Was a Jesse Tree always called a Jesse Tree?

I keep using the terms Jesse Tree or Tree of Jesse but that is a relatively recent term for the pictorial design of the ancestors of Jesus.  The term “Jesse Tree” seems to date from the 18th century.  The earlier term is Stirps Jesse from Stirps Jesse virgam produxit virgaque florem et super hunc florem requiescit spiritus almus, a response chanted during the Mass for the Feast of the Nativity of Mary on September 8.  (Translation: The Tree brought forth a twig and the twig a flower that rests on nourishing spirit.)  This tied together the idea of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as the symbolic rod of Jesse, and Jesus, her son, as the flower.  Note the play upon virgo (virgin) and virga (rod or stem). 

Another version of the Stirps Jesse:

Stirps Jesse florigeram germinavit virgulam et in flore spiritus quiescit paraclitus.

Fructum profert virgule per quem vivunt secula.

Stirpis ex davitice virga dicta mistice que sic et sic floruit et que florem protulit.

Virga jesse virgo est Dei mater flos filius eius est cuius Pater, huic flori preter morem edito canunt chori sanctorum ex debito:

Laus et jubilation potestas cum imperiosit sine termino celorum domino.

Freely translated:

The stump of Jesse will bring forth a twig bearing a flower, and the flowers lives in the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit mystically brings forth the twig called the Virgin from all the living generations of the lineage of David.

Who so, who flourished, who brought forth the flower?  The shoot of Jesse is the Virgin, the Mother of God.  The flower is her son, Son of the Father.

Because this flower was born in an unusual way, we duly sing the chorus of the saints.

Praise and jubilation to the Lord of heaven whose power is without end.

This trope is attributed to Bishop Fulbert of Chartres (Bishop from1006-1029).  The trope was added to Benedicamus Domino (Let us bless the Lord).  YouTube has several chanted versions of these lines. Just search “Stirps Jesse.”  I will come back to Bishop Fulbert who championed the Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and was important in the development of Mariology during the Middle Ages.

Notre Dame de la Belle Verriere, Chartres Cathedral

Delaport Window #14. dated to abt. 1150. Mostly original except for face of the Virgin.

Photo credit: Holly Hayes

http://static.sacred-destinations.com/img/620/gohistoric_1026_z.jpg

One dove, three doves, seven doves; Part 1

At the most elementary, a Tree of Jesse needs only a tree or vine or bush or shrub and a figure of Jesse, the father of King David. Historically the Tree of Jesse is more complex. The Tree brings together visually the ancestry of Jesus, the prophets, and usually one or three or seven doves that represent either the Holy Spirit or the fruits of the spirit as written in Isaiah 11.2-3.

The single dove

A single dove recalls the Old Testament story of the Flood in which Noah sends out a dove that returns with a fresh olive leaf in its beak.  (Genesis 8:11)  The Holy Spirit is represented as a descending dove when John baptized Jesus in all four of the gospels.  (Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:11, Luke 3:22, John 1:32).  

The apocryphal Pseudo-Matthew circulated in the Middle Ages in England.  There are three known manuscript translations of Pseudo-Matthew into Old English.  One Latin version is found among the lives of the saints in British Library Cotton Nero E i manuscript. The English abbot, Aelfric, who lived from about 955 to 1010, wrote many, many homilies in Old English.  In his homilies for the nativity of Mary, he was cautious because he considered the sources to be of dubious authenticity.  Even so, he considered the Feast of the Assumption of Mary to be the principle feast day of the saint, even if the sources were  of equally dubious authenticity.  In these homilies he clearly shows that the knew the infancy gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (also known as The Book About the Origin of the Blessed Mary and the Childhood of the Savior.)

There are two different references to a dove in Pseudo-Matthew. The first comes in chapter 8 when the story of finding Mary’s guardian is told.  The rods of unmarried men were put in the Holy of Holies in the Temple overnight.  The rod from which a dove would come in the morning was to be Mary’s keeper. The next morning the high priest distributed the rods but there were no doves. So he went into the Temple, robed, and made a sacrifice to God. Then an angel pointed out that the priest had overlooked a short nondescript rod. Since Joseph was a humble old man, he had hung back. So the high priest called him in a loud voice. When Joseph took the rod, behold, a white dove flew from the end of the staff. The dove flew over the roofs of the houses and then toward heaven. Joseph was embarrassed to receive Mary since she was younger than his grandsons. So five other virgins went with Mary as companions.[1]

The second reference to a dove comes in chapter 12, when Joseph takes the now pregnant Mary back to the Temple. The high priest describes how Mary lived as a dove in the Temple and received her food from an angel. The high priest then tests Joseph and Mary for sin and unchasteness and finds no lack of chastity. Mary then tells the assemblage that she took a vow from childhood to remain forever a virgin. The people and the priest then believed her.

An older version of the story is told in the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of James [The Protevangelium of James], written about 150 to 200 CE.  The book, written in Greek, was not translated into Latin until 1552, though at a partial translation may have been in England by the 11th century or earlier.  The symbol of the dove is used on two occasions. The child Mary is described as living in the temple “as if she were a dove that dwelt there” or “she was fed like a dove.”   In the Infancy Gospel, Mary lived at the temple until she is twelve or thirteen or fourteen (depending on version) years of age.  Then there follows a tale about how an angel appeared to Zechariah and told him to assemble the widowers and collect from each of them a rod.  Zechariah went back into the temple and prayed.  He returned the rods to the men.  As Joseph took his rod, a dove flew out from the end and landed on Joseph’s head.   Joseph was chosen to become Mary’s guardian.

The dove whether carved or painted or frescoed or made of mosaic was used in early Christian art from about 100 CE onward.  A single dove above the head of Jesus in manuscript and stained glass window Jesse Trees is common.  The dove as messenger was a popular element in story telling especially in the Golden Legend or Legenda Aurea compiled by Jacobus de Voragine about 1260.   But that is beyond the scope of this blog, at least for now.

Enough for today even if the topic of three doves and seven doves has yet to be mentioned. 

Below are examples of the single dove above the head of Jesus:
1. See previous blog and Tree of Jesse from the Shaftesbury Psalter.
2. See Psalm 1 (Beatus vir) in the Huth Psalter. British Library Additional MS 38116 f.14v.  http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/illmanus/other/largeimage74443.html

3.

Tree of Jesse from the Winchester or St. Swithun Psalter.  British Library. Cotton MS Nero C IV f.9r.  Made about 1150, probably at the Cathedral Priory of Winchester.  It may have been made for or on the direction of  Hugh of Blois, brother of King Stephen, and Bishop of Winchester.   The prophets flanking the Virgin Mary are not identified.  All the figures except Jesse, at the bottom, are grasping the vine.  This element will be seen again in the stained glass Tree of Jesse windows.

4.

Jesse Tree, mid-12th century from De laudibus sanctae crucis
Arbre de Jessé Manuscrit 340 Bibliothèque municipale de Douai
Douai-ms340-11-jpg.jpg
Note the ladder design in this manuscript.  This ladder design can also be seen in  the French Speculum Virginum.  In this devotional literature, one illustration is of Spirit and Flesh climbing the ladder to Jesus Christ.  [More to come.]

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[1] Chapter 8 and Chapter 12.  “The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew.” ANF08: The Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocrypha, Decretals, Memoirs of Edessa and Syriac Documents, Remains of the FirstAges. <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf08.vii.v.ix.html> This apocryphal work may have been written about 600 CE.  It was more widely known in the Middle Ages than the Protevangelium of James or Infancy gospel of James that was probably written about 150- 200 CE.
Ronald R. Hock. The Infancy Gospels of James and Thomas: With Introduction, Notes, and Original Text. (1996) Sonoma, CA: Polebridge Press. .  There are a number of translations also online.
Mary Clayton.  The Apocryphal Gospels of Mary in Anglo-Saxon England (2004) Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, pp. 116, 151-210.

Isaiah and Jeremiah and radice Jesse

A Jesse Tree traces the genealogy or family tree of Joseph, the legal, earthly father of Jesus, from Jesse, the father of King David, as described in Matthew 1.  Hebrew society expected that the Messiah would be descended from King David.

Sometimes some of the ancestors mentioned in Luke 3 are included.  The genealogies of Matthew and Luke are quite different. To reconcile the difference, Luke 3 is often thought of as the ancestry of Mary, mother of Jesus[1]

Once the canonicity of the gospels of Matthew and Luke was established, the early church fathers had to reconcile the differences between the two gospels.  Modern scholarship dismisses the issue by considering the genealogies in Matthew and Luke as inventions conforming to Jewish tradition and having a liturgical and propaganda purpose for the Christians who had to combat skepticism about Jesus.

But the early church fathers were not so willing to dismiss the issue.  They were well aware that the listing of ancestors in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 were quite different. Not only were the names different but different numbers of generations were given for roughly the same time period.  Various explanations arose such as the fact that the persons named were the same but remembered by different names.  But this can only go so far.  In Matthew, Joseph is the descendant of King Solomon, but in Luke, Joseph is the descendant of Solomon’s brother Nathan.  Levirate marriages were proposed and given as explanations at a couple of points in the genealogies. (For an interesting contemporary discussion about this problem see this blog from Paul Davidson, "What's the deal with Matthew's genealogy?" <https://isthatinthebible.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/whats-the-deal-with-matthews-genealogy/>)

Then the issue of Mary’s Davidic ancestry had to be answered.  Mary’s marriage to Joseph who was from the line of David seemed inadequate.  Augustine took up the challenge in Contra Faustum Manichaeum.   Augustine made three explanations: 1. Jesus placed no emphasis upon his genealogy and urged his disciples to call no man “father” (Matthew 23.9).  2. Jesus was the son of the Father and of his earthly mother Mary who could also be a descendant of David.  3. Joseph, Mary’s husband, was the son of Jacob and adopted son of Heli.  Many centuries later, Thomas Aquinas repeated another explanation: “Others … suppose that Matthew gave the forefathers according to the flesh: whereas Luke gave these according to the spirit, that is, righteous men, who are called (Christ's) forefathers by likeness of virtue.”  

The easiest way to solve the problem was to separate the genealogies.  Assign to Joseph the genealogy recorded in Matthew 1.  Assign the genealogy in Luke 3 to Mary.  This meant that the significant differences between the two as written did not have to be reconciled.

Medieval clerics and monks would have known the genealogy recorded in Matthew 1.1-17.  The long list of names was read or chanted at the celebration of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8th.  Therefore, the monks would have been familiar with the names.  Today one almost never hears the genealogies in Matthew and Luke read.  Neither are appointed readings in the Revised Common Lectionary though the Matthew 1 genealogy is still used (as an optional reading) for the feast for the birth of St. Mary on September 8th in the Roman Catholic Church.

Genealogy was of great interest to the nobility and aristocracy of the Middle ages and the Jesse Tree was form of family tree.  In addition to the genealogy of Jesus, the Jesse Tree incorporated passages from the Old Testament thought to foretell the coming of a Messiah.  The prophesy that forms the basis of a Jesse Tree is the given by the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 11.1: “A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” The verse in Latin (Clementine Vulgate) is “et egredietur virga de radice Iesse et flos de radice eius ascendet.” [2]

The other passage cited is Jeremiah 12.5: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth."  In Latin: "ecce dies veniunt ait Dominus et suscitabo David germen iiustum et regnabit rex et sapiens erit et faciet iudicium et iustitiam in terra," 

Given the hereditary requirement for many position in Hebrew society, the ancestry of Jesus was important.  This interest in genealogy continued with the nobility and aristocracy of the Middle Ages.

The Shaftsbury Psalter.  British Library.  Lansdowne 383 f.15r.  First quarter of the 12th century. Origin England

The Shaftesbury Psalter has one of the earliest English Jesse Trees produced after the Norman Conquest of 1066.  The barefoot Jesse is asleep with a Jesse Tree growing from in groin.  Above him is a generic king, presumably King David, the the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, topped with the dove of the Holy Spirit.  Christ is holding his right hand in blessing and a book in his left hand. The half body portrayal of Jesus resembles the much older Christ Pantocrater of the Byzantine world. 

On Mary's left is Moses, identified by a name in the margin and a paraphrase of Acts 3.22: prophetam vobis suscitabit Dominus Deus vester de fratribus vestris ...( The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up... RSV)  On Mary's right is Abraham identified by his name in the margin and a verse, Genesis 22.18: benedicentur in semine tuo omnes gentes terrae (by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves ...RSV).

Shaftesbury Abbey predated the Normam Conquest by almost 200 years.  Found in 888 by King Alfred, it was a Benedictine nunnery that acquired great wealth.  About a hundred years after the founding, the Saxon King Edward the Martyr, later St. Edward, was buried at Shaftesbury, making the abbey a popular pilgrimage site.  The well-endowed abbey was a prize for King Henry VIII with the Dissolution of the abbey in 1539. 

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[1] The genealogy of Jesus in Luke goes back to Adam and not Abraham as it does in Matthew.  Also the names and order of names are different and there is considerable variation among the oldest manuscripts. Both genealogies emphasize the Davidic ancestry of Jesus.  
[2] The Latin Bible used here is Biblia Sacra juxta Vulgatam Clementinam or Clementine Vulgate.  There are differences from the Clementine Vulgate edition and the Nova Vulgata that is available at the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va/archive/bible/nova_vulgata/documents/nova-vulgata_index_lt.html.