Ezekiel — Chapter 1

The 'thirtieth year' Lapide identifies as Ezekiel's own age (following Jerome and Gregory), noting that God opens the heavens to a prophet at the maturity of priesthood. 'Aperti sunt caeli' — Lapide notes the heavens opened to John at baptism (Mt. 3:16) and to Stephen at martyrdom (Acts 7:55), making this a type of all divine visions granted to souls prepared by suffering and exile.

The whirlwind from the north (turbo ab Aquilone) Lapide explains as representing divine indignation sweeping from Babylon, but allegorically as the Holy Spirit who alone can move the human heart. He cites Theodoret, Theodotion, and Jerome's translations, noting the great cloud and enveloping fire symbolize the obscurity and ardor of divine revelation.

The four living creatures (quatuor animalia) Lapide identifies with the four Evangelists following Jerome, Gregory the Great (Hom. in Ezech.), and Augustine. Each face — man, lion, ox, eagle — represents Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John respectively in their characteristic modes of beginning their Gospels. He also follows the Thomistic reading that the four animals represent the four cardinal virtues.

Each creature has four faces: Lapide elaborates at great length on the symbolism. The human face signifies Christ's Incarnation; the lion His Resurrection and royal power; the ox His priestly Passion and sacrifice; the eagle His Ascension and divine nature. He cites Gregory's Moralia and his own Homilies on Ezekiel as the principal authority.

The four faces are lion (right), man (front), ox (left), eagle (above): Lapide notes the deliberately arranged symbolism — the noblest of wild animals, the noblest of tame animals, the noblest of rational beings, and the noblest of birds — representing the fullness of creation oriented toward God. He compares to the four standards of Israel's camp in the desert (Num. 2), each tribe grouped under one of these four symbols.

The likeness of the living creatures: their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures: Lapide reads the coals and torches as the seraphic ardor of charity — the cherubim/living creatures burn with divine love and communicate it through their movements. He cites Pseudo-Dionysius's Celestial Hierarchy on the fiery nature of the seraphic order.

The four wheels (rotae) beside the living creatures: Lapide identifies these as the four Gospels, or according to the moral sense, the four seasons of human life — infancy, youth, maturity, and old age — in all of which the soul should follow God. The wheels within wheels ('rota in medio rotae') he explains as Christ's two natures, divine within human, or the Old Testament within the New.

The appearance of the wheels 'as the color of beryl' (quasi visio maris) and the wheel-within-wheel construction: Lapide follows Origen, Jerome, and Gregory in seeing the wheels as the movement of divine Providence through history, always returning to its origin in God. The four-directional movement symbolizes the universality of the Gospel.

The wheels full of eyes (tota corpus oculis plena): Lapide sees these as representing the providential omniscience of God who sees all created things. Morally, they are the eyes of the just man who examines all his actions before God. He cites Ambrose's De Virginibus and compares to Apocalypse 4:6.

The firmament above the living creatures 'like terrible crystal' (quasi aspectus crystalli horribilis): Lapide identifies this as the sky or heaven itself, and allegorically as Holy Scripture — firm, clear, and awesome. Above the firmament God Himself is enthroned, a pre-figuration of the heavenly liturgy of Apocalypse 4–5.

The sound of the living creatures' wings like the sound of many waters: Lapide reads this as the sound of the Word preached through all creation — 'In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum' (Ps. 18). The sound like 'Shaddai' (the Almighty) when the wings rest represents the silence of contemplation in which God speaks most clearly.

The sapphire throne and the appearance of a man upon it (similitudo quasi aspectus hominis): Lapide here makes his most celebrated argument — this is the pre-Incarnate Son of God appearing in human form to the prophet, the same divine Word who would become incarnate in the Nativity. He cites Theodoret, Cyril, Jerome, and Gregory, and asserts this text is the clearest Old Testament vision of the Second Person.

The electrum figure (quasi species electri), luminous above and like fire below: Lapide says the electrum (a mixture of gold and silver, or amber) symbolizes Christ's two natures — divine (incandescent, eternal) and human (earthly, visible). The rainbow encircling the divine figure (v. 28) he reads as the new covenant of grace encircling the Church.

The rainbow (arcus) surrounding the divine glory: Lapide follows Rupert of Deutz in seeing this as the covenant of mercy, the same bow God set in the clouds after the Flood (Gen. 9), here glorified. The moral sense: the soul that beholds God's majesty is dazzled and falls prostrate — 'cecidit in faciem meam' — the beginning of all true wisdom and contemplation.