Madeleine Gray wrote:
> This looks to me less like the third-person
>description in Isaiah 53 and more like the first-person address in Isaiah
>50. Any thoughts?
_______________________
Maddy:
Certainly the two references comply in the representation. The power
( both in resonating imagery and in frequency of citation, both
exegetical, homiletic and liturgical) of Isaiaf 53:7 __ " He was
oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth";[ and
especially] "like lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep
that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth."
seem to me the dominating text source for that "calm, sorrowful gaze
you describe.. The "sicut ovis ... quasi agnus..." passage has a long
history in patristic writings of being foundational in defining the
outlines of, or fleshing out the internal contours of the concept of
divine/Christic apatheia... the passionless God who suffered the
Passion. [For a sense of this argument and the patristic use of the
text toward that end, see: Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, CXI;
Irenaeus, Adv. Haeres. Bk III, XIII ff; Tertullian, A Response to
the Jews, X; Tertullian, Contra Marc... Bk III, Ch 7; Tertullian, On
Flight in Persecution, Section 12; Origen, Contra Cels. Bk II, LIX; ]
The Christ who stands silent,unmoving, "passionless" before his
persecutors seems also to have prompted or served ( or at least
tempted and supported ) certain docetic Christologies. Likewise
liturgically, outside of its place in the lectionary, the placement
of that citation as the first of the Tenebrae Responsories for Holy
Saturday attests to its weight.
You could, I think, despite any other attributaries, certainly argue
for its direct influence in that representation.
I hope this helps.
Josef Gulka
Josef Gulka
[log in to unmask]
Tel: 215- 732-8420
Fax (215) 732-8420
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|