Interesting Premise/Further reading?

I do not know of specific literature to read about Angels/Cherubs but here's a little info I know (this is kinda from my memory so it's not going to be precisely accurate but i'm hoping pretty close).

There's a hierarchy of Angels that differ a bit according Jewish, Christian and (i believe) Islamic traditions.

The one thing to remember about ancient cultures (and their religions) is that they tend to absorb the traits of the other cultures around them. Much of the ancient Jewish religion either came from or was heavily influenced by Sumeria/Mesopotamia/Babylon. In fact the patriarch of all the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions is Abram/Abraham who starts his journey to the land of Canaan from Mesopotamia. The entire area that makes up modern Syria, Jordon, Israel, etc... is called the Levant. And most of the people that covered that area were collectively called "Semites" of which the Jews/Israelis are part of (it's where the term anti-semitic comes from). All of these peoples influenced each other and even at one time ruled Mesopotamia by a people called the Akkadians (who were Semites).

According to the Bible God tells Moses his name (represented as YHWH or Yahweh or less accurately Jehovah) and says that before he was known by other names. In the Bible he is originally called "El" which can either be a generic word for God or the fatherly head of the Canaanite (like the Jews/Israelis also Semites) pantheon of gods and of which Yahweh may have been a part of (and eventually assumed the head status). This is where we get the Angelic names like Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Samael, Azrel...etc... all meaning "something" of god). Angels are written in Hebrew as "Mal'akh Elohim" (messengers of god(s) ) and "B'nai Elohim" (sons of god(s) ) The as are many cultural/religious origins, the terms and origins are a bit murky and the term "angel" may depend on your interpretation the term "Elohim". "Elohim" actually is a plural for "El" so it can mean "gods". Some think that the Angels may have been a subservient group of gods to Yahweh. But as monotheism became more defined the Angels became just primarily messengers. It may have started out sort of like if the Greeks decided only to pray to Zeus directly to have Poseidon produced favorable sailing conditions instead of to Poseidon directly. But then eventually the lesser gods are demoted to just messenger status. An example of Angels as messengers and as bad a$$ enforcers is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Two angels are sent down to warn Lot. They look just like men and are simply messengers. But it was the angel Gabriel that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (at God's bidding). I think it was Samael in his role as the angel of death that was sent to take Egypt's first born during the exodus.

Many of the images of angels still recall their Mesopotamian roots. Cherubs or Cherubim are thought to originally have been kuribu, karabu or kiribu (i can't remember and it depends on the specific origin..Babylonian, Akkadian or Assyrian) which were Mesopotamian creatures with a bull's body and the head of a king. They may also come from a Phoenician creature which was a winged lion (kind of like the sphinx). All this sort of makes sense (again sort of) of Ezekiel's vision of Yahweh's flying chariot (the Merkbah) that was made of angels: seraphim, orphim, chayot and something else i can't remember. The "wheels" of this flying chariot were the chayot which are described as having 4 wings and the face of a bull/ox, eagle, lion and man/cherub. Some think the Cherubs were originally some sort of wind/storm deity. I believe it was cherubs that were the guardians of Eden and had flaming swords to prevent Adam and Eve from returning....not your cute and cuddly flying baby angels of the Italian Renaissance.