Jesse Tree Wood: Trunk, Vine, Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit-Part 4

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[Apology to the reader:  I wrote these last four parts in MSWord so I could include footnotes and other formatting that I have not figured out how to do just using the blog mode.  If I do not keep each segment relatively short, I find the text starts to move around and do odd things that I had not told it to do. The text and the accompanying pictures seemed unstable.  So I had to break up what was intended as two longish blogs into four parts and there is still more to come. Of course, if anyone wishes to tell me what to do, I will gladly listen.  Thank you. ]

Crucifixion of Jesus of left topologically linked to the dream of Nebuchadnezzar about the great tree and was to be cut down.  This woodcut from a Biblia Pauperum was a reflection of the understanding that the felling of the great tree was prefiguring the redemptive death of Jesus.

<http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/data/13030/w6/ft7v19p1w6/figures/ft7v19p1w6_00159.gif

Continued from previous blog:

      It is in this time period that one finds the first representation of the Crucifixion of Jesus.  Three images are presented below.  The earliest two depictions of the crucifixion were for private use.  The crucifixion scene on the door of Santa Sabrina in Rome is dated to the 6th century but not with as much certainty as the church itself.[17]

Carnelian engraved intaglio. 3-4th century, recovered in Constanta, Romania.  Inscription damaged, probably, ΙΧΘΥΣ or ICHTHYS.  The 12 figures probably represent the  apostles.  British Museum 1895,1113.1

http://www.britishmuseum.org/collectionimages/AN00186/AN00186312_001_l.jpg?width=304

Panel from an ivory casket: the Crucifixion of Christ

Ivory panel made in Rome about 420-430 CE now in the British Museum. 1856,0623.5  It is one of four panels that covered the sides of a small box. (Maskell ivories) On the left Judas is hanging from a tree with the spilled bag of coins.  To his right are St. Mary and St. John.  On a tree branch bending toward the crucified but not suffering Jesus in a bird feeding his chicks, a symbol for Jesus as the Church feeding forgiveness to his followers.  On the far right is a figure traditionally identified as Longinus, the Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus.

<http://www.britishmuseum.org/images/ps297856_l.jpg>

Panel from wooden door of Santa Sabrina all'Aventino.  It represents Jesus crucified in the center and the two thieves on each side. The church was built about 425 CE in Rome during the pontificate of Pope Celestine I (422–433 CE.) and finished under the pontificate of Sixtus III (432–440 CE.) when the church was formally consecrated. 

<http://rometour.org/data/interior_on_the_wall_of_santa_sabina_allaventino-_image_2.jpg>

            According to all the ecclesiastical histories, it was Constantine and his mother Empress Helena who ordered and funded the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.  The present Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the result of many reconstructions as the result of deliberate destruction, fire, earthquake, civil unrest, and neglect.  The current church bears little resemblance to the structure built by Constantine in the 4th century.  A plan of that church is useful in identifying the places in the church mentioned below, since the church covered the sites of the Crucifixion, removal of Jesus’ body from the cross, preparation for burial, burial site in the rock tomb, and the site of the Resurrection.  The church also covered the sites where the crosses were supposedly buried, subsequent destruction of the site with erection of pagan Roman temple under Emperor Hadrian, and the site where Empress Helena supposedly found three first century crosses.

1. Patriarchate

2. Rotunda-site of tomb and place of Resurrection

3. Edicule or room with the tomb

4. Garden courtyard

5. Calvary or Golgotha

6. Basilica or Martyrium

7. Atrium

<https://classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/433/flashcards/1126433/jpg/reproduction_plans_of_church_of_holy_sepulchre_and_basilica_of_golgotha__jerusalem-144697C1A462A102A71.jpg>

            Depictions of the cross became more common as fragments of the cross became were dispersed around the known world.  Cyril of Jerusalem was the Bishop of Jerusalem from 350-386 with the exception of three periods of exile.  Cyril gave 23 lectures to those being prepared for baptism or shortly after baptism.  These were given in Jerusalem in the Martyrion, another early name for a place within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  The lectures as written give us a number of references to the cross.  In Lecture IV, On the ten points of doctrine, Sec. 10, Cyril mentioned that the catechumens were assembled at Golgotha as he spoke.  (See the plan for the Church above.)  He mentioned the Cross and then commented, “the whole world has since been filled with pieces of the wood of the Cross.”[18]  In Lecture X On the Clause, and in One Lord Jesus Christ…, Sec 19. Cyril writes about testimonies bearing witness to Jesus Christ.  “The holy wood of the Cross bears witness, seen among us to this day, and from this place now almost filling the whole world, by means of those who in faith take portions from it.”[19]  Again in Lecture XIII, On the words Crucified and Buried, Sec. 4, Cyril wrote, "For though I should now deny it, here is Golgotha to confute me, near which we are now assembled; the wood of the Cross confutes me, which was afterwards distributed piecemeal from hence to all the world.  I confess the Cross, because I know of the Resurrection; for if, after being crucified, He had remained as He was, I had not perchance confessed it, for I might have concealed both it and my Master; but now that the Resurrection has followed the Cross, I am not ashamed to declare it.”[20]

            There is another 4th century reference to a presence of a wooden cross venerated by Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem.  It comes from the travelogue of a women, seemingly a well off and physically fit widow (though some have thought her a nun), who had the leisure and means to spend three years in the Holy Land.  Her name is not known but she is usually referred to as Egeria and her work as Peregrinatio Aetheriae or Itinerarium Egeriae.  She is thought to have come from southern France or Spain (Galacia). The date of the work is not certain but the early years of 380s are usually suggested.  Unfortunately her writings did not come to the present complete but missing beginning and ending.  Egeria describes in detail the services of the church in Jerusalem  In her description of the Veneration of the Cross during the Good Friday service, she wrote,

     Then a chair is placed for the bishop in Golgotha behind the Cross, which
     is now standing; the bishop duly takes his seat in the chair, and a table
    covered with a linen cloth is placed before him; the deacons stand round
    the table, and a silver-gilt casket is brought in which is the holy wood
    of the Cross. The casket is opened and (the wood) is taken out, and both
    the wood of the Cross and the title are placed upon the table. Now, when
    it has been put upon the table, the bishop, as he sits, holds the extremities
    of the sacred wood firmly in his hands, while the deacons who stand around
    guard it. It is guarded thus because the custom is that the people, both
    faithful and catechumens, come one by one and, bowing down at the table,
    kiss the sacred wood and pass through. And because, I know not when,
    someone is said to have bitten off and stolen a portion of the sacred wood,
    it is thus guarded by the deacons who stand around, lest anyone approaching
    should venture to do so again. And as all the people pass by one by one,
    all bowing themselves, they touch the Cross and the title, first with their
    foreheads and then with their eyes; then they kiss the Cross and pass
    through, but none lays his hand upon it to touch it.[21]

It is interesting to compare the itinerary of the nameless Bordeaux pilgrim who traveled to Jerusalem 50 years earlier in 333 CE.  This itinerary makes no mention of any cross, though the pilgrim notes that a church of "wondrous beauty" has been built, though other information about the consecration of the church would suggest that it was still being built at the time the Bordeaux pilgrim saw the church.  The pilgrim comments on the large cisterns, from which water is raised, presumably for baptism, outside the church as well as "bath" for baptizing infants.(<http://orion.it.luc.edu/~avande1/jerusalem/sources/bordeauxJerus.htm>)

            Sometime between 451 and 458, the date of his death, while Juvenal was Bishop of Jerusalem, Pope Leo I the Great wrote to him.  In letter CXXXIX, the pope wrote to the bishop about using associations with the places where he lived to strengthen his faith and the faith of his flock.  Pope Leo urged Patriarch Juvenal to make use of the sites at hand as aids for teaching the faith to new converts before Baptism.  Leo speaks of the true cross as calling out to Juvenal the truth of the Incarnation.[22]
         
        The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis) tells about another fragment of the true cross recovered by Pope Sergius (reigned 687-701).  Sergius was from a Syrian family that had settled in Sicily.  He may have gone to Rome in response to Arab raids on Sicily though the island was not conquered by Muslims until about 900.  In a tarnished silver casket, Sergius found a gold and jeweled cross that contained a piece of wood.  In honor of this relic, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross was and is celebrated on September 14th.[23]  That is also one of two dates for the consecration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 335 CE.  So, the story about finding a fragment of the True Cross may in fact reflect the fact that Sergius brought the eastern church celebration of the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to Rome.  The spread of the celebration of Holy Cross Day in the western Catholic Church dates to the 7th century.

Helen finding the True Cross. British Library Egerton MS 1070. f.91v.

From the Book of Hours of René of Anjou, Paris use, 15th century France.

<http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/Kslides/mid/K021/K021698.jpg>

            The fate of Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was stormy.  The Byzantine Empire was not able to keep control of Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and any wood identified as the “True Cross.”  In the 614 war between the Byzantines and Persians, the victorious Persian general Shahrbaraz looted the city and killed thousands of the Christian inhabitants.  He took the relic as a war souvenir to Ctesiphon, now a part of Bagdad.  The Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (d. 641) fought back and defeated the Persians in the Battle of Nineveh in 627.  He recovered the relic of the True Cross and returned it to Jerusalem in 630.  He carried the fragment of the "True Cross" dressed in humble clothes and walking in bare feet into Jerusalem.

Heraclius returned cross to Jerusalem in 630.  From Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, in French, with continuation to 1231 by William of Tyre.   Manuscript is in British Library Royal 15 E I f.16. Made in souther Netherlands, Bruge about 1479-80.  Text in French. <http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/Ekta/mid/E115/E115495a.jpg>

       Sixteen or seventeen years later, Jerusalem was under siege by the army of Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah and the city led by Patriarch Sophronius capitulated in April 637 or 638.  Jerusalem remained under Muslin control until conquered by the Crusaders in 1099, during the First Crusade.  Less than 100 years later the Crusaders lost control after the disastrous Battle of Hattin in July 1187 against Saladin.  Within months of the battle of the horns of Hattin, Jerusalem surrendered to Saladin.  The wood of the True Cross was lost to the forces of Saladin and never recovered.

The loss of the Holy Cross.  British Library Royal 15 E I, f. f.433v.  William of Tyre, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, to 1231.Made in south Netherlands, Bruge, 1479-1480.

<http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/Kslides/mid/K041/K041214.jpg>

Footnotes

[1] Nicholas Orme. Medieval Children.(2001) New Haven: Yale University Press.
[2] Dittmann K, Grupe G. (2000) Biochemical and palaeopathological investigations on weaning and infant mortality
in the early Middle Ages. Anthropol Anz.;58(4):345-55. (This article looked at a site in southern Germany dated to 500-700 CE.)
[3] Hühne-Osterloh G. (1989) Causes of pediatric mortality in a medieval skeletal series  Anthropol Anz. Mar;47(1):11-25. A study in Schleswig in northern Germany found another peak in mortality for children aged 8-10 years, most probably because of inadequate nutrition in the face of more work burdens as children passed the age of 7 years and could contribute to the work the family need to sustain itself.
[4] Lewis ME and Gowland R. (2007)Brief and precarious lives: infant mortality in contrasting sites from medieval and post-medieval England (AD 850-1859) Am J Phys Anthropol. 134(1):117-29.  Pearson JA, Hedges REM, Molleson TI, Özbek M (2010) Exploring the relationship between weaning and infant mortality: an isotope case study from AşikliHöyük and Çayönü Tepesi. Am J Phys Anthropol 143: 448–457.
[5] Orme, p. 117.
[6] Orme, p. 117.
[7] Maureen Barry McCann Boulton.  Sacred Fictions of Medieval France.(2015) Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 100.
[8] <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.v.ii.xviii.html>
[9] <http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/vita-constantine.asp>
[10] <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.ii.iv.xvii.html>
[11] <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.iii.vii.i.html>
[12] Cambridge, Corpus Christi College Library MS 187 is an 11th century manuscript of Eusebius' Historia ecclesiastica, transl. by Rufinus.  There is a nearly identical text referred to as MS 184.  Both were from Christ Church Abbey, Canterbury. There is an online digital copy of the manuscript at: <https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/actions/manuscript_description_long_display.do?ms_no=187>.
[13] Gneuss and LaPidge Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (2014) p.544.
[14] For a detailed listed of places and dates see: Desiree Scholten, MA Thesis entitled The History of a Historia
Manuscript transmission of the Historia Ecclesiastica Tripartita by Epiphanius-Cassiodorus. University of Utrecht  <http://cmrp.oeaw.ac.at/PDF/thesis_desiree_scholten.pdf>
[15] Desiree Scholten, “Cassidorius’ Historica Tripartita before the earliest extant manuscripts” in Clemens Gantner, Rosamond McKitterick, Sven Meeder, ed. The Resources of the Past in Early Medieval Europe. (2015) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., pp.34-50.
[16] Rosamond McKitterick. History and Memory in the Carolingian World. (2004) Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. p.235-244.
[17] Allyson Everingham Sheckler  and Mary Joan Winn Leith. The Crucifixion Conundrum and the Santa Sabina Doors. (2010)Harvard Theological Review. Vol 103 (1) 67-88.
[18] <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207.ii.viii.html>
[19] <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207.ii.xiv.html>
[20] <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207.ii.xvii.html>
[21] <http://www.ccel.org/m/mcclure/etheria/etheria.htm>
[22]< http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf212.ii.iv.cxxxiii.html>
[23] Raymond Davis, ed. The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis): The Ancient Biographies of the First Ninety Roman Bishops to AD 715. (2000) Liverpool. Liverpool University Press, 87-88.

Still more to come!

Jesse Tree Wood: Trunk, Vine, Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit-Part 1

       About a month ago when I was writing about doves and their symbolism of the Trinity and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, I started on a digression about wood and the legends of the True Cross.  I am coming back to the subject.  I will be repeating some of what I wrote earlier and expanding the scope.

       Jesse was the father of David (1 Samuel 16) who was anointed by Samuel to become the king of Israel and Judah after Saul.  The prophets expected the redeemer of Israel, the Messiah, to be a flesh and blood descendant of David who would restore the Davidic kingship to Israel.  This hope did not change when the northern tribes were scattered or when Judah was sent into Exile in Babylon or when Judah became Judea and Palestine under the rule of the Romans.  Even though Judah was chronically unfaithful to Yahweh, and consequently suffered invasions, losses, and exile to Babylon, Yahweh would see that Judah would never be destroyed utterly.  Out of the remnant, there would come an heir to the throne of David, a descendant of David, who would comfort his people and bring about a time of justice and righteousness.  The family tree of the Messiah would come from David.  The Messiah, the new David, would come to Judah after the long period of Exile to establish justice and peace on earth, and rule as King over Israel.

       Beginning with Biblical references to trees, branches, and rods, the most familiar reference is to Isaiah 11.1-2a.  This verse has already been cited many times.  The importance of the Davidic family tree was stressed by Pope Leo I, the Great (pope from 440-461) in his Christmas sermon, Sermon 28, On the Festival of the Nativity.  The sermon references both Isaish 11.1 and Jeremiah 23.5, he writes:

David’s Lord was made David’s Son, and from the fruit of the promised branch sprang One without fault, the twofold nature joining together into one Person, that by one and the same conception and birth might spring our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom was present both true Godhead for the performance of mighty works and true Manhood for the endurance of sufferings.[1]

       In addition to Isaiah, there are other Old Testament references to branches and wooden staffs that the medieval mind thought were symbolically linked.  For each of the biblical references (both canonical and Apocrapha) I will include Latin, Douay-Rheims translation and the New Revised Standard Version translation for comparison.

1.     Isaiah 11.1-2a :et egredietur virga de radice Iesse et flos de radice eius ascendetet requiescet super eum spiritus Domine

a.      Isaiah 11.1-2a. And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a       flower shall rise up out of his root.  And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon       him:…

b.     Isaiah 11.1-2. A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him…

2.     Jeremiah 23.5: ecce dies veniunt ait Dominus et suscitabo David germen iustum et regnabit rex et sapiens erit et faciet iudicium et iustitiam in terra

a.      Jeremiah 23.5. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch: and a king shall reign, and shall be wise, and shall execute judgement and justice in the earth.

b.     Jeremiah 23.5: The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

3.     Jeremiah 33.15-6: in diebus illis et in tempore illo germinare faciam David germen iustitiae et faciet iudicium et iustitiam in terra, in diebus illis salvabitur Iuda et Hierusalem habitabit confidenter et hoc est quod vocabit eam Dominus iustus noster

a.      Jeremiah 33. 15-6: In those days, and at that time, I will make the bud of justice to spring forth unto David, and he shall do judgment and justice in the earth. In those days shall Juda be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell securely: and this is the name that they shall call him, The Lord our just one.

b.     Jeremiah 33. 15-6: In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”

       The next scripture reference is one that is not familiar to Protestants who do not read the Apocrypha or read it only “for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet it [the church] doth not apply them to establish any doctrine.” (Article VI of the Church of England)  The reading is from Ecclesiasticus or The Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach. 24 (verse numbers vary with different translations).  This passage from Ecclesiasticus along with Matthew 1.1-18, the genealogy of Joseph, were read on September 8, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Thus the Virgin Mary is connected to images of spreading branches and vines and flowers with sweet scent and abundant fruit.

       The Feast of the Nativity or Birth of St. Mary seems to have originated in Jerusalem in the 5^th century and was celebrated by the eastern (Orthodox) churches as early as the 7^th century.  The feast was not celebrated in Rome until the end of the 7^th century.  The feast was well established before the Schism of the eastern and western Christian churches in 1054.  The feast assumed greater importance from the 13^th century onward until reduced in importance in 1955.  There is a lot more to be written about the devotion to St. Mary and the development of the Jesse Tree, but that will have to wait.

4.     Ecclesiasticus 24.22-30.  22 ego quasi terebinthus extendi ramos meos et rami mei honoris et gratiae

2          23    go quasi vitis fructificavi suavitatem odoris et flores mei fructus honoris et honestatis

2          24     ego mater pulchrae dilectionis et timoris et agnitionis et sanctae spei

2          25    in me gratia omnis vitae et veritatis in me omnis spes vitae et virtutis

2          26    transite ad me omnes qui concupiscitis me et a generationibus meis implemini

                       27 spiritus enim meus super melle dulcis et hereditas mea super mel et favum

2          28    memoria mea in generatione saeculorum

2          29    qui edunt me adhuc esurient et qui bibunt me adhuc sitient

3          30    qui audit me non confundetur et qui operantur in me non peccabunt

a.      Sirach 24.22-30. I have stretched out my branches as the turpentine tree, and my branches are of honor and grace.

23 As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odor: and my flowers are the fruit of honor and riches.

24 I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.

25 In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue.

26 Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits.

27 For my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb.

28 My memory is unto everlasting generations.

29 They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst.

30 He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin.

b.     Sirach 24. 16-22. 16 Like a terebinth I spread out my branches, and my branches are glorious and graceful.

17 Like the vine I bud forth delights, and my blossoms become glorious and abundant fruit.

18 [Other ancient authorities add as verse 18], I am the mother of beautiful love, of fear, of knowledge, and of holy hope; being eternal, I am given to all my children, to those who are named by him.

19 “Come to me, you who desire me, and eat your fill of my fruits.

20 For the memory of me is sweeter than honey, and the possession of me sweeter than the honeycomb.

21 Those who eat of me will hunger for more, and those who drink of me will thirst for more.

22 Whoever obeys me will not be put to shame, and those who work with me will not sin.”

          The monks who would have designed the Jesse Trees whether in manuscript or in glass, would have had the genealogy of Jesus from the gospel of Matthew linked in his mind with the luxuriant and fruitful spreading branches and vine of the passage from Ecclesiasticus.  The genealogy of Joseph from Matthew 1.1-17 was read at Christmas as well.

The calendar page for September with the Feast of the Nativity of St. Mary, Holy Cross Day Saint Matthew the Evangelist,and the Conception of John the Baptist among the dates listed.  This is from the 'Shaftesbury Psalter'with calendar and prayers,  Made in England between 1125 and 1150.  British Library Lansdowne 383 f.7.  The man at the top is thrashing and the roundel has a man holding a scale.  Libra is the zodiac sign for the end of September-October.

<http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/NOF/big/011LAN000000383U00007000.jpg>

Another calendar page for September with the Feast of the Nativity of St. Mary, Holy Cross Day Saint Matthew the Evangelist,and the Conception of John the Baptist among the dates listed. This page is also from a Psalter made in central England, probably Oxford between 1200 and before 1220.  This calendar also includes the zodiac signs Libra.  The men in the upper roundel are crushing grapes. British Libary Royal 1 D X f.13.

<http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/Kslides/big/K045/K045416.jpg>

       The rod or staff was a symbol of authority for the ancient Hebrews since they were a pastoral society.  Moses tended the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro. (Exodus 3.1)  The staffs of both Moses and Aaron were endowed with miraculous properties.  Aaron’s staff became a snake before Pharaoh (Exodus 7:9).  Moses raised his rod or staff before the sea and parted the waters. (Exodus 14.16).  Moses struck the rock in Horeb so that the thirsty Hebrews could have water to drink (Exodus 17.6), and again, in the wilderness of Zin so that the thirsty Hebrews and their livestock could have water (Numbers 20.9-11).  Moses made a bronze snake and put it upon a pole such that the Hebrews who had been bitten by snakes could be cured (Numbers 21.6-9).  (In typological reasoning, this story is linked to the Crucifixion along with Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac.  Those that look upon the crucified Jesus might have healing and forgiveness from their sins and receive the promise of salvation. It is also linked with the story of obedience to God to the point of sacrificing an only son, and then having God provide the sacrifice.)  

Moses strikes the rock in Horeb for water. British Library Additional 11639 f. 743.  Miscellany of biblical and other texts.  Made in central France Ile de France or Champagne, during last quarter of 13th or first quarter of 14th century. Language: Hebrew.

<http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImMiscellany of biblical and other texts ages/BLCD/mid/c065/c06564-02.jpg>

  

       When the authority of Moses and Aaron over the Hebrews was questioned, the Lord instructed Moses to gather staffs from the leaders of the people according to their ancestors.  Moses collected and labeled 12 staffs and put them in the meeting tent before an altar referred to as “testimony” or “covenant.” (Numbers 17.4-9) When Moses went into the meeting tent the next morning, the staff of Aaron had sprouted, producing buds and blossoms, and ripe almonds. (Numbers 17:8). 

5       Numbers 17.8: sequenti die regressus invenit germinasse virgam Aaron in domo Levi et turgentibus gemmis eruperant flores qui foliis dilatatis in amigdalas deformati sunt

a.       Numbers 17.8. He returned on the following day, and found that the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi, was budded: and that the buds swelling it had bloomed blossoms, which spreading the leaves, were formed into almonds.

b.     Numbers 17.8. When Moses went into the tent of the covenant^[d^] on the next day, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted. It put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe
almonds.

Aaron's rod flowering. British Library Additional 11639 f. 519v.  Miscellany of biblical and other texts ('The Northern French Miscellany' or earlier 'the British Museum Miscellany'): including the Pentateuch, Haftarot, Tiqqun Sofrim, Five Scrolls, prayer book for the entire year with Haggadah, legal texts, poetry, calendars, Book of Tobit in Hebrew, etc.  Made in northern France, about 1277-1286. Language: Hebrew

<http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/BLCD/mid/c078/c07888-06.jpg>

       Aaron’s rod was considered a symbol for the Virgin Mary who was identified with the virgin mentioned in Isaiah who give birth to a son. (Isaiah 7.14).  Just as a rod without a root produced fruit so Mary without sexual intercourse brought forth a son. 

       The rod of Aaron was probably the source for the apocryphal story about how Joseph was chosen to the guardian of the Virgin Mary as her husband.  The legend is told in Chapter 8 of Pseudo-Matthew or the Book of the Birth of the Blessed Mary and the Infancy of the Savior.

And the priest said: Tomorrow let every one who has no wife come, and bring his rod in his hand. Whence it happened that Joseph brought his rod along with the young men. And the rods having been handed over to the high priest, he offered a sacrifice to the Lord God, and inquired of the Lord. And the Lord said to him: Put all their rods into the holy of holies of God, and let them remain there, and order them to come to you on the morrow to get back their rods; and the man from the point of whose rod a dove shall come forth, and fly towards heaven, and in whose hand the rod, when given back, shall exhibit this sign, to him let Mary be delivered to be kept. On the following day, then, all having assembled early…the high priest went into the holy of holies, and brought forth the rods. And when he had distributed the rods, and the dove came forth out of none of them,… And the angel of the Lord appeared to him, saying: There is here the shortest rod, of which you have made no account: you brought it in with the rest, but did not take it out with them… [T]he high priest cried out to [Joseph] with a loud voice, saying: Come, Joseph, and receive your rod; for we are waiting for you. And Joseph came up trembling... But as soon as he stretched forth his hand, and laid hold of his rod, immediately from the top of it came forth a dove whiter than snow… flew towards the heavens. [2]

       This legend of Joseph gets another version in the 11^th century Libellus de Nativitate Sanctae Mariae and the 13^th century Legenda Aurea.  In the Book of the Birth of Saint Mary, Chapter 8 tells a similar legend to the one in Pseudo-Matthew.  “Joseph, therefore, was found out.  For when he had brought his rod, and the dove came from heaven; and settled upon the top of it, it clearly appeared to all that he was the man to whom the virgin should be espoused.”[3]

       In the Legenda Aurea under the Nativity of Our Blessed Lady, the legend is written “then Joseph by the commandment of the bishop brought forth his rod, and anon it flowered, and a dove descended from heaven thereupon, so that it was clearly the advice of every man that he should have the virgin.”[4]

       The Libellus along with Pseud-Matthew were the foundation of a popular poem probably written by Robert Wace in Anglo-Norman dated to about 1130-1140 or so and thus predates the influential Legenda Aurea compiled and written in the 13^th century.  Entitled Conception Nostre Dame, this version of the legend adds that Joseph’s rod flowered as well as produced a dove.[5]  It is this story that is picked up in the Legenda Aurea, mentioned just above.

       The figure became more dense.  Mary was the vine and Jesus the flower or fruit of the vine.  This was yoked to the image of Jesus as the true vine from John 15.1-6.

       Jesus told a number of parables about vineyards.  The parable of the man who planted a vineyard and let it out of wicked tenants appears in all three synoptic gospels, Matthew 21.34-43, Mark 12. 1-12, and Luke 20.9-16.  There is the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard who were hired at different hours of the day in Matthew 20.1-16.  Also in Matthew is the parable of the two sons sent to the vineyard to work. One said “No” at first but then repented.  The second agreed to go but never showed up for work. (Matthew 21.28-32)  The parable concludes with Jesus challenging the crowd, “Which of the two did the will of his father?”  Luke adds a parable on the topic of repentance that is about a man who planted a fig tree in his vineyard that failed to produce figs.  The owner ordered the fig to be cut down but the vinedresser asks for another year to see if with manure and cultivation the fig might produce fruit. (Luke 13.6-9)  Though none of these parables are told in the gospel of John, it is John that sums up all the parables in John 15.1-6.

6       John 15.1-6: ego sum vitis vera et Pater meus agricola est

2 omnem palmitem in me non ferentem fructum tollet eum et omnem qui fert fructum purgabit eum ut fructum plus adferat

3 iam vos mundi estis propter sermonem quem locutus sum vobis

4 manete in me et ego in vobis sicut palmes non potest ferre fructum a semet ipso nisi manserit in vite sic nec vos nisi in me manseritis

5 ego sum vitis vos palmites qui manet in me et ego in eo hic fert fructum multum quia sine me nihil potestis facere

6 si quis in me non manserit mittetur foras sicut palmes et aruit et colligent eos et in ignem mittunt et ardent

a.         John 15.1-6.  I am the true vine; and my Father is the husbandman.

2 Every branch in me, that beareth not fruit, he will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

3 Now you are clean by reason of the word, which I have spoken to you.

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me.

5 I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.

6 If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth.

b.         John 15.1-6. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.

2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.

3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.

4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.

6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

 Opening lines of the Gospel of John "In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat Verbum" with red penwork "I." British Library Harley 276   f. 2v . Gospel of John was made in England between 1200 and 1250. 

<http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/BLCD/big/C128/C12861-09.jpg>

More about wood and the Legend(s) of the True Cross in Part II.

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[1] <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf212.ii.v.xvi.html>

[2] < http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf08.vii.v.ix.html>

<http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0848.htm>

[3] The Gospel of the Nativity of Mary. Chapter 8. <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf08.vii.vi.viii.html>

[4] <http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/goldenlegend/GoldenLegend-Volume5.asp#Nativity of our Blessed Lady>

[5] Jean Blacker, Glyn S. Burgess, Amy Ogden tr.and ed.  “Conception Nostre Dame” in Wace, The Hagiographical Works: The Conception Nostre Dame and the Lives of St Margaret and St Nicholas. (2013) Leiden. Brill. Pp.11-145.

Maureen Barry McCann Boulton. Sacred Fictions of Medieval France: Narrative Theology in the Lives of  Christ and the Virgin-1150-1500. (2015) Cambridge: D.S. Brewer.

Typology and Typological Reasoning

     The early Christian church searched the Old Testament to find passages that seem to tell of the Messiah, or Redeemer or Savior or King that was to come to Israel’s aid.  And, by analogy, come to the aid of the early Church during periods of persecution and suppression.  The Christian church was not always persecuted during its first 300 or so years.  It was generally tolerated except when it came into conflict with the Roman understanding of social order that required sacrifice to the Emperor, though exemption certificates could at times be purchased.

     Pliny the Younger wrote to Emperor Trajan about 112 asking how to deal with Christians while he was governor of Bithynia, now Turkey.  Pliny found though Christians seemed to lead good lives, Christianity was a “bad and…extravagant superstition… spread like a contagion, not only into cities and towns, but into country villages also, which yet there is reason to hope may be stopped and corrected.”  Trajan’s reply has been preserved.  In part it reads, “These people are not to be sought for; but if they be accused and convicted, they are to be punished; but with this caution, that he who denies himself to be a Christian, and makes it plain that he is not so by supplicating to our gods, although he had been so formerly, may be allowed pardon, upon his repentance.” (Pliny the Younger, Epistolae, Book X, letters 97, 98.)  

  

      The periods of persecution and suppression of the early Church include:

1.     Nero (c. 64-68)

2.     Domitian (r. 81-96).

3.     Trajan (112-117). Christianity is outlawed but Christians are not sought out.

4.     Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-180).

5.     Septimus Severus (202-210).

6.     Decius (250-251). Christians are actively sought out by requiring public sacrifice

7.     Valerian (257-59).

8.     Maximinus the Thracian (235-38).

9.     Aurelian (r. 270–275).

10.  Diocletian and Galerius (303-324).

     The persecution of Christians in the western Roman Empire ended for the most part in 313 with the Edict of Milan. This document has never been found and the only reference to it in the Eusebius of Caesarea’s Historia Ecclesiastica Book X  (Chapter 5, Copies of Imperial Laws <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.xvi.v.html> ) written about the end of persecution:

When I, Constantine Augustus, and I, Licinius Augustus, came under favorable auspices to Milan and took under consideration everything which pertained to the common good and prosperity, we resolved among other things, or rather first of all, to make such decrees as seemed in many respects for the benefit of every one; namely, such as should preserve reverence and piety toward the deity. We resolved, that is, to grant both to the Christians and to all men freedom to follow the religion which they choose, that whatever heavenly divinity exists may be propitious to us and to all that live under our government.

     Given this long history of intermittent suppression, it is not surprising that the early Church turned to the Hebrew scriptures to look for hope to sustain their faith in Jesus Christ.  They turned to the books of the Former Prophets (the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings).  Samuel was included in many Jesse Tree renderings because Samuel spoke of the attributes of a king chosen by God, who would rule over Israel; protect the people from their enemies (1 Samuel 10:1) and who would be attentive to the will of God.  (1 Samuel 16)  

     They read the books of the four major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel  and Ezekiel.  All twelve of the minor prophets show up in Jesse Tree because of references to the hoped for Messiah.  Habakkuk is the most common.  Habakkuk’s prayer was popular with its vision of the wrath, majesty, and salvation of the Lord (Habakkuk 3:1-19).   Zechariah, another popular figure, is included because of the passage:  “Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he” (Zechariah 9:9). Another popular passage was from Hosea 14:57: “I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily, he shall strike root like the forests of Lebanon...they shall flourish as a garden, they shall blossom like the vine...”

     Looking at the Old Testament as a text that foreshadows the conception, birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and even Mary, his mother, is not a mindset that is easily understood in the 21st century.  But it was the usual method of thinking about the Old Testament in the Middle Ages and is called typology. 

     The medieval monks, clergy, and artists looked for passages in the Old Testament that they thought prefigured events in the life of Jesus and of his mother, Mary.  For example, the darkness at noon on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion was foreseen in a passage from Amos.  “I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight.”  (Amos 8:9)  Using typology, one looks at one event as revealing or prefiguring another event, or an event as fulfilling a prior prophesy, or two or more events that imitate each other in some providential way.  Here are several more example of typological reasoning to help illustrate this way of thinking. The birth of Eve from the rib of Adam was seen as paralleling the birth of the Church from the pierced side of Jesus.  Cain leading Abel out to slay him was a foreshadowing of the Jews taking Jesus from Jerusalem before the crucifixion.  The laughter of Ham was seen as prefiguring the taunting of Jesus during his passion. During the Middle Ages, it was assumed that every event in the Old Testament had its typological twin in the New Testament.

     This sort of reasoning becomes especially prominent in the Biblia Pauperum, a type of picture Bible that became popular toward the end of the medieval period. 

This page from a Biblia Pauperum shows the three frequently linked stories of the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, the raising up of the bronze serpent by Moses and the Passion of Our Lord.

British Library King’s 5 f.17. Netherland (The Hugue) 1405.

<http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/Kslides/big/K018/K018704.jpg>

The text on the left reads:

According to Genesis xii, 7-18, when Abraham has raised his sword to sacrifice his son, an angel of the Lord prevented him from heaven, saying: 'Do not lift your hand against the boy'. Abraham signifies the heavenly Father, who sacrificed his son (that is, Christ) on the cross for us all, so that in this way he might give an indication of the Father's love.         

  

The text on the right reads:   

 According to Numbers xxi, 4-8, when the Lord wanted to free from serpents the people whom the serpents had bitten he instructed Moses to make a brass serpent and hang upon it a stake so that whoever looked at it would be rid of serpents. The serpent hung up and stared at by the people signifies Christ on the cross, which every believing person who wishes to be rid of the serpent (that is, the devil) should gaze upon.

David’s scroll reads, “They have pierced my hands and my feet.”  The scroll from Isaiah is a reference to Isaiah 53 and the suffering servant poem.  The verse on the scroll is a paraphrase, “He was sacrificed because he himself wished it, and he bore our sins.”  Job’s scroll is Job 40.20 in the Vulgate, “Canst thou draw out the leviathan with a hook?”  The bottom line reads, “The suffering of Christ snatches us from the gloomy abyss.” Habakkuk’s scroll says, “There are horns on his hands: there his strength is hidden.”(Habakkuk 3.4b.) 

     To illustrate the linking of Old Testament with New Testament, here are a few examples of well-known Old Testament writings that tell the coming of Jesus, his life, and his death, and medieval understanding of Mary:  (A few of these references will be familiar to most modern Christians since they are read during Advent and sometimes at other times of the liturgical church year.)

1.               Numbers 17.24a. “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near-a star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel …”  This passage was linked to the genealogy in Luke 3.24: “son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, son of Terah, son of Nahor…”  This is also linked with references to the star of the Magi.(Matthew 2.2)

2.               Isaiah 40.3: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’”  The verse from Isaiah prefigured the preaching of John the Baptist as written in Matthew 3, Mark 1.1-14, Luke 3.2-18, John 1.6-18.

3.               Isaiah 53.3.  “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.”  This verse foretold the rejection of Jesus by his family, especially the verse John 7.5:  “For not even his brothers believed in him.”

4.               Jeremiah 31. 15:  “Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”  This verse foreshadowed the killing of infant and toddler children by Herod as written in Matthew 2.18.

5.               Hosea 11.1: “Out of Egypt I call my son.”  This verse was thought to refer to the time that Jesus and his family spent in Egypt as told in Matthew.

6.               Micah 5.2:  “O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel.”  Even the gospel writers understood this verse to foretell the birthplace of Jesus Christ though Mark seemed to assume that Jesus was born in Nazareth.

7.               Zechariah 13.6: “And if anyone asks them, ‘What are these wounds on your chest?’ the answer will be ‘The wounds I received in the house of my friends.’”  The verse from Zechariah was linked to John 19.1: “Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.  A similar verse is found in Matthew 20.19 when Jesus foretells the manner of his death.  “[T]hey will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.”  Luke 23.22 is part of the speech that Pontius Pilate has with the crowd.  “A third time he said to them, ‘Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.’”

8.               Malachi 4.5: “I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.”  Jesus identified John as Elijah in Matthew 11.14: “and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.

9.               Noah was saved by the wooden ark (Genesis 6-9) as the wood of the cross became an instrument of salvation with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

10.            Isaac carried the wood for his sacrifice (Genesis 22:6), and this was linked symbolically with Jesus carrying his cross before the crucifixion (John 19:17).

11.            The passage from Zechariah 12.10, “when they look on me whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”  This foreshadowed the piercing of the side of the crucified Jesus as described in John 19.34, “one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.”

12.            Linked to this verse about blood and water are two sacraments of the Christian church, namely the Eucharist and Baptism.

13.            Jacob’s ladder (Genesis 28:10-22) has been linked to both Jesus and Mary.  Jacob’s ladder was seen as the reference in Jesus’ comment to his newly recruited disciples that they will see “the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (John 1.51).  The ladder image is again referenced both to Jesus’ statement that he was the gate or door to heaven (John 10:9), and the Ascension. 

14.            In addition, the ladder symbol is applied to Mary as the ladder or mediator between earth and her Son, the Redeemer. 

15.            The ladder was a symbol for the Cross when applied to humankind.  Believers will ascend by the ladder of faith to Heaven and unbelievers will descend to Hell.

16.            Joseph being thrown into the pit in the wilderness by his brothers (Genesis 37:23-4), and Jonah being swallowed by the fish (Jonah 1:17) were two stories that looked forward to laying the body of Jesus in a tomb.  (Matthew 27:60, Mark 15:46, Luke 23:53, John 19:42)

17.            Moses beheld the burning bush and God spoke to him from the bush.  (Exodus 3:1-6).  This was seen as a parallel to Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary and revealing to her the significance of the child she was to carry. 

18.            Moreover, as the bush held fire but was not consumed by it, so Mary held within her God manifested as Jesus, and she was not harmed by his birth and remained a Virgin.

19.            The three days that the three young men were in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:13-30), and Jonah was in the belly of the big fish (Jonah 1: 17), were thought to presage the time between Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and resurrection.

20.            Daniel in the lion’s den (Daniel 6:10-24) was compared with the passion, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

21.            Besides, the Daniel in the lion’s den story has been interpreted as symbolizing Mary’s virginity.  Just as Daniel was protected by an angel of God without the seal being broken, so Mary was kept a virgin.

22.            The anointing of David by Samuel (1 Samuel 16:13) paralleled the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1.9-11, Luke 3:21-22, John 1:31-34).  Thus both the Old Testament Samuel and the New Testament John the Baptist appear in Jesse Trees.  Yet, John the Baptist appears in Jesse Trees quite rarely when compared to Samuel.

23.            The phrase from Hosea 11.1 “out of Egypt I called my son” was seen as an allusion to Matthew 2.19-21 when Joseph brought Mary and the child Jesus from Egypt to Israel.

24.            A staff alluded to the Virgin.  In Latin this is a word play between virgo (virgin) and virga (rod or stem).  The oldest example may be the letter of Jerome (c. 347-420) to Eustochium (Letter XXII) using Isaiah 11.1.  In the letter, Jerome wrote, “The rod is the mother of the Lord—simple, pure, unsullied; drawing no germ of life from without but fruitful in singleness like God Himself.  The flower of the rod is Christ.”

25.            Jesus as the “righteous branch” of David (Jeremiah 23.5) appeared in a sermon of Pope Leo I the Great (reigned from 440-460) wrote for Christmas.[1]  “David’s Lord was made David’s Son, and from the fruit of the promised branch sprang One without fault, the twofold nature joining together into one Person, that by one and the same conception and birth might spring our Lord Jesus Christ.”

26.            The rod of Jesse image of Isaiah 11.1 was blended with the rod of Aaron described in Numbers.  Aaron’s staff became a snake before Pharaoh (Exodus 7:9), and then sprouted, producing buds and blossoms, and ripe almonds. (Numbers 17:8).  Just as a rod without a root produced fruit so Mary without marriage brought forth a son.  The rod of Aaron was probably the source for the apocryphal story about how Joseph was chosen to the guardian of the Virgin Mary as her husband. (See previously mentioned references to the Infancy Gospel of James and Pseudo-Matthew.) The figure of Aaron’s rod was then linked to images from Isaiah of the virgin who will give birth to a son. (Isaiah 7.14) The figure became more dense by the Middle Ages.  Mary was the vine and Jesus the flower or fruit of the vine.  This was yoked to the image of Jesus as the true vine from John 15.1-4.

This typological reasoning resulted in considerable complexity in the various meanings that could be placed on the figures of a Jesse Tree no matter where it appeared, window, manuscript, carving in wood and stone.  In fact, the name typological window is given to stained glass windows made especially to link Old Testament stories with New Testament events.  But that is a separate subject that I cannot begin to discuss now.

In summary, the Old Testament references in the Jesse Tree was meant to link together the Old and New Testaments.  The Old Testament was not viewed as a free standing compilation of Jewish history, law, poetry, wisdom and stories.  The Old Testament was seen as the prelude, the forerunner of the New Testament, even to the point that everything in the Old Testament had a parallel in the New.

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[1] Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers-2.  Vol. XII, Sermon XXVIII, On the Festival of the Nativity, VIII, iii. <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf212.ii.v.xvi.html>