Who saw four living creatures?

Answer 1

Great question! :)

St. John reports seeing four living creatures in the Book of Revelation:

In the center and around the throne, there were four living creatures covered with eyes in front and in back. The first creature resembled a lion, the second was like a calf, the third had a face like that of a human being, and the fourth looked like an eagle in flight. The four living creatures, each of them with six wings, were covered with eyes inside and out. Day and night they do not stop exclaiming: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come." Rev 4:6-8 NAB

The symbolism St. John reports here is taken from Ezekiel:

As I looked, a stormwind came from the North, a huge cloud with flashing fire (enveloped in brightness), from the midst of which (the midst of the fire) something gleamed like electrum. Within it were figures resembling four living creatures that looked like this: their form was human, but each had four faces and four wings, and their legs went straight down; the soles of their feet were round. They sparkled with a gleam like burnished bronze. Their faces were like this: each of the four had the face of a man, but on the right side was the face of a lion, and on the left side the face of an ox, and finally each had the face of an eagle. Their faces (and their wings) looked out on all their four sides; they did not turn when they moved, but each went straight forward. (Each went straight forward; wherever the spirit wished to go, there they went; they did not turn when they moved.) Human hands were under their wings, and the wings of one touched those of another. Each had two wings spread out above so that they touched one another's, while the other two wings of each covered his body. In among the living creatures something like burning coals of fire could be seen; they seemed like torches, moving to and fro among the living creatures. The fire gleamed, and from it came forth flashes of lightning. As I looked at the living creatures, I saw wheels on the ground, one beside each of the four living creatures. The wheels had the sparkling appearance of chrysolite, and all four of them looked the same: they were constructed as though one wheel were within another. They could move in any of the four directions they faced, without veering as they moved. The four of them had rims, and I saw that their rims were full of eyes all around. When the living creaturesmoved, the wheels moved with them; and when the living creatures were raised from the ground, the wheels also were raised. Wherever the spirit wished to go, there the wheels went, and they were raised together with the living creatures; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. Ez 1:5-21 NAB

Ezekiel later identifies the four living creatures as cherubim:

I saw there the glory of the God of Israel, like the vision I had seen in the plain. The cherubim were stationed to the right of the temple; these were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar, whom I now recognized to be cherubim. Ez 10:4, 20 NAB

REFERENCES

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. The New American Bible, (Iowa Falls: IA, World Bible Publishers, Inc. 1991).

Answer 2

Ezekiel from the Old Testament

"I looked, ... and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, but each of them had four faces and four wings." Ezekiel 1:4-6

Answer 3

Ezekiel. The living creatures of Ezekiel 1 reappear in Revelation 4:6-9.