Book 4, lines 724-758

[Previous: lines 690-723]

John narrates how Jesus rebuked his disciples' pride.

“Quinetiam elatos animo super omnia acerbis
urgebat dictis, rebusque exempla reliquit.                     [725]
Mecum olim socii, absentem dum quœrimus illum,
tendebant, fessique via consedimus omnes
speluncae ante fores, densis quam plurima opacat
frondibus, et flexu ramorum protegit ulmus.
Multùm hïc inter nos quaerentes vana moramur,              [730]
quis nostrûm foret è numero praestantior omni,
dilectusve ipsi magis acceptusve magistro.
(Mira loquar) nos ut primùm ipse in limine vidit,
haesit acerba tuens, iterumque iterumque rogavit,
quis sermo foret, aut quaenam certamina nobis.             [735]
Nos contrà taciti nihil hiscere, dum piget omnes
verborum memores, fuerant quae plurima vana.
Tum subitò ostendens puerum, cui mollibus annis
laudis adhuc erat et tumidi mens nescia flatus:
‘Nulli fas,’ inquit, ‘superûm aspirare beatis                   [740]
conciliis, si non fastus dediscat inanes,
et penitus famae exuerit contemptor amorem,
ceu puer hic nullam suspirat pectore laudem.
Non aliter cœlum pateat : priùs aequore salso
esse queant nubes, aut pisces vivere in arvis,                 [745]
arboris aut stirpes frondescere in aetheris oris.’
Horret adhuc animus, mihi cùm fratrique poposcit
illum praecipuos frustra pia mater honores,
scilicet aethereâ superi Genitoris ut aulâ
cœlicolûm in medio celsa cùm sede sederet                   [750]
subnixus, propior nostrûm resideret uterque,
dextram alter iuxta amplexus, laevae alter inhaerens.
Extemplo gravis ille, obtutuque asper acerbo,
non matrem (quid enim mater pietate merebat?)
sed nos, qui vanos ignaram summisimus astu,                 [755]
corripuit meritos verbis haud mollibus urgens:
usque Deum premere elatos, longeque superbos
averti, quos famae agitat laudumque cupido.”

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“To those whose souls were puffed with pride he spoke
sharp, rebuking words, leading by example too.               [725]
Once, during his absence, I and others set,
out to find him. We grew weary on the way
and sat down in front of a cave, shaded by
the leaves and bent branches of some elm trees.
There we spent the time idly wondering,                         [730]
which of our number was best loved by him,
who of us was truest to the leader.
When (strange to say!) he saw us at the threshold
he stopped, looked severe, asked again and again
what we thought we were doing and saying there.            [735]
We sat there silent, ashamed of ourselves
remembering our many empty words.
Then he pointed to a child, too young to know
anything of pride or self-importance.
‘It’s not right,’ he said, ‘to aspire to the                           [740]
councils of heaven until you’ve unlearned
pride, and stripped back all love of reputation
just as this child here does not seek after fame.
There’s no other way to heaven! The salt sea
will sooner house the clouds, fish live on dry land,            [745]
and leafy trees root themselves in the sky.’

“I still shudder to recall how my brother
and I were embarrassed by our pious mother
asking that in heaven’s royal palace
when the son sat throned among his angels                      [750]
that we should have reserved places sitting beside him
one clasping his right hand, the other his left.
The moment was serious: he was angry—not
at mother (her goodness hardly deserved that!)
but at us, for fooling her with such vanity                         [755]
and so rebuked us with no gentle words.
Always, like this, does God abase the proud,
spurning those who crave fame or hunger for praise.”

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The dispute here is recorded in Matthew 18:1-6, Mark 9:33-37 and Luke 9:46-48. Here’s Matthew’s version:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.

“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

The only way to heaven is humility; thinking there’s any other way is imagining clouds under the sea, fish living on land and trees growing in the sky. This image (not the humility bit, but the crazy world-turned-upside-down stuff) is lifted from Lucretius. Indeed, it occurs not once but twice in the De Rerum Natura:

Denique in aethere non arbor, non aequore in alto
nubes esse queunt nec pisces vivere in arvis
nec cruor in lignis neque saxis sucus inesse. [Lucretius De Rerum Natura, 5:127-30]

‘Again, a tree cannot grow in the sky, not clouds be in the deep sea, nor fish live in fields, nor can blood be in stick nor sap in rocks.’ [this is W H D Rouse's translation]

... and again:

quippe etenim non est, cum quovis corpore ut esse
posse animi natura putetur consiliumque.
sicut in aethere non arbor, non aequore salso
nubes esse queunt neque pisces vivere in arvis
nec cruor in lignis neque saxis sucus inesse. [De Rerum Natura, 5:127-30]

‘For in fact it is not possible that the mind and understanding can be thought able to reside in any and every body; just as in the upper air there can be no tree, no clouds under the salt sea, as fish cannot live on the fields, blood cannot be in wood nor sap in stones.’

The ‘pious mother’ mentioned in lines 747-58 is from Matthew 20:20-23 and Mark 10:35-41.

Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him.

And He said to her, “What do you wish?”

She said to Him, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.”

But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

They said to Him, “We are able.”

So He said to them, “You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.” [Matthew 20:20-23]

In Mark, though, it is James and John themselves, not James and John’s mother, who ask for this special eminence. Though unnamed here, she is identified as Mary Salome: that’s her at the head of the post, from a Greek fresco.

[Next: lines 759-790]