¹ EPIPHANIA DOMINI, in Thorpe, Benjamin, ed. and trans., The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church (Ælfric Society; London 1844–46; repr. New York 1971) 1.104–20; and SERMO IN AEPIPHANIA DOMINI, in Thorpe 2.36–52, and more recently printed by Godden, Malcolm, ed., Ælfric's Catholic Homilies. The Second Series (EETS ss 5; London 1979) 19–28.Google Scholar

² I base this assertion on a survey of Western vernacular homilies written before 1300; this study was summarized in a paper presented at the 19th annual meeting of the Committee for the Advancement of Early Studies at Ball State University, 22 October 1988. Although no medieval vernacular homilies use Mt 3.13–17 as a pericope, one Latin Epiphany homily current in Anglo-Saxon England does: Bede's Homilia 12, In Theophania seu Epiphania Domini (ed. Hurst, D., CCL 122.80–87; cf. PL 94.58–63).Google Scholar

³ See Szarmach, Paul E., ed., Vercelli Homilies IX–XXIII (Toronto Old English Series 5; Toronto 1981) 43; and Beissel, Stephan, Entstehung der Perikopen des römischen Messbuches (Freiburg im Breisgau 1907) 109–19. On the affinity of many of Bede's homilies (including the one mentioned above, n. 2) with a Neapolitan lectionary system, see Willis, G. G., ‘Early English Liturgy from Augustine to Alcuin,’ in his Further Essays in Early Roman Liturgy (Alcuin Club Collections No. 50; London 1968) 214–16.Google Scholar

⁴ ed. Szarmach, Vercelli Homilies IX–XXIII 44 (lines 42–52): ‘So it was that at the divine Baptism that saying and prophecy became fulfilled and complete which the prophet David sang in the Psalm and foretold when through the Holy Spirit he foresaw His Baptism. And he then declared and prophesied that the water itself recognized and would acknowledge our Lord. He said: “Why is it, O sea, that you flee, and you, Jordan, why do you turn back?” (Then translated into Old English.) “Jordan” is the name of the river in which the Lord was baptized, and it is a very large body of water and has a very strong current and flows into the sea. And it came to pass at that moment when the Lord descended into the water that the sea and the river completely reversed, and so the river stood still. It was thus unable to flow but was so overcome by divine fear that it dared not stir itself.’Google Scholar

⁵ Szarmach, Paul E., ‘The Vercelli Homilies: Style and Structure,’ in The Old English Homily and Its Backgrounds, edd. Szarmach, Paul E. and Huppé, Bernard F. (Albany 1978) 254.Google Scholar

⁶ The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. Charlesworth, James H. (Garden City 1985) 1.65.Google Scholar

⁷ The Old Testament Pseudepigraha 1.553.Google Scholar

⁸ The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 2.397. This motif is also reflected in the prose Scél Saltair na Rann, ed. and trans. Dillon, Myles, Celtica 4 (1958) 41.Google Scholar

⁹ The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1.268.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Los Evangelios Apócrifos, ed. and trans. Aurelio de Santos Otero (Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos; 2nd ed. Madrid 1964) 236 (cap. 36); cf. James, M. R., The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford 1924; repr. 1969) 78.Google Scholar

¹¹ See The Poems of Blathmac Son of Cú Brettan, ed. and trans. Carney, J. (Irish Texts Society 47; Dublin 1964) 31 (stanza 89); and Glossa in Psalmos. The Hiberno-Latin Gloss on the Psalms of Codex Palatinus Latinus 68, ed. Martin McNamara (Studi e Testi 310; Vatican City 1986) 133. This idea evidently depends upon Numbers 21.14, ‘Vnde dicitur in libro bellorum Domini, sicut fecit in mari Rubro sic faciet in torrentibus Arnon.’ Cf. Ps.-Bede, In Pentateuchum commentarii (PL 91.310D), where the Israelites are said to march through three waters: the Red Sea, the Arnon, and the Jordan.Google Scholar

Related Jewish traditions are collected by Ginzberg, Louis, The Legends of the Jews (Philadelphia 1909–38) vol. 7, s.vv. ‘Jordan’ and ‘Red Sea.’ Re-enactments of the miracles at the Jordan and the Red Sea are also common in medieval hagiography, as in Ælfric's passio of St. Alban, in which a stream dries up before St. Alban to allow him passage after he prays to Christ; see Ælfric's Lives of Saints, ed. and trans. Walter Skeat, W. (EETS os 76, 82, 94, 114; London 1881–1900) 1.420 (lines 91–97). Gregory of Tours tells the story of an adultress and murderess whose sins were made known to the citizens of Jericho when the Jordan parted before her, refusing to let her be cleansed in its waters; see Sancti Georgii Florenti Gregorii episcopi Turonensis libri miraculorum aliaque opera minora, ed. and trans. Bordier, H. L. (Société de l'histoire de France, Publications 88, 103, 114, 125; Paris 1857–64) 1.242–45.Google Scholar

¹² For discussions of this theme and its exegetical tradition, see Bareille, G., ‘Baptěme d'après les pères grecs et latins,’ Dictionnaire de théologie catholique (Paris 1905–72) 2.178–219 (esp. 196–200); Dölger, Franz, ‘Der Durchzug durch den Jordan als Sinnbild der christlichen Taufe,’ Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 2 (1930) 70–79; Lundberg, Per, La typologie baptismale dans l'ancienne église (Acta Seminarii Neotestamentici Upsaliensis 10; Uppsala 1942); Daniélou, Jean, From Shadows to Reality: Studies in the Biblical Typology of the Fathers (trans. Dom Wulstan Hibberd; London 1960) 261–75; and Daniélou, , The Bible and the Liturgy (University of Notre Dame Liturgical Studies 3; Notre Dame 1956) 35–113.Google Scholar

¹³ Trans. Giversen, Søren and Birger Pearson, A. in The Nag Hammadi Library in English (ed. Robinson, James M.; 3rd ed. San Francisco 1988) 450.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Thaumaturgos, Gregory, Homilia 4 (PG 10.1184c): ‘Ιοϱδάνη ποταμὲ συγχόϱευσόν μοι, καὶ συσκίϱτησον, καὶ κίνησον εὐϱύθμως τὰ ῥεύματα, καθάπεϱ σκιϱτήματα· ὁ γὰϱ σὸς Δημιουϱγὸς ἐπέστη σοι μετὰ σώματος. Google Scholar

¹⁵ Jacoby, Adolf, Ein bisher unbeachteter apokrypher Bericht über die Taufe Jesu (Strasburg 1902), esp. 43–67. I am indebted to Jacoby for a number of examples cited in this paper.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁶ Jacoby, , Bericht über die Taufe Jesu 45. This passage comes from a Syriac version of the Theophany homily by Gregory Thaumaturgos cited above, n. 14.Google Scholar

¹⁷ See Jacoby, , Bericht über die Taufe Jesu 97–104. His translation at 101 of the relevant passage reads, ‘Das Meer, als es ihn (näml. den Mandǎ d'Hajjě, der auf jüdischer Erde im Glanz messianischer Herrlichkeit erscheint) sahe, kehrte um, und der Jordan wandte sich rückwärts; die Berge sprangen wie Hirsche, und die Hindinnen auf dem Feld verdarben ihre Jungen.’Google Scholar

¹⁸ Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 12.15 (PG 33.741A): Παϱεγένετο Χϱιστὸς, ἵνα βαπτισθῇ, καὶ ἁγιάσῃ τὸ βάπτισμα· παϱεγένετο, ἵνα θαυματουϱγήσῃ, πεϱιπατῶν, ἐπὶ τῆν ὑδάτων τῆς θαλάσσης. ‘πεὶ οὐ πϱὸ τῆς ἐνσάϱκου παϱουσίας, ἡ θάλασσα εἶδε καὶ ἔφυγεν, καὶ ὁ ‘Ιοϱδάνης ἐστϱάφη εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω· ἀνέλαβε τὸ σῶμα ὁ Κύϱιος, ἵνα ἰδοῦσα ἡ θάλασσα ἀνάσχηται, καὶ ὁ ‘Ιοϱδάνης ἀφόβως αὐτὸν ὑποδέξηται. Google Scholar

¹⁹ See Mercenier, P. E. and Bainbridge, Grégoire, La Prière des églises de rite byzantin (2nd ed. Chevetogne 1953) 3.1, 246, 256, 258, 264, 274.Google Scholar

²⁰ Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church (trans. Isabel Florence Hapgood; rev. ed. New York 1922) 189. On the Russian Orthodox rite's dependence on early Greek liturgy, see von Maltsev, A. P., Die Liturgien der orthodox-katholischen Kirche des Morgenlandes (Berlin 1894).Google Scholar

²¹ Printed from Oxford, Bodl. Lib. MS Douce 222 (saec. XI?) by Maria Dreves, Guido, ed., Sequentiae ineditae. Liturgische Prosen des Mittelalters, in Analecta hymnica medii aevi 10 (Leipzig 1891), 23 (no. 20); cf. vol. 40, 27 (no. 8). The same idea is implied in a missa for the vigil of the Epiphany copied in an Irish continental hand on the fly-leaves of a tenth- or eleventh-century Sallust MS (now Vatican Pal. lat. 3325) from Blandain Abbey; see Marriott Bannister, Henry, ‘Liturgical Fragments,’ Journal of Theological Studies 9 (1907–8) 421.Google Scholar

²² Breviarium Gothicum (PL 86.176B); cf. Mone, F. J., ed., Lateinische Hymnen des Mittelalters (Freiburg im Breisgau 1853) 1.75–76.Google Scholar

²³ Maximus of Turin, Sermo 64.2 (CCL 23.271); for other texts citing Ps 113.3 in discussing Christ's Baptism, see Maximus of Turin, Sermo 13b (CCL 23.49) and Paschasius Radbertus, In Mattheo 2.3 (CCCM 56.211; cf. PL 120.168CD).Google Scholar

²⁴ Jerome, , Epistola 26 (‘seu sermo de Epiphania Domini’: PL 30.3221D–22A); also ed. Capelle, D. B., ‘Sermon de s. Jérǒme pour l'Épiphanie,’ Revue Bénédictine 36 (1924) 170 (lines 18–21). A later version of this same sermon adds the verse from Ps 113; see Ps.-Augustine, Sermo 137 (PL 39.2016).Google Scholar

²⁵ Arianus, Maximinus, Sermo 2 (PLS 1.735).Google Scholar

²⁶ Anonymus Placentinus, Itinerarium, rec. alt., § 11, in Itinera Hierosolymitana saeculi iiii–viii, ed. Geyer, P. (CSEL 39; Vienna 1898; cf. Clavis Pat. Lat. 2330) 200–201; cf. the first recension, p. 167. This account is in part corroborated by the Hodoeporicon or Vita Willibaldi, an itinerary of St. Willibald's travels composed in the late eighth or early ninth century by an Anglo-Saxon nun at Heidenheim. It too describes a wooden cross in the midst of the Jordan, and claims that the place where Christ was baptized has remained dry ever since (thus implying that it first dried up at Christ's Baptism). See Vita Willibaldi Episcopi Eichstetensis (ed. Holder, O.-Egger; MGH Scriptores 15.1; Hannover 1887) 96 (lines 17–22).Google Scholar

²⁷ Chronicon paschale (PG 92.545c). ‘Εγεννήθη Χοιὰκ κη’ ὥϱᾳ ζ' τῆς νυκτός. ‘Εβαπτίσθη Τυβὶ ια’ ὥϱᾳ ι' τῆς ἡμέϱας ὑπὸ ‘Ιωάννου ἐν τῷ 'Ιοϱδάνῃ ποταμῷ καὶ ὁ ‘Ιοϱδάνης ἀπεπόδισεν εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω. Εῖπεν δὲ ὁ Κύϱιος τῷ 'Ιωάννῃ· “Εῖπον τῷ ‘Ιοϱδάνῃ· Στῆθι, ὁ Κύϱιος ῇλθεν πϱὸς ἡμᾶς.” Καὶ εὐθέως ἔστησαν τὰ ὕδατα. For discussion of this passage, see Leclercq, H., ‘Baptěme de Jésus,’ Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de la liturgie (Paris 1907–53) 2.1, cols. 348–49. The composition and sources of the Chronicon are discussed by Mercati, G., ‘A Study of the Paschal Chronicle,’ Journal of Theological Studies 7 (1906) 397–412. On the significance of the Jordan in medieval travel literature, see Ohrt, Ferdinand, Die ältesten Segen über Christi Taufe und Christi Tod in religionsgeschichtlichem Lichte (Det Kgl. danske videnskabernes selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 25.1; Copenhagen 1938) 134–65.Google Scholar

²⁸ Catechesis Celtica, ed. André Wilmart in Analecta Reginensia (Studi e Testi 59; Vatican City 1933) 73 (lines 54–56). On the Insular background of this text, see most recently Diarmuid Ó Laoghaire, ‘Irish Elements in the Catechesis Celtica,’ in Irland und die Christenheit (edd. P. Ní Chatháin and M. Richter; Stuttgart 1987) 146–64. The Catechesis Celtica is dated ‘s. IX?’ by Lapidge, Michael and Sharpe, Richard, A Bibliography of Celtic-Latin Literature 400–1200 (Royal Irish Academy Dictionary of Medieval Latin from Celtic Sources, Ancillary Publications 1; Dublin 1985) 268 (no. 974).Google Scholar

²⁹ Ps.-Jerome, , Expositio quatuor evangeliorum (PL 30.540C), dated ‘s. VII ex.’ by Lapidge, and Sharpe, , A Bibliography of Celtic-Latin Literature 400–1200 97 (no. 341).Google Scholar

³⁰ For an early parallel to this theme, cf. Theodosius, , De situ terrae sanctae (composed ca. 530): ‘Vbi legitur: Maris, quare conturbatus es, et tu, Iordanis, quare conuersus es retrorsum, et uos, montes, quare gestistis sicut arietes, et uos, colles, sicut agni ouium? ubi circa Iordanem est, hoc est monticelli sunt multi, et quando Domnus [sic] ad baptismum descendit, ipsi montes ante ipsum ambulabant gestiendo et hodie uelut saltantur uidentur’ (Geyer, , Itinera Hierosolymitana 146–47).Google Scholar

³¹ The Southern Version of the Cursor Mundi (ed. Stauffenberg, Henry J.; Ottawa Mediaeval Texts and Studies 13; Ottawa 1986) 3.8 (lines 12880–81); cf. Cursor Mundi (The Cursor of the World). A Northumbrian Poem of the XIVth Century in Four Versions (ed. Morris, R.; EETS os 57, 59, 62, 66, 68, 101; London 1877–92) 4.740–41.Google Scholar

³² But note also Ps. 88.10, ‘Tu dominaris potestati maris, motum autem fluctuum eius tu mitigas.’Google Scholar

³³ Ohrt, F., Die ältesten Segen, esp. pp. 27–39, 59–60, 82–105. Several of these charms were initially collected and described by Friedrich Hälsig, Der Zauberspruch bei den Germanen um die Mitte des XVI. Jahrhunderts (diss. Leipzig 1910) 28–29, 37, 85, 88–92. In addition, Ohrt had much earlier collected a number of medieval and early modern Danish blood-stanching charms which include allusions to the reversal of the Jordan in Danmarks Trylleformler (Folklore Fellows Publications, Northern Series 3; Copenhagen 1917) 157–74, and had surveyed a number of Latin and Germanic blood-stanching charms in De danske besværgelser mod vrid og blod, tolkning og forhistorie (Det Kgl. danske videnskabernes selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 6.3; Copenhagen 1922) esp. 99–128. For convenient overviews of the Germanic blood-stanching and Jordan-stasis charm tradition, with further examples, see Ebermann, Oskar, Blut- und Wundsegen in ihrer Entwicklung dargestellt (Palaestra 24; Berlin 1903) 24–35; Ohrt, , ‘Blutsegen,’ Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens (ed. Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli; Berlin and Leipzig 1927–42) 1.1452–56; and Ohrt, ‘Jordansegen,’ Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens 4.765–70.Google Scholar

³⁴ First printed by Fritz Heinrich, Ein mittelenglisches Medizinbuch (Halle 1896) 231–32. For discussion of this and similar examples, see Ohrt, , Die ältesten Segen 35–39.Google Scholar

³⁵ First printed by Holthausen, F., ‘Rezepte, Segen und Zaubersprüche aus zwei Stockholmer Handschriften,’ Anglia 7 (1897) 81.Google Scholar

³⁶ Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, ed. Wilhelm Braune, 14th ed. (Tübingen 1979) 90: ‘Christ and Judas were playing with a spear. Then the Lord Christ was wounded in His side. Then He took His thumb and plugged up the opening. So stop, you blood, just as the Jordan once stopped when holy John baptized the Lord Christ in her. That will make you better!’ For discussion of this charm, see Knight Bostock, J., A Handbook on Old High German Literature (rev. edd. King, K. C. and McLintock, D. R.; Oxford 1976) 40–41.Google Scholar

³⁷ Heinrich, , Ein mittelenglisches Medizinbuch 117.Google Scholar

³⁸ Holthausen, , ‘Rezepte, Segen und Zaubersprüche’ 87.Google Scholar

³⁹ Henderson, William, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders (rev. ed.; Publications of the Folklore Society 2; London 1879) 136.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Ohrt, , Danmarks Trylleformler 151 (nos. 75, 73). ‘God, just as You stilled the Jordan's flood, God, stop this blood also.’ ‘Christ Himself came to the Jordan River. He stilled all running waters. In the same way, I stanch this blood.’Google Scholar

⁴¹ For a review of the arguments for parallels between these two Hiberno-Latin texts and Old English literature (specifically with Vercelli Homilies 5, 6, and 9; the OE Martyrology; the OE Orosius; the Alfredian translation of Augustine's Soliloquies; Blickling Homily 3; and Christ III), see Wright, Charles D., ‘Hiberno-Latin and Irish-Influenced Biblical Commentaries, Florilegia, and Homily Collections,’ in The Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture: A Trial Version (edd. Biggs, Frederick M., Hill, Thomas D., and Szarmach, Paul E.; Binghamton 1990).Google Scholar

⁴² On the Eastern origins of the feast of Epiphany, see Leclercq, H., ‘Épiphanie,’ Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de la liturgie 5.1, cols. 197–201. Further bibliography on the subject is given by Theodore Mommsen, E., ‘Aponius and Orosius on the Significance of the Epiphany,’ in Mommsen, Medieval and Renaissance Studies (ed. Rice, Eugene F. Jr.; Ithaca 1959; repr. 1966) 299–324.Google Scholar

⁴³ Lines 49–52: ‘And it came to pass at that moment when the Lord descended into the water that the sea and the river completely reversed, and so the river stood still. It was thus unable to flow, but was so overcome by divine fear that it dared not stir itself.’Google Scholar

⁴⁴ See Smith, Harold, Ante-Nicene Exegesis of the Gospels (Translations of Christian Literature, Series 4; London 1925) 1.300.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Nicephorus of Constantinople, Antirrheticus liber adversus Eusebium et Epiphanidem, cap. 27, De Leontio haeretico, in Pitra, J. B., ed., Spicilegium Solesmense complectens sanctorum patrum scriptorumque ecclesiasticorum (Paris 1852–58) 4.370: Καὶ βούλεται τοῦτο πιστοῦσθαι ἀπό τε τοῦ πϱοσευχόμενον τὸν Xϱιστླྀν γεγονέναι τὸ πϱόσωπον αὐτοῦ ὡς ླྀ ἥλιος, καὶ ἀπླྀ τοῦ βαπτίσματος τῷ ἰδόντα αὐτླྀν φϱίξαι τླྀν Ἰοϱδάνην πϱὸς δέ γ ε καὶ ἀπླྀ τῆς μεταμοϱφώσεως τῷ μὴ ἐνέγκαι κατανοῆσαι τοὺς ἀποστόλους. Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Printed by Lundberg, , La Typologie baptismale 229–30.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Beck, Edmund, trans., Des heiligen Ephraem des Syrers Hymnen de Nativitate (Epiphania) (CSCO 187, Scriptores Syri 83; Louvain 1959) 304 (§ 31). For the original, see Beck's edition in CSCO 186, SS 82, p. 221.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Histoire de Saint Jean-Baptiste attribuée à Saint Marc l'évangeliste (ed. and trans. F. Nau; PO 4.5; Paris 1908) 523. This detail, which Nau merely summarizes, appears only in an unpublished sixteenth-century redaction.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Les Miracles de Jésus (ed. and trans. Sylvain Grébaut; PO 17.4; Paris 1923) 847–49 (§§ 30.8–30.9). On the text of this apocryphon, see Arras, V. and Van Rompay, L., ‘Les manuscrits éthiopiens des “Miracles de Jésus” (comprenant l'évangile apocryphe de Jean et l'évangile de l'enfance selon Thomas l'Israelite),’ Analecta Bollandiana 93 (1975) 133–46. The flame mentioned here frequently accompanies the Jordan's reversal in Eastern texts, sometimes appearing as a brilliant light. For examples, see Edsman, Carl-Martin, Le Baptěme de feu (Acta Seminarii Neotestamentici Upsaliensis 9; Uppsala 1940) 182–89 and passim; Daniélou, Jean, The Theology of Jewish Christianity (trans. Baker, John A.; London 1964) 224–31; Alain Bertrand, Daniel, Le baptěme de Jésus: Histoire de l'exégèse aux deux premiers siècles (Beiträge zur Geschichte der biblischen Exegese 14; Tübingen 1973) 128–29; Bauer, Walter, Das Leben Jesu im Zeitalter der neutestamentlichen Apokryphen (Darmstadt 1967) 134–39; James, , The Apocryphal New Testament 33, 298; and Charlesworth, , The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1.194 (n. 67a), 406, 407, 409, 411–12. Other miracles at the Baptism are not uncommon. Bauer, , Das Leben Jesu 140, discusses a fourth-century Syriac commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron in which the Baptism is heralded by a gathering of white clouds; a throng of angels then appears singing the Gloria, and the Jordan rests, giving off a pleasant odor.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ See Ansgar Kelly, Henry, The Devil at Baptism: Ritual, Theology, and Drama (Ithaca 1985) 176, 199; trans. Beck, Des heiligen Ephraem des Syrers Hymnen de Nativitate (Epiphania) 204; and Edsman, , Le Baptěme de feu 46.Google Scholar

⁵¹ See Strzygowski, Josef, Iconographie der Taufe Christi: Ein Beitrag zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der christlichen Kunst (Munich 1885) 33–34; Masseron, Alexandre, Saint Jean Baptiste dans l'art (Art et paysages 17; Paris 1957) 92, 99; and Squilbeck, Jean, ‘Le Jourdain dans l'iconographie médiévale du Baptěme du Christ,’ Bulletin des musées royaux d'art et d'histoire 38/39 (1966/67) 69–116 (passim). Gertrud Schiller discusses a similar representation of the Jordan in an eleventh-century Byzantine mosaic: see Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst (Gütersloh 1966) 1.145 and Abb. 362. For a description of early Cappadocian paintings that portray the Jordan's waters as mounting up behind Christ and stopping behind Him, see Masseron, , Saint Jean Baptiste dans l'art 93–94. Alternatively, the Jordan is said to tremble with fear before Joshua and the twelve tribes of Israel in an Epiphany homily by Severus of Antioch: see Les Homeliae Cathedrales de Sévère d'Antioche, edd. and trans. Brière, M., Graffin, F., and Lash, C. J. A. (PO 36.3; Paris 1972) 499.Google Scholar

⁵² Lines 36–42: ‘The Savior then answered John and said, “It is fitting for Me that I should fulfill all truth.” And John then let the Savior (go) beneath his hands and baptized Him. For the blessed man Saint John initially refused Him, for he said that he was afraid on account of the great humility which our Lord Savior Christ had; and Saint John was for this reason afraid and believed that it was not fitting for him that the heavenly King should bow down beneath his hands. Therefore he did this on account of his humility. At first he resisted but then he submissively consented.’Google Scholar

⁵³ Godden, , Ælfric's Catholic Homilies. The Second Series 22 (lines 98–103): ‘Great was Christ's humility when He Himself came to the Baptist. And great was John's humility when he dared not baptize Christ before he was called. But in that no humility is perfected unless it be accompanied by obedience, he humbly fulfilled that which he earlier refused, being afraid.’Google Scholar

⁵⁴ The Teaching of Saint Gregory: An Early Armenian Catechism (trans. Thomson, Robert W.; Cambridge, Mass. 1970) 88 (410).Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Ps.-Chrysostom, , In s. Joannem praecursorem et in s. Theophania (PG 50.803): Ἡ ψυχή μου ἰλιγγιᾷ ἡ χείϱ μου τϱέμουσα φοβεῖται πλησιάσαι τῷ παναγίῳ σου σώματι. Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Brière, et al., Les Homiliae Cathedrales de Sévère d'Antioche 499.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Hapgood, , Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church 189.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Marbod, , Carmina 26, De Epiphania (PL 171.1662). On the authenticity of this poem, see Grégoire, Réginald, ‘Marbode,’ Dictionnaire de spiritualité (Paris 1932—) 10.1, 243.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Bernard of Clairvaux, In octava Epiphaniae, in Sancti Bernardi Opera, ed. Leclercq, J. (Rome 1966) 4.311 (lines 19–23). In the thirteenth century this sermon was translated into French by Maurice de Sully, Bishop of Paris, and the theme of John's fear was thus perpetuated in the vernacular; see Wendelin Förster, ed., Li Sermon Saint Bernart. Älteste französische Übersetzung der lateinischen Predigten Bernhards von Clairvaux (Erlangen 1885) 104 (lines 18–23). For two commentaries on the Baptism that are indirectly related to this theme, see Chrysologus, Peter, Sermo 160, De Epiphania quartus (CCL 24B.992), who argues rather vehemently that John could never have been afraid of Christ; and a Syriac Epiphany homily which tells that it was the Scribes and Pharisees who looked on Christ's Baptism in fear (Trois homélies syriaques anonymes et inédites sur l'Épiphanie [ed. and trans. Alain Desreumaux; PO 38.4; Paris 1977] 695).Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Gregory, , Hom. Ev. 10 (PL 76.1111).Google Scholar

⁶¹ That creature then at once recognized its Creator's power through its very nature, just as all created things perceived the Savior coming into the world and understood that all should praise Him through their nature.’Google Scholar

⁶² The homilist addresses this theme himself in the first line on fol. 86^r just after the lacuna: ‘… þæt wæter æt ðam fulwihte geclænsode oÐþe him ðæs ænig þearf wære; ac he eall wæter þurh hine geclænsode 7 gebledsode, 7 he allum wæterum þæt mægen fæstnode 7 þa bledsunge forgeaf, siÐðan he his lichaman hrinan …’ (‘cleansed that water at the Baptism, although He had no need for it; but through Him all waters were cleansed and blessed, and He secured the efficacy of all waters [for baptism] and sanctified them when He touched them with His body’ [lines 13–15]). For similar expressions of this theme, see Godden, Ælfric's Catholic Homilies. The Second Series 22 (lines 96–98); Thorpe, The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church 2.40 (lines 26–29); and, for parallels in Latin sermon literature, Kaske, R. E., ‘The Conclusion of the Old English “Descent into Hell,”’ in Παϱάδοσις: Studies in Memory of Edwin A. Quain. (New York 1976) 57.Google Scholar

⁶³ Lines 59–61. ‘And thus we learn in the Gospel that He walked over the sea and over water to His apostles, and likewise that at the Baptism the water recognized and acknowledged Him, and the river turned completely backward.’Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Line 45: ‘Then David declared and prophesied that the water itself perceived and would acknowledge our Lord.’Google Scholar

⁶⁵ See McNamara, Martin, The Apocrypha in the Irish Church (Dublin 1984) 49–51; and Cross, J. E., ‘Portents and Events at Christ's Birth — Comments on Vercelli V, VI, and the Old English Martyrology,’ Anglo-Saxon England 2 (1973) 209–20.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ For discussion, see Joseph Baird, L., ‘Natura Plangens, the Ruthwell Cross, and The Dream of the Rood,’ Studies in Iconography 10 (1984–86) 37–51; Thomas Hill, D., ‘Literary History and Old English Poetry: The Case of Christ I, II, and III,’ in Sources of Anglo-Saxon Culture (ed. Szarmach, Paul E. with Virginia Darrow Oggins; Studies in Medieval Culture 20; Kalamazoo 1986) 15–16; and Frederick Biggs, M., The Sources of Christ III: A Revision of Cook's Notes (Old English Newsletter Subsidia 12; Binghamton 1986) 24 (for lines 1169–76a).Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Carney, The Poems of Blathmac Son of Cú Brettan (as n. 11 above) 59 (stanza 171): ‘Atngéuin Iordanén co mbail, / ro-fer fiad fria dúilemain / in tan don-escmart olla / tar Críst téora glantonna.’Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Thorpe, The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church 1.108 (lines 13–27).Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Thorpe, The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church 1.104 (lines 26–27): ‘For these three reasons is this feast day of God called the Epiphany.’ Ælfric's second Epiphany homily acknowledges only the first two events (the adoration of the magi and the Baptism).Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Arguments against the authenticity of these sermons are summarized by Samuel Levin, R., ‘On the Authenticity of Five “Wulfstan” Homilies,’ JEGP 60 (1961) 451–59. For further discussion, see Jost, Karl, Wulfstanstudien (Schweizer anglistische Arbeiten 23; Bern 1950) 230–34.Google Scholar

⁷¹ See most recently Lees, Clare A., The “Sunday Letter” and the “Sunday Lists,”’ Anglo-Saxon England 14 (1985) 129–51; and Whitelock, Dorothy, ‘Bishop Ecgred, Pehtred, and Niall,’ in Ireland in Early Medieval Europe: Studies in Memory of Kathleen Hughes (edd. Whitelock, D., McKitterick, R., and Dumville, D. N.; Cambridge 1982) 47–68.Google Scholar

⁷² Wulfstan. Sammlung der ihm zugeschriebenen Homilien nebst Untersuchungen über ihre Echtheit (ed. Napier, A. S.; Berlin 1883; repr. with a supplement by Klaus Ostheeren, Dublin 1967) 211 (lines 11–16): ‘And that is also known, that the River Jordan, in which Christ was baptized on Sunday, that it betokens that day's sanctity; for there is no measure that it will flow beyond (i.e., it will not move an inch) from nones Saturday until the first light of Sunday.’ Cf. Sermon 44 at p. 219 (lines 21–25).Google Scholar

⁷³ Napier, Wulfstan 211 (lines 20–23): ‘And that is also known, that because of that day's sanctity and worthiness, all Hell-dwellers will receive rest if they have ever been baptized, from nones Saturday until the first light of Monday.’ Cf. Sermon 44 at pp. 219 (line 32) – 220 (line 1), where the only criterion for Sabbath rest is that the sufferer ‘mid ænigan þingan Crist gegladodan on þisam earman life’ (in any way glorified Christ in this wretched life).Google Scholar

⁷⁴ See Lees, , ‘The “Sunday Letter” and the “Sunday Lists”’ 137; and Frederick Tupper, J., ‘The Anglo-Saxon Sabbath,’ The Nation 56 (1893) 234.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ This phrase also occurs in three other Old English Sunday Letter sermons: Ps.-Wulfstan 45 (Napier, Wulfstan 228 [lines 1–2] and 231 [lines 9–11]; Ps.-Wulfstan 57 (pp. 293 [line 4] and 296 [lines 31–32]); and the variant of Sermon 57 edited by Napier, ‘Contributions to Old English Literature. I. An Old English Homily on the Observance of Sunday,’ in An English Miscellany Presented to Dr. Furnivall in Honour of His Seventy-Fifth Birthday (Oxford 1901) 358.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Priebsch, Robert, ‘The Chief Sources of Some Anglo-Saxon Homilies,’ Otia Merseiana 1 (1899) 145, first associated this motif in Ps.-Wulfstan 44 with a Ps.-Bede homily in PL 94.501–2 and with two Old High German homilies. For further discussion of the motif, see Gougaud, L., ‘La croyance au répit périodique des damnés dans les légendes irlandaises,’ in Mélanges bretons et celtiques offerts à Loth, M. J. (Annales de Bretagne, volume hors série; Rennes 1927) 63–72; Antonette diPaolo Healey, ed., The Old English Vision of St. Paul (Speculum Anniversary Monographs 2; Cambridge, Mass. 1978) 48–50; Mattias Tveitane, ‘Irish Apocrypha in Norse Tradition? On the Sources of Some Medieval Homilies,’ Arv: Tidskrift för nordisk folkminnesforskning 22 (1966) 111–35; Tveitane, , En norrøn versjon av Visio Pauli (Arsbok for Universitetet i Bergen, Humanistik Serie 1964, 3; Bergen 1965) 14–15, 26; Seymour, St. John D., ‘Notes on Apocrypha in Ireland,’ Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 37 (1927) 114; and James Marchand, W., ‘The Old Norwegian Christmas Homily and the Question of Irish Influence,’ Arv: Tidskrift for nordisk folkminnesforskning 31 (1975) 24–26.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Hennecke, Edgar, New Testament Apocrypha, ed. Wilhelm Schneemelcher, English translation ed. McL. Wilson, R. (Philadelphia 1963–65) 2.788 and n. 9. Marchand, ‘The Old Norwegian Christmas Homily and the Question of Irish Influence,’ 24–26, argues that this passage cannot be taken as the ‘ultimate’ source for the motif of the Sabbath respite. For analogues in Coptic literature, see Les ‘Questions de Theodore’ (ed. A. van Lantschoot; Studi e Testi 192; Vatican City 1957) 174, 182.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Clayton, Mary, ‘Delivering the Damned: A Motif in OE Homiletic Prose,’ Medium Ævum 55 (1986) 92–102.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ See Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae (ed. Charles Plummer; Oxford 1910) l.clxxxvi; and Versus sancti Patricii episcopi de mirabilibus Hibernie in The Writings of Bishop Patrick 1074–1084 (ed. and trans. A. Gwynn; Scriptores Latini Hiberniae 1; Dublin 1955) 66–67.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Meyer, Kuno, ‘The Irish Mirabilia in the Norse “Speculum Regale,”’ Ériu 4 (1910) 5.Google Scholar

⁸¹ O'Keeffe, J. G., ‘Poem on the Observance of Sunday,’ Ériu 3 (1907) 145 (stanza 24): ‘Iasg ingnad sirus an sal darab ainm luath libedan, / dia domnaig bith ar th'aire, noco gluais a henbaile’; translation at p. 147.Google Scholar

⁸² Stokes, Whitley, ‘The Evernew Tongue,’ Ériu 2 (1905) 115; Nic Enri, Una and Mac Niocaill, G., The Second Recension of the Evernew Tongue,’ Celtica 9 (1971) 21, 57. Plummer, Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae 1.cxlvii–cxlviii, argues that all scenes from Irish Latin saints’ lives in which rivers are divided, diverted, or driven back reflect influence of the Celtic water deity cult which flourished in southern Ireland; on the related cult of sacred fountains, see Plummer 1.cxlix-clii.Google Scholar

⁸³ Stokes, Whitley, ‘The Voyage of Mael Duin,’ Revue celtique 10 (1889) 51.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ See Adamnan, , De locis Sanctis (ed. and trans. D. Meehan; Scriptores Latini Hiberniae 3; Dublin 1958) 88 (§ 17); and a fifth- or sixth-century Epiphany homily from the Collectio Veronensis printed in Scripta Arriana Latina I (CCL 89) 53. These accounts of recurrently arrested bodies of water have at least one ancient analogue in the Arabic (Garshuni) Apocalypse of Peter, which in enumerating the merits of the hours of the day and night states that, ‘In the seventh hour of the night the waters rest from their labour and cease from flowing and moving. All the powers of the earth rest also, and glorify and magnify the Lord of Lords’ (‘The Apocalypse of Peter,’ ed. and trans. A. Mingana, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 14 [1930] 203; repr. in Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies [Cambridge 1931] 3.114).Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Ohrt, Die ältesten Segen 167–68, 196, 210.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ On the syntactic and lexical problems of lines 103–106, see Krapp, G. P. and Dobbie, E. V. K., edd., The Exeter Book (ASPR 3; New York 1936) 358–59; and Shippey, T. A., Poems of Wisdom and Learning in Old English (Totowa, N.J. 1976) 141–42 (n. 9). All quotations of the poem are from the ASPR edition.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Lines 99–106: ‘O Jerusalem in Judea, how you remained still in that place! All who live and dwell on earth, those who sing your praise, cannot pass by you. O Jordan in Judea, how you remained still in that place! By no means do you flow by the people; they can joyfully partake of your water.’Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Thomas Hill, D., ‘Cosmic Stasis and the Birth of Christ: The Old English Descent into Hell, Lines 99–106,’ JEGP 71 (1972) 382–89.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Hennecke–Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha 1.383–84.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ The witnessing elements passage in the Protevangelium may, on the other hand, have much to do with the quite unrelated tradition of the stasis of the Jordan at Adam's command, as developed in the apocryphal Vita Adae et Evae and in works influenced by the Vita including the Saltair na Rann, the Pennaid Adaim, the ME Canticum de Creatione, and the MHG Adambuch see: Murdoch, Brian, The River that Stopped Flowing: Folklore and Biblical Typology in the Apocryphal Lives of Adam and Eve,’ Southern Folklore Quarterly 37 (1973) 37–51.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Patrick Connor, W., ‘The Liturgy and the Old English “Descent into Hell,” ’ JEGP 79 (1980) 186.Google Scholar

⁹² Lines 133–37a: ‘Sprinkle with that water, Lord of hosts, with glad heart all the stronghold-dwellers just as You and John graciously inspired all the world with Your Baptism in the Jordan.’Google Scholar

⁹³ E.g., Jerome, , Homilia 21 (PL 26.267A): ‘Porro Jordanis descendens interpretatur.’Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Richard Trask, M., ‘The Descent into Hell of the Exeter Book,’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 72 (1971) 424.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Trask, ‘The Descent into Hell of the Exeter Book’ 432.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Grein, C. W. M., Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie (Göttingen 1857–58) 1.194, emended line 105a to ‘nales þu geondflǒvan mǒstes.’ Cosijn, P. J., ‘Anglosaxonica IV,’ Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 23 (1898) 127, proposed ‘naldes þu geondflowan’ or ‘noldes þu geondflowan.’ Benjamin Thorpe, Codex Exoniensis (London 1842) 465, considered in a note ‘nales þu geondflowest.’ Shippey, Poems of Wisdom and Learning 116, follows Grein with ‘mostes þu geondflowan.’ James Anderson, E., Two Literary Riddles in the Exeter Book (Norman, Oklahoma 1986) 218, emends to ‘nales mostan þe geondflowan,’ translating ‘Earth's citizens could not at all stream through you’ (219).Google Scholar

⁹⁷ James Earl, W., ‘Christian Tradition in the Old English Exodus,’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 71 (1970) 558.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ All quotations from the poem are taken from Exodus (ed. Lucas, Peter J.; Methuen's Old English Library; London 1977) — here, lines 282–98: ‘The wave climbs upwards, it quickly builds the water into a rampart. The passages are dry, silvery army paths; the sea is opened up, the ancient foundations which I have never before heard that men in the world traveled over, gleaming plains which henceforth forever the waves will cover. The south wind has taken away the confined sea-depths, the blast of the sea; the ocean is drawn back, the undertow spewed sand. I know well in truth that mighty God has shown mercy on you, men glad as before. Haste is best so that you can escape your enemy's grasp, now that the Lord has piled up the red streams into a rampart. The retaining walls are built up as a splendid path fairly to the roof of the heavens.’Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Lines 299–304a: ‘After those words, the entire band arose, an army of courageous men; the sea stood still. The members of the chosen army raised their gleaming shields and their standards on the shore. The seawall raised up, stood upright before the Israelites for the space of a day.’Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Cross, J. E. and Tucker, S. I., ‘Allegorical Tradition and the Old English Exodus,’ Neophilologus 44 (1960) 123. For a convenient summary of recent arguments about the relevance of typology to this poem, see Hall, J. R., ‘Old English Exodus and the Sea of Contradiction,’ Mediaevalia 9 (1986 for 1983) 25–44.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Earl, ‘Christian Tradition in the Old English Exodus,’ 557.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Lucas, Exodus 46, views ‘the description of the Israelite entry into the Red Sea in terms appropriate to the approach of the Christian catechumen to baptism.’ See also John Vickrey, F., ‘Exodus and the Battle in the Sea,’ Traditio 28 (1972) 119–40.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Ginzberg, , Legends of the Jews 3.22, notes that Targumic legend provides a distant parallel for this description in relating that the ‘waters [of the Red Sea] were piled up to the height of sixteen hundred miles, and they could be seen by all the nations of the earth.’Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Neil Isaacs, D., Structural Principles in Old English Poetry (Knoxville 1968) 157.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Cf. the similar descriptions in the Apocalypse of Paul 21 (Hennecke–Scheemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha 2.772); the Testament of Levi 2.7 (Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1.248); 1 Enoch 17.5 (Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1.22); and Ohrt, Die ältesten Segen 180–86. A full discussion of this motif is given by Freccero, John, ‘The River of Death: Inferno II, 108,’ in The World of Dante: Six Studies in Language and Thought (edd. Bernard Chandler, S. and Molinaro, J. A.; Toronto 1966) 31–34; repr. in Freccero, Dante: The Poetics of Conversion (ed. Rachel Jacoff; Cambridge, Mass. 1986) 60–64.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Apocalypse of Baruch 2.1, in Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1.655.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ ‘Ure ieldran ealne þisne ymbhwyrft þises middangeardes, cwæþ Orosius, swa swa Oceanus utan ymbligeþ, þon mon garsæcg hateÐ, on þreo todældon 7 hie þa þrie dælas on þreo tonemdon: Asiam 7 Europem 7 Affricam’ (The Old English Orosius, ed. Janet Bately [EETS ss 6; London 1980] 8 [lines 11–14]): ‘Orosius says that our ancestors divided into three parts the entire outer circuit of the world — just as the sea we call Oceanus encompasses it from without — and that they gave those three regions three names: Asia, Europe, and Africa.’ In her notes to these lines, Bately cites analogues from Isidore of Seville and from elsewhere in Old English.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Szarmach, Vercelli Homilies IX–XXIII 6 (lines E18–E20): ‘And this world is likewise not one-seventh the size of the vast sea which encircles all the earth with great immensity.’ For further allusions to Oceanus in Latin and Old English, see Kaske, R. E., ‘A Poem of the Cross in the Exeter Book: “Riddle 60” and “The Husband's Message,”’ Traditio 23 (1967) 67; Thomas Hill, D., ‘Apocryphal Cosmography and the “Stream uton Sæ”: A Note on Christ and Satan, Lines 4–12,’ Philological Quarterly 48 (1969) 550–54; Cross, J. E., ‘The Literate Anglo-Saxon — On Sources and Disseminations,’ Proceedings of the British Academy 58 (1972) 76–77; and Wright, Charles D., Irish and Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture: Insular Christian Traditions in Vercelli Homily IX and the Theban Anchorite Legend (diss. Cornell University 1984) 147–61.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Hippolytus, Refutatio omnium haeresium 5.7.40, in Hippolytus Werke 3 (GCS 26) 89: οὗτος, φησίν, ἐστὶν ὁ μέγας Ἰοϱδάνης, ὃν κάτω έοντα καὶ κωλύοντα ἐξελθεῖν τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσϱα1F74;λ ἐκ γῆς Αγύπτου — ἤγουν ἐκ τῆς κάτω μίξεως’ Αἴγυπτος γάϱ ἐστι τὸ σῶμα κατ’ αὐτοὺς — ἀνέστειλεν Ἰ ησοὺς καὶ ἐποίησεν ἄνω . Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Ambrose, De interpellatione Iob et David 2.4.15 (PL 14.817c).Google Scholar

¹¹¹ On this detail, see Keenan, Hugh T., ‘Exodus 313a: ‘The Green Street of Paradise,”’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 71 (1970) 455–60; Keenan, , ‘Exodus 312a: Further Notes on the Eschatalogical “Green Ground,”’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 74 (1973) 217–19; Kari Sajavaara, ‘The Withered Footprints on the Green Street of Paradise,’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 76 (1975) 34–38.Google Scholar

¹¹² Cited by Daniélou, From Shadows to Reality 195.Google Scholar

¹¹³ A portion of this paper was presented at the sixth annual meeting of the Illinois Medieval Association at the University of Illinois at Urbana—Champaign, 25 February 1989. I gratefully thank Wright, Charles D. for his advice on early drafts.Google Scholar