Four Living Creatures in the context of "Book of Ezekiel"

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⭐ Core Definition: Four Living Creatures

The living creatures, living beings, or chayyoth (Hebrew: חַיּוֹת, romanizedḥayyōṯ) are a class of heavenly beings in Judaism. They are described in the prophet Ezekiel's vision of the heavenly chariot in the first and tenth chapters of the Book of Ezekiel. References to the sacred creatures recur in texts of Second Temple Judaism, in rabbinical merkabah ("chariot") literature, in the Book of Revelation in the Christian New Testament, and in the Zohar.

According to Jewish and Christian traditions, there are four living creatures, although their description varies by source. The symbolic depiction of the four living creatures in religious art, especially Christian art, is called a tetramorph.

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Four Living Creatures in the context of Tetramorph

A tetramorph is a symbolic arrangement of four differing elements, or the combination of four disparate elements in one unit. The term is derived from the Greek tetra, meaning four, and morph, shape.

The word comes from the Greek for "four forms" or "shapes". In English usage, each symbol may be described as a tetramorph in the singular, and a group as "the tetramorphs", but usually only in contexts where all four are included. The tetramorphs were especially common in Early Medieval art, above all in illuminated Gospel books, but remain common in religious art to the present day.

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