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King Assur-at-idin in one of his inscriptions says:--
"I have finished the gateways with genii, with stone colossi, which, like the beings
they represent, overwhelms (with fear) the heart of the wicked."
Not only were these bulls called genii, but also they were given the name kirubi, this
name is identical with the Hebrew word for cherub. There is, further, a connection
between these Assyrian and Hebrew words and the Greek word for griffin, the body of
which was that of a lion, while the head and wings were those of an eagle. On the
western side of the transept will be seen a pair of colossal human-headed winged lions;
here we have therefore in the Assyrian kirubi the man, the lion, and the ox with the
wings, while the Greek gryphus supplies the head of the eagle. Can anyone think that the
cherubim that played so important a part at the east of Eden have not lived in the memory
of Adam's sons, still retaining something of their form and import though partially buried
beneath a deal of incantations and superstitions. We have already drawn attention to the
Egyptian preservation of the memory of the cherubim when dealing with the Canopic
Jars on page 93, Volume 7: The human-headed lions were taken from the palace of
Ashur-nasir-pal, King of Assyria B.100: 885-860.
On the Eastern side is another inscription which contains a name too important to
miss, but whose monuments will be considered more fully later on in our series, that
name is Sennacherib. There are slabs from similar colossal bulls which contain the
accounts of Sennacherib's campaign against Judea; these are numbered 817, 819, 821,
and 823. They were obtained from Nineveh.
On the western side (No. 865), among other monuments, is a slab with sculptured
representation of an eagle-headed winged figure performing the ceremony of fertilizing
the date palm. There is little doubt in the minds of those who have studied the subject
but that this ceremony perpetuates something more than merely fertilizing of date-palms.
The way in which the trees are conventionally shown suggests a grove of trees, and these
"groves" (literally, "the Asherah") were the occasion of Israel's defection, idolatry and
banishment. Appendix 42 of The Companion Bible explains the Asherah, giving all the
references in the Scriptures, and showing how the human mind "given up" (Rom. 1: )
sank to the most abject slavery to the flesh. Originally a memorial of "the tree of life",
and thereby connected with the kirubi, it became perverted into an instrument for
binding and binding the sons of men with the most awful practices sanctioned by
"religion". The book of Revelation warns of the re-appearance of something similar in
the last days.