Sequence - (11)

Talking of Leviathan:

15.	Cetus Ionam fugitivum,
	veri Ionae signativum,
	post tres dies reddit vivum
		de ventris angustia.

Note the change of verse form.  'The whale, after three days, returns alive
the fugitive Jonah, signifying the true Jonah, from the confinement of its
belly.'

The story of Jonah cries out for typological exegesis.  'Erat Ionas in
ventre piscis tribus diebus et tribus noctibus' - Jonah was in the belly of
the fish for three days and three nights (2:1);  Jonah prays, 'De ventri
inferi clamavi, et exaudisti meam' - From the belly of the underworld I
called, and you heard me.

Jesus himself makes the connexion (Matthew 12:39-41):

An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign;  but no sign shall be
given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.  For as Jonah was three
days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.  The men of Nineveh
will arise at the judgement with this generation and condemn it;  for they
repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah
is here.

Note that the NT has already turned the fish into a whale - this is not down
to the deficiencies of medieval natural history.

16.	Botrus Cypri reflorescit
	dilatatur et excrescit:
	synagogae flos marescit
		et floret ecclesia.

'The grape-cluster  of Cyprus flowers again, broadens out and grows
exceedingly:'

Raby comments (p.360):  Christ, again, is the grape-bunch trodden in the
winepress of the passion, but flourishing again in his resurrection -
'Botrus Cypri dilectus meus mihi in vineis Engaddi'.  The reference is to
the Song of Songs, 1:13.

It is worth reading the whole of St Bernard's sermon no. 44 on the Song of
Songs, where he addresses himself to this text:

"MY beloved is to me a cluster of grapes of Cyprus among the vines of
En-gedi."  If he is beloved, while on the myrrh-tree, how much more in the
sweet cluster of grapes.  My Lord Jesus dead is a myrrh-tree for me;  risen,
a cluster of grapes . . . He died for our sins and rose for our
justification, that we might died to sin and live in holiness . . .

"But where is this wine [of repentance, to be poured into the wounds of the
man who fell among thieves] to come from?  In the vineyards of En-gedi one
finds oil, not wine.  Let him look for it therefore in Cyprus, an island
that abounds with wine, the best wine;  let  him take from there a huge
cluster of grapes such as the spies of Israel once carried on a pole between
two bearers (Numbers 13:23ff):  that long procession of prophets to the
forefront, the band of apostles to the rear, and in between them Jesus,
beautifully prefigured by the grapes.  Let him take possession of this
cluster and say:  'My beloved is to me a cluster of grapes of Cyprus.'"

[Cistercian Fathers Series, no. 7, Bernard on the Song of Songs II, pp. 225-7]

Raby also refers us to Isaiah 63:3, 'I have trodden the wine-press alone'.
And he compares another hymn, in Analectic Hymnica V, p. 50, 'where the
Virgin is the Vine which bears the grape-bunch':

haec est botrum paritura
virgo plena gratia,
qui in crucis nos pressura
convivantes debriat.

There is also perhaps a reference  to Micah 7:1

Non est botrus ad comedendum, praecoquas ficus desideravit anima mea.
Periit sanctus de terra, et rectus in hominibus non est.

'There is no cluster of grapes to be eaten, my soul has longed for the early
fig.  
The holy man has perished from the earth, and the righteous among men is no
more.'

Easily understood as a reference to the death of Christ.

'botrus' represents the Hebrew word Eshcol, the name given to the place from
which the spies brought back the cluster of grapes in Numbers 13:23ff.

More tomorrow,

Oriens.



%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%