The Four Evangelists

The Ten Thousand Martyrs or the seventy-two disciples, the Fourteen Holy Helpers, the twelve apostles, the Seven Sleepers or the four evangelists – of them all, perhaps the last are the best known.

Around great figures, the helpers always come in special numbers. Perhaps Buddha's dearest disciple was given the name Ananda, bliss. One such is enough, as Heraclitus recognised long ago: ‘One is ten thousand to me, if he is the best.’ Christ's twelve apostles are often compared with the twelve tribes of Israel, or with the signs of the zodiac, the months of the year. The number twelve may also be seen as a critical mass. It is said that for a sperm cell to fertilise the egg, that is, to fulfil its calling, it needs the help and joint effort of ten to twelve other germ cells. The six monastic disciples of Chaitanya of Bengal were half as many as the apostles, but in mystical mathematics the half and the whole correspond to each other. Since they carried the message onward, we may say that they too were evangelists. Around the tomb of Saint Francis, four of his principal disciples lie buried at the four cardinal points…

The four evangelists each came from a different background. Matthew – originally Mattal, that is, a faithful man – was a tax collector, Mark belonged to the priestly order, Luke was a historian, physician and painter, and John the fisherman, as the dearest disciple, seems to have been nothing less than a cultivator of love.

The four evangelists are depicted with four symbolic beasts, which appear as early as the prophet Ezekiel. Matthew's emblem is the winged man, Mark's the lion, Luke's the bull or ox, and John's the eagle. It seems natural to seek out the zodiac signs that correspond to the beasts. But once an inquiry is set in motion…

The four symbolic beasts – as signs of the zodiac – mark the pivotal points of the sun's course, and so the whole circle of the year. Together the four embrace the elements, and each of them represents the fixed quality of its element! The four evangelists are one in their calling. If we knead the four beasts together, we get the mythical four-formed being, the tetramorph: a man-headed, lion-bodied, bull-horned winged beast. Two of the beasts are Sun-symbols: the Bull and the Lion. Aquarius, a human sign, is linked to the unveiling of secrets, while Scorpio lives a deeply spiritual, intense inner life, and gathers the experiences of its soul through the emotions. The mottos linked to the signs deserve attention too. Only two messages recur, the messages of possession and of love, once in the singular, where individualisation, personal experience, is what matters, and once in the plural, which signals the importance of community, of belonging together. Love and possession may seem contradictory, but if Truth possesses man, and man possesses love, then they will complement each other. Is this wealth of coincidences mere chance? Or the result of a conscious choice? Were the evangelists perhaps so chosen that their persons might represent fullness? Behind the phenomena there exists a subtle, higher reality. Heraclitus says: ‘An invisible connection is stronger than a visible one.’