> From: Larry Swain [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
>
> I haven't followed the entirety of this discussion, so
> forgive me if some of this is unrelated.
>
> Moses typology re: Patrick. The connection is
> actually rather obvious. Of all the folks in the
> Bible with/for whom to make analogies Moses' life has
> the most connections with what Patrick in his
> Confessio sees as his call. That is: Patrick felt
> himself called to the Irish and seeks to go "deliver"
> them but is prevented because of some sin he committed
> not unlike Moses who sought to deliver Israel and was
> thwarted by murdering an Egyptian. Patrick feels
> called by God to save a particular people, the Irish.
> Moses is called by God to deliver a particular people,
> Israel.
>
Patrick is not the only saint to receive this treatment.
> There is also a certain "Jewish/Celtic connection in
> terms of the concept of tribalism. The Irish seem to
> have viewed themselves as one people even though they
> had different groups/tribes/political units which was
> somewhat different than the other groups in Europe.
>
Actually, that's not completely true. There are "subject peoples"
and origin stories of some groups that differ from the Milesian myth. The
notion of a single group was promoted through pseudo-history like the Lebor
Gabala Erenn as part of promoting the claims of one group or another to hold
sovereignty over the whole island simply because they held Tara--and the
simultaneous claims of the "heirs of Patrick" (bishops of Armagh) to lord it
over all the others churches in Ireland. It's often overlooked that much of
the surviving material was produced to justify the claims of the U/i Neill
who allied themselves with Armagh. Despite the claims, the evidence of the
annals and some other works indicate that such unanimity was never reality.
> And Patrick comes along and "delivers" them, as a
> people in their minds.
>
> Finally there is the question of authority. Moses is
> directly sent by God. He is certainly a prefigure of
> Jesus. The apostles are sent by Jesus and are to be
> respected but there is almost a sense that the Celts
> are looking to the OT to legitimize their own
> practices in contrast to the Continent-such as in the
> letters of Columbanus for example.
>
Exactly. The Irish monks used many different sources to justify
their own cultural practices and beliefs. The books of the Hebrew bible were
used to justify social practices and organization; the works of people like
Isidore of Seville were used to justify their rather unique cosmology (see
Marina Smyth's _Understanding the Universe in Seventh Century Ireland_).
Francine Nicholson
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