Ezekiel 1:7

What is designated by feet if not the steps of actions? Therefore the feet of the four living creatures are described as being straight, because the works of the holy evangelists and of all the perfect are not twisted to follow iniquity. But those do not have straight feet who are bent back to the evils of the world which they had abandoned. Of whom it is written: "The dog returned to his own vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." The distinguished teacher grieved over certain ones because they had twisted the straightness of their feet backward, to whom he said by way of rebuke: "How do you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, which you desire to serve again? You observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. I fear for you, lest perhaps I have labored among you in vain." He who admonishes others, saying: "Therefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the weakened knees, and make straight steps with your feet." But in order that gravity of life, fortitude, and discretion might be shown in these same holy preachers, it is rightly added: "The sole of their foot was like the sole of a calf's foot." For the holy preachers are designated by the name of oxen, as Paul the Apostle teaches, explaining the testimony of the law: "You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain." In the holy preachers, therefore, the sole of the foot is that of a calf, namely proceeding with maturity, and strong, and divided, because each preacher has both reverence in maturity, and strength in work, and division of the hoof in discernment. For his preaching is not easily received if he appears to be frivolous in his conduct. And there will be no display of maturity if strength of work is not present against all adversities. Moreover, the strength of work itself loses the merit of virtue if it is not discerning in understanding. For behold, we read Sacred Scripture: if we understand everything according to the letter, we have lost the virtue of discernment; if we lead everything toward spiritual allegory, we are similarly bound by the folly of indiscretion. For the holy preachers read the sacred words, and sometimes they accept the letter in its historical sense, sometimes indeed they seek the spirit through the meaning of the letter. And at times they imitate the good deeds of the preceding fathers just as they find them according to the…

(Verse 7) The four faces to one, and the four wings to one, and their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot, and they sparkled like the appearance of burnished brass. And the hands of a man were under their wings on their four sides. LXX: And the four faces to one, and the four wings to one, and their legs were straight, and they had winged feet. And they sparkled like flashing bronze, and their wings were light, and the hands of a man were under their wings on their four sides. Of the four animals, whose appearance was a likeness of a human (only in such a way that each had four faces, and four wings, and straight legs, and the sole of their feet was like the hooves of a calf, or, as the eagle interpreted it, round, which the LXX completely omitted), of the shining sparks of bronze, and of their light feathers, which are not mentioned in Hebrew, of the hand of man also under their wings in four parts, and the rest which the prophetic speech describes, we will endeavor to explain what it seems to say to us, when we briefly summarize the opinions of each person. Some claim that the four Gospels, which we have also followed in the preface of the commentary on Matthew, are designated by the names of these animals: Matthew, because it describes Jesus as a man: The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. They attribute it to Mark the lion: The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophet Isaiah: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight (Isaiah 40:3). Calves, to the Gospel of Luke, which begins with the priesthood of Zacharias. Eagles, to the beginning of John, who, soaring to the heights, began: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Regarding what we think about these, we have said in the aforementioned work, and more fully in the Apocalypse of John (Chapter IV), the appearance and names of these animals refer to the four Gospels (or, to the Evangelists). We will try to explain in their proper place how the description of all animals can be adapted. But others, who foolishly follow the wisdom of philosophers, think that there are two hemispheres in the two temples of the Cherubim, us and the Antipodes, as if humans were lying on their…