Aaron’s Rod

The Victorian practice of hanging sugared nuts on a Christmas tree was bursting with Biblical symbolism.

990-994

Anglo-Saxon Britain 410-1066

Introduction

Victorian Christmas celebrations included hanging nuts, typically sugared almonds, on the tree. This symbolic gesture goes back to a Christian interpretation of a passage from Numbers, which was known in England as long ago as the 10th century.

by Elfric of Eynsham 955-1010

THE maidenhood of Mary was manifoldly betokened in the old law.*

God bade Moses, the leader, take twelve dry rods from the twelve tribes of the people of Israel, and lay them before the holy ark within the great tabernacle: and he would by those rods declare whom he had chosen for bishop.** Then, on the second day, Aaron's rod was found growing with boughs, and blowing, and bearing nuts.

Verily the dry rod, which was not planted in the earth, nor clothed with any rind, nor with sap quickened, and yet grew, and blew, and bare nuts, betokened the blessed Mary, who had no society of man, and yet bare the Living Fruit, who is the true Bishop and the Redeemer of our souls.

by Elfric of Eynsham 955-1010

From Elfric of Eynsham’s Sermon on the Nativity, translated from Old English by Benjamin Thorpe.

See Numbers 17.

** That is, as High Priest of the people of Israel. The word ‘bishop’ basically means ‘overseer’, one who watches over the congregation.

Précis

Elfric, an Anglo-Saxon abbot, connected the virgin birth to a story in Numbers. The tribes of Israel left twelve dry sticks overnight before the Ark of the Covenant. Aaron’s stick blossomed, though dead, and he was chosen as Israel’s High Priest; Mary gave birth to a child, though she was a virgin, and that child was the Saviour of mankind.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

What did Moses do with the twelve dry sticks?

Suggestion

He left them overnight before the Ark.

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Each tribe gave Moses a stick. He laid them before the Ark overnight. One stick blossomed.