One of those men, the Roman Christian monk Jerome, reinterpreted Ezekial’s vision into four single creatures during the late fourth century. According to scholar Jacobus de Voragine, Jerome attributed the symbol of the man to Evangelist Mathew because he dwelt on the humanity of Christ. He assigned the symbol of the lion to Mark because Mark wrote about the resurrection. Luke’s symbol became the ox because he wrote about Christ’s priesthood and paid special attention to sacrifice. Lastly, Jerome assigned John an eagle symbol because John’s gospel is about Christ’s divinity. Jerome also recorded more specific reasons for his assignments of each animal symbol. He described the lion as noble and familiar with suffering and wrote that lion cubs
