. L. CASSON – M. PRICE) (Detroit, MI 1981) 187-194 at 190.