----- Original Message -----
From: Francine Nicholson <[log in to unmask]>
> > From: Christopher Crockett [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> >
> > Whilst I have you here on the _pons_, I note no reference to garments
> > being cast on anything but the colt (19:35) in Luke's account. Is there
a
> > textual basis for the garment tosser?
> >
> In Luke, Mark, and Matthew garments are cast on the road as well as
> the colt by the "crowd" but there are no specifically named or described
> "garment tossers." In Matthew and Mark, branches as well as cloaks are
> spread on the road. No garments or branches are spread anywhere by anyone
in
> John.
Ignoring the temptation to Johanine and Synoptic exegesis this query offers,
I suspect it may not have been a scriptural text that inspired the carver of
the garment tosser but rather the second of the two antiphons that accompany
Psalm 23 (24) [from this is sung in v.7 & v.9: 'Atollite, portae, capita
vestra'] in the liturgy you witnessed. The antiphon begins, 'Pueri
Hebraeorum, vestimenta prosternebant in via, et clamabant dicentes: Hosanna
Filio David . . . .' Ultimately, the antiphon obviously derives from the
Gospel verses cited in Francine's note. But I often wonder if my own
experience growing up in a Catholic ghetto doesn't mirror somewhat the
experience of many medieval communities. The liturgical formularies were our
major intro to scripture, and left impressions on us long before we read
scripture. (For many, the reading never took place; the hearing of the
formularies was their entire exposure.) We heard them and/or sung them
constantly in daily Mass and Vespers and even memorised many of them in
choir practice or school lessons. It would be an interesting study, if not
yet undertaken, to discuss the influence of the liturgical formularies in
the popular absorption of scripture vs. the influence of the formal reading
of the texts. Holy Week ceremonies, especially, were great dramatic plays
come to life in ritual settings that were not easy to forget. Months of hard
work and preparation often went into them, and the images they created were
vivid and not readily forgotten. Is this merely an anachronistic idea?
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