The Apostle Paul’s companion Luke wrote this at the beginning of his gospel, and a similar paragraph at the beginning of his second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, that charts the early history of the Christian Church.
In the fourth century, Jerome, who translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin, assigned to the four gospel writers a set of images listed in the book of the prophet Ezekiel:
Jerome ascribed the human being to Matthew, the lion to Mark, the ox to Luke, and the eagle to John. A splendid representation of the four images can be found in the ninth century Book of Kells. The carved figures on the four sides of the font cover at St Mary Abchurch are of the four traditional gospel writers, each accompanied by their image.
The font cover was made by William Emmett and cost £12. It is attached to a counterweight located in the vestry.
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