Aurelius Prudentius Clemens (348 – c. 413) was a Christian Latin poet from Roman Spain. He served as a lawyer and provincial administrator before dedicating himself to Christian poetry in his later years. His works represent some of the finest Christian Latin poetry of Late Antiquity and include the Cathemerinon (Daily Hymns), Apotheosis (The Divinity of Christ), Hamartigenia (The Origin of Sin), Psychomachia (Battle of the Soul), and Contra Symmachum (Against Symmachus). The following selections are taken from H.J. Thomson’s translation in the Loeb Classical Library edition (1949).
From the Apotheosis (The Divinity of Christ)
Translator’s Note (from H.J. Thomson): “From line 335 to line 551 Prudentius attacks the Jews for their rejection of Christ. The dispersion of the Jews had been in process long before the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D. 70. In this section (552-781) Prudentius argues against the teaching of some nominally Christian sects among the Jews, who denied the divine birth of Christ while holding that his goodness entitled Him to be called the Son of God.” (See the article on Ebionism in Hastings’ Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics.)
Lines 335-385: On the Jews‘ Rejection of Christ
But we have thrown back the veil and see Christ in person, looking upon God with countenance uncovered, nor do we lie with head bowed down under the weight of the law, but with face lifted up we recognise the law’s splendour. Alas for the tree that was once so leafy, its branches so fertile! Alas for the root of the olive whose fruits were once so rich! Lo, since the wild olive was grafted on thee, thy stem flourishes again and is clothed with a covering of bark that is strange to it. Have pity on thyself now. The scion of woodland olive does not vaunt itself, glorying in a stem that is not its own, but gives warning that thou remember thy stock, cease to cloud the foliage with a bitter coating, and envy not, deep in thy trunk, the shoots that rise to high tops.
Thou dost blaspheme the Lord Christ, ungrateful race. Thy Passover — say, say, whose is the blood that makes it a feast so holy in thine eyes? What is the yearling lamb that is slain? Thou holdest it sacred each returning year, but it is sacred as a beast. It is folly to believe there is aught sacred in touching the tops of thy doorposts with a lamb’s blood, in making merry with song and eating unleavened bread, while thy conduct is rising with the leaven of sin. Art thou so ignorant as not to understand it is our Passover thou dost represent? That in the lines drawn before by the old law thou dost portray all the mystery contained in the true passion, that passion which protects our foreheads with blood and smears it on our bodily dwelling in a mark on the brow? It is from this that the Egyptian plague flees, its violence shut out; it is this that gives release from the deathly rule of the king of Egypt, and from the thick hail falling on the power of this world saves Abraham and his stock and faithful people. The true descendant of Abraham is he on whose brow the mark of the blood in which he has trusted is written in red, who with assured faith has seen God in the world, true God born of the Father. Abraham saw God and straightway believed what he saw.
Lines 368-385: On Jewish Carnality and the Law
But thou, O posterity of the flesh, seeing all things carnally, under the law thou dost perform the work of the flesh, which the inward spirit fills; for it is not a fleshly law that flowed from heaven which thou dost worship in the flesh, but one which was pregnant with Christ and designed to bring forth my hope within its womb. What is that hope but the fostering light of divinity and the coming of the Lord, whom Abraham’s faith first saw, and our Father promised of old should be looked upon with our eyes and attested by the voice of the law? And not by the law alone; for what writing now has not Christ in it, or what collection of scriptures does not celebrate the wonders of Christ, full of his praise, in new books? The Hebrew pen, the fulness of Athens, and the eloquence of the third language of Ausonia proclaim them. Pilate, himself ignorant of what he commands, says “Go, writer, set down in three languages who it is that is crucified. On the head of the cross let there be a threefold superscription; in the three tongues, as they read, let Judaea recognise and Greece know God, and golden Rome worship Him while she scans the words.”
Lines 420-446: Has This Utterance Not Reached Your Ears, O Judaea?
Has not this utterance, Judaea, reached thine ears? Yes, but not penetrated to thy darkened understanding; it was shut out and fled back from the outer door. He that heard the coming of the Lord was he whom the west of the Spanish sun encompasses, and he whom the rosy new east receives.
Dost thou not now loathe thy deed? Dost thou not now repent? There thou seest Christ, unhappy Judaea, as God, who, doing away the earthly Sabbath, has taken mankind to an eternal Sabbath. He has flashed upon the nations, his glory has shone before kings; He possesses the world, and has constrained imperial Rome to yield to Him, and subdued the images of gods on her Tarpeian Hill. Learn from thy ills, poor creature, by whose vengeance it is that vain superstition and carnal keeping of the law are punished, whose avenging power it is that tramples upon thee. Do not Solomon’s stones, that were built up by hand, lie overthrown in heaps? He who overthrew them has built an eternal temple, like as He promised, saying “Do ye destroy this temple that I have, which covers my body’s members, and in three days’ time I will build it up again without hands.” This is the temple that is everlasting and without end; this is the temple thou hast attacked, seeking to take it with scourge and cross and gall.
Lines 525-551: The Dispersion and Enslavement of the Jews
But thy whole burnt offerings are entombed under heaps of ruins. What thou dost merit, Titus has taught thee, and Pompey’s armies have taught thee with their rapine. Rooted out by them, thy members are carried over every region of land and sea. From place to place the homeless Jew wanders in ever-shifting exile, since the time when he was torn from the abode of his fathers and has been suffering the penalty for murder, and having stained his hands with the blood of Christ whom he denied, paying the price of sin. See what has become of the virtue of his forefathers of olden times! The noble race that was heir to the faithful men of old has scattered away from them and is enslaved, no longer noble; it is in captivity under the younger faith. Such is the strength the new belief possesses; a race that formerly was unfaithful now confesses Christ and triumphs, but that which denied Christ is conquered and subdued and has fallen into the hands of masters who keep the faith.
Lines 552-578: Against Judaizing Heretics (Ebionites)
Some there are who set up a doctrine akin to the Jews‘ raving, and follow Christ by a middle way. This much they assert, that He is real man, but they say He is not God from heaven. In respect of goodness they admit, in respect of majesty they deny; they consecrate and honour Him for the merit of his character, but they rob Him of supreme divinity. Now every piece of excellent work through which potent skill shines forth is the work either of mind or of bodily strength, the one having the vigour of keen intelligence, the other surpassing in hardy physical power. But for man each of these is mortal, for the mind grows feeble with hoary age, and time wastes the stout arms. This is not the belief that we follow in the case of our Lord’s merit and eternal glory. We believe that He springs from no earthly seed, takes no unclean beginning from sin-stained man. It is the subtle fire that begets Him, not a father’s flesh nor blood nor foul passion. The divine power weds a maid inviolate, breathing its pure breath over her untainted flesh. The strange mystery of his birth bids us believe that the Christ thus conceived is God. The unwedded maid is wedded to the Spirit and feels no taint of passion. The seal of her virginity remains unbroken; pregnant within, she is untouched without, blossoming from a pure fertility, a mother now, but still a maiden, a mother that has not known husband. Why dost thou deny? Why shakest thou thy foolish head, O unbeliever? An angel with holy lips proclaims that this shall be. Wilt thou not believe, and unlock thine ear to the angel’s message?
From the Cathemerinon (Book of the Daily Round)
Hymn XII – A Hymn for Epiphany: Lines 53-68 – The Coming of the King
This is that king of the nations and of the people of Judaea, who was promised to father Abraham and to his seed for ever. For the first father of all believers, he who offered his only son in sacrifice, learned that his progeny must one day be made equal to the stars. Now comes the flower of David, sprung from the root of Jesse, blooming along the sceptre-rod and taking the highest place in the world.
Hymn XII – A Hymn for Epiphany: Lines 89-100 – Herod’s Fear
The uneasy monarch hears of the coming of the King of Kings to rule over the name of Israel and possess the throne of David. Out of his mind at the news, he cries “He that shall take my place is upon me, driving me out. Go, guard, grasp thy sword and steep the cradles in blood. Let every male child perish. Search the nurses’ bosoms, and at the mothers’ breasts let the boy-child’s blood redden thy blade. I suspect guile in all that have borne babes in Bethlehem, lest one of them by stealth save her male progeny.”
Hymn XII – A Hymn for Epiphany: Lines 137-148 – Moses as Type of Christ
Their leader, after he slew the Egyptian, freed Israel from the yoke; but us, who are in continual subjection to the grievous power of sin, our Leader, disabling our enemy, sets free from the darkness of death. Moses cleanses the people in the waves in the crossing of the sea and purifies them with sweet waters, and carries before them a pillar of light. Moses, while the host does battle, stands aloft stretching up his arms and subdues Amalech, and this was then a symbol of the cross. He indeed is a truer Jesus, who, after long wanderings gained the victory.
Hymn XII – A Hymn for Epiphany: Lines 161-165 – Universal Worship of Christ
Rejoice, all ye nations, Judaea, Rome and Greece, Egypt, Thracian, Persian, Scythian: one King is master of all. Praise your Lord every one, blessed and lost alike, the quick, the feeble, and the dead; no man henceforth is dead.
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