Gospel writers and animals

[theemc]

My wife is readinga book that refers to the 4 gospels writers as having an animal to represent them. We think Mark may be the lion. Can anyone shed any light?
Andy

[Ethel]

From the New Testament we have the four gospels written by the four evangelists; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Three of them are often represented by animals; the ox for Luke, and the eagle for John, and the lion for Mark.

From this site:
http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.geom etry/unit8/unit8.html#four%20evangelists

[jno]

and a man or angel for Matthew. From Revelations; see here

http://catholic-resources.org/Art/Evangelists_ Symbols.htm

[Octavius]

Blinking AB...... Part 1

The second-century bishop Irenaeus of Lyons speculated that the four canonical Gospels correspond with visionary depictions of angels, or "cherubim," found in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel and in the New Testament book of Revelation. The cherubs of Ezekiel each have four faces -- those of a man, a lion, an ox (or bull) and an eagle.

[Octavius]

Part 2.....

Irenaeus attempted to relate each of the creatures to one of the Gospels. He saw Matthew as corresponding to the man's face because it opens with a human genealogy of Jesus. Because Luke opens with a narrative involving priestly duties and temple services, Irenaeus associated it with the only sacrificial animal in the foursome, the ox. He linked the early mention of Holy Spirit in Mark with the winged creature, the eagle, while proposing that John's prologue concerning Jesus' divinely "royal" parentage marks that book as belonging to the regal animal, the lion.

[Octavius]

Finally Part 3....

Augustine, like Irenaeus, assigned the ox to Luke, but gave the lion to Matthew, the man to Mark and the Eagle to John. St Jerome, by contrast, heard the lion's roar in the opening command of Mark to "prepare the way of the Lord" and felt himself soaring to heaven on eagles' wings as he read the prologue of John, but stuck with the man for Matthew and the ox for Luke. St Jerome's classification has proven to be the most durable, but commentators have periodically revisited the question and proposed yet other assignments.