medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

From: Madeleine Gray <[log in to unmask]>

> Welsh saints are a pretty vindictive lot as well. 

so's the BVM --lots & *lots* of instances in "miracle" collections in which
She punishes ("guides") foolish fellows who have had the temerity to
Disrespect her.

apparently, a vindictive "miracle" was as good, hagiographically-wise, as a
helpful or kind one --a matter of sticks as well as carrots, to keep those
pesky mortals In Line, an any Port in a Storm sort of thing.

what can one expect, from a religion based on a vindictive, violent, grotesque
old Bastard like Yahweh? 

>It's interesting that Giraldus doesn't really seem to regard the vindictive
nature of the Irish saints as a criticism?

well, he's willing to offer some pretty blunt criticism of mortal folks and
their institutions (like the Cistercians --or was that Walter Map?), but
perhaps he's not as dumb as he looks, and is somewhat more circumspect when
speaking of Powers Beyond this World.

besides, it's not a "criticism" --it's just the Nature of those fickle Men of
God.

curious that they apparently were not vindictive when they were being
"humiliated" by having their relics taken out of their boxes and laid on the
pavement of their churches.

or, does anyone know of any account in which there was such a "vindictive"
reaction to the Humiliation of the Saints?

Vindictive Victims. 

an oxymoronic, wonderfully middlevil concept.

c


> From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious
culture [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Christopher Crockett
[[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 04 May 2011 15:05
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [M-R] Fwd: TMR 11.05.01 Aasgaard, The Childhood of Jesus (Breen)
> 
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> 
> "...in eternal death the saints of this land [Ireland] that have been
elevated
> by their merits are more vindictive than the saints of any other region."
> 
> Giraldus Cambrensis. Topographia Hibernica, ii.55, §83
> 
> 
> sounds about right.
> 
> one of the risks inherent in "Living with the Saints," i suppose.
> 
> c
> 
> 
> ------ Original Message ------
> Received: Wed, 04 May 2011 09:28:08 AM EDT
> From: The Medieval Review <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: TMR 11.05.01 Aasgaard, The Childhood of Jesus (Breen)
> 
> Aasgaard, Reidar, ed. <i>The Childhood of Jesus: Decoding the
> Apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas</i>. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2009.
Pp.
> xii, 288. $33.00 (pb.). ISBN-13: 978-1-60608-126-6.
> 
>    Reviewed by Aidan Breen
>   Moore Institute, National University of Ireland, Galway
>         [log in to unmask]
> 
> 
> This is an extremely, not to say exquisitely, detailed analysis of what at
> first sight can best be described as a barbarous piece of apocryphal
doggerel,
> replete with silly miracle stories and examples of such homicidal violence
as
> would shock any right-minded individual. [1]
> 
> The Apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT) is venerable only because of
its
> age (second century CE) and cultural context. In any other context it would
> safely have been ignored. It is primitive and without literary or
theological
> significance, except perhaps as a reflection of Docetic Christianity at a
very
> basic level. The remarkable propensity of the boy Jesus to curse those who
> even
> mildly offend him is common in other religious biographies,
> including Jewish accounts of the Old Testament prophets. It was certainly
> regarded in antiquity as a mark of divine power, and an indispensable
> characteristic of sanctity. Instance what Giraldus Cambrensis said of the
> vindictive cast of mind of the Irish saints:
> "...in eternal death the saints of this land that have been
> elevated by their merits are more vindictive than the saints of any other
> region." (<i>Topographia Hibernica</i> ii.55, §83)
> 
> It pretends to be a description of the childhood of Jesus, though in effect
it
> consists of some miracle stories and some basic discourses. Some scholars
> claim to have detected signs in it of narrative sophistication, but it
would
> be hard for the modern reader to find them. IGT is not to be confused with
the
> <i>Gospel of Thomas</i> mentioned by some of the Church Fathers, and first
> made known to scholarship with the publication in 1956 of the Coptic
Gnostic
> MS by Labib.
> 
> Chapter 1 gives a complete overview of previous scholarship on the text,
> starting with Thilo's critical edition in 1832 and that of von Tischendorf
> (1851), which remained the standard text-critical edition until the
appearance
> of Chartrand-Burke's thesis (2001), which is due for publication in Corpus
> Christianorum, Series
> Apocryphorum. The discovery of new manuscripts and versions in Syriac,
> Georgian, Slavonic, Ethiopic and Old Irish has made the study of the
complex
> relationships between those versions and the textual transmission of IGT
> imperative.
> 
> Chapter 2 analyses the differences between the three Greek
> recensions (Aasgaard calls them variants - cf. 32-3), Gs, Ga, Gd and Gb, an
> abridgement of Ga, from fourteen manuscripts, ranging in date from the
> eleventh to the sixteenth centuries. Gs is the oldest version, depending
upon
> a single eleventh century manuscript (H, Jerusalem, Greek Orthodox
> Patriarchate, Sabaiticus gr.259), deriving from a fifth century archetype.
It
> thus constitutes the
> short and oldest Greek form of IGT. Although the Latin and Syriac versions
of
> IGT are older, H is closest to a primitive form of the text. He concludes
that
> the diversity between the recensions cannot be alone explained through
faults
> in written textual transmission.
> 
> Instead we need to postulate an oral/written paradigm, since, as Aasgaard
> quite rightly says "IGT was transmitted in a culture that was fundamentally
> oral" (24). He identifies certain features indicative of a partly oral
> transmission, or of written transcription from an oral narrative, which
best
> explains the fluidity of the variants in structure and content within the
> various recensions. He similarly concludes that it is now impossible to
> reconstruct the archetype, and that the construction of a stemma must
reflect
> "the interchange between the oral and the written" (33).
> 
> In chapter 3 the author analyses the structural and narrative form of IGT.
He
> seeks to show that there is a coherent and sophisticated narrative in the
> text, identifying the motifs of varying audience reactions to Jesus'
miracles
> and of the motif of blessing and cursing. There are differences in style
and
> content between the
> various Greek recensions, describing the style of Gs (and, by
> implication, Ga and Gb also) as "unpretentious, fresh and
> appealing--and thus well fit for finding a broad audience" (49).
> 
> In chapters 4 and 5 he explores the topographical, social and
> cultural context of IGT. His analysis of these aspects is detailed, but
hardly
> revelatory, and comes to no definitive conclusions regarding the
geographical
> location of IGT.[2] He shows the links between the structure of IGT and the
> gospel of Luke and explores elements which IGT has in common with other
Jewish
> and early Christian literature. His description in particular of human
> behaviour is meticulous to the point of being trite: "The actions and
> reactions of IGT's characters add color to its narrative world. A variety
of
> actions take place in the gospel...forming and clapping (2:2,4), bumping
and
> leaping (4:1; 6:7)...[and] verbal
> modes of expression such as speaking and shouting (2:2; 2:4; 4:1; 6:5;
9:3),
> laughing and praying (8:1; 10:2)" (64).
> 
> He then explores the social relations, implicit and expressed, between the
> characters in IGT, parents, teachers, children and religious elders, and
shows
> that what can be inferred fits in well with a relatively prosperous eastern
> Mediterranean Greek-speaking rural community in late antiquity. He
concludes,
> significantly, that it "seems not to be rooted in a Jewish core or
dominated
> area." (69) The anonymity of its general setting facilitated its wide
> transmission across linguistic, geographical and cultural
> barriers, picking up and discarding various elements as it went.[3]
> 
> The author's analysis of cultural concepts and values in IGT is a
> socio-psychological examination that is interesting in itself: but it makes
a
> lot of very little. His conclusions match up with those of chapter 4.
> 
> Chapter 6 looks at what can be inferred from the text of the human
> characteristics and social environment of the child Jesus. It is a very
useful
> analysis based upon recent research into the world of childhood in late
> antiquity. He concludes that "the <i>puer senex</i> features manifest
> themselves solely in his relations, and then only in his verbal
communication
> with them."
> 
> Chapter 7 deals with the development of Jesus from boy to man, dealing with
> manifestations of dominance and self-restraint on the one hand, and with
how
> Jesus fits into the role of the male in late antiquity, tracking the events
in
> Jesus' childhood from age five to his appearance before the elders in the
> temple at age 12 (§17).
> 
> Chapter 8 deals with reflections of some episodes in the NT (with the
caveat
> that the canon of 'New' Testament had not been established in the second
> century), chiefly the gospel of Luke, especially Lc 2:41-52, paraphrased
> and/or adapted in IGT §17 from memory. The other element (IGT §6:8) comes
> from, or is related to 1 Cor 13:1, "If I speak in the tongues of mortals
and
> of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."
> Aasgaard dismisses the possibility that this expression (noisy gong and
> clanging cymbal) may have existed as an independent maxim outside
> of Paul. The lists which then follow of allusions to biblical
> texts, the uses of biblical words and concepts, etc., show that IGT was
> familiar with certain themes and elements from the NT, especially
> Luke--possibly also John--but it does not cite them verbatim, but from
memory.
> But the majority are very generalised and can hardly be taken as proof of
any
> direct connection between any specific section of the NT and IGT.
> 
> Chapter 9, 'Strange Sayings', deals with some cryptic or corrupt sayings in
> IGT. Their obscurity may have arisen through faulty transmission, and that
> lends some credence to the possibility that they are simply garbled,
> unintelligible in varying degrees and certainly of no obvious profundity or
> theological significance. One or two may have soteriological significance,
> such as §6:4, Jesus to the first teacher, Zacchaeus: "For I am outside of
> you, but I am also from within you because of my noble birth in the flesh",
> and
> the following reply to his father: "When you were born, I existed and came
to
> you...and you will take on the saving name."[4] Similarly §6:6 "I --and he
> [who existed] before the world was created-- know accurately when you and
your
> fathers...were born" may refer to omniscience of Jesus. Aasgaard refuses to
> take any Gnostic meaning out of the exposition of the significance of the
> letter ?/? in § 6:10, and rightly so. It may simply be a "jingle...a
> distortion and parody of reading exercises familiar to anyone having
attended
> the antique school" (145-46). None of these difficult sayings, he
concludes,
> can be taken to have any Gnostic or esoteric significance, beyond what the
> redactors/tellers would have found in the New Testament.
> 
> Chapter 10 looks at the theological substance of IGT, with what the author
> calls its "epistemology and hermeneutics, ethics and theology of creation
and
> anthropology" (149). Aasgaard correctly identifies some, albeit
> unsophisticated, Christological elements in IGT: Jesus' possession of
divine
> powers betrays some Johannine influence, direct or indirect. But his
assertion
> that the manifestations of the divine child Jesus' powers in cursing and
> healing, miracle-working and saving give "evidence of radical theological
> reflection" (157) makes one think that the author has fallen too much in
love
> with his subject. In dealing with the hermeneutics of the text, the author
> analyses the usage and meaning
> of the words relating to understanding and wisdom and the ability to "see".
> The evident lack of moral values in IGT are rationalised as reflecting the
> text's "strong Christological focus...demonstrating Jesus' superiority and
> power" (161), and concludes that, despite all, "things have turned out
fine,
> thanks to the wonderboy Jesus" (162). Overall, he concludes that apart from
> some idiosyncrasy, IGT "does not represent deviation, but is compatible
with
> commonplace early Christian thinking" (164).
> 
> Chapter 11 places IGT within the context of early Christian
> household storytelling. His conclusion that "Its portrait of
> Jesus...can have made perfectly (<i>sic</i>) sense to an audience of
> commoners" (173) is certainly convincing. The circulation in patristic
> literature of certain themes or even extracts from IGT (<i>Epistle of the
> Apostles</i>, Irenaeus, <i>Adversus Haereses</i>, i.20.1-2 on the spurious
> writings of the Marcosians,[5] the Gnostic <i>Gospel of Truth</i> I,19,
etc.)
> shows the wide dissemination either of the text itself or its independently
> circulating components. Aasgaard takes these to be references to IGT. But
if
> the various recensions of IGT had an oral transmission, they might just as
> likely be freely circulating tales which were at one time or another
> amalgamated into IGT, which may
> thus be a collection of disparate elements put together as a single text.
> Apocryphal tales are eminently portable--and mutable.
> 
> Certainly, IGT had a very wide geographical circulation:
> throughout the Mediterranean basin, and from Ireland in the west, to
Armenia
> in the east and Arabia in the south. It circulated in the earliest MSS with
> "respectable" hagiographic, homiletic, patristic and some other apocryphal
> material. In the Latin recensions, it circulated with the <i>Gospel of
> Pseudo-Matthew</i>, and with other infancy gospel material.
> 
> In the final chapter 12, the author argues that IGT was composed as a story
> for early Christian children. He notes that this was also the opinion of
other
> scholars, but was not developed by them. He adduces parallels from
classical
> and early patristic literature for this. His rhetorical question "Who,
then,
> would be particularly interested in stories about Jesus' childhood, if
> not...the children
> themselves?" has a ring of truth to it. But it must be said in reply that
> stories of the boyhood deeds of great heroes and holy men are part of the
> repertoire of many cultures, from the Buddha to Finn Mac Cumhaill, and they
> were <i>not</i> primarily children's literature. Nonetheless, Aasgaard
> elaborates his thesis in convincing detail, and one must be prepared to
> concede that IGT would have been equally agreeable to children and some
adults
> alike-–in other words, "a broad audience" ( 49).
> 
> The appendices contain the Greek text (primarily from Gs), a very readable
and
> well structured English translation, a tabulated comparison of the outline
of
> IGT Ga/(Gb)/Gd as against Gs, the titles of the individual episodes, a
survey
> of the Greek variants and the versions represented by the individual MSS, a
> tabulation of the attestations of IGT from the second to the seventeenth
> century, a list of the birth and infancy narratives of Jesus (and Mary), a
> very full bibliography of primary and secondary sources, a biblical
> index, an index of IGT in its Greek variants and Latin Syriac and other
> versions, and finally an <i>index scriptorum</i>.
> 
> Altogether, this is a very exhaustive and meticulously researched study of
a
> largely misunderstood or neglected apocryphon. Whilst one may not agree
with
> all of the author's conclusions, one cannot fault its scholarship. It is an
> invaluable contribution to the study of IGT.
> 
> --------
> Notes:
> 
> 1. As in the account of Jesus cursing and striking dead his second teacher,
to
> which Joseph replies: "Then Joseph summoned his mother and instructed her:
> 'Don't let him go outside the house lest those who annoy him end up dead'"!
> 
> 2. In chapter 11 (188 and 190), Aasgaard opines that northern Asia Minor
> (Bithynia and Pontus) might be "one potential candidate as the place of
origin
> for IGT", and repeats his earlier hypothesis that IGT had a rural origin, a
> "heritage of the first rural Christians."
> 
> 3. Aasgaard gives an interesting instance of this on 33 n.46.
> 
> 4. This section is unique to Gs.
> 
> 5. Also AH i.16.3, "On the absurd interpretations of the
> Marcosians."
> 
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