Why do angels in Christian art look so different than how they are described in the Bible?

by BulkDarthDan

Angels in the bible are described as being these horrifying looking creatures with many eyes, multiple heads (some with the heads of other animals) and some look like spinning wheels. Angels in art always look like regular people or babies. Why is this?

Veritas_Certum

You are confusing separate issues. You're talking about seraphim, cherubim, and ophanim. They are not angels. In the Bible angels are always described as looking like regular human beings. Other celestial beings, such as seraphim, are differentiated from angels.

  1. Similarly, the seraphim of Isaiah 6 are not angels but winged serpentine figures associated with the iconography of the Yahwistic cult (Isa 14:29; 30:6; cf. Num 21:6–9; 2 Kgs 18:4).

Carol A. Newsom, “Angels: Old Testament,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 251.

  1. The cherubim serve a protecting function here. But they are neither protecting spirits nor half-deities; it is unthinkable to worship them; they are simply beings that appear as they accompany the divine presence and are comparable to the seraphim in Isaiah 6. They are not angels, messengers of God, in the OT, though they become such in Jewish apocalyptic and are in the highest category for that view of reality.

Hans Wildberger, A Continental Commentary: Isaiah 28-39 (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2002), 421.

  1. While Isaiah 6 presents the seraphim as winged creatures of the heavenly king, it envisions the seraphim as serpents—not angels.

Hoppe, Leslie J. Isaiah. Vol. 13 of New Collegeville Bible Commentary. Liturgical Press, 2016, 27