A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

154 kienzle and stevens
became the standard (the man for Matthew, the lion for Mark, the calf for
Luke, the eagle for John), Irenaeus of Lyons was the fijirst to identify them
with the gospel writers, but paired Mark with the eagle and John with the
lion.85 Likewise, in the Latin tradition, the precedent for considering the
four animals of Ezekiel and those of Revelation 4:6 together dates back to
Irenaeus and is reinforced by Augustine.86 Gregory the Great provides the
most extensive moral interpretations of the animals, but his readings echo
earlier exegetes, such as Ambrose and Jerome.87
Ambrose offfers a moral interpretation to Ezekiel 1:15 in De virginitate,
and in De spiritu sancto and Expositio Psalmi 118 he introduces the notion
that the wheel indicates the unity of the two testaments. Hildegard may
have had that concept in mind in her description of Zachariah’s words
revolving among the neighbors.88 Ambrose’s De virginitate is also a possible
source for Hildegard’s linking of the eternality of virginity with that
of Ezekiel’s “wheel within a wheel.”89 For Ambrose, the wheel touching
the ground symbolizes the body which is suited for a life of virtue based
on the Gospel, and the “wheel within a wheel” is consonant with the life of
the saints who move towards eternity while still in the body. Immediately
following this comparison, Ambrose cites Ezekiel 1:26, the voice in the
cloud, which he identifijies with the Word as he cites John 1:14, the “Word
that became flesh.”90
Ambrose and other exegetes employ the phrase sine initio et sine fijine to
express the notion that the wheel represents eternality.91 Hildegard uses
85 Christman, What Did Ezekiel See?, pp. 14–18.
86 Ibid., p. 16, n. 11.
87 The four animals are discussed in Gregory the Great, Homiliae in Hiezechihelem
prophetam, I, 2.15, p. 26, ll. 293–98; I, 2.18, pp. 27–28, ll. 346–63; I, 3.1–2, pp. 33–34, ll. 1–35.
88 Expo. Euang., 41, p. 302, ll. 39–40.
89 Christman, What Did Ezekiel See?, pp. 38–44, 105–09.
90 PL 16:297A: “Rota enim super terram vita est corporis ad animae aptata virtutem, et
ad Evangelicum cohaerenti cursu formata praeceptum: rota autem in medio rotae, veluti
vita intra vitam; quod sanctorum sibi vita non dissonet, sed qualis fuerit superioris aetatis,
talis sit et sequentis: vel quod in hac vita corporis vitae volvatur usus aeternae. Cum ista
congruerint, tunc divina vox resultabit, tunc super similitudinem throni similitudo sicut
species hominis apparebit” (Ezek. 1:26). Hic homo Verbum est, quia Verbum caro factum
est” (Jn. 1:14).
91 Among other sources, see Lucifer Calaritanus, De sancto Athanasio, ed. Gerardus
Diercks, CCSL 8 (Turnhout, 1978), 2.34, p. 132, l. 44; Ambrose, De fijide, ed. Christoph Markschies,
Fontes Christiani, vol. 2, (Turnhout, 2005), 3.11.88, p. 422, l. 3; Origen, In exodum
homiliae, trans. Tyrannius Rufijinus, Origenes Werke (Leipzig, 1920), 6, 6.5, p. 197, ll. 9–10;
Irenaeus, Adversus haereses, eds. Adelin Rousseau and Louis Doutreleau, SC 294 (Paris,
1982), 2.34.2, p. 356, l. 28; also SC 211 (Paris, 1974), 3.8.3, p. 96, ll. 65–66; Augustine, In Iohannis
euangelium tractatus, ed. Radbod Willems, CCSL 36 (Turnhout, 1954), 21.4, p. 214, l. 28;