Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Walter R. Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT pjsnet.com>]

Dear Mr. Wei,

Thankyou for your kind comments. I understand your dissappointment in not
finding a picture of the cherubim thrones. You mentioned a University
library, so I would suggest that you look through books dealing with the
Phoenicians. The most commonly reproduced picture to be found in books on
the Phoenicians is the stone sarcophagus of king Hiram, he being portrayed
on its side as sitting on a throne with flanking winged sphinxes, a table of
offerings before him.

My research indicates that the Phoenician winged sphinx thrones probably
evolved from the Egyptian thrones of the 18th/19th dynasty, which on their
arms, portray pharaoh as a striding winged sphinx trampling upon his Asiatic
enemies (the wings being collapsed and against the body, not open and
extended).

I did a bound manuscript, in 1995 (286pp.) titled In Search of the Garden of
Eden and Other Mysteries of the Bible, in which a chapter was devoted to
tracing the development of cherubim thrones, Egyptian, Phoenician and
Israelite, with illustrations, and my own proposed version of what the Ark
of the Covenant and its mercy seat may have looked like. If interested, it
is available for $35.00, and I can send you a copy. Warning: I take the
"Humanist view" that the Hebrew Bible is an evolutionary development of
Ancient Near Eastern religious myths, reinterpreted and transformed, and in
this work  I attempt to trace various Hebrew concepts back to the original
ANE concept which has been transformed. The religious beliefs of the
Egyptians, Canaanites, Babylonians, Hittites, Syrians, and Phoenicians are
investigated for parallels suggesting a common source of understandings
about God, Man, and the Cosmos, that the Hebrews creatively drew from in
forming their religion.

Alternately, if you would be so kind as to send me your mailing address, I
could send you xerox copies of the cherubim thrones.

All the best,

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden Wurttemburg
Germany