The Last Commandment
Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf imagines the farewell between Jesus and his Apostles, forty days after his resurrection.
800
Anglo-Saxon Britain 410-1066
Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf imagines the farewell between Jesus and his Apostles, forty days after his resurrection.
800
Anglo-Saxon Britain 410-1066
Cynewulf (possibly the 8th century bishop Cynewulf of Lindisfarne) imagines Christ’s last words to his Apostles, before a cloud came and took him from their sight, never to be seen again – and yet, somehow, never to leave them.
freely translated from the Old English
And when he had spoken these things,
while they beheld, he was taken up;
and a cloud received him out of their sight.
“BE glad of heart! Never shall I wander; my love shall follow you unceasingly.* My might I give you, and I am with you always, even unto the end,* that through my gift none shall ever lack God.
“Go now through all this wide earth, to its uttermost bounds,* and tell its multitude; preach and proclaim the bright faith, and baptise the peoples beneath the firmament.*
“Turn unto the heathen.* Break their idols – fell them, abhor them;* abolish enmity,* sow peace in the hearts of men, prospered by my might. I will dwell among you henceforth for your comfort, and in my hand is peace, strength as fast as a pillar,* wherever you may go.”
freely translated from the Old English
See Psalm 23:6.
See Matthew 28:20.
See Acts 13:47.
See Matthew 28:19.
See Acts 13:46.
See 1 John 5:21.
See Ephesians 2:15.
See 2 Esdras 2:15
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.