Visualization of the abstract Biblical entities of the highest heavenly hierarchy (seraphim, cherubim, thrones)

Abstract

The Biblical texts with descriptions of the higher divine entities of the heavenly hierarchy – seraphim, cherubim and thrones – are analyzed. The interpretation of their symbols by Dionysius the Areopagite and the Christian theologians of the IV–XIII centuries Gregory the Theologian, Ioan Damaskin, Maxim the Confessor, and Gregory Palama is clarified. It is determined that the heavenly entities of the highest order are regarded as abstract God-like categories, endowed with the divine qualities of absolute purity, free of sinful spots, possessing the knowledge of the highest world, and the ability to contemplate the primordial, incomprehensible and tripartite beauty of God-Creator. In the Christian tradition, they are also honored with the environment and communication with Jesus and Mary, the Mother of God. The attributes of the seraphim, the cherubim and the thrones in the Christian iconography are investigated, which, due to the difficulties of their visualization, were transmitted by symbols: all-pervading and enlightenment – by symbols of wings, wheels and eyes, and supernatural power – by four anthropo-zoomorphic images: man, bull, eagle and lion. The seraphim were identified with the help of six wings, and the Cherubim with the four. Attributes of the Thrones were the wheels. The symbolic attribute of the celestial entities was also transmitted using the color: the red one for the flaming Seraphim and the fiery Thrones and the blue for the enlightened Cherubim.On a concrete illustrative material, the transformation of their iconographic images is traced. It is substantiated that after the canonical recognition of isichasm as the basis of Eastern theology by the Constantinople Cathedral in 1351, the images of mystical symbols of heavenly forces began to be replaced by anthropomorphic images of angels, and in the center of iconography of the cosmological world there was a manly image of Jesus Christ and the Mother of God, the resurrection and sacrament of the Eucharist. It is demonstrated how the Renaissance and Baroque era displaced the mystical symbols of the Old Testament celestial forces from iconography and replaced them with images of innocent infants with wings, and the Thrones became depicted in the form of a flat plane and the throne on which Christ is sitting.Keywords: seraphim, cherubim, thrones, Dionysius the Areopagite, iconography, symbols