Jesus is just a type of Har.., Moses is all...
"Influenced by modern pop culture and literary characters, such as Harry Potter, we may be forgiven for interpreting the mysterious tool as a magic wand. The reality is even more complex and fascinating. “For early Christians, Jesus performing miracles with the staff was not magical. Rather, it was intrinsically biblical (recalling Moses) and innately ecclesial (touting the supremacy of the Church),”
Jesus Holding a Magic Wand?
Supernatural depictions of Jesus in Early Christian art
MULTIPLICATION OF THE LOAVES painted in a third- or fourth-century Via Anapo catacomb. Clean-shaven Jesus holds what looks like a wand.
Did Jesus use a magic wand when performing his miracles? It seems so—if we are to judge by some of the earliest depictions of Jesus in Christian art.
Early Christian iconography provides us with precious insights into the esthetics of early Christians. Inspired by biblical and apocryphal texts, the earliest Christian imagery is also a window into the theological thinking of the third- and fourth-century followers of Jesus. Coming primarily from funerary contexts, early Christian art is especially rich in mural paintings found in catacombs and in smaller sculptures, such as sarcophagi and tombstones. It is thus no surprise that the repertoire of motifs expressed in these media is mostly associated with the afterlife and healing (physical or spiritual).
In his article “Jesus the Magician? Why Jesus Holds a Wand in Early Christian Art,” published in the Fall 2020 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Lee M. Jefferson of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, zooms on one particular subject from the plethora of artistic motifs—Jesus holding a wand or rod while performing a healing or miracle. “The implement that Jesus holds (sometimes called a virga or rabdos) is portrayed as either thick and ruddy, such as on the sarcophagi, or thin and reed-like, such as in catacomb paintings. He uses it in the performance of a miracle, leading several scholars to conclude that early Christians understood Jesus as a magician. The problem with this identification is that early Christians greatly maligned magic,” remarks Jefferson, before introducing the varied representations of Jesus and his miracle-working tool.
Utterly theatrical and visualizing the authority of the new religion (Christianity), the most popular scene of early Christian funerary art was the raising of Lazarus. Jesus usually stands in front of a small shrine that holds the swaddled cadaver and he uses a magic wand to summon forth Lazarus from his grave, where he had been dead for four days (John 11).
WONDROUS EPISODES depicted on this early fourth-century sarcophagus include (left to right) Peter striking the rock, the arrest of Peter, Jesus at Cana, healing of the blind, multiplication of the loaves and fishes, and the raising of Lazarus.
Even though the Bible never mentions Jesus using a magic wand in performing his miracles, you may recall other prominent biblical figures who did use a similar tool to work miracles. Moses reportedly used a rod to separate the Red Sea to save his people from the Pharaoh’s army during their daring escape from Egypt (Exodus 14). And he later used a rod to strike the rock and provide drinking water for his fellow Israelites during their wanderings to the Promised Land (Exodus 17:2). Is this where the early Christians got the idea, or were they inspired by the pagan imagery of the larger Greco-Roman world?
JESUS RAISES LAZARUS (top left) while Moses is striking the rock to draw water near Mt. Horeb (top right). This mid-fourth-century pair of paintings in the Red Cubiculum of the Catacomb of Domitilla, in Rome, demonstrated a clear parallel to early Christians between the deliverance wrought by Moses for the old Israel and by Jesus for the New Israel.
The only other New Testament figure who can be seen using a wand to perform a miracle in early Christian art is the apostle Peter. Illustrating a legend attested in apocryphal literature, the scene usually shows Peter striking a rock with a stick, in the presence of two other figures, who wear Roman military cloaks and headgear. According to the legend, Peter during his detention in Rome miraculously opened a spring of water, which he then used to baptize his two jailers.
PETER THE APOSTLE is striking a rock to draw water with which to baptize his two Roman jailors. Seen here in the left niche, this scene dates to c. 365 and is painted in the Catacomb of Commodilla on the ancient Via Ostiensis, in Rome. The motif derives from the apocryphal Acts of Peter.
Influenced by modern pop culture and literary characters, such as Harry Potter, we may be forgiven for interpreting the mysterious tool as a magic wand. The reality is even more complex and fascinating. “For early Christians, Jesus performing miracles with the staff was not magical. Rather, it was intrinsically biblical (recalling Moses) and innately ecclesial (touting the supremacy of the Church),” explains Jefferson.
C.S. Lewis pointed out that to primitive people the advanced technology of our age would appear to be magic. My grandfather, now deceased, told me that he remembered when he was young how amazed older people, he called them “old timers”, were by the radio. Without a doubt, there were people who witnessed the miracles of Jesus who thought he was a magician. The idea that a few centuries later, artists would depict Jesus brandishing a wand or walking stick is not surprising.
ReplyDeleteWhat we do know is that the “wand” is not mentioned in the Gospels or anywhere in the New Testament. This does not mean that there was no stick but it does mean that it was so unimportant to the events that it was not even mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew and John.
But there is a broader question. Why did Jesus accompany any of his miracles with actions or gestures. In one case, Jesus used his own saliva and some dirt from the ground to make a kind of clay. He then applied it to a blind man’s eyes and when the blind man washed off the clay as Jesus instructed, the man received his sight. What’s that all about? My theory is that the action was totally unnecessary for Jesus to heal. But it is demonstrative. It provides the observers with something that clearly connects Jesus with the miraculous outcome. Jesus performed a miracle and to address any doubt that it was Jesus, he did something clearly visible to identify his involvement in causation. This bears only a superficial resemblance to what magicians do with a magic wand.
Author Morton Smith back in 1978 asserted that Jesus operated in the tradition of pagan magic and, of course, Bart Ehrman jumped on the bandwagon. I think this is all a tempest in a teapot. It is an interesting topic but an artifact like a stick does not mean the collapse of Christianity.
Scout
Actually, the clay reveals something about the Lord's sense of humor. Mixing clay and spit were against the Pharisees dos and don'ts which had originated during the intertestamental period. Jesus deliberately made construction materials to kill two birds with one stone through the healing. That, by the way, is not an original from me. I read it in one of my study Bibles, and thought to my self, "Wow! isn't that a gas???
DeleteWhat a cool Savior we have!!!"
Brought back memories of Ian Dury and his huge hit, Hit me with your Rhythm Stick. Was all the rage in Israel when I lived there for two years. Myself and our Israeli friends walked around saying to each other ‘hit me’ mimicking Ian. Quite irrelevant to the post I’m sure. A little bit of nostalgia from way back and Armstrongism was no where to be seen.
ReplyDeleteGod told Moses in Numbers 20 to speak to the rock to make water gush from it, but Moses disobeyed and stuck the rock instead. God was displeased with this. The previous time Moses struck the rock in Numbers 17, it depicted Christ's one time sacrifice. Moses second striking ruined this picture. There's a linking of ideas between these symbolic acts and the actual miracles
ReplyDelete