EVANGELISTA. — Appellation, in the writings of the New Testament, for the Gospel (v.). While the terms « Gospel » (εὐαγγέλιον) and « to evangelize » (εὐαγγελίζειν) are extremely frequent, only three times in the New Testament does one find the word e. (εὐαγγελατής), which precisely indicates one who devotes himself to the dissemination of the message of Jesus. The first time, the appellation is applied to the deacon Filippo (Act. 21, 8), perhaps to distinguish him from the Apostle of the same name. The other two cases are found in the writings of s. Paolo.
In his last letter the Apostle recommends that Timoteo be a good E. (II Tim. 4, 5). In Ephesians (4, 11) Paolo enumerates certain gifts or charisms, each of which has its own specific purpose (apostolate, prophecy, office of the E., governance of the communities, teaching); but there is nothing to prevent the same person from being endowed simultaneously with several charisms. These are not incompatible offices, but rather a greater emphasis on a particular characteristic. With respect to the Apostles in the strict sense, the E. stood in the relationship already noted by Pelagius in his commentary (ed. A. Souter, Textes and studies, IX, Cambridge 1926, p. 364). « Every Apostle was an E.; but not every E. was an Apostle ». According to Eusebio di Cesarea (Hist. ecl., V, 10, 2; CB, I, p. 450), the E. were the continuators of the Apostles, in the sense that those to whom the term—whose meaning would soon change—was still attributed survived the Twelve as younger men.
In Ippolito (De Antichristo, 56; CB, I, p. 37) and in Tertulliano (Adversus Praxenus, 21), the appellation E. is already reserved for the authors of the four Gospels. And this would become its specific and ordinary meaning in the subsequent period.
1. Archaeology
In cemetery painting, everyone has recognized in a fresco in the cemetery called that of Marco and Marcelliano, painted on the rear wall of a cubiculum, Jesus Christ among the four E. The Lord, youthful in appearance, haloed, in tunic and pallium, seated on a throne, is depicted speaking, holding open with his left hand the volume of his Lev; above, to the right and left, are two 1; below is the scrinium. The four figures surrounding him are likewise in tunic and pallium; the first on the left points to a star, and Wilpert therefore recognizes in him s. Matteo speaking of its appearance (Mt. 2, 2 ff.); next would come s. Marco, and on the other side Luca and Giovanni (Wilpert, Pitture, p. 230, pl. 162, 2).On the sarcophagus of Apt (France), the four E. are in tunic and pallium; on two of them the names « Iohannes » and « Mar(eus) » can still be read; Matteo has a beard and long hair, while the other three have a youthful appearance and are beardless (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, I, 54, pl. 37, 2-3).
On the sarcophagus of Concordio, bishop of Arles, containing the scene of the delivery of the Law to s. Pietro, the four E. are distinguished by their names engraved on the volume or book; the second from the left is « Marcus », the fifth « Matteus », the ninth « Lucanus », and the eleventh « Ioannes »; Luca and Marco are bearded, Matteo and Giovanni beardless (Wilpert, ibid., I, 54 and pl. 34, 3).
(phot. Pont. Comm. Arch. Sacro)
EVANGELISTA – Christ and the four E. Fourth-century fresco – Rome, Cemetery known as that of SS. Marco and Marcelliano.
The four rivers that gush forth from the mountain on which Jesus Christ is present in person or under the aspect of the divine lamb are « Evangelistae viva Christi flumina », from which the stags—that is, the faithful—drink (St. Paolino da Nola, ep. 32, 10: PL 61, 330); a fine example is offered by one of the sides of the African silver reliquary, now in the Museo Sacro of the Vatican Library (G. B. De Rossi, La capsella argentea africana, Rome 1889, p. 30).
The four E. were symbolized as sheep in a fragment of a sarcophagus slab in the Museo delle Terme. The divine lamb is in the center, on the mountain from which the four rivers gush forth. Two sheep approach from the right; on the first is written « Marcus », on the second « Ioan(n) » es Evangelista. In the missing part on the left there must have been the other two sheep, with the names of Matteo and Luca (Wilpert, ibid., I, p. 54, pl. 36, 1).
The symbolic representation of the E. on a mutilated sarcophagus lid from Spoleto, now in the Museo Lateranense, is unusual: on the right, a boat with a pilot and three beardless rowers; the pilot, who is seated in the manner of a bishop, wearing a tunic and pallium, is Jesus, as shown by the iconographic type and the inscription IESVS; the three rowers are identified by the names MARCVS, LVCAS, and (IOH)ANNES; MATHEVS must have preceded them in the missing part, and Wilpert adds PETRVS because he sees in the scene the represen-
Enrico Josi
2. Art. - With regard to the symbolic representations of the four Evangelists, which appear from the earliest centuries of Christian art and have been mentioned above, it should be observed that they continued to be used throughout the Middle Ages, often becoming a decorative element, also rendered in sculpture, on the façades of Romanesque and Gothic churches (S. Rufino in Assisi, S. Pietro in Tuscania, S. Trofimo in Arles, the cathedral of Chartree, etc.). On the façade of the cathedral of Orvieto the symbols of the Evangelists are in bronze (14th century); on that of Siena, in marble (14th century). A simultaneous representation not of the symbols but precisely of the four Evangelists first appears in the East. The “Pala d’oro” of the basilica of S. Marco in Venice, a masterpiece of Byzantine goldsmithery, executed in its oldest section at Constantinople in 876, has Christ at the center, surrounded by four enamel medallions with the Evangelists, who appear there without their symbols. The pendentives of the main dome of the Venetian basilica likewise contain mosaic representations of the four Evangelists.
In the late Trecento and in the Quattrocento, simultaneous representations of the Evangelists and their symbols in the triangular compartments of sail vaults became more frequent; Spinello Aretino thus frescoed them in S. Miniato al Monte in Florence, on the vault of the sacristy. Sometimes they are shown teaching, each to a Doctor of the Church, as in the frescoes on the vault of the chapel painted by Masolino in the church of S. Clemente in Rome. In the Vatican Palace, the “Beato” Angelico painted the four Evangelists in 1450 in the triangular divisions of the vault of the chapel of Niccolò V; Benozzo Gozzoli did so in 1452 in that of the right nave of the church of S. Francesco at Montefalco, and Pinturicchio in 1485 in those of the Bufalini Chapel in S. Maria in Aracoeli in Rome. A typical representation of the four Evangelists is found in an altarpiece by Antonio and Giovanni da Murano, preserved in the church of S. Pantaleone in Venice, where they attend the Coronation of the Virgin.
In the Cappella Pazzi in Florence there are four terracotta medallions with the Evangelists by the same Luca della Robbia. The richly ornamented mosaics of the vault of the chapel of S. Elena in the basilica of S. Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome, executed in 1508 according to cartoons by Baldassare Peruzzi, contain representations of the Evangelists in the four corner medallions. In the interior mosaic decoration of the dome of the Basilica of S. Pietro in Rome, executed at the end of the Cinquecento according to the designs of Ca-
(Alinari photograph)
EVANGELISTA – Christ with the scroll of the Law and the symbols of the E. Detail of the wooden door of the basilica of S. Sabina (5th century) – Rome.
The iconography of each of the four E. did not, however, arise from these simultaneous representations of all four Saints; it was formed and established much earlier for each E. separately, preceding their simultaneous representations in time.