Revelation 4:7

μόσχῳ, “an ox or steer” (as LXX). The four animals are freely compounded out of the classical figures of Ezekiel's cherubim and the seraphim in Isaiah 6; the latter supply the six wings apiece. This function of ceaseless praise (Revelation 4:8-9) is taken from Enoch lxi. 10 f., where the cherubim and seraphim are also associated but not identified with the angelic host (though in 40. the cherubim are equivalent to the four archangels); for a possible Babylonian astral background, cf. Zimmern in Schrader, 3 626 632, and Clemen's Religionsgeschichtliche Erklärung des N. T. (1909), pp. 74 f. Behind them lie the signs of the zodiac (the bull, the archer, the lion and the eagle, as a constellation of the North; so, e.g., Gunkel, Bruston, etc.). The analogous figures of the four funerary genii before the Egyptian throne represent the four points of the compass.