| Ezekiel 1:5
| And in the midst thereof the likeness of four living creatures: and this was their appearance: there was the likeness of a man in them.
| Living creatures. Cherubims, (as appears from Ecclesiasticus 49:10.) represented to the prophet under these mysterious shapes, as supporting the throne of God, and as it were drawing his chariot. All this chapter appeared so obscure and full of mysteries to the ancient Hebrews, that, as we learn from St. Jerome, (ep. ad Paulin.) they suffered none to read it before they were thirty years old. (Challoner) --- The pagans had many such compound figures as are here represented. (Parkhurst, p. 411.) (Haydock) --- Sanchoniathon (apud Eusebius, praep. 2.) seems to have borrowed his description from this place. --- In them. They stood upright, and had some parts of the human figure. (Calmet) --- Indeed, it seems to have been predominant. (Haydock)
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