cherub

Some key biblical terms that were directly transliterated from the Hebrew have ended up with unforeseen meanings in the lexicons of various recipient languages.

Take, for example, the English word “cherub,” from Hebrew “kĕrȗb.” Whereas the original Hebrew term meant something like “angelic being that is represented as part human, part animal” (…), the English word now means something like “a person, especially a child, with an innocent or chubby face.” Semantic shift has been conditioned in English by the Renaissance artistic tradition that portrayed cherubim in the guise of cute little Greek cupids. This development was of course impossible to foresee at the time when the first English translations borrowed this Hebrew word into the English Bible tradition, following the pattern of borrowing set by the Greek and Latin translations of the Old Testament.

In Russian, the semantic shift of this transliteration was somewhat different: the -îm ending of “kĕrūbîm,” originally signifying plurality in Hebrew, has been reanalyzed as merely the final part of the lexical item, so that the term херувим (kheruvim) in Russian is a singular count noun, not a plural one. (A similar degrammaticalization is seen in English writers who render the Hebrew plural kĕrūbîm as “cherubims.”) Apparently, this degrammaticalization of the Hebrew ending is what led the Russian Synodal translator of Genesis 3:24 to mistakenly render the Hebrew as saying that the Lord God placed a kheruvim (accusative masculine singular in Russian) to the east of the garden of Eden, instead of indicating a plural number of such beings. (Source: Vitaly Voinov in The Bible Translator 2012, p. 17ff. )

In Ngäbere the Hebrew that is translated in English as “cherub” is translated as “heavenly guard” (source: J. Loewen 1980, p. 107), in Nyamwezi as v’amalaika v’akelubi or “Cherubim-Angel” to add clarity, in Vidunda as “winged creature,” in Makonde as “winged creature from heaven” (source for this and two before: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext), in Bura-Pabir as “good spirit with wings,” and in Northern Pashto it is either translated as “heavenly creature” (Afghan Pashto Bible, publ. 2023) or “winged creature” (Holy Bible in Pakistani [Yousafzai] Pashto, publ. 2020) (source for Bura-Pabir and Northern Pashto: Andy Warren-Rothlin).

In French Sign Language it is translated with a sign that combines “angel” and “spinning sword” (referring to Genesis 3:24):


“Cherub” in French Sign Language (source: La Bible en langue des signes française )

See also seraph and ark of the covenant.

complete verse (Ezra 2:59)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezra 2:59:

  • Kupsabiny: “Another group also returned. They came from the cities of Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Kerub, Addan, and Immer. There was nothing that revealed/proved that their family came from Israel.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “These were the ones who, having returned from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Kerub, Addan, and Immer City, were not able to give proof that their families had come from the lineage of Israel –” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “There were also 652 who returned to Juda from the towns of Tel Mela, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Adon, and Imer. They were descendants of Delaya, Tobia, and Nekoda, but they could- not -prove that they were Israelinhon.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “There was another group who returned to Judah from Tel-Melah, Tel-Harsha, Kerub, Addan, and Immer towns in Babylonia. But they could not prove that they were descendants of people who previously lived in Israel.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezra 2:59, Ezra 2:60

One function of the lists given here and in Nehemiah was to establish the fact that the people who returned from exile in Babylonia were truly descendants of Israelite families. Official family registers had been kept in order to prove ancestry (1 Chr 5.17; 9.22). The people named in these verses came from the towns that are listed. These towns were presumably in Babylonia, but they are otherwise unknown. The people named here were not able to establish the identity of their families. Their records may have been lost. Meanwhile, they did not have full rights and privileges as members of the Jewish community.

This paragraph is marked off and separated from the preceding lists by an initial connective conjunction in Hebrew. The conjunction occurs with the plural demonstrative pronoun “these,” and this combination may be a discourse marker that indicates a break in the ordinary list. A possible translation to begin here is “Now the following people….”

Came up: The same verb is used here as in preceding verses with reference to returning to Jerusalem (see the comments on Ezra 1.3).

Telmelah and Telharsa were probably names of places in Babylonia meaning “hill of salt” and “hill of wood” respectively. Good News Translation follows the Hebrew by writing both of them as two separate words, while Revised Standard Version writes them as single words as done in the Septuagint. Translators should follow the pattern of their model for writing compound names.

They could not prove their fathers’ houses or their descent, whether they belonged to Israel: The Hebrew says literally “they were not able to show [the] house of their fathers and if their seed were from Israel.” “House” refers to their extended family and “seed” refers to their ancestry or their descent. Because family and descent are two aspects of the same thing, namely, one’s identity, Good News Translation simplifies to say “they could not prove that they were descendants of Israelites” and Contemporary English Version simplifies even more: “they could not prove that they were Israelites.” Nevertheless, the two factors, fathers’ houses and descent, are different and both were relevant in determining a person’s identity. Translators should therefore retain reference both to the father’s family unit and to physical ancestry. A possible translation is “they could not show by the name of their father’s house and by their bloodline that they were Israelites.”

Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Ezra. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Ezra 2:59

2:59a The following came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer,

¶ The following men came from ⌊the towns of⌋ Tel-melah, Tel-marsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer, ⌊which were in Babylon⌋
-or-
¶ ⌊This is the list and/with the number of the men who⌋ departed from the towns ⌊the towns in Babylon⌋ ⌊called⌋ Tel-melah and Tel-harsha and Cherub and Addan and Immer.

2:59b but could not prove that their families were descended from Israel:

but they could not declare that their clans belonged to Israel:
-or-
These people could not prove ⌊with records of descent/ancestry⌋ that they were ⌊true⌋ men of Israel.

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