medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Those interested in this topic may wish to have a look at Ludolf of Saxony's _Vita Christi_ (I have used the edition by Rigollet and others, Rome, 1865), part I, ch. 3, pp. 13b-14a, where he refers to the story in the Protevangelium Jacobi and other extra-canonical sources for the life of Mary about the chief priest summoning all marriagable men to Jerusalem, each with a rod; Joseph's rod blossomed (as Aaron's had) and Joseph was thus chosen to be Mary's husband/custos etc. Ludolf quotes Chrysostom and Ambrose regarding the blossom and the fruit in the spiritual sense, and applies both to both Mary and Christ. The words between * and * are topic headings added by the modern editors to Ludolf's text; the references in [ ] are their references to Scripture and the Ambrose; they did not offer a reference for Chrysostom and I have not attempted to track this down.
There's more on Mary's and Joseph's lineage etc. in this chapter and ch. 2 (I believe). Ludolf is a good compendium of 14th-century assumptions about the life of Christ and Mary.
Dennis Martin
*Joseph virga floruit* Erat autem inter [13b bottom] ceteros homo nomine Joseph, qui cum virgam suam attulisset, et ipsa illico florem germinasset, atque in ejus cacumine columba de coelo veniens consedisset, liquido omnibus patuit ipsi Virginem desponsandam fore. Unde in libris Numerorum legitur, quod Moyses "invenit virgam Aaron germinasse, et turgentibus gemmis, flores erupisse, qui foliis dilatatis in amygdalas deformati sunt" [Num 17:8] *Virgae Aaron comparatur Maria* Per istam intelligi potest beata Virgo, quae instar virgae fuit gracilis per paupertatem, et flexibilis per humilitatem, et recta per intentionem et caritatem. Ista Virgo inventa est "gemmis turgentibus," quando Filium Dei in tero suo concepit, ex qua flores fructiferi eruperunt, quando Dei Filius, ipsa manente virgine, natus fuit. Nam sicut flos non violat arborem, sed ornat; sic Dei Filius non violavit Virginem, sed magis donis et gratiis adornavit. Haec est virga quae, secundum Chrysostomum, in tabernaculo testimonii posita, sine humore terrae fructum nucis germinavit; quia sine viri semine Filium edidit, qui tanquam nux ligno passionis adhaesit. Et bene, nunc flos, nunc fructus dicitur: quia, secundum Ambrosium [Ambr. lib. 2 in Luc. c. 1] veluti boni arboris fructus pro nostrae virtutis processu, nunc floret, nunc fructificat in nobis; nunc rediviva corporis resurrectione reparatur. *Flos et fructus dicitur Christus* Ideo etiam alibi flos, alibi fructus dicitur: quia in utriusque Testamenti paginis ita praedicatur, flos in littera, fructus in spiritu; flos in Lege, fructus in gratia et veritate; flos in priori tabernaculo, fructus in secundo; [14a] flos in observatione carnalium sacrificiorum, fructus in spirituali intelligentia mysteriorum. Sicut enim in flore fructus praenuntiatur, sic in illis ceremoniis Christus venturus significabatur. Patet itaque quod Christus flos dicitur in prophetica Veteris Testamenti promissione, qui et fructus vocatur in Novi Testamenti gratiae perfectione. Sed sicut fructus non apparet virente flore, ita nec Christi veritas patuit carnali observatione manente. Arescente vero flore, fructus videtur; quia decidente Lege, "gratia et veritas per Jesusm Christum facta" [Jn 1:17] tenetur.
>>> [log in to unmask] 05/12/01 11:45 AM >>>
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Plus we have the interesting distinction between
theology today (largely irrelevant to this list) and
what was believed in the M.A. A theologian friend of
mine says the belief in Mary's Davidic roots (pun
intended) is "traditional." I suspect that the
thinking may have been thus: if Jesus is of the
Davidic line and was not the natural son of Joseph,
then Mary musthave been of that line.
In any case, I have also contacted the (lamented) Bill
East for comment as I'm completely out of my depth
here and I'll post any response I receive.
Best,
MG
--- Sharon Dale <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval
> religion and culture
>
> Marjorie--it is Isaiah Chap. 11. In the vulgate the
> wording is "et
> egredietur virga de radice Iesse et flos de radice
> eius ascendent"
> "And there shall come forth a rod out of the root
> of Jesse and a flower
> shall rise up out of his root." the rod would be
> Mary and the flower,
> Christ. At least that is my understanding. Christ
> can't be both rod and
> flower. I think that we have an interesting word
> play here-- virga is rod
> or green twig which was bent (pun intended here)
> into virgin which in the
> latin is virgo. I leave it to the hardcore Latinists
> to tease out anything
> more. And thanks to Christopher for pointing us to
> the Speculum piece. all
> best, sharon
>
>
> ___________________________
>
> Sharon Dale Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Art History
> Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Marjorie Greene <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2001 10:20 AM
> Subject: [M-R] Root of Jesse
>
>
> > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of
> medieval religion and culture
> >
> > Sharon,
> > Can you send me that ref. to Isaiah again? I
> deleted
> > your message and all I find in Is. (chapter 11) is
> > reference to the Radix as the Messiah. In fact,
> Radix
> > Jesse is one of the O antiphons of Advent and
> refers
> > to Christ.
> > Best,
> > MG
> >
> > __________________________________________________
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