"Mother Church" as a "Dove" in 5 Ezra, Cyprian, and the Tabarka Mosaics
5 Ezra (2 Esdras 1–2) is an early Christian pseudepigraphon. 5 Ezra 2.15–32 constitutes an exhortative encomium delivered by God to an unnamed “mother.” Comparison of the language and rhetoric of this encomium with Cyprian’s (fl. 245–58) descriptions of “Mother Church” suggests that the author of 5...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
2024
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| In: |
Journal of early Christian studies
Year: 2024, Volume: 32, Issue: 2, Pages: 231-267 |
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Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | 5 Ezra (2 Esdras 1–2) is an early Christian pseudepigraphon. 5 Ezra 2.15–32 constitutes an exhortative encomium delivered by God to an unnamed “mother.” Comparison of the language and rhetoric of this encomium with Cyprian’s (fl. 245–58) descriptions of “Mother Church” suggests that the author of 5 Ezra was familiar with Cyprian’s oeuvre and that the “mother” of 5 Ezra 2.15–32 is intended to represent Mother Church., 5 Ezra 2.15a reads: “Good mother, embrace your children. Give them happiness like the dove that leads forth her children.” This metaphorical characterization of the mother/Church as a “dove” recalls two Cyprianic passages in which he comments on Song of Songs 6.9: “My dove is one, my perfect one. She is the only one of her mother.” Cyprian interprets the Song of Songs, a romantic/erotic interchange between male and female, as a dialogue between Christ and the Church. Thus, he views Song 6.9 as an address by Christ to the Church, identifying the Church as a “dove.” I suspect that Cyprian’s exegesis inspired the metaphor in 5 Ezra 2.15a., These observations find corroboration in several mosaics excavated in the North African port city of Thabraca. Most important for our purposes is a fifth-century sepulchral mosaic, dubbed the “Mother Church” mosaic. This mosaic includes a panel depicting a row of six birds. The two left-most birds, probably male and female doves, face one another, while the remaining four trail to the right. Artistic analysis of the panel, combined with data gleaned from another of Cyprian’s writings, suggests that the dove pair represents Christ and the Church, as put forth in Cyprian’s exegesis. Likewise, the four trailing birds represent fledglings following their “mother,” as represented in 5 Ezra 2.15a. I conclude that the “Mother Church” mosaic reflects the influence of both Cyprian and 5 Ezra. [End Page 231] |
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| ISSN: | 1086-3184 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of early Christian studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/earl.2024.a929879 |