20 For "Sophia" or the Divine Creative Wisdom, see Prov. iii. 19, 20,
and especially viii. 27-31, where the language "has been of signal
importance in the history of thought, helping, as it does, to make
a bridge between Eastern and Greek ideas, and to prepare the way
for the Incarnation" (Davison, _Wisdom-Literature of the O. T._, pp.
5, 6). In Alexandrian theology the conception of God's transcendence
gave rise to the doctrine of an intermediate power or _logos_, by
which creation was effected. In the Prologue of the fourth Gospel
the idea was set forth in its purely Christian form. See 1, 3, where
the Logos or the pre-incarnate Christ is described as the maker of
all things--an idea which is also illustrated by the language of St.
Paul in such passages as Col. i. 6.
59 Cf. for the conception of a golden age, Virg., _Ecl._, iv. 5
_et seq._: _Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo_, etc.
65 Reminiscences of ancient prophecy appear to be embodied in this
and following lines. Cf. Joel iii. 18: "And it shall come to pass
in that day that the mountains shall drop down sweet wine and the
hills shall flow with milk." Amos ix. 13: "The mountains shall drop
sweet wine and all the hills shall melt." But cf. especially Virg.,
_Ecl._, iv. 18-30: _At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu_, etc.
"Unbidden earth shall wreathing ivy bring,
And fragrant herbs (the promises of spring)
As her first off'rings to her infant king.
* * * * *
Unlaboured harvest shall the fields adorn,
And clustered grapes shall blush on every thorn;
The knotted oaks shall showers of honey weep,
And through the matted grass the liquid gold shall creep."
(Dryden's Trans.)
81 The legend of the ox and ass adoring our Lord arose from an
allegorical interpretation of Isa. i. 3: "The ox knoweth his owner,
the ass his master's crib." Origen (_Homilies on St. Luke_ xiii.)
is the first to allegorise on the passage in Isaiah, where the word
for "crib" in the Greek translation of the O. T. is identical with
St. Luke's word for "manger" (_phatnê_). After referring to the
circumstances of the Nativity, Origen proceeds to say: "That was
what the prophet foretold, saying, 'The ox knoweth,' etc. The Ox is
a clean animal: the Ass an unclean one. The Ass knew his master's
crib (_praesepe domini sui_): not the people of Israel, but the
unclean animal out of pagan nations knew its master's crib. 'But
Israel hath not known me: and my people hath not understood.' Let us
understand this and press forward to the crib, recognise the Master
and be made worthy of his knowledge." The thought that the Ox = the
Jews and the Ass = Pagans, reappears in Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose
and Jerome. See an interesting article by Mr. Austin West (_Ox and
Ass Legend of the Nativity_. _Cont. Review_, Dec. 1903), who notes
the further impetus given to the legend by the Latin rendering of
Habb. iii. 2 (LXX.) which in the _Vetus Itala_ version appears as
"in medio duorum animalium in notesceris," "in the midst of two
animals shalt thou be known" (R.V., _in the midst of the years make
it known_). The legend does not appear in apocryphal Christian
literature earlier than in the _Pseudo-Matthew Gospel_, which
belongs to the later fifth century. It is interesting to note that
with St. Francis and the Franciscans the ox and the ass are merely
animals: the allegorical interpretation of Origen had vanished from
Christendom: and in its place we find St. Francis (see _Life of St.
Francis_ by St. Bonaventura, "Temple Classics" edition, p. 111)
making a _presepio_ at Greccio, to which a living ox and ass are
brought, in order that a visible representation of the manger-scene
might kindle the devotion of the Brethren and the assembled
townsfolk. This act of St. Francis inaugurated the custom, still
observed in the Roman Church, of representing by means of waxen
images the whole of the Nativity manger-scene, Mother and Child
together with the adoring animals.
97 For the _obstetrix_, cf. _Proto-Evangelium of the Pseudo-James_ (a
Greek romance of the fourth century), § 18 _et seq._, where Joseph
is represented as seeking and finding a Hebrew midwife.