The type of angel described as guarding the Garden of Eden with a flaming sword is a cherub.
Genesis 3:24 says that after Adam and Eve were expelled, God placed cherubim at the east of Eden along with a flaming, revolving sword to guard the way to the tree of life. The biblical wording uses the plural “cherubim,” while “cherub” is the standard singular form and correctly identifies the angelic type.
Cherubim in the Hebrew Bible are not the chubby childlike figures common in later European art. They are powerful heavenly beings associated with divine presence, sacred space, and God’s throne. In Exodus, cherubim also appear on the Ark of the Covenant, where their wings symbolically overshadow the place of worship.
The flaming sword is sometimes assigned by later traditions to a named angel such as Uriel or Jophiel, but Genesis itself does not name an individual guardian. Seraphim are a different class of heavenly beings, famously described in Isaiah’s vision, while dominions and thrones come from later Christian angelic hierarchies.