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The eagle is a figure of the sky, and believed by Christian scholars to be able to look straight into the sun. [1] It appears with other three beings as the tetramorph, interpreted in Christianity as symbols of the evangelists. The four beings appear as the living creatures in the Bible.
Eagles were particularly prominent in Roman culture. Many banners, coins and insignias from Rome feature eagles. In Roman religion, the eagle was both the symbol and the messenger of the Roman sky-god, Jupiter. When an emperor died, his body was burned in a funeral pyre and an eagle was released above his ashes to carry his soul to the heavens.
The ox, or bull, is an ancient Christian symbol of redemption and life through sacrifice, [12] signifying Luke's records of Christ as a priest and his ultimate sacrifice for the future of humanity. The eagle represents the sky, heavens, and the human spirit, paralleling the divine nature of Christ. [14]
These animals may have originally been seen as representing the highest forms of the various types of animals: man, as king of creation, as the image of the creator; the lion, as king of beasts of prey (meat-eating); the ox, as king of domesticated animals (grass-eating); the eagle, as king of birds. The symbols of the four Evangelists are here ...
“A flying eagle may be showing you that it’s time to rise to a higher perspective, to get beyond your own limited beliefs and thoughts and consider the issue at hand from other points of view ...
Alternatively, the eagle was believed to be the bird that flew highest in the sky and was therefore closest to heaven, and symbolised the carrying of the word of God to the four corners of the world. [3] The eagle is also the symbol of John the Apostle, and for this reason may have come to represent the inspiration of the gospels as a whole. [4]
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Benjamin Franklin is quoted in a letter to his daughter regretting the eagle's use as a national symbol, calling it a "bird of bad moral character" that steals from other birds and is easily frightened, and joking that it is good that the eagle in the Cincinnati's proposed seal looked more like a turkey. [28]