The seventh stanza reads:
7 Puer, nostri forma risus,
pro quo vervex est occisus,
vitae signat gaudium.
'The boy, the pattern of our laughter, for whom the ram was slain,
designates the joy of life.'
This is a clear reference to Isaac, the son of Abraham, whom his father
offered to sacrifice to God, but whose place on the altar of sacrifice was
taken by a ram(Genesis 22:1-14). Isaac had been seen from the earliest days
of Christianity as a type of Christ; indeed the connexion is made in the
New Testament itself:
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had
received the promises was ready to offer up his only son, of whom it was
said, 'Through Isaac shall your descendants be named.' He considered that
God was able to raise men even from the dead; hence, figuratively speaking,
he did receive him back. (Hebrews 11:17-19)
Adam calls Isaac 'the pattern of our laughter' because his name in Hebrew
means 'laughter.' This was well known, and discussed by many of the
principal Christian exegetes. Saint Jerome writes:
Diversa opinio, sed una est etymologia, quare appellatus sit Isaac.
Interpretatur enim Isaac, risus. Alii dicunt, quod Sara riserit, ideo eum
risum vocatum esse, quod falsum est. Alii vero quod riserit Abraham, quod
et nos probamus. (Patrologia Latina, vol. 23, 1014)
'There are different opinions, but only one etymology, why he should be
called Isaac. For Isaac is interpreted, laughter. Some say, that Sara
laughed, and therefore he was called "Laughter", which is false. Others
indeed say it was because Abraham laughed, with which we agree.'
Saint Augustine writes to the same effect in The City of God:
Post haec natus est Abrahae, secundum promissionem Dei, de Sarra filius,
eumque nominavit Isaac, quod interpretatur Risus. Riserat enim et pater,
quando ei promissus est, admirans in gaudio: riserat et mater, quando per
illos tres viros iterum promissum est, dubitans in gaudio. (Patrologia
Latina, vol. 41, 510).
'After this there was born to Abraham, according to the promise of God, by
Sarah, a son, and he named him Isaac, which is interpreted as "Laughter".
For his father had laughed, marvelling in joy, when he was promised to him;
and his mother had also laughed, doubting in joy, when by those three men he
was promised again.'
Saint Gregory the Great also refers in the Moralia in Job to 'Isaac, id est
risus' (Patrologia Latina, vol. 75, 918); and Isidore of Seville, in his
Etymologies, says 'Isaac, ex risu nomen accepit' (Patrologia Latina, vol.
82, 281) going on to quote Augustine word for word by way of explanation.
The same point is made by, among others, Bede, Rabanus Maurus, Paschasius
Radbertus, St Anselm, Hugh of St Victor, Aelred of Rievaulx and the Glossa
Ordinaria. [See under Isaac in the philological index to Patrologia Latina,
vol. 221.]
Bede's remarks are of some interest:
Isaac interpretatur Risus, nec dubitandum est eum ita vocabulum ab eo, quod,
audita ejus nativitate, Abraham riserit in corde suo. Risus autem ille
decenter significat gaudium Novi Testamenti, in quo fillii promissionis,
inhabitante in eis Domino, in aeternum exsultabunt. (Patrologia Latina, vol.
91,164)
'Isaac is interpreted Laughter, without doubt because Abraham laughed in his
heart when he heard of his birth. And that word "Laughter" fittingly
signifies the joy of the New Testament, in which the children of the
promise, with the Lord dwelling among them, exult for ever.'
It is worth noting also Bede's words a few lines later:
Beati qui nunc fletis, quia ridebitis (Luc. vi. 21); qualibus se jungens
Apostolus ait: Nos autem secundum Isaac promissionis filii sumus (Gal. iv.
28). (Patrologia Latina, vol. 91,164).
'Blessed are you who now weep, for you shall laugh (Luke 6:21); associating
himself with which the Apostle says But we are children of the promise
according to Isaac'.
Here the conjunction of weeping and laughter made by Christ himself is
linked with Saint Paul's reference to Isaac.
More of this - with more up-to-date references - in my forthcoming article
in Mittellateinisches Jarbuch. Accept this offering as a hors-d'oeuvre to
the banquet.
Oriens.
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