Parto redduntur nato, mox praedicat: "Agnus
Ecce Dei ueniens
peccatum tollere mundi."
"Tollere" cum
dicit, quod non habet, hoc mihi tollit,
Non mala ut ipse gerat, sed ut ipse nocentia perdat.
At the birth of his son, was mute.) HE proclaimed at
once: “Behold the lamb
Of God, who is coming to remove the sin of the world.”
By “remove,” he is saying that he removes from me what he does not have,
Not to take on evils himself, but to destroy what is harmful himself. (Sedulius,
Book 2, lines 148-151, in The Pashal Song and Hymns [Writings from the
Greco-Roman World 35; trans. P. E. Springer; Atlanta: Society of Biblical
Literature, 2013], 54, 55)
A bit of exegetical clarification. Even though bearing
the sins of the world, Christ was himself no sinner. To back up this
theological insight Sedulius provides an epic simile: when light shines in
darkness, its illuminatory power always prevails over the forces of night (see
John 1:5). (Ibid., 71)
Clausae parentis uiscera
Caelestic intrat gratia,
Venter puellae baiulat
Secreta quae non nouerat.
Heavenly grace entered
The womb of an unpenetrated parent.
The belly of the girl was weighed with
Secrets which she did not know. (Sedulius, Hymn 2, lines 9-12, in The Pashal
Song and Hymns [Writings from the Greco-Roman World 35; trans. P. E.
Springer; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013], 196, 197)