In Rev 4P the eagle plays a part in the vision of the throne in heaven : ' And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face as of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.' These four forms, which suggest all that is strongest, noblest, wisest, and swiftest in animate nature, are the same as those in Ezekiel's vision (Ezk 1^"), but here the order is different, and each ' living creature ' has six wings, while in Ezekiel each has only four wangs. Nature, including man, is thus represented before the Throne as consciously or unconsciously taking its part in the fulfilment of the will of the Divine.
In Rev 8'^ : ' And I saw, and T heard an eagle, flying in mid heaven, saying with a great voice, Woe, woe, woe, for them that dM'ell on the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels who are yet to sound,' the eagle ap- pears as the herald of calamity. The first series of four trumpet-blasts have gone forth, and the forces of Nature have done their work rutlilessly, but the worst is yet to come. The eagle — which, it will be noted, was heard as well as seen — is chosen on account of its swiftness as a fitting emblem of the judgment about to fall upon the jjagan population of the world.
In Rev 12^^ the eagle is the means whereby the woman — i.e. the Christian Church — is conveyed away from the dragon and his fury to a place of safety in the wilderness. The actual event alluded to was no doubt the escape of the Church of Jeru- salem to Pella (cf. Mk 13'* ' then let them that are in Judffia flee unto the mountains'), though the life of the Church and her members must always to some extent be a solitary life — i.e. in the world but not of it — and her vocation will, from one point of view, always be that of a ' voice crying in the wilderness.' Again, in the early days of
Christianity persecution made secrecy necessary for the very existence of the Church. The figure in Rev 12'^ is paralleled in the OT. Thus in Ex 19'' Jahweh is represented as saying, ' Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how 1 bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself,' Avhile in Dt 32" He is likened unto an eagle : ' As an eagle that stirretli up her nest, that fluttereth over her young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bare them on his pinions.' Lastly, in Is 40^^ the promise to those who shall ' wait upon the Lord ' is that ' they shall renew their strength,' and ' mount up with wings as eagles.' In all the passages in Revelation, it is pro- bable that de7-6s denotes ' vulture ' as elsewhere.
Literature. — For the eagle in Palestine see H. B. Tristram, SWP, 'The Fauna and Flora of Palestine,' 1SS4, pp. 94-101, NaUiral History of the Bibleio, 1911, p. 172 ff. ; W. M. Thom- son, The Land and the Book, new ed., 1910, p. 150 f. ; E. W. G. Masterman, in SDB, 200 ; G. E. Post, in HDB i. 632 ; A. E. Shipley and S. A. Cook, in EBi ii. 1145. On the texts see especially H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John^, 1907,
ttof ioc. P. s. p, Handcock,
EAR. — The finer shades of biblical statement are discerned only as we succeed in placing ourselves at the contemporary point of view. This is par- ticularly the case with references to personality and its elements or manifestations, since primitive or ancient psychology differs so gre.atly from the psychology of the present time. For example, primitive psychology, in its ignorance of the nervous system, distributes psychical and ethical attributes to the various physical organs. There are tribes that give the ears of a dead enemy to their youths to be eaten, because they regard the physical ear as the seat of intelligence, which thus becomes an attribute of the consumer (J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough-, 1900, ii. 357 f. ). Though the Bible contains nothing so crude as this, yet the same idea of local- ized psychical function underlies its references to the ear. The high priest's ear is consecrated by the api)lication of ram's blood, that he may the better hear God (Lv 8^*) ; the slave's ear, on his renunciation of liberty, is pierced by his master, as a guarantee of his permanent obedience (Ex 21®, Dt 15'^). Such practices help to give the true line of approach to many biblical references to the ear, the full force of which might otherwise be missed. The 'periplieral consciousness' of the ear (cf. 1 S 3", Job 12^', Ec 1^, etc.) must be remembered in regard to phrases Avhich have become to us simply conven- tional, such as the repeated refrain of the Apoca- lypse, ' He that hath an ear, let him hear' (Rev 2^, etc. ; ovs). This greater intensity of local meaning gives new point to the Pauline analogy between the human body and the Church. Since ' the body is not one member, but many' (1 Co 12'*), in a psychical and moral, as well as in a physical, sense, it is more readily conceivable that the ear might resent its inferiority to the eye (v.'®). Its actual co-operation with the eye is therefore a more effec- tive rebuke to the envy springing from Corinthian individualism.