The halls of the ITI this evening were crowded for the first of this semester's special lectures. The topic was the Intentio Auctoris (intention of the author) in the Pelagian Interpretation of St. Paul, presented by Msgr. Johann Tauer.Apparently, besides being a heretic condemned by the Church in 418 for his false teachings on grace and free will, Pelagius was noteworthy for his method of biblical interpretation. Good method notwithstanding, he still managed to come to heretical conclusions. Ah, well...
The most interesting part of the presentation (for me, at least) came during the Q&A afterwards. A question was raised about the allegorical interpretations of Origen, the famous third century biblical scholar. In the course of his answer, Msgr. Tauer explained that Origen interpretated Psalm 24:7-10 as referring to the Ascension of Christ in the following manner.
When Christ ascended from the earth 40 days after His Resurrection, He was accompanied by all the angels who had ministered to Him while He was on earth. As they reached the heavenly city, however, the gates were closed, and therefore the angels with Christ called out, "Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in." The angels guarding the gates, however, called back, "Who is the King of glory?" To which the angels with Christ reply, "The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in." The angels inside, though, ask again: "Who is this King of glory?" To which the answer comes, "The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory!"
Lord of hosts, of course, is a frequent title for God himself in the Old Testament, so here finally the angels inside throw open the doors of heaven to receive Christ returning in triumph. Apparently Origen poses the question that must occur to all who read his interpretation: Why did the angels not recognize Christ as God? His answer: never before had heaven known flesh. Interestingly enough, Handel chose this passage of Psalm 24 in connection with the Ascension of Christ in his musical masterpiece.
9 comments:
John, I like that! Yet (becaue of the context you gave), I was wondering if this (the angelic dialogue) was going to be understood as Pelagian -- Christ's power is not enough, something else is needed. Was that the question being raised?
I rather hope not; there seem too many things one could learn from "never before had heaven known flesh."
Margo,
There was no connection made or intended between Origen's interpretation and the Pelagian heresy. I also thought it was a profound thought about the entrance of human flesh into heaven.
The context of this particular discussion was just Origen's use of allegorical biblical interpretation.
This is indeed profound... and awesome to ponder! Things have been quite busy here lately - Betsy and I are babysitting a two year odl full time until the end of February. He jabbers nonstop and hardly ever sits still...Reminds me of another sweetie-pie thatb I miss much!
This inspires three immediate thoughts, one fortunate and two unfortunate. One, is that this should be a powerful refutation of the Arian heresy and I wonder if it was so used in the century following Origen. Secondly, it highlights, if more were needed, the imbecility of the ICEL rendering of the liturgy with which the faithful have been scourged these last thirty-odd years. Which leads to the third, also unfortunate, thought: is ICEL Arian?
In mentioning ICEL I suppose you refer to the translation of Dominus Deus Sabaoth? You see, by the way, that the Latins were intelligent enough to not even try to translate Sabaoth. Although if a translation must be given, Lord of hosts is surely better than ICEL's version.
Is ICEL Arian? Arius would be ashamed. If he had used such banal language in his preaching he wouldn't have swept away half the Christian world into heresy.
"Sabaoth", yes.
They were better Latinists in 4th century Britain, weren't they?
"Lord of hosts" would not only be preferable, but as Origen points out, "Lord of power and might" has been tried by the angels and found inadequate to the purpose.
I had long ago concluded that if one applied to ICEL for work as a translator, he would be given aptitude tests in Greek, Latin and English, and if he passed at least one, his application would be automatically rejected.
ICEL's renditions strike me as more Pelagian than anything: here's what we are doing for You, Lord, except for when we're celebrating how cool we are.
So you'd say they're not withholding due glory to the person of Christ, just to God generally?
Post a Comment