Sequence - (9)

I had forgotten that Raby discusses the symbolism of our sequence in
"Christian-Latin Poetry", pp. 359-360.  Actually there is at least one error
- he confuses Elijah with Elisha.  Having said that, his interpretation is
probably correct, though I regret the anti-Jewish sentiment it reveals in Adam:

'Elijah [sc. Elisha], derided by the children, is typical of Christ mocked
by the Jews, and the vengeance of Elijah [sc. Elisha] foretold the woes
which overtook them in the days of Vespasian and Titus.'

Vespasian and Titus, then, would be the two bears.  Could be.  Raby's
footnote refers us to 2 Kings 3:23-4, which I have already quoted;  he also
says, 'See Trench, p. 170, who quotes Hugh of St Victor.'  The book by
Richard Chevenix Trench is called 'Sacred Latin Poetry' (1849);  I have not
read it.  

Raby may also be a better guide than myself to the meaning of 'David
arrepticius'.  The word means 'out of one's mind, inspired'.  I took it in
the latter sense, but Raby suggests the former:

"David's madness prefigures Christ of whom it was said, 'He is beside
himself'".  He refers to I Sam xxi.14 (Vulgate I Regum xxi.14) 'vidistis
hominem insanum';  Mark iii.21 'Quoniam in furorem versus est' - He is
beside himself.  Maybe so;  but this does not relate, as far as I can see,
to the Easter story.

Otherwise Raby's interpretations are similar to my own, or vice versa.  Let
us move on:

12.	In maxilla mille sternit
	et de tribu sua spernit
		Samson matrimonium;
	Samson Gazae seras pandit
	et asportans portas scandit
		montis supercilium.

'Samson lays low a thousand with a jawbone'.  This refers to the story in
the Book of Judges where Samson kills a thousand Philistines with the
jawbone of an ass:

Inventamque maxillam, id est, mandibulam asini, quae iacebat, arripiens,
interfecit in ea mille viros.
'And seizing a "maxilla", that is, the jawbone of an ass, which he found
lying there, he killed a thousand men with it.'  (Iudices 15:15).

'And spurns marriage with [a woman] from his tribe'.  Samson had a penchant
for Philistine women.  This is not the famous Delilah, but the woman
referred to in Judges 14:1-3,

'Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of
the Philistines.  Then he came up, and told his father and mother, "I saw
one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah;  now get her for me as my
wife."  But his father and mother said to him, "Is there not a woman among
the daughters of your kinsmen, or among all our people, that you must go to
take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?"

'Samson opens the bars of Gaza, and carrying the gates he climbs the summit
of the mountain.'

Cf. Iudices 16:3, 'Dormivit autem Samson usque ad medium noctis:  et inde
consurgens, apprehendit ambas portae fores cum postibus suis et sera,
impositasque humeris suis portavit ad verticem montis, qui respicit Hebron.'

'But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the
doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and
all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill
that is before Hebron.'

The typological significance is perhaps suggested by Psalm 23(24):7,

Attolite portas, principes, vestras,
Et elevamini, portae aeternales,
Et introibit rex gloriae.

'Lift up your gates, princes, and be lifted up, eternal gates, and the king
of glory shall
come in.'

This is understood of Christ's resurrection.  Cf. Handel's memorable setting of
the verse in the Messiah, in this context.

Augustine says of this psalm, "A psalm of David himself, touching the
glorifying and resurrection of the Lord, which took place early in the
morning on the first day of the week."
The Hebrew title itself says, "A psalm of David himself, on the first day of
the week."

The connexion between the psalm and the Samson story is reinforced by verse
3, "Quis ascendet in montem Domini" - Who shall ascend onto the mountain of
the Lord?

I'm not so clear about the significance of the jawbone, but perhaps others
have ideas.  The place of the skull?

Oriens.



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