Note to Anon (FoGT) 37^III

[1-4]: As both Meissner (1932, 98-101) and D. McDougall (1988) have shown, these lines depend upon the Old Latin version of Habakkuk III.2 In medio duorum animalium cognosceris ‘you will be recognised between two animals’. The interpretation of this text offered in FoGT is taken from a homiletic tract, Contra Judaeos, paganos, et Arianos sermo de symbolo, attributed to Augustine in the Middle Ages, but now included among the writings of Quodvultdeus, Bishop of Carthage 437-53 (D. McDougall 1988, 479). In this tract ‘Quodvultdeus seeks to confute the error of the Jews by summoning a series of Old Testament prophets as “witnesses” of the advent of Christ’ (D. McDougall loc. cit.). Habakkuk III.2 is there interpreted, together with Isiah I.3 Agnouit bos possessorem suum, et asinus praesepium domini sui ‘The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib’, as a prophecy of the Christ-child in the crib. In the prose of FoGT there is a further interpretation of the ox and the ass as representing the Jews and the Gentiles, an ‘exegetical commonplace’ to be found in a number of patristic commentaries (for the details, see D. McDougall 1988, 480 and nn.).

References

1. Bibliography
2. McDougall, David. 1988. ‘“Pseudo-Augustinian” Passages in “Jóns saga baptista 2” and the “Fourth Grammatical Treatise”’. Traditio 44, 463-83.
3. Meissner, Rudolf. 1932. ‘Zwei Prophetenzitate in der 4. Gramm. Abhandlung der Snorra Edda’. ZDA 69, 97-106.
4. Internal references
5. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, The Fourth Grammatical Treatise’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=34> (accessed 2 May 2024)
6. Not published: do not cite (Run^VI)