St. John the Evangelist is often represented by an eagle. It has a deep esoteric meanings on many levels, some of which I’d like to explore today.
The Eagle was also the bird which was identified with the Roman god Jupiter. As the Roman king of the gods, the Romans believed he had bestowed supremacy on them because they honored him more than the other peoples. The eagle was considered to be the bird with precedence over the other in regards to auspices.
It makes sense that the eagle was associated with the legions. It was the the symbol of Roman Imperial Power, and topped the legionary standards of the armies of Rome. It was so important to the legions that if the standard was lost, the legion would disband. The eagle granted favor to the legions as they marched out to conquer the known world.
So why is the eagle associated with a Jewish author of gospels? In the Greek and Roman world, the eagle was also the symbol of Apotheosis, the process by which mortals (and especially Roman Emperors) took their place among the gods in the heavens. The corpse of the mortal was burned on a pyre, and an eagle was released to bring the soul to Divinity.
Suddenly, the association of John and the eagle takes on a new meaning. The gospel of John elevates the person of Jesus from a prophet and messiah to a pre-existent divine being, the Logos. According to John, Jesus the Christ is chief among the divine, the Logos, the reason and method by which all came into being. John’s gospel elevates him, brings him to a higher plane, and leaves no question of the divinity of Jesus.
It is these divine heights that lead John to be associated with the eagle, and many representations will show the apostle with an eagle nearby.
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