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Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 6

1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord seated on a high, elevated throne.⁠ The hem of his robe filled the temple.⁠ 2 Seraphs stood over him;⁠ each one had six wings.⁠ With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and they used the remaining two to fly.⁠ 3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy⁠ is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!⁠ His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!”⁠ 4 The sound of their voices shook the door frames, and the temple was filled with smoke.⁠ 5 I said, “Woe to me! I am destroyed, for my lips are contaminated by sin, and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” 6 But then one of the seraphs flew toward me. In his hand was a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Look, this coal has touched your lips. Your evil is removed; your sin is forgiven.” 8 I heard the voice of the Lord say, “Whom will I send? Who will go on our behalf?”⁠ I answered, “Here I am, send me!” 9 He said, “Go and tell these people:⁠ “‘Listen continually, but don’t understand. Look continually, but don’t perceive.’⁠ 10 Make the hearts of these people calloused; make their ears deaf and their eyes blind.⁠ Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, their hearts might understand and they might repent and be healed.”⁠ 11 I replied, “How long, Lord?” He said, “Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated, and houses are uninhabited, and the land is ruined and devastated, 12 and the Lord has sent the people off to a distant place, and the very heart of the land is completely abandoned. 13 Even if only a tenth of the people remain in the land, it will again be destroyed, like one of the large sacred trees or an Asherah pole, when a sacred pillar on a high place is thrown down. That sacred pillar symbolizes the special chosen family.”⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 6:2 and Apocalypse of Abraham 18:7

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In Isaiah, the beings around God’s throne have six wings, for covering their faces and feet and for flying. In the Apocalypse of Abraham, the four living creatures also have six wings, like Isaiah’s winged beings and Ezekiel’s throne bearers combined.

Passages

Isaiah 6:2

Hebrew Bible
1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord seated on a high, elevated throne. The hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs stood over him; each one had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and they used the remaining two to fly. 3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!” 4 The sound of their voices shook the door frames, and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 I said, “Woe to me! I am destroyed, for my lips are contaminated by sin, and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Apocalypse of Abraham 18:7

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
3 And as the fire rose higher and higher, I saw under the fire a throne of fire, and all-seeing beings around it, reciting the song, and under the throne four fiery living creatures singing, 4 and they all looked alike, each one of them with four faces. 5 And their faces looked like those of a lion, a man, an ox, and an eagle. Four heads [were on their bodies] [so that the four creatures had sixteen faces]; 6 and each had six wings; from their shoulders, [and their sides] and their hips. 7 And with the (two) wings from their shoulders they covered their faces, and with the (two) wings which (sprang) from their hips they covered their feet, while they spread the (two) middle wings to fly straight ahead.
70–150 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Apocalypse of Abraham

References

“... The second way in which Revelation’s description of the h\ayyoµt coheres with other Jewish interpretations is in the identification of the h\ayyoµt or cherubim with the seraphim of Isaiah’s vision (Isa. 6:2–3). Some Jewish exegetes did not conflate the cherubim and the seraphim but treated them as two different orders of angelic beings (1 Enoch 61:10; 71:7; 2 Enoch 19:6;14 21:1; T. Adam 4:8; Apost. Const. 7.35.3; 8.12.27). Others, however, identified the two (Apoc. Ab. 18; b. H|ag. 13b; Lev. Rab. 27:3). ...”
Richard Bauckham, Living with Other Creatures: Green Exegesis and Theology (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2011), 167.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Isaiah 6:2 and Apocalypse of Abraham 18:7

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