Four Evangelists

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The Four Evangelists are the four followers of Jesus to whom are ascribed the writings forming the four Gospels of the New Testament: the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The evangelists, along with their symbols in iconography, are:

• Matthew the Evangelist, symbolized by a man, to represent the human nature of Christ.
• Mark the Evangelist, symbolized by a lion, to represent Christ as king.
• Luke the Evangelist, symbolized by a bull or a calf, to represent Christ as sacrifice and as priest, or to symbolize God's power.
• John the Evangelist, symbolized by an eagle, to represent the Christ as God, or to represent God's "all-seeing eye."

The attribution of the four animals comes from the four living creatures described in the Book of Revelation, though their the matches have sometimes been disputed. The symbol of Matthew, the man, is sometimes mistaken for an angel because wings are given to all four symbols.

See also

• Authorship of the Johannine works
• Tetramorph

External links

• The Four Evangelists in Stained Glass
• The Four Evangelists (contains some information on the attribution of the four animals, and also a text by Augustine of Hippo disputing the attribution.da:Evangelist

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