[Previous: lines 239-274]
John narrates, here describing Jesus' miracles of healing.
“Vix memorem, quaecunque oculis, quaecunque sub illo [275]------------
auribus his hausi repetens miracula rerum
tempore tam parvo, (vix terna hyberna peracta,
ex quo illi socii dignatus nomine iungor),
nec me tam vastum nunc currere oporteat aequor.
Pauca sed è multis, et ea haud mihi mollia fatu, [280]
ingrediar tamen; et breviter, tua iussa capessens,
expediam: mitto modò quae monimenta reliquit
finitimas (tibi nota reor) non parva per urbes:
namque omnem egregiis factis insigniit oram.
Quis nescit nuper revocatum ad munera vitae [285]
palmiferae regem Bethanes, lumine quarto
quem vidit sol extinctum, impositumque sepulcro?
ut sileam innumeros, quibus ipse in limine leti
affuit, et durae de mortis fauce revulsit.
Nam priùs enumerem, quot ponto aquilonibus undae [290]
spumescant vasto, quot inundent littora arenis,
quàm quot opem morbos varios in corpore passis
supplicibus tulit, et validos laetosque remisit.
Multi capti oculis, clausis multi auribus orti,
ne possent ullas audire, aut edere voces: [295]
claudi alii imparibus vix aegrè passibus ibant.
His rigor ex longo immotos sopiverat artus:
illis semeso serpentia corpore hiabant
ulcera, et illuvies membris immunda fluebat.
Nec deerant, tumefacta quibus praecordia, et alvus [300]
insincera sitim miseris adduxerat acrem,
nullae artes poterant, quam nulla extinguere aquae vis.
Tum quibus assiduis concussa tremoribus usque
nutabant, tremuloque lababant corpore membra;
ignea quos febris, aut corrupti corporis humor, [305]
et quos praeterea vis caeci incognita morbi
versabat lecto totos distracta per artus;
quosve animis captos agitans malè habebat Erinnys;
omnibus aspectu solo, tactuve ferebat
divus opem: subitò linquebant corpora morbi, [310]
et stratis ipsi surgebant protinus aegri.”
“I can hardly mention everything I saw [275]------------
with my own eyes—his many wondrous works
achieved so quickly (for it’s scarcely three years
since I first called myself his disciple)—
nor could I story the ocean of so many!
But I can tell you about a few of them, [280]
in brief, although even that won’t be easy.
I shall leave out a number of recent deeds
in the locality (I think you know them)
that have been honoured by the whole country.
Who has not heard how he recalled a man to life [285]
in palm-rich Bethany—on the fourth day
after the sun saw him dead and in the tomb?
Not to mention those many saved from dying
multitudes snatched from the jaws of death.
Easier to count the waves stirred by the north wind [290]
foaming on the sea and crashing against the sand!
They came to him with myriad afflictions
as suppliants, and left joyful and cured.
Many were born blind and unable to hear,
some could neither hear nor speak. And others [295]
came who were crippled and unable to walk,
who'd lain motionless for years, numbed in the limbs:
half consumed by disease, bodies covered
with ulcerations, sores exuding foul pus;
others still with torsos swollen with corruption [300]
wretched bloating and a dreadful thirst that
no amount of water could extinguish.
Some more were shaken by constant trembling
and shaking—they could barely stand upright,
fiery fevers driving out all bodily moisture. [305]
And some afflicted by an unknown sickness
tossing on their bed as seizures shook their frame.
And some who’d lost their sanity to Furies—
one look upon these, one touch of life from him
and all disease suddenly left their bodies [310]
and they rose from their sickbeds divinely cured.”
Vida's emphasis, when it comes to describing Jesus curing the sick, is to dwell with rather revolting specificity on the horrible diseases the messiah encountered rather than on the actual healing. In doing so he, arguably, truncates one of the key features of Jesus's ministry, the way he made his cures conditional on the faith of the sufferers, and on their commitment to stop sinning. There are, it seems, thirty one specific individual instances of healing in the NT:
Most of the episodes are short, focusing on the miraculous nature of the healing and offering few extended representations of the social impact of impairment on those before and after they are healed. The primary emphasis of each is on highlighting the power of Jesus, but healing is sometimes followed by the admonition to “sin no more,” implying a correlation between previous sin and current impairment (John 5:14). At other times, the key element to healing is the belief of those requesting help. When two blind men ask for help, Jesus queries them about their faith. “Do you believe, that I can do this unto you?’ They say to him, ‘Yea, Lord.’ Then he touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith, be it done unto you’” (Matthew 9:28–29). But the Gospels sometimes disconnect disability from sin and belief and cast its healing as a way to glorify God, such as in the John 9 episode on the healing of a blind man. Finally, some examples of healing become metaphors for spiritual rebirth. As noted by the venerable Bede, the episode of the man born blind shows him healing in stages to parallel his spiritual growth (Mark 8:22—25). [Will Eggers, ‘Selected Episodes on Healing and Disability from the Vulgate Bible’, in Cameron Hunt McNabb (ed) Medieval Disability Sourcebook (Punctum Books. (2020), 113-114]As for the kinds of diseases listed, they were as prevalent in the early 16th-century as they were in the 1st-century. Robert A Scott explains:
Given the short average life span in the Middle Ages, we would not expect to encounter the kinds of diseases characteristic of aging populations today. Heart disease, stroke, many cancers, age-related dementia, osteoporosis, and degenerative diseases of the joints and muscles were comparatively rare. In their place we find a spectrum of disorders characteristic of populations who did back-breaking manual labor, survived on suboptimal diets, lived among vermin, parasites, and animal and human feces, and lacked clean drinking water or adequate protection from the wet and cold.Eurgh. At the head of the post: an illustration of Jesus exorcising a boy possessed by a demon from Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (15th century). You can see the demon, Vida's Erinnys (line 308) ,flying away from the lad's head. And you can it more clearly if you click on the image to embiggen it.
Such environments are breeding grounds for infectious diseases of all sorts, particularly among people whose immune systems are already compromised by the chronic stresses associated with intimate communal existence, violence, and fear. Upper and lower respiratory-tract illnesses, ear and sinus infections, fevers, dysentery, and other gastrointestinal disorders are rampant. Poor hygiene results in skin diseases of various kinds and contributes to endemic eye infections. Because of poor sanitation, wounds easily become infected and are slow to heal. [Robert A Scott, Miracle Cures: Saints, Pilgrimage, and the Healing Powers of Belief (University of California Press 2012), 153-53]
[Next: lines 312-348]
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