¹ Edd. Philip Krapp, George and Van Kirk Dobbie, Elliott, The Exeter Book (The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 3; New York 1936) 222–23, with a change of punctuation in lines 132–33. All citations of Old English poems are from The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, by line number.Google Scholar

² Campbell, A., Old English Grammar (Oxford 1959) 133–321.Google Scholar

³ ‘Cosmic Stasis and the Birth of Christ: The Old English Descent into Hell, Lines 99–106,’ Journal of English and Germanic Philology 71 (1972) 382–89, especially 387–88. On baptism and the Harrowing of Hell, see particularly Dublin, John, ‘The Descent into Hades and Christian Baptism (A Study of 1 Peter III.19ff.),’ The Expositor Eighth Series 11 (1916) 241–74; and Per Lundberg, La typologie baptismale dans l'ancienne église (Leipzig 1942) 87–116.Google Scholar

⁴ Descensus Christi ad inferos 11 (27), ed. von Tischendorf, Konstantin, Evangelia Apocrypha ² (Leipzig 1876) 407; paralleled in the Greek text 11 (27), ibid. 332. Note also the Ethiopic version of the Epistle of the Apostles 27, trans. Duensing, H. and Taylor, Richard E., in Edgar Hennecke, New Testament Apocrypha, ed. Wilhelm Schneemelcher, trans. McL. Wilson, R. (Philadelphia 1963–65) 1.209; a more oblique reference in the Shepherd of Hermas Sim. 9.16.5–7, ed. and trans. Lake, Kirsopp, The Apostolic Fathers (Loeb Classical Library; Cambridge, Mass. 1946) 2.262; and the Joca monachorum 29, ed. Suchier, Walther, Das mittellateinische Gespräch Adrian und Epictitus nebst verwandten Texten (Tübingen 1955) 126 (PLS 4.932), where Christ is said to have baptized Adam at the Harrowing of Hell. The idea seems derived primarily from 1 Peter 3.19–21; on the subject generally see Dublin, ‘Descent into Hades’ 249–51, and MacCulloch, J. A., The Harrowing of Hell: A Comparative Study of an Early Christian Tradition (Edinburgh 1930) 246–48.Google Scholar

⁵ Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern, ed. Neckel, Gustav, rev. Hans Kuhn (Heidelberg 1962) 1.74, 123, 232. For other examples, see Heusler, Andreas, Altisländisches Elementarbuch ⁴ (Heidelberg 1950) 120–21.Google Scholar

⁶ This principle is ignored by Mackie, W. S., The Exeter Book (EETS 194; London 1934) 2.181, who translates incorrectly, ‘even as Thou and I in Jordan.’Google Scholar

⁷ ‘Quelle, Verfasser und Text des altenglischen Gedichtes “Christi Höllenfahrt,”’ Anglia 19 (1896–97) 135–74; the reading gǐt is on 174.Google Scholar

⁸ ‘The Exeter Harrowing of Hell: A Re-interpretation,’ Publications of the Modern Language Association 54 (1939) 349–58; the part here summarized is on 357–58.Google Scholar

⁹ For example, no comparable use of an infinitive is cited by Callaway, Morgan Jr., The Infinitive in Anglo-Saxon (Washington, D.C. 1913); see especially 132–48.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Cross, J. E., in the discussion following his paper ‘The Poem in Transmitted Text — Editor and Critic,’ presented at the Seventh Conference of the International Association of University Professors of English at Dublin on August 22, 1968 (now published in Essays and Studies N.S. 27 [1974] 84–97), said he had once thought it possible that there could be a double error, git for wit and Iohannis for Iesus, but that such a double confusion in successive words night be too much for other scholars to accept.Google Scholar

¹¹ ‘Zur altenglischen Literatur: V. 21. Christi Höllenfahrt,’ Beiblatt zur Anglia 19 (1908) 50–51.Google Scholar

¹² 14, ‘The Birth of John the Baptist,’ ed. Morris, R., The Blickling Homilies of the Tenth Century (EETS 73; London 1880) 163, 167; see also 161. Crotty, , ‘Exeter Harrowing of Hell’ 353–54. Some details in the second passage quoted (Blickling Homilies 167) are paralleled in a ps.-Ambrosian sermon and a sermon by Caesarius of Arles; see Cross, J. E., ‘Blickling Homily XIV and the Old English Martyrology on John the Baptist,’ Anglia 93 (1975) 148.Google Scholar

¹³ 14, ed. Morris 167. Crotty, , ‘Exeter Harrowing of Hell’ 354–56; her further parallel from a fourth-century Syrian homily, though not necessarily irrelevant, seems to me much less persuasive.Google Scholar

¹⁴ A similar interpretation is suggested by Richard Trask, M., ‘The Descent into Hell of the Exeter Book,’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 72 (1971) 421.Google Scholar

¹⁵ ‘Quelle, Verfasser und Text’ 161.Google Scholar

¹⁶ A Literary History of England, ed. Albert C. Baugh (New York 1948) 80.Google Scholar

¹⁷ ‘Zur altenglischen Literatur’ 51–52. Vita Adae et Evae 6–11 and 17, ed. Meyer, Wilhelm, Abh. Akad. Munich 14.3 (1878) 222–27.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Crotty, , ‘Exeter Harrowing of Hell’ 354. Dobbie, , Exeter Book lxii.Google Scholar

¹⁹ ‘Descent into Hell’ 422. Note his convenient survey of previous scholarship, 419–22.Google Scholar

²⁰ ‘Cosmic Stasis’ 382 n. 2. A more recent discussion by Shippey, T. A., Poems of Wisdom and Learning in Old English (Cambridge 1976) 40–42, with a translation of the passage on 117–19, appeared after the present article was in proof.Google Scholar

²¹ See for example Blickling Homilies 14, ed. Morris 161, 163, 167; and Ælfric, Sermones Catholici, ed. Thorpe, Benjamin (Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church 1; London 1844–46) 1.62, 66, 68, 72, 76, 350, 358, 480, 484, and Lives of Saints 23-B, ed. Skeat, Walter W. (EETS 94; Oxford 1890) 2.34. In the Lindisfarne and Rushworth Gospels, ed. Walter W. Skeat, The Gospel according to Saint Matthew / Mark / Luke / John in Anglo-Saxon and Northumbrian Versions (Cambridge 1871–87) 4 vols., the manuscript abbreviation ioħ is expanded by the editor as ‘iohannes’ for the nominative, and indiscriminately as ‘iohannes’ or ‘iohannis’ for the genitive (Mark pp. 19, 47; Luke p. 191; John pp. 15, 31). In the West Saxon Gospels (ibid.), the form ‘iohannes’ is used consistently for both nominative and genitive, except for a single reading ‘iohannys’ in MS Bodl. 441, rendering the genitive of Mt 11.12 (Matthew p. 90 note), and the form ‘iohannis / Iohannis’ used in all manuscripts for the patronymic of Jn 21.15–17 (John pp. 182–85) — where it clearly is to be thought of not as a rendering of the genitive, but as part of the proper name Simon Ioannis.Google Scholar

²² Acts 19.3–5. See also Mt 21.25; Mk 11.30; Lk 7.29 and 20.4; and Acts 1.22 (referring to Christ's baptism by John) and 18.25. Alcuin, Contra Felicem 2.17 (PL 101.158): ‘Sed hoc sciendum est, quod in baptismate Joannis, in quo Christus baptizatus est, non fuit regeneratio, sed quaedam praecursoria significatio baptismatis Christi….’Google Scholar

²³ See for example all the commentators cited in n. 28 infra; and Johannes Bornemann, Die Taufe Christi durch Johannes in der dogmatischen Beurteilung der christlichen Theologen der vier ersten Jahrhunderte (Leipzig 1896) 59 et passim.Google Scholar

²⁴ Strzygowski, Josef, Iconographie der Taufe Christi: ein Beitrag zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der christlichen Kunst (Munich 1885) pl. III figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9; pl. VII fig. 8; pl. XIII fig. 8; and p. 23. Note also Jacoby, Adolf, Ein bisher unbeachteter apokrypher Bericht über die Taufe Jesu (Strassburg 1902) 92–93.Google Scholar

²⁵ A good example is the ninth- or tenth-century ivory repr. Goldschmidt, Adolph, Die Elfenbeinskulpturen aus der Zeit der karolingischen und sächsischen Kaiser, VIII.-XI. Jahrhundert (Berlin 1914–26) 1 pl. LV fig. 129; and see the sketches in Strzygowski, Iconographie, passim.Google Scholar

²⁶ Die ältesten Segen über Christi Taufe und Christi Tod in religionsgeschichtlichem Lichte (Det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab., Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser. 25.1; Copenhagen 1938) 211–12. See also 166–68, on the water of the Jordan. Might the mysterious lines 394–99 of the poetic Solomon and Saturn (including in line 397 the remark that the water ‘cristnaä and clænsaö cwicra manigo’) allude to some such universalizing characterization of water?Google Scholar

²⁷ Sermo XIIIa, ‘De sancta Epyfania’ 3, ed. Helmut Mutzenbecher, Sermones (CCL 23.45–46; ps.-Augustinian Sermo CXXXV, PL 39.2012).Google Scholar

²⁸ Homilia XXXIII, ‘De baptismo Christi, v’ (PL 57.296). See also Ignatius of Antioch, Epistola ad Ephesios 18 (PG 5.660); Gregory of Nazianzus, De luminibus 15, trans. Rufinus, Orationum Gregorii Nazianzeni novem interpretatio 3, ed. August Engelbrecht, CSEL 46.127; Ambrose, Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam 2.83, on Lk 3.21–22 (PL 15.1583), and De sacramentis 1.5.15–19 (PL 16.422–23); Jerome, Epistola CVIII 12 (PL 22.888), and Commentarii in Evangelium Matthaei 1, on Mt 3.13–15 (PL 26.31); ps.-Jerome, Expositio quattuor Evangeliorum on Mt 3.13ff. (PL 30.540); ps.-Augustine, Sermo CXXXIV 4 (PL 39.2011), and Sermo CXXX VI 1 (PL 39.2013); Maximus of Turin, Sermones 13.1 (p. 51), 64.1 (p. 269), and 100.3 (p. 399); ps.-Maximus, Homilia XXX (PL 57.292–93); Bede, In Matthaei Evangelium expositio 1.3, on Mt 3.13 (PL 92.17), In Marci Evangelium expositio 1, on Mk 1.9 (PL 92.138), In Lucae Evangelium expositio 1, on Lk 3.21 (PL 92.358), and Homilia I 9, ‘In die festo Theophaniae’ (PL 94.58); Alcuin, De fide Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis 3.17 (PL 101.49); Rhabanus Maurus, Commentarii in Matthaeum 1, on Mt 3.13 (PL 107.775); Otfrid, Evangelienbuch 1.26.1–4, ed. Oskar Erdmann (Halle 1882) 61; and for further references Bornemann, Die Taufe Christi 59–85.Google Scholar

²⁹ Ps.-Hippolytus, Sermo in Sancta Theophania 1–2 (PG 10.852–53). Tertullian, De baptismo 1, 3–4, and 9 (PL 1.1197–1204, 1209–10; quotation 1210). See also for example Augustine, In Iohannis Evangelium 15.4, on Jn 4.1–42 (ed. Willems, Radbod, O.S.B.; CCL 36.152); Gregory, Liber sacramentorum, ‘Sabbato Sancto’ (PL 78.89); Isidore, De ecclesiasticis officiis 2.25.3 (PL 83.821); Theodulf of Orléans, De ordine baptismi 13 (PL 105.231–33); and Rhabanus Maurus, De clericorum institutione 1.25 (PL 107.310).Google Scholar

³⁰ See Strzygowski, , Iconographie pl. II figs. 3, 8, pl. III figs. 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, pl. IV figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, pl. V figs. 2, 3, 6, pl. VII figs. 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, pl. VIII figs. 3, 8, pl. IX figs. 5, 6, pl. XI figs. 3, 4, 5, and pl. XIII fig. 8; Goldschmidt, Elfenbeinskulpturen, Vol. 1 pl. XIV fig. 27a, pl. XXVII figs. 66 and 67b, pl. XXX fig. 74a, pl. XLIV fig. 96a, and Vol. 2 pl. XXIV fig. 74; and Gertrud Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, trans. Janet Seligman (London 1971ff.) 1.386–95 figs. 352, 358, 360, 361, 362, 364, 365, 368, 369, 372, and 375.Google Scholar

³¹ Schiller, , Iconography 1.138. For the motif in Eastern art, see Ristow, Günter, The Baptism of Christ, trans. Hermann Rosenwald, Hans (Pictorial Library of Eastern Church Art 15; Recklinghausen 1967).Google Scholar

³² Repr. Wilhelm Deichmann, Friedrich, Frühchristliche Bauten und Mosaiken von Ravenna (Baden-Baden 1958) pls. 41 and 252 respectively. The quotation is from Schiller, Iconography 1.133.Google Scholar

³³ Antwerp, collection of Mayer van den Bergh; repr. from Schiller, Iconography 1.392 fig. 366. The quotation is from Schiller 1.138. For further examples see Goldschmidt, Elfenbeinskulpturen, n. 30 supra.Google Scholar

³⁴ MS London, B. M. Add. 49598 fol. 25^r; repr. by courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum. The illustration seems modeled either directly or indirectly on a ninth- or tenth-century ivory from Gandersheim (repr. Goldschmidt, Elfenbeinskulpturen 1 pl. xliv fig. 96a; Schiller, Iconography 1.392 fig. 369); see Squilbeck, Jean, ‘Le Jourdain dans l'iconographie médiévale du Baptěme du Christ,’ Bulletin des Musées Royaux d'art et d'histoire 4th ser. 38–39 (1966–67) 75–77.Google Scholar