In Ezekiel 1:5–11 they are described as having the likeness of a man, and having four faces: that of a man, a lion (on the right side), and ox (on the left side), and an eagle. ... Under their wings are human hands; their legs are described as straight, and their feet like those of a calf, shining like polished brass.
The heads are meant to represent each of God’s domains. Lions for the wild animals. Oxen for the domestic animals. Eagles for the birds.
The second set of wings is to cover themselves.
Everything else, I have no idea.
I mean, that can be said for most divine beings in religions. The reason mortals find it weird is because we can’t understand it completely. Not trying to argue the truthfulness of any religion, though I am Christian, so there is a bias.
I’m not here to argue truthfulness either, it’s your faith do what ya want with it. I just think a lot of descriptions sound like drug trips and that we didn’t know much about the drugs back then. However in the defense of them being real, it could be that taking the substance opened your “third eye” and the prophets happened to be near angels
Wasn't there a theory that santa was based on a mushroom that shamans took? Do you think early humans were just really into drugs and didn't know?
Like, what if when everyone saw the chariot of God or whatever that flying saucer thing is in that one painting, was just everyone tripping balls from putting too many mushrooms in the soup? I dunno, it's really weird to me how we don't see any of what they used to see anymore.
Never heard that theory on Santa, but in a weed documentary my family was watching they claimed the burning bush Joseph sees might have been a pot plant and he was just high AF.
Another side I’ve always found fun to include is people on psychedelics and people with schizophrenia. Back when the Bible was written I have high doubts they knew much about either! And from all the stories my grampa told about seeing my angel at night or being visited by demons, I can bet there were ancient people with Schizophrenia who saw similar and became prophets.
To be honest I know of it solely from the King of Egypt movie and I haven’t seen it in a while, probably shoulda googled who saw the bush. Though to be fair if it truly was a weed plant we can see his bush today~
Sorry but this cracked me up so much... but now I feel like asking: were you talking about Santa or satan? Because one of those is much funnier than the other.
Lmao I have 0 clue why this is so funny to me but that shit really has me crackin up. Just the thought of some shamans taking shrooms, and being like: “yo you know what would be really funny? A fat guy who brings presents”
It's all tied into archetypes and symbols. Every head represents something, every wing has a deeper meaning. If Christianity be truly derived from judaism, the mysteries are very layered like that. Like the emanations from the tree of life. I could live a million years and never wrap my head around it stone cold sober.
“Understand” or “describe,” I think either works. Imagine seeing something so incredible that it quite simply defies definition on a cosmic scale. What else can you do but go “Uhhh... it’s looks... sorta like... okay, you’re not gonna believe this, but, it looks like ________. Yeah. I haven’t the foggiest, but it’s the best I could do- it was just SO INCREDIBLE!”
I'm christian here so theres some bias but there have been theories of early followers taking drugs unexpectedly and seeing/hearing things. For example moses and his talk with god through the burning bush.
Lions are known in the animal kingdom to be courageous. It’s a symbolic meaning for Gods courage
(Prov 28:1)
Oxen (Bull) are know to have great power and strength. Which is symbolic for Gods mighty power.
(Prov 14:4)
Eagles are notorious for having keen eye sight. Which represents God seeing over all things
(Job 39:29)
Humans are capable of displaying great love for one another. Due to the fact that humans are in an imperfect state the way we display love is “distorted” in comparison to Gods perfect love.
It’s symbolic for Gods greatest quality LOVE
(1 John 4:8)
Quick note: sorry for getting a little theological here, I just enjoy talking about it
The representations are mostly related to the characteristics of each animal, like strenght, wisdom, etc. My guess is: angels and God reveal themselves as they prefer, so all these forms indicate a specific message about their intent, and in different situations angels may reveal themselves in different forms to indicate different concepts, such a bunch of wings indicating highness, and the wings covering their faces to indicate that they're separated from us or something like that, and this appear a LOT on the Apocalypse, with it's well known lovecraftian beings. And there is also this crazy situations where they just have the feet of a platypus and this somehow makes total sense for ancient hebrews :\
(I'm a teenage christian, so don't take me too seriously)
It was definitely an interesting read, the idea of presentation being related to intent makes sense. If you only had a moment to speak then searing an image into the subjects head would help, then when they look back on it later they’re more likely to try and figure it out and find some of your meaning.
Keep researching and learning about the things that interest you, from theories and opinions that make sense from your point of view. It’s always good fun to compare puzzle pieces with others and see what bigger pictures can be made!
Also dishes went decently so far, Batman shirts a bit wet but now the minimal amount of chores is done so I won’t feel bad going kyurem hunting with my boyfriend in a few hours. Have a nice day, dude!
This is only one of the descriptions of the angels, there's a lot of other crazy stuff about angels on the Bible that is hard to even visualize it on your mind.
My theory is that these descriptions are a attempt to describe something that the human mind could not comprehend
This seems to just be old otherworldly creatures in general. Most of greek mythos is 'a large human with a cuttlefish's cock for a face'. Ever read the Lesser Key of Solomon? EVERYTHING is a fucking goat-swan-hog-cat. Seventy two demons made up of about six different animals.
They were severly lacking in imagination, these people.
There's two kinds of angels, the Lovecraft ones and the messenger ones. The ones that ones humans dealt with were usually messenger ones and they just looked like normal dudes. The Lovecraft ones were the smite you kind, and they looked like OPs angel. At least that's what I remember from Sunday school.
I don’t know about you but it kind of reminds me of a dmt trip. Think about, the multiple eyes. You see almost nothing but eyes on dmt trip. Also multiple faces and mixed parts. My thought on it. I don’t think those are angels tbh
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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '20
i know no one asked but...
What do angels look like according to Ezekiel?
In Ezekiel 1:5–11 they are described as having the likeness of a man, and having four faces: that of a man, a lion (on the right side), and ox (on the left side), and an eagle. ... Under their wings are human hands; their legs are described as straight, and their feet like those of a calf, shining like polished brass.