![]() No DNA, blood, hairs, fingerprints, or footprints-nothing. The three teenagers were convicted of these heinous murders despite the fact that there was not then, nor is there now, any physical evidence tying them to the crime. Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life without parole and life plus forty years, respectively, and Echols, who was deemed the “ringleader,” was sentenced to death. In 1994, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were convicted of these crimes in trials that rival the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693 for their reliance on rumors, lies, superstition, and religious hysteria. In 1993, three teenagers who have come to be known as the West Memphis Three were arrested and charged with brutally slaying three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, as part of a purported “satanic ritual” that involved sexual molestation and mutilation. This article may be copied or redistributed with acknowledgement and permission of the publisher.(The full text, including extensive footnotes, was published as an appendix to the ebook edition of Damien Echols's Life After Death (Blue Rider Press, 2012) This article was originally published in Arkansas Catholic May 5, 2007. Bernard Catholic Church in Bella Vista, has a master’s degree in theology from the University of Dallas. Jerome, achieved spiritual heights and therefore soared like an eagle.Ĭharles T. Luke stressed the theme of sacrifice, so the figure of the ox was associated with him. Mark begins his Gospel with John the Baptist whose “voice crying out in the wilderness” was as solitary and powerful as a lion’s roar. The Gospel of Matthew begins with the Incarnation, so his symbol is a man (or an angel). Jerome, in the latter part of the fourth century, attributed these symbols to the four canonical evangelists. Each of the four had the face of a man, but on the right side was the face of a lion, and on the left side the face of an ox and finally each had the face of an eagle.” (Ezekiel 1:5, 6 & 10) “Within it (a storm wind) were figures resembling four living creatures that looked like this: their form was human, but each had four faces and four wings. These symbols originated from the four-sided creatures described by the prophet Ezekiel 600 years before the birth of Christ. In the early Church, the “four living creatures” that encircle God’s throne in the Book of Revelation (4:7-8) became symbols for the evangelists. ![]() in Ephesus), and the actual author may have been a close associate of the Apostle John who carefully redacted and faithfully recorded what he himself heard from one of the last living eyewitnesses to the Lord. The Gospel of John was the last to be written (around 90-100 A.D. Paul and wrote his Gospel (along with the Acts of the Apostles) in Greek around 75 A.D. Luke, a medical man of pagan origin, was a companion of St. Mark, a disciple of Jesus, summarized the preaching of St. specifically for Christians converted from Judaism. He wrote his Gospel in Aramaic around 70 A.D. ![]() Modern literary criticism suggests that the actual Gospels themselves may have been composed over a period of many years by one or more “ghost writers,” each who (inspired by the Holy Spirit) had a hand in compiling, editing and preserving the distinctive style and theological insight that the Church subsequently linked to the four evangelists.Īccording to ecclesiastical tradition, Matthew was one of the 12 Apostles. Someone could be considered the author of a work simply if he was the authority behind it. In the ancient world, the concept of authorship was much broader than it is today. However, in Catholic tradition, the term “evangelist” has been used since the third century to refer to the authors attributed to the canonical Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. (4:11) Nevertheless, anyone who assists in spreading the “Good News,” whether by word (preachers and teachers) or by example (the calling of every baptized Christian), is an evangelist in the truest sense. Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, lists evangelists after apostles and prophets in the hierarchy of the Church. ![]() He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19) The word evangelist comes from the Greek meaning, “proclaimer of the Good News.” Certainly Jesus was an evangelist: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. Four evangelists’ symbols came from themes in their Gospels
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