EVAN EI,IST, a general name given to those who write or preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word is of Creek origin, signifying one who publishes glad tidings, or is the messenger or good news. But it is applied principally to the writers of the four Gospels, or Erangella, viz. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and .1°1111.-11m word also denotes certain ministers in the primitive ehureh, who assisted the Apostles in diffusing the knowledge of the Gospel, and travelled about to execute such commissions as they were entrusted with, for the ad vancement of Christianity.
EL tsTs, in the Fine Arts, on the earliest sculptures the EVANGELISTS are symbolized by four scrolls, or, with reference to the four streamR of Paradise, by four rivers flowing down from a hill, on which stands a Cress and the Lamb, the MONOGRAP.I of Christ. They were af terwards represented as the forms out of Ezekiel, vii. 1-10, viz., a limn, a lion, a bull, and an eagle, which are mentioned as supporting the throne of God (Rev. iv. 6-7.) After the fifth century, the By zantine artists, keeping strictly to bibli cal terms, represented the Evangelists (at first in mosaic) as miraculous animals, half men and half beasts ; they had wings like the CHERUBIM, and were either iu the act of writing or had a scroll before them. The human face was given only to Matthew or Mark, to which of these two was doubtful, even to the time of Jerome, with whom originated the pres ent appropriation of the attributes ; the other three had the heads of a lion, an ox, and an eagle, with corresponding feet. This representation was customary
for some time in the Greek Church. In the latter part of the middle ages the Western Church began to separate the human figure from that of the animal, and to represent the Evangelists only in the former manner, generally as writing, and three of them with the animals by their sides as attributes. The four ani mals are often represented with scrolls, anciently inscribed with the initial sen tences of each Gospel. In later exam ples the names of the Evangelists are in scribed on the scrolls. In sepulchral brasses the Evangelistic symbols are found variously arranged, but they are most frequently placed so as to follow the same order. According to St. Je rome's arrangement St. Matthew had a man or angel by his side, because his Gospel begins with a genealogy showing the human descent of Christ. St. Mark has a lion, the symbol of the royal dig nity of the Saviour, and referring to the desert (Mark i. 13) in which he was with wild beasts. St. Luke has the ox, the symbol of the high priesthood, because his Gospel begins with the history of Zach arias serving in the temple. St. John has the eagle, the emblem of the divinity of Christ, and referring to the doctrine of the Logos, with which his Gospel com mences. Christ was thus symbolized by the Evangelists, as Man. King, high Priest, and God. The EVANGELISTIC