Rod of Jesse - On The Jesus of The Gospels and Doubt of His Existence
Sometimes this is the only fully illuminated page, and if it is historiated i. When not historiated, the initial had for about two hundred years been most often made up of, or filled with, spiraling plant tendrils, often with animals or men caught up in them, so the development to the tree was a relatively easy step. Indeed, although Jesse's son David was believed to be the author of the Psalms , it has been suggested that the tradition of using a Jesse Tree here arose largely because it was an imposing design that worked well filling a large B shape.
An early example is the late 12th-century Huntingfield Psalter , and an especially splendid one from the early 14th century is the Gorleston Psalter in the British Library. In the recently re-discovered Macclesfield Psalter of about another very elaborate Tree [20] grows beyond the B, sending branches round the sides and bottom of the text. Some continental manuscripts give the scene a whole page with no initial.
A Lectionary of before from Cologne unusually shows Jesse dead in a tomb or coffin, from which the tree grows. By the Gothic period small Trees are found in many types of manuscript, and Jesse is often more comfortably accommodated in a large bed. Stained glass was a popular medium used in many eras to illuminate the sacred mysteries of the Old Covenant's relationship with the genealogy of Christ in the New Covenant. Among the famous stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral in Northern France is the Jesse Tree window, of , the far right of three windows above the Royal Portal and beneath the western rose window.
It derives from the oldest known and almost certainly the original complex form of the Jesse Tree , with the tree rising from a sleeping Jesse, a window placed in the Saint-Denis Basilica by Abbot Suger in about , which is now heavily restored. The Chartres window comprises eight square central panels, with seven rectangular ones on either side, separated, as is usual in 12th-century windows with no stone tracery, by heavy iron armatures. In the lowest central panel reclines the figure of Jesse, with the tree rising from his middle. In each of the seven sections it branches out into a regular pattern of scrolling branches, each bearing a bunch of leaves that take on the heraldic form of the Fleur de Lys , very common in French stained glass.
Central to each panel is a figure: In each of the narrower panels, edged by richly patterned borders, are the figures of fourteen prophets bearing scrolls. Apart from the theological importance the design is one of the few subjects that works very well as a unified composition for one of the tall vertical spaces of the windows of Romanesque and Gothic churches; most other tall windows were divided into separate scenes.
Saint-Denis and Chartres provided a model for many other such windows, notably the Jesse Tree windows of Canterbury Cathedral , c. Kunibert, Cologne of A small and much fragmented panel from a Jesse Tree window, at York Minster is thought to be the oldest surviving stained glass in England, dating from perhaps as early as This window, dating from c. Having survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries , the depredations of the Puritans and the ravages of time, it was dismantled and removed, with many other original windows during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and replaced by a copy.
Fortunately two surviving panels were later returned and are in place in the Corona Chapel [24] at the eastern end of the building. Wells Cathedral has a rare example of an intact 14th-century Jesse Tree window which survived the iconoclasm of the 17th-century and the losses of World War II. The colours of this window are red, yellow, green, white and brown, with very little blue. The window is wide for its height, having seven lights, and being topped by tracery.
Consequently, the tendrils of the Tree spread out sideways and the central panel has only three figures: There are fourteen more figures in the window, identifiable in some cases by their attributes, such as David's harp and Solomon's model of the Temple of Jerusalem. As well as the tendrils, the figures are framed by typical 14th-century canopies and bases displaying the name of each person. The window is currently undergoing extensive conservation. Although it was much restored in by David and Charles Evans, much of the original glass remains and is dated between and The north window in the sanctuary is unique as it combines tracery and sculpture with stained glass in a single theme.
It shows the ascent of Christ from Jesse.
THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW
The tree with five undulating branches carved in foliage rises from the sculptured recumbent form of Jesse. Much of the 14th-century glass is fragmentary, but still in its original tracery. The figures of Christ and the Virgin and Child with other figures are intact. The glass contains figures from a Tree of Jesse and additional figures are carved on stone mullions. Leonard's Church, Leverington , Cambridgeshire.
A 15th-century restored Tree of Jesse window in the chapel of the east end of the church. Thirteen of the figures are original, seventeen are partly restored and thirty-one are modern. The kings are dressed in short doublets which are compared with similar figures in the manuscript of representing the victories of Edward IV which is in the British Library Harleian MS.
Holy Well and St. Dyfnog's Church, Llanrhaeadr , Denbighshire, Wales. The Tree of Jesse window was made in The window depicts Jesse asleep in a walled garden, from him springs a many branched family tree, in which can be seen the ancestor kings of christ. The figures resemble 'court' playing cards, which took their form at about the time the window was made. A magnificent Renaissance three-light window by Engrand Le Prince — , with the royal ancestors richly dressed in fashionable garments, rising from large flower-pods.
Jesse has a splendid four-poster bed. In the tracery, the central section has the form of a Sacred Heart and contains the Virgin and Christ Child rising from a lily and surrounded by radiant light. All the figures are seated in the vine except for the Virgin Mary who is seated within a flowering virga, outside the vine. Above her head are seven doves representing the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. The figures in the window are; in the first light - Hezekiah , Solomon , Melchizedek. Middle light - Jesse, David, the Virgin and Christchild on her knee.
Third light - Jehoshaphat , Asa , and Isaiah.
In the east window there is a Tree of Jesse commemorating Pusey , who was one of the leaders of the 19th-century Oxford Movement in the Church of England. Pusey died in and Pusey House was established as his memorial. The window is by Sir Ninian Comper and contains figures of Old Testament prophets, and fathers of the Church, representing some of the areas of his study, surrounding Christ in Majesty and the Virgin and Child. The figure of Pusey can be seen, kneeling at the base of the second light from the right.
Tree of Jesse window by Kempe The window embodies a profusion of rich deep colours, reds, blues, dark green, mauve and gold. Below these are the prophet Isaiah a recumbent Jesse, and in the bottom corner Matthew recording these details in the opening of his gospel.
A five light Tree of Jesse window is mentioned in the church inventory. This church has a fine 19th-century mosaic paving depicting the Tree of Jesse. It was designed and executed by Aston Webb. The consecration of St. James Church took place in , built on a north-south axis in Gothic form. The addition of the Tree of Jesse stained glass east window, inserted to mark the church's 21st anniversary Andrew's Church, Swavesey , Cambridgeshire. It is not merely a Jesse Tree since it goes back before his time Jesse appears in the right hand light and is in a standing position facing left.
The figures in the window are: Who for us men, and for our Salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. Tree of Jesse rose window ; with at the centre the Virgin seated, crowned, and on her lap the Christ-child with his arms extended. Eight glass medallions surrounding contain Jesse lying in the lower medallion, other figures including David and Solomon each holding scrolls, and in the top medallion the Holy Spirit represented by a Dove.
Inspired by the design, the students have begun creating their own stained glass window depicting the lineage of St. The Tree of Jesse window by Geoffrey Webb is a feature of the Lady Chapel and marks the first stage in the restoration of the cathedral following damage in the Second World War. Virga Jesse Basilica , Hasselt. The large flat wooden ceiling in the Church of St Michael, Hildesheim of c. The nave ceiling of Ely Cathedral was painted with a scheme rather similar to Hildesheim by the gentleman artist Henry Styleman Le Strange , who began in After his death leaving no detailed drawings for the remainder in , it was completed by another amateur artist, Thomas Gambier Parry using his special Gambier Parry process with lavender oil.
Relatively small-scale Jesse Trees feature in prominent positions in many medieval churches, most notably under a statue of St James on the central column of the famous main entrance the Portico de la Gloria of of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Another masterpiece of Romanesque stone-carving, the cloister of the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos , has a Tree on a flat panel carved in relief.
Several 13th-century French cathedrals have Trees in the arches of doorways: However these mostly show the ancestors in archivolts on both sides of an arch, and although they are connected by tendrils, the coherence of the image is rather lost. Another popular way of showing the ancestry of Christ was to have a row or gallery of statues of the Kings of Judah part of the ancestral line from Jesse on the facade, as at Notre Dame de Paris , but these too go beyond the image of the Tree.
Church of St Cuthbert, Wells, Somerset. St Cuthbert's Church formerly held a sculpted Tree of Jesse forming the reredos in its south transept, its components arranged around the east window. The contract survives, and shows that it was made in by John Stowell. It was destroyed during the Reformation or Interregnum , but the outline of the figure of Jesse is still visible, and many fragments of sculpture also survive. Christchurch Priory contains a boldly carved reredos in high-relief of the s in the form of the Tree of Jesse.
The figures of Jesse, King David and another prophet all survive; and Christ is represented as part of a nativity scene. The Priory Church of St Mary, Abergavenny , formerly held a 15th-century composition, described by Thomas Churchyard in as "a most famous worke in maner of a genealogie of Kings, called the roote of Jesse".
It has been described by Andrew Graham-Dixon as "the most impressive wood carving to have escaped the bonfires of the Reformation in Wales"; [39] and by Phillip Lindley as "without doubt one of the finest pieces of fifteenth-century wood sculpture remaining in England or Wales". It was purchased by her husband, James Hope-Scott.
Church of Saint Francis, Oporto, Portugal. An 18th-century Tree of Jesse carved in wood in Baroque style, it is three-dimensional and has coloured and gilded figures perched among its branches. Thirteen figures with the black bearded figure of Jesse lying on the bottom. The tree culminates with a picture of the Madonna and Child and a dove above them. On either side of the tree are other figures who appear to be either singing or reading from an open book which they are holding.
Ivory from Bavaria The rectangular back of an ivory comb right from Bavaria , from about , is delicately carved with a Tree of Jesse scene, showing Jesse lying with the tree emerging from his navel. Two branches form a mandorla around the Blessed Virgin Mary who raises one hand to support the infant Christ, while with her other, she holds a scroll. A prophet stands to either side.
St Mark's Basilica , Venice A large mosaic Tree was put on the north wall of the north transept in the s, by the Bianchini brothers as mosaicists, following a design by Salviati. Monstrance from Augsburg A late 17th-century monstrance from Augsburg incorporates a version of the traditional design, with Jesse asleep on the base, the tree as the stem, and Christ and twelve ancestors arranged around the holder for the host.
Cathedral Notre-Dame, Antwerp, Belgium. An embroidered cope depicting the Tree of Jesse. Abbey Church, Buckfast Abbey , Devon. The church was rebuilt on medieval foundations between and The marble floor of the Lady chapel depicts the Tree of Jesse made in the Abbey's own workshops in Byzantine style mosaic. Joseph and other biblical motifs. Situated in the passage used by pilgrims making their way to the Grotto of the Nativity, the bas-relief also incorporates symbolism from the Old Testament.
The upper portion is dominated by a crowned figure of Christ the King posed with open arms blessing the Earth. In fact, there have been many Christians through the centuries who have concluded that Jesus is not actually co-equal but subordinate to the Father. We must keep in mind that the Bible cannot contradict itself if it is the Word of God. Indeed, when viewed in light of the above well-documented subordination, Jesus is seen to be referring to his obedient way of being, and therefore that his words and his works were not his, but came from God, his Father. In the case of John This is a consistent theme throughout the Four Gospels.
Jesus is the Son dependent upon the Father. However, this theme is most markedly observable in the gospel of John. Despite his glorification and divine authority, Jesus in John is portrayed as being utterly dependent upon his Father for everything. In this way, his example is not out of our reach, and in fact he is modeling the proper attitude of any son of God, an identity and privilege he would soon confer on all those who would believe on him. Thus, the example that Jesus Christ set for us as Christians shines bright and clear.
If we are going to be like Christ, we must learn the will of God and obey it willingly and promptly. The Gospel records give us an example, a target, something to aspire to and to strive for so that we can be like Christ and his Father.
Nazarene (title)
Paul wrote to the Corinthian church: Paul had the right idea. Christianity is not a spectator sport where we watch from afar the activities of a few great Christians and comment about how godly they are. We will now elaborate on the unique aspects of the gospel of John, which in light of what we have covered so far, will become even more understandable and illuminating.
As we have stated, John provides the final aspect of the fourfold cornerstone of the Christian faith: We will now examine many important and unique contributions of this gospel to our understanding of the identity of Jesus Christ.
A careful reading of the gospel of John leads us to the conclusion that its purpose is very different from the purpose traditionally given to explain its writing; that is, to prove that Jesus is a pre-existent divine being, a second person in a triune Godhead incarnated as God in human flesh, etc, etc. This is the same affirmation that Peter gave in Matthew He also acknowledges the importance of viewing the glorious Jesus of John against the historical backdrop of the Synoptic Gospels:.
The human limits of knowledge of a particular culture, or a particular mind-set, of a particular race and geographical environment, which are perceptible in the Synoptic accounts, are ignored in the Fourth Gospel…Jesus appears in [John] as a superman, fully aware of his divine nature, always in control of the situation…Fortunately there are other accounts of Jesus in the New Testament [esp. We are faced with a Jesus who really did not know who touched him Mark 5: Without the Synoptic accounts of Jesus, and above all those of Mark and Luke, the Jesus of the Fourth Gospel rapidly turns into a legendary figure… [21].
The Jesus of the first three Gospels has been developed into a figure comparable to the Buddha of the Mahayana Scriptures, in which the original Gautama Sakyamuni has become a divine visitant who can accomplish the most astounding miracles by lifting his finger. We are in the realm of legend and are in full flight towards a positively superstitious attitude towards Jesus.
Hanson is quite correct that the Jesus portrayed in the gospel of John is different from the Jesus of the other three Gospels. But we would expect that. In John, Christ is being set forth as the only begotten Son. The fact that Christ is portrayed differently in John, however, does not mean that he is somehow a different person. But to remain faithful to the text of John, the entire gospel must harmonize with the rest of the New Testament.
This truth is clearly communicated in Romans 1: It is not surprising that this bold proleptic picture of Christ could be misunderstood and taken literally, thus breaking down the literal, historical and crucial importance of the resurrection. But the Fourth Gospel should not be interpreted in a manner that virtually negates the significance of the resurrection, the watershed event of his life. If contradictions with the whole of Scripture arise from literally interpreting a verse, a passage or an entire book, we must start looking for figures of speech.
These are legitimate literary devices employed to give vigor and emphasis to verbal communication. It goes beyond being prophetic i. It is important to note that we are not the only ones to notice this literary feature of the Fourth Gospel. A number of scholars have noted this bold and beautiful bent of the gospel of John. We will quote two:. As such, the language which John uses about him fits him very well. Interpreted in terms of the risen Lord and not of the historical Jesus, it makes excellent sense. In essence, this is what is happening in the gospel of John.
We will come back to this subject after looking at more unique features in John. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me. In the case of raising Lazarus, we are given an opportunity to see how close he and his Father are, and that the Father always hears his requests. This is the opposite of the gospel of Mark, which focuses on his acts. In John 3, Jesus gives a lengthy lecture to Nicodemus late at night.
In Chapter 4, he addresses a Samaritan woman on worship and the coming gift of the spirit. Chapter 5 is a discourse about the Sabbath. In Chapter 10 he talks about his role as the Good Shepherd of the sheep. Because John views Christ from his post-resurrection exaltation, it focuses on Christ in heaven, and speaks of heaven as his place of origin.
When God wanted to tell the people that He would bless them if they gave their tithes, He told them that He would open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing Mal. Of course, everyone understood the idiom being used, and no one believed that God would literally pour things out of heaven. Another clear example of this idiom occurs in the context of Christ answering the Pharisees concerning the question of his authority to heal, forgive sins and the like:.
Was it from heaven or from men? This verse makes the idiom clear: In the Synoptics, Jesus trusts Judas Iscariot to be one of his Apostles, who proves to be a thief and a betrayer. But in John, Jesus knows the hearts of all men, and who can be trusted and who cannot: He is viewed as having the same knowledge in his earthly ministry as he had after his ascension, when the Apostles invoke the risen Lord in the matter of choosing a replacement for Judas. Show us which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.
After his resurrection , as indicated by his saying in Matthew In a bold, proleptic reinterpretation of the Cross, the gospel of John views it not as a criminal act of sinners against the righteous Son of God, but as a symbol of healing and deliverance for all who believe on him. This is the perspective Peter also communicated:. Where the Synoptics contain many examples of Jesus casting out demons, the gospel of John omits this important and unique part of his ministry. Jesus mentions the Devil only in connection with Judas Iscariot or the Pharisees.
THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW
We can only speculate as to the reason for this omission, but it seems to be related to the perspective of Jesus in his post-resurrection dominion over principalities, powers, dominions and authorities. Springboard to the Spoken Words of the Living Word. In those records, his miracles attract attention and generate faith in others. This is also clear from the record of the healing of a crippled man at the pool of Bethesda 5: Because he healed the man on the Sabbath, the Jews began persecuting him.
His answer to them was to relate the miracle to his relationship with God: The conclusion of the record involving the healing of the man born blind is the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees John 9: The raising of Lazarus after he had been dead four days After the feeding of the 5, 6: After another miraculous event, his walking on the water 6: The way Jesus identified the true disciples was through the use of figurative language.
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But obviously he had a figurative, spiritual meaning in mind. There are many other unique events, ideas and dialogues in John not mentioned or considered in the Synoptic Gospels. John does not include his genealogy, birth or baptism because none of these events contribute to an understanding of his glorification, which he derives directly from his Father. This does not mean that the Jesus portrayed in the gospel of John is not the historical person. It simply means that the purpose of John is not historical, but spiritual or theological.
We have concluded from our examination of many Scriptures that these two phases of his coming are quite distinct and separate. His first coming was as the suffering servant, but he was resurrected into his glory. This plan was so well defined by the body of prophecy spoken and written about the Coming One that it was a virtual certainty. The context of verse 58 is clear from verse If we accept that John 8: In John, the glory that Jesus has as Messiah is pictured as a present reality, not a future one as it is in the Synoptics Matt.
The Johannine portrait of Jesus is of one who walked the earth with something akin to his future exalted glory even while still carrying out his earthly ministry. The risen Lord is beyond such temptation, and to struggle in the flesh with an assignment from God is unthinkable. This is in essence what the Jesus of the gospel of John is doing—looking down upon his earthly life and reinterpreting it in light of his exalted position at the right hand of God.
This should not be a complete surprise, though, because we know that Jesus Christ was intimately involved with the inspiration of Scripture after his resurrection Rom. An example of him speaking in a way that blends an earthly with a heavenly perspective is his prayer, on the eve of his arrest, for those who will believe in him in the future. We will point out the statements in which the risen Christ is speaking, those that point prophetically to his post-resurrection glorification. The other statements are consistent with the Synoptic view and should be considered literal statements that the earthly Jesus actually spoke.
As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. This Jesus in John is already at the right hand of God, invested with all authority. The spiritual worship of which Jesus speaks would actually become available on the Day of Pentecost with the gift of holy spirit. Yet it is spoken of in John as having already arrived. In the future—Acts Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, [When?
Many more examples of prophetic and proleptic language can be found in John, but we do not need to belabor the point here. We assume that the reader will find numerous examples for himself now that it has been pointed out. Bruce aptly expresses his awe at the literary arrangement of the gospel of John, which has continued to inspire and engender faith in the risen Christ, even though greatly misunderstood:. What Shakespeare does by dramatic insight…all this and much more the Spirit of God accomplished in our Evangelist [John].
It does not take divine inspiration to provide a verbatim transcript; but to reproduce the words which were spirit and life to their first believing hearers in such a way that they continue to communicate their saving message and prove themselves to be spirit and life to men and women today, nineteen centuries after John wrote—that is the work of the Spirit of God.
There are many sections in the gospel of John that illustrate the intimate relationship between God and Christ, but we have picked two in particular that we feel are especially appropriate in light of what we have been discussing in this chapter and throughout this book.
They are John 5: In the first part of John 5, Jesus healed a crippled man who had been an invalid for 38 years. The man picked up his mat and walked away, but it was the Sabbath, and he ran into some religious leaders who reproved him for carrying his mat on that day. Later, Jesus found him in the Temple and encouraged him to clean up his life, now that he had been healed. The man then went away and told the religious leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. One would think that religious leaders, supposedly representing God, would be very blessed that the man had been healed, but these Jews were, to say the least, hard to please.
What was Jesus saying to those religious leaders who should have known the Old Testament backward and forward? I am the one of whom the Old Testament is speaking. Now I am here and I am working. The fact that I healed the crippled man should not surprise you, because it was prophesied that I would do such things.
We have already seen in Philippians 2: Watch what Jesus says in response to their accusations:. If Jesus were trying to convince people he was God, or even if he were openly proclaiming himself to be the Messiah, this would have been a wide open door. Instead, he downplayed his own role and spoke of what the Father was doing and of His love. Remember that the context is Jesus having healed the crippled man.
We see here that Jesus anticipated his own resurrection and his future joy of raising others. Here again is an exchange of the future tense for the present tense, anticipating the day when Jesus would literally have resurrection life to give.
Jesus Christ had not yet himself been raised from the dead, and certainly he had not raised anyone else to everlasting life, yet he speaks of giving life in the present tense. He does so to emphasize his faith in the certainty of these things coming to pass, and his references to them in this way are placed in the gospel of John as part of the proleptic portrait of Jesus Christ.
Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. In the above verses, we see that it will be Jesus Christ who will judge all men, and that thereby all men will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. That is what we saw in Philippians 2: We believe it befits justice that Jesus Christ, the one who was judged, condemned and executed by men, will be the one to finally judge all men.
Every unrepentant, evil person who has ever lived, who literally tortured and crucified him or who figuratively did so by persecuting those who have loved him, will one day look in the eyes of the Son of God as their judge, and he will be vindicated. Once again we see here that it is Jesus Christ, as the Promised Seed, who will call people to new and everlasting life. Jesus Christ understood that the chief property of a seed is that it has life in itself, and that as the Promised Seed he would, after his resurrection and exaltation, have life in himself to give to others.
As the next verse says, it is Jesus Christ who will decide who is to live and who is to die.
Rest assured that one day there will be justice for all. Those in the resurrection of the just will be going to one party, while the majority of those in the resurrection of the unjust will be going to another party, which is considerably shorter and has no party favors. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me. Because Jesus Christ works in perfect harmony with his heavenly Father, there will be justice for all.
The most important way God testified who Jesus was, was by raising him from the dead Acts Although the Pharisees to whom Jesus was speaking missed the whole point of the Old Testament and failed to recognize him as the Messiah, some did cleave unto him as such. How sad that so many people today have misunderstood the Scriptures and to some degree missed the heart of the Son of God that is so specifically revealed in the Four Gospels. There is one other record in the gospel of John that we want to explore, one that graphically illustrates the relationship between God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Almost inconceivably, it is often twisted in an attempt to prove that Jesus is, in fact, God. As we examine it, we will see the great truth contained therein. It was winter, and Jesus was at the Temple in Jerusalem for a Jewish holiday. If You are the Christ, tell us plainly. Although some people use verse 30 in an attempt to prove that Jesus is God, the context in particular, verses 28 and 29 clearly shows its meaning.
Some quote verse 33 to prove Jesus is God.