rity which I have consulted in other passages where the word occurs without an allusion to the Cheru

bim, is simply, DN, unless where another word, baba, is used. For the chariot wheel of Pharoah, Exodus xiv. 25. the word is written without any vau. The potter's wheel, Jeremiah xviii. 3. is written in the same manner. I have only been able to find one instance where the vau is present, Nahum iii. and there the word is in the singular only, N. The other places which are rendered by wheels in our translation have either, 2, or some more indefinite expression, as feet, or course, in the Hebrew. The LXX appear to have used rgoxos indifferently in the places which I have cited, but it happens that the hexapla is deficient in most of them.

τροχος

The word here made use of throughout the whole of the first and tenth chapters, is, DN, Aopanin. And it is remarkable that, according to a usual mode of the formation of Hebrew nouns, the word might be thus made by the change of an initial Jod of the root, into vau, the formative Aleph being prefixed; and that if this were the case, the two roots from which the word could be thus formed, signify, either to breathe or live, or to shine splendidly; both of which attributes of

life and splendour, are ascribed to the mystical wheels, in the description given of them by Ezekiel, for the word translated dreadful in chap. i. 18. has the peculiar sense of dazzling by excess of light; and in a synonymous expression in verse 22, the same word is made use of, which, in Judges xiii. 6. is applied to the brightness of the countenance of the angel of God, who appeared to the wife of Manoah.

That the word has been rightly rendered in the book of Kings, the context of that place sufficiently shews; but in this passage of Ezekiel I apprehend that it expresses, also, a mysterious name, like that of Cherubim or Seraphim, like them, synonymous with a certain symbol, like them applied, as we see both are by Ezekiel, to living creatures, and like them expressive of one order of those angelic beings who stand before the throne of God. And thus also we find that the writer of this book applies it.

Both in the first and in the tenth chapters, Ezekiel describes the wheels as being living creatures, "the spirit of life was in the wheels"-and ascribes to them "eyes round about," in terms which he

does not seem so expressly to ascribe to the Cherubim.

If we compare this description with that of the four living creatures (wa) in the Apocalypse chap. iv. verses 6, 7, 8, we cannot doubt the intentional similarity of the two forms of expression. "In the "midst of the throne, and ronnd about the throne, "were four living creatures, full of eyes before and "behind And the first was like a lion, and "the second like a calf, and the third had a "face as a man, and the fourth was like a flying

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eagle. And the four living creatures had each "of them six wings about him, and they were full "of eyes within, and they rest not day and night,

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saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, "which was, and is, and is to come.'

In the vision of Ezekiel, the four wheels are represented to be "as a wheel within a wheel," by which, if we suppose them to have a common axis, and to be placed at equal angles from each other; a figure will be produced, combining four equal circles in the same sphere, and possessing equal capability and ease of motion in every possible direction: but Ezekiel also adds that their

rings, or circumferences "were full of eyes about "them four."

Thus have we a most expressive emblem of continual watchfulness and unceasing motion, such as might befit those existences, of whom it is said, by St. John, that they "are full of eyes within, "and they rest not day nor night," while they are described in this book, as those who "sleep not" in heaven above.

This word Ophanin, seems to have been unknown to the Greeks; at least I have been unable to find any trace of it. Dionysius Areopagita, or whoever wrote under his name, thus describes the order of the angels in the presence of God. "Our divine Priest has divided them into three "Triads. The most holy thrones (by whom he “appears to mean the Ophanin) and the creatures

having many eyes and wings, called by the He"brews Cherubim and Seraphim; and the next "place the powers, the Lords, and the Dominions occupy. The third place is filled by the last "hierarchies of the heaven."*

* σε Ταύτας ο θείος ημων Ιερεύς εις τρεις αφορείζει τριαδας : Τις δε γαρ αγιώτατος

θρόνες και τα πολυόμματα, και πολυπτερα αγαλματα, Χερνβίμ, Εβραίων φωνη, και Σεραφίμ. ονομασομενα. Δευτέραν τε φησι την υπό των Εξεσίων, και Κυριοτήτων, 66 και Δυνάμεων, συμπληρέμεναν : Και

ETT τρίτην εσχάτων των εξανίων Ιραρχιών,

Thus one, who must certainly have been a very early writer, even if we doubt that these are the words of Dionysius himself: one who was sufficiently conversant with the Jewish phraseology, to know the terms Cherubim and Seraphim, was, nevertheless, ignorant of the word made use of in this sense, by Ezekiel, and in the book of Enoch. And hence we have not only an argument of the Hebrew original of this book, but are enabled to draw the inference that this ancient name had become partially disused by the Jews very soon after the apostolic age.

Yet, although disused, it seems not to have been altogether unknown to them, at that period. Buxtorf has quoted the following passage from the "Rosh Haschana," portions of which are esteemed by the best Rabbinical scholars, to be very ancient, and probably much earlier than the Christian æra.

"לא תעשון בדמות שמשיי המשמשין לפני במרום בגון אופנים ושרפים וחיות הקותש ומלאכי השרת :**

"You shall not make according to the likeness of "my ministers who serve before my face on high;

* Lex. Talm. P 187.