I once read about an interesting concept concerning the Cherubs that surround God’s throne and Noah’s Ark. I don’t think it’s an important theological point but I thought it was interesting either way. Noah had three categories of animals on his Ark along with his family. Unclean land animals (carnivores, scavengers, certain kinds of herbivores), clean land animals (herbivores, with specific right anatomy), and flying creatures both clean and unclean (Genesis 7:2-3). The four Cherub can be seen in this representation.

The lion cherub represents unclean land animals, the bull cherub is the clean land animal, the eagle cherub represents flying creatures, and the last cherub represents humans (Noah and his family). There were seven pairs of flying creatures, seven pairs of clean land animals, one pair each of unclean land animals, and four pairs of humans. I suspect the birds had many pairs in order to help scatter the seeds to help spread post-flood vegetation. The clean animals were prey for the unclean animals so there needed to be more of them, plus these animals are sacrificial animals.

It seems the cherub represents the distinguished categories of land creatures (clean and unclean; land creatures and flyers). The Bible categorizes animals by domain land, sea, and air, and separates clean and unclean of each domain so, that pattern seems consistent. Humanity is the fourth category because we are also land creatures that are set apart, made in God’s image. Sea creatures are omitted since they live in the water so a flood would not affect them. Also, sea creatures are never sacrificed, since one doesn’t have to “kill” a sea creature because they die from not being in the water. When sea creatures eat each other the blood likely diffuses through the water so if it were killed underwater the blood could not be poured out on an altar. These cherubs seem to represent only creatures who spill blood on land and are categorized in a way that matches the division on Noah’s Ark. Is there something to this? Possibly, but I’m not sure about its significance.