Sunday, May 12, 2024

Excerpts from the work of Coelius Sedulius (5th century)

  

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)