Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/724

 EVANOELISTARITTM

646

EVE

From the various statements contained in the New Testament, we may gather with some probabiHty that evangelists were travelling missionaries, occasionally solemnly set apart, as seems to have been the case with Sts. Paul and Barnabas (Acts, xiii, 1-3), to go about and preach the Gospel, yet sometimes with a settled place of abode, as Philip at Caesarea, and Timothy at Ephesus. They were endowed with a special charisma to preach to those unacquainted with the Christian Faith and pave the way for the more thorough and systematic work of the pastors and teachers. But their office, as such, seems to have extended no fur- ther; so, for instance, we understand from Acts, viii, 4 sqq., that Philip, who preached successfully in Sa- maria and baptized many, was not qualified to impart the Holy Ghost to the converts (verse 14). Accord- ingly, St. Paul, in his list of the gifts bestowed by Christ for the edification of the Church, Eph., iv, 11 (in I Cor., xii, 28, they are omitted), mentions the evangelists in the third place, only after the Apostles and the Prophets. In the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, no reference is made to evangelists; travelling missionaries are sometimes called "apostles", some- times also, as in the Didache, they are styled " teachers".

In the later ecclesiastical literature the word evangelist, perhaps sporadically still used for some time in its old sense (Euseb., Hist. Eccl., V, x), re- ceived, in most parts of the Church, another meaning. Applied occasionally to the reader in the Liturgy (Apost. Const., Ill), even to the deacon (Lit. of St. JohnChrysost., P. G., LXIII, 910),it becamegradually confined to the writers of the Four Gospels (Euseb., Hist. Eccl., III,xxxix, etc.). It is exclusively in this sense that common modern parlance employs it.

As early as the second century. Christian writers sought in Ezechiel's vision (i, 5 sqq.) andin Apoc. (iv,6- 10) symbolical representations of the Four Evangelists. The system, which finally prevailed in the Latin Church, consisted in symbolizing St. Matthew by a man, St. Mark by a lion, St. Luke by an ox, and St. John bj' an eagle (see Symbolism). It is fully explained by St. Jerome (In Ezech., i, 7), and had been adopted by St. Ambrose (Expos. Ev. S. Luc, Procem.), St. Gregory the Great (In Ezech., Hom., I, iv, 1), and others. St. Irenieus, on the one hand, and Augustine, followed by the Venerable Bede, on the other, had devised different combinations. Christian artists followed in the foot- steps of the ecclesiastical writers, and made use, in different manners, of the four traditional figures to represent the Evangelists. Among the most remark- able works of this description it will suflSce here to mention only the old mosaics of the churches of S. Pudentiana, S. Sabina, S. JIaria Maggiore, and S. Paolo fuori le Mura, at Rome.

Brcders, Die Verfassung der Kirche (Mainz. 190-1); H.iR-, NACK, Mission und AusbreiUtng dcs Chrislenlums (Leipzig 1902; ZoCKLER, Diakonrn und Evangelislen (Munich. 1S93); Patrick in Hast.. Diet, of Christ and the Gospels (New York, 1906). 549-50; Kraus. Evangelisten w. Evangclistiche Zcichcn in Real-encyc. (Freiburg. 1882), I, 458-63.

Charles L. Souv.^t.

Evangelistarium. See Ev.\ngeli.vrhtm.

Evaristus, Saint, Pope, date of birth unknown; d. aliout 107. In the Liberian Catalogue his name is given as .\ristus. In papal catalogues of the second century used by Iren;Eus and Hippolytus, he appears as the fourth successor of St. Peter, immediately after St. Clement. The same lists allow him eight years of reign, covering the end of the first and the beginning of the second century ( fromabout 98 or 99 to about 106 or 107). Tlie earliest historical sources offer no authentic data about him. In his "Ecclesiastical History" Eusebius says merely that he succeeded Clement in the episcopate of the Roman Church, which fact wius already known from St. Irena'us. This order of succession is undoubtedly correct. The "Liber Pontificalis" says that Evaristus came

of a Hellenic family, and was the son of a Bethlehem Jew. It also attributes to him the allotment of definite churches as litidi to the Roman presbyters, and the division of the city into seven diaconias or deaconries; in this statement, however, the "Liber Pontificalis" arbitrarily refers to the time of Evaristus a later institution of the Roman Church. More trust- worthy is the assertion of the "Liber Pontificalis" that he was laid to rest in Vaticano, near the tomb of St. Peter. The martyrdom of Evaristus, though traditional, is not historically proven. His feast oc- curs 26 Oct. The two decretals ascribed to him by Pseudo-Isidore are forged.

Acta SS., Oct.. XI. 799 sq.; Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne (Paris, 1886),I, 126; Duchesne. Hist. AnciennedeVEglisc iVa.ns, 1906). I; Jaffe. Regesia Rom. Pont.. 2ncl ed.. I. 4; Har- NACK. Oeschichte der altchristlichen Literatur (Leipzig, 1893), II; Die Chronologie. I. 144 sq.; Zeitschrift fiir katholische Theologie, XXIX (19051 163 sq. J. p. KiRSCH.

Eve (Heb. nin, hawwah). — The name of the first woman, the wife of Adam, the mother of Cain, Abel, and Seth. The name occurs only five times in the Bible. In Gen., iii, 20, it is connected etymologically with the verb TVn or mn, " to live " : " And Adam called the name of his wife E\-e [nin, haivwa)i\: because she was the mother of all the living". The Septuagint rendering in this passage is Zw-^ (=life, or life-giver), which is a translation; in two other passages (Gen., iv, 1 and 25) the name is transliterated ESa. The Biblical data concerning Eve are confined almost exclusively to the second, third, and fourth chapters of Genesis (see Adam).

The first account of the creation (Gen. i, " P ") sets forth the creation of mankind in general, and states simply that they were created male and female. The second narrative (Gen., ii, "J") is more explicit and detailed. God is represented as forming an individual man from the slime of the earth, and breathing into his nostrils the breath of life. In like maimer the creation of the first woman and her relation to man is described with picturesque and significant imagery. In this account, in which the plants and animals ap- pear on the scene only after the creation of man, the loneHness of the latter (Gen., ii, 18), and his failure to find a suitable companion among the animals (Gen., ii, 20), are set forth as the reason why God determines to create for man a companion like unto himself. He causes a deep sleep to fall upon him, and taking out one of his ribs, forms it into a woman, who, when she is brought to him, is recognized at once as bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. A discussion of the argu- ments in favor of the historical, or the more or less alle- gorical character of this narrative would be beyond the scope of the present notice. Suffice it to say that the biblical account has always been looked upon bj' pious commentators as embodying, besides the fact of man's origin, a deep, practical and many-sided signifi- cance, bearing on the mutual relationship established between the sexes by the Creator.

Thus, the primitive institution of monogamy is im- plied in the fact that one woman is created for one man. Eve, as well as Adam, is made the object of a special creative act, a circumstance which indicates her natural equality with him, while on the other hand her being taken from his sitle implies not only her sec- ondary role in the conjugal state (I Cor., xi, 9), but also emphasizes the intimate union between husband and wife, and the dependence of the latter on the former " Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cle;ive to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh." The innocence of the newly created couple is clearly indicatetl in the following verse, but the narra- tor inunediatoly proceeds to relate how they soon ac- quire<l, through actual transgression, the knowledge of good and evil, and with it the sense of shame which had been previously unknown to them. In the story of the Fall, the original cause of evil is the serpent,