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Evangelists (Greek εύαγγελιστής - evangelists) - this is the name of the authors of the four books of the New Testament - the Gospels: the apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The first and last were from among the 12, and the second and third from among the 70 apostles.
In ancient times the meaning of the word "apostle" could be understood more broadly than it is usually understood today; preachers of Christianity in general were often called this way. In the ancient Christian Church there was a special degree or position of evangelists; their ministry consisted of preaching the Gospel among Jews and pagans (see Archpriest N. Afanasyev, “The Church of the Holy Spirit,” chapter “Evangelist”).
For us, evangelists are the authors of books, while for the first Christians, evangelists were “evangelists,” that is, preachers and missionaries who worked together with the apostles.
***
Is the word "evangelists" found in the New Testament?
The word “evangelists” appears three times in the New Testament. In Acts 21:8, one of the seven deacons is called an evangelist - Philip (in the Church Slavonic translation - “evangelist”); Eph. 4:11 speaks of evangelists as one of the church ministries along with apostles, prophets, shepherds and teachers (also translated as “evangelist”); in 2 Timothy 4:5 ap. Paul calls on Timothy to do the “work of an evangelist” (ἐργὸν εὐαγγελιστοῦ, in the Church Slavonic translation: “an evangelist”), the content of which, as can be assumed, is conveyed in the words of 1 Thess. 3:2, where Paul calls Timothy “a servant of God” and his co-worker “in the gospel of Christ."
Apostle Luke
The Apostle Luke, according to church writers, was from Antioch. He was a pagan by origin. His name is probably short for the Roman "Lucilius".
Luke does not include himself among the witnesses to the life of Jesus Christ. It is unknown when he converted to Christianity. He is recognized by the Church as “an apostle of the 70.”
It is known that Luke was
a doctor
.
He accompanied the Apostle Paul
on his missionary travels, including to Rome.
After the martyrdom of the Apostle Paul in Rome
, he went to preach in Libya, Achaia, Thebaid and Egypt. In the Greek city of Thebes he died a martyr's death - he was hanged from a tree.
This is interesting: Apostle Luke: evangelist, icon painter, martyr
The first icons of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Theodore Lector
, a writer and historian of the Church of the 6th century, brings to us the tradition that the Evangelist Luke was the first
icon painter
.
He captured the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In the Orthodox tradition, Luke is credited with the authorship of ten
icons of the Blessed Virgin
.
Among them are Hodegetria, Vladimirskaya
(the earliest and one of the most revered in Russia),
Iverskaya (Goalkeeper or Gatekeeper
), miraculous
Feodorovskaya and Tikhvinskaya
.
According to legend, Evangelist Luke is the author of “Nicopea”
- an icon of Byzantine origin revered by Orthodox Christians, as well as the main shrine of Poland -
the Czestochowa Mother of God. The Korsun
(iconographic type of Eleus),
Kyriotissa (
the Blessed Virgin is depicted full-length with the Child in her arms), the miraculous
Kykkos icon
is the main shrine of the island of Cyprus.
This is interesting: What icons of the Most Holy Theotokos did the Apostle Luke paint?
Day of Remembrance
Feast days of St. Luke the Apostle April 22 (May 5), October 18 (31), January 4 (17).
Icon
Material: Wood, gesso, tempera, gold. Dimensions of the icon: height 34 cm, width 22 cm. An image of the writing evangelist Luke with his symbol - the calf. Inv. No. GMPI 2973.DI-439-I. © State Museum of Palekh Art
In his Gospel, Luke paid special attention to the Savior's death on the cross. Therefore, the symbol of the evangelist is Taurus
, sacrificial animal.
Prayer to Evangelist Luke
O holy servant of God, Apostle Luke! Having fought a good fight on earth, you have received in Heaven the crown of righteousness, which the Lord has prepared for all who love Him. In the same way, looking at your holy image, we rejoice at the glorious end of your life and honor your holy memory. You, standing before the Throne of God, accept our prayers and bring them to the All-Merciful God, to forgive us every sin and help us against the wiles of the devil, so that, having been delivered from sorrows, illnesses, troubles and misfortunes and all evil, we will live piously and righteously in the present We will be worthy through your intercession, even though we are unworthy, to see good on the land of the living, glorifying the One in His saints, the glorified God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
Apostle Mark
Mark is an apostle from the seventy. In his early youth he became a disciple of Jesus Christ. His family was connected with the first followers of the Savior: he was a relative of the Apostle Barnabas
, in the house
of Mary, mother of Mark
followers of Christ
gathered .
Mark was a direct participant in the gospel events and spoke about them as only an eyewitness could:
“Get up, let's go; Behold, he who betrayed Me has drawn near. And immediately, as He was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a multitude of people with swords and staves, from the chief priests and scribes and elders. He who betrayed Him gave them a sign, saying: Whomever I kiss, He is the One; take Him and lead him carefully. And when he came, he immediately approached Him and said: Rabbi! Rabbi! and kissed Him. And they laid their hands on Him and took Him. One of those standing there drew a sword, struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to them, “You came out as if against a thief with swords and staves to take Me.” Every day I was with you in the temple and taught, and you did not take Me. But may the Scriptures be fulfilled. Then, leaving Him, everyone fled. One young man, wrapped in a veil over his naked body, followed Him; and the soldiers seized him. But he left the veil and ran away from them naked.” (Mark 14:42-52)
It is likely that this young man was the future author of one of the Gospels, Mark.
Some ancient authors call Mark “fingerless.” The apostle came from the family of Levi. According to legend, after converting to Christianity, Mark himself cut off his thumb so that he would not be forced to perform the duties of a Jewish priest.
Mark was a friend of the Apostle Paul, and in 50 he accompanied him as a servant on his first missionary journey. Subsequently he accompanied the Apostle Barnabas to Cyprus. Helped the Apostle Paul in spreading Christianity among the Romans. From Rome he went to Colossae, where he was with the Apostle Peter. Helped the Apostle Timothy in his ministry in Ephesus.
Mark probably wrote his Gospel in Rome and at the request of Roman Christians. He was based on the words of the Apostle Peter and on his own memories. The Gospel was written after the death of the apostles Peter and Paul, who preached in Rome from 61 to 66.
Mark went to Egypt and founded a Christian church in Alexandria. According to legend, the pagans accused Mark of magic for performing miracles. On the day of the holiday of Serapis, a pagan deity, he was captured and killed by a crowd of pagans.
25
April
63 years old
On this day, the Apostle Mark died as a martyr. Some scientists believe that this happened not in 63, but in 68.
The body of the apostle rested in Alexandria, and in 827 merchants took it to Venice.
Day of Remembrance
April 25 (May 8, new style) is the day of remembrance of St. Apostle Mark.
Icon
Iconography: Mark, the Apostle Dates: XIX century. Second half of the 19th century. Icon painting school or art center: Palekh school of icon painting Material: Wood, gesso, tempera, gold. Dimensions of the icon: height 31 cm, width 22.5 cm. An image of the writing evangelist Mark with his symbol - a lion. Inv. No. GMPI 2978. DI-357-I. © State Museum of Palekh Art
As a sign that the Apostle Mark in his Gospel emphasizes the greatness and power of Christ as God, his symbol is a winged lion.
Interesting fact
Residents of Venice consider the Apostle Mark their patron, and his symbol - a winged lion - adorns the city's coat of arms.
Prayer
Oh, glorious Apostle Marco, who gave up his soul for Christ and fertilized His pasture with your blood! Hear your children's prayers and sighs, now offered by your brokenhearted hearts. Because we are darkened by lawlessness, and for this reason we are covered with troubles, like clouds, but with the oil of a good life we are greatly impoverished, and we are not able to resist the predatory wolf who is boldly trying to plunder the heritage of God. O strong one! Bear our infirmities, do not separate from us in spirit, so that we may not be separated in the end from the love of God, but protect us with your strong intercession, may the Lord have mercy on all of us for your prayers for the sake of, may He destroy the handwriting of our immeasurable sins, and may He be honored with all the Saints of the blessed The kingdom and marriage of His Lamb, to whom be honor and glory and thanksgiving and worship forever and ever. Amen.
Why do the icons depict an Angel, a lion, a calf and an eagle next to the evangelists?
For a number of ancient Christian writers, a common symbol for all four evangelists were the four mysterious animals, which the prophet. Ezekiel contemplated by the river Chebar (Ezekiel 1:5-26). Their faces resembled those of a man, a lion, a calf and an eagle. These images - a man (angel), a lion, a calf and an eagle - became emblems for the evangelists, therefore Christian art, starting from the 5th century, depicts Matthew with a man or an angel (since in the Gospel Matthew emphasizes the especially human and messianic character of Christ); Mark with a lion (in the Gospel Mark depicts Christ's omnipotence and royalty); Luke with a calf (in the Gospel Luke speaks of Christ’s high priesthood, with which the sacrifice of calves was associated); John with an eagle (according to St. Augustine, John “like an eagle soars above the clouds of human weakness”). Around the end of the 16th century. in the paintings of churches, instead of the evangelists, sometimes only their symbols were depicted (for example, the Smolensky Cathedral of the Novodevichy Convent, the Church of the Holy Trinity in Vyazemy).
Four Apostles and Evangelists
Gospel
Christians have one, but there are four canonical texts about
the life, on the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ
.
According to ancient tradition, they were separated from the second part of the Bible - the New Testament
- into a special book for liturgical use -
the Four Gospels
.
Apostles Evangelists
Who are the evangelists (apostles)
Evangelists (Greek εύαγγελιστής -
evangelists) are the compilers of the four recorded canonical Gospels - the apostles
Matthew, Mark , Luke, John
(he is also the author of the Apocalypse)
.
Initially, in Christianity
evangelists
(Greek εὐαγγέλιον - good news).
This is the name given to both Christ’s sermon about the coming of the Kingdom of God
and the apostles’ sermon about the salvation of humanity
by the Lord’s will
through
the Messiah.
The word “Gospel” was probably used by the Savior
and his first disciples, speaking of the fulfillment of
Old Testament
concerning
salvation
.
“Come up to the high mountain, O preacher of Zion! lift up your voice with might, O preacher of good news to Jerusalem! exalt yourself, do not be afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” (Isa. 40:9).
Originally stories about Christ
, His earthly life, death and
resurrection were
oral. But since the 2nd century, the term “Gospel” has been used only in relation to four canonical books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John).
Saint John Chrysostom explained the need for several Gospel narratives this way:
“Couldn’t one evangelist write everything that was needed? Of course, he could, but when four people wrote, they wrote not at the same time, not in the same place, without communicating or conspiring with each other, and for all that they wrote in such a way that everything seemed to be uttered by one mouth, then this serves as the strongest evidence of the truth.” (St. John Chrysostom “Conversations on the Gospel of Matthew”).
The unity of the “good news” is emphasized by the preposition; in the Slavic tradition this is the preposition “from.” “John” emphasizes that John is not the author in the ordinary, human sense of the word, but conveys the Good News
from
God. The Lord
is the true Author.
Interesting fact
In the most ancient manuscripts the names of the authors were not mentioned at all. They appeared only in the testimonies of Christian writers from the 2nd century onwards.
The exact dates of the creation of the Gospels are unknown. There is also no answer to the question of which of the Gospels was compiled first. Church tradition names the Gospel of Matthew
, written in Hebrew.
The Evangelists Mark, Matthew and Luke are called Forecasters
, and their Gospels are synoptic (Greek συνοπτικός, literally “observers,” that is, having a general view of events). Indeed, weather forecasters have the same order of presentation of events, as well as many common places.
The fourth - the Gospel of John - differs from the synoptic ones in presentation and style. It is dated by scientists to the end of the 1st century, in contrast to the Synoptic Gospels (dated 66-80s of the 1st century).
There is another important difference. The Evangelical Synoptics depict Christ as the founder of the Kingdom of God, John looks at the center of this Kingdom, at the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Therefore, even the ancient interpreters called the synoptic Gospels bodily (εὐαγγέλιον σωματικόν), and the Gospel of John - primarily spiritual (πνευματικόν).
Symbols of the evangelists on icons
From Byzantium came the tradition of depicting the four evangelists in sails under the domes of churches. This is a symbol of the spread of the gospel teaching to all four corners of the world. At the same time, Matthew and John were depicted as gray-bearded elders, Luke and Mark - as middle-aged men, in ancient robes. In Western European religious painting, John is depicted as a youth. A frequent subject is the apostle on Fr. Patmos
dictates the book
of Revelation
to his
disciple Prokhor
.
Each of the evangelists has a symbolic image. In Matthew it is a man (angel), in Mark it is a lion, in Luke it is a calf, and in John it is an eagle. According to Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus, these symbols should be understood as follows:
“...since there are four rivers flowing from Eden, four parts of the world, four seasons, four guards of the night... four spiritual beings, consisting of four persons and signifying the coming of the Messiah. One had the face of a man, because the Messiah was born a man in Bethlehem, as Matthew teaches. One had the face of a lion, since Mark speaks of Him when he came out of the Jordan as a king and a lion, and as in another place it is said: “The Lord ascended from the Jordan.” One had the face of a calf, as Luke proclaims - not he alone, but also the other Evangelists - that at the predetermined time, at the ninth hour, - like a calf, he was sacrificed on the cross for the whole world. One had the face of an eagle, since John proclaims that the Word, who came down from heaven and became flesh, after the resurrection, like an eagle, ascended into heaven in Divinity ... "
When did the four evangelists first begin to be depicted?
The earliest depiction of the evangelists, whose figures are identified by a box with four scrolls at the feet of the Savior, is found in the Roman catacombs of St. Mark and Marcellian (up to 340). By the 4th century. include relief images of the evangelists on sarcophagi: in the cathedral of Apt (France) - inscriptions over John and Mark have been preserved; with the image of the Cathedral of the Apostles (Museum of Ancient Arles and Provence); with an allegorical image of the Church-ship with Jesus Christ at the helm and the evangelists-oarsmen, above each there is an inscription with a name (Lateran Museum, Rome; fragment). From the 6th century The evangelists are depicted together with the Mother of God or St. prophet John the Baptist, for example, on the carved plates of the throne (department) of the bishop. Maximian (546–556, Archbishop's Museum, Ravenna). From the same time, images of the evangelists are found in miniature manuscripts: Codex Rossano (Gospel of Mark and Matthew, 6th century, Cathedral Museum, Rossano); Four Gospels of Rabbula (Laurent. Plut. I. 56, 586). One of the earliest images of the symbols of the evangelists - a calf and an angel among swirling clouds - is present in the composition “Myrrh-Bearing Women at the Holy Sepulcher” on a carved ivory plate, around 400 (diptych from the Trivulzio collection, Milan).
Apostle Matthew
Information from the evangelist’s personality is contradictory and scarce. We find them in the Gospels themselves. It is known that he was a tax collector for Rome, a publican. His name is Levi. Sometimes he is called Levi Alfeev, i.e. son of Alpheus. He followed Christ and became one of the twelve apostles. This is how the Apostle Luke reports about the calling of Matthew:
“After this [Jesus] went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax collection office, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he, leaving everything, stood up and followed Him. And Levi made a great feast for Him in his house; and there were many publicans and others who sat with them.” (Luke 5:27-29)
The Gospel of Matthew was written shortly after the Ascension of Christ, before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Matthew was a Jew by birth and preached initially among his compatriots.
Then his apostolic ministry forced him to leave Jerusalem and go to Ethiopia, Macedonia and Asian countries. Information about his later life is scanty. The apostle’s life ended in Ethiopia, but whether his death was a martyr’s or a peaceful one is not known for certain.
Probably, sailing to distant lands was the reason for writing the Gospel. The Jews who became followers of Christ did not want to lose precious information about the earthly life of the Savior, which they received from an eyewitness to the events and one of the twelve Apostles. Perhaps, at their request, Matthew wrote the Gospel before leaving.
In it he presented information about the earthly path and personality of Christ. This is a short and consistent story about Christ, from genealogy and Birth to the Resurrection. There is one more important circumstance: Matthew was addressing the Jews, which means that they could recognize as the Messiah only the one about whom the prophets of the Old Testament spoke. Therefore, in the Gospel of Matthew we find Old Testament quotations.
Icon
Iconography: Matthew, the Apostle Dates: XIX century. Second half of the 19th century. Icon painting school or art center: Palekh school of icon painting Material: Wood, gesso, tempera, gold. Dimensions of the icon: height 33.5 cm, width 21.8 cm. Image of the writing evangelist Matthew with his symbol - a man. Inv. No. GMPI 2977. DI-422-I. © State Museum of Palekh Art
The Apostle Matthew is depicted on icons accompanied by a man (angel). St. Irenaeus of Lyons explained the meaning of this symbol:
“Matthew proclaims His (Jesus Christ) human birth, saying: The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham. And one more thing: The birth of Jesus Christ was like this (Matthew 1:1, 18). This Gospel depicts His humanity; Therefore, throughout the Gospel He appears to be a humbly sensitive and meek man.”
Day of Remembrance
The saint's memorial days are November 16 (29) and June 30 (July 13).
Troparion
To the Apostle Matthew, tone 3
Apostle Saint Matthew,/ pray to the Merciful God,/ may forgiveness of sins// be granted to our souls.
Kontakion to the Apostle Matthew, tone 4
Shining like the sun, your broadcast has gone out into the whole world/ enlightens the pagan Church with grace, // wonder-working Matthew the Apostle.
Does the word "evangelical" have any other meaning?
In some liturgical-canonical monuments, the word “evangelists” apparently denoted the special position of a church reader. Thus, in the Didascalia of the Apostles (3rd century), in the description of the qualities necessary for a candidate for reader, it is said, in particular, that he must “understand that he is fulfilling the ministry of an evangelist.” The word “evangelist” in this meaning is also used in the modern practice of the Orthodox Church, namely in the text of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom in the deacon’s address to the serving priest before reading the Gospel: “Bless, O Master, the evangelist (εὐαγγελιστήν)…”.
