The Tree of Jesse
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
From: Genesis 49: 2, 8-10
Jacob's Blessings on His Twelve Sons
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(Then Jacob called his sons, and said), [2] "Assemble and hear, 0 sons of Jacob, and hearken to Israel your father. [8] Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you. [9] Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as a lioness; who dares rouse him up? [10] The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples."
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Commentary:
49:1-28. Although this passage is traditionally described as the "Blessings of Jacob" in the light of what it says in v. 28, it is in fact more like a series of prophetic oracles (cf. v. 1) which encapsulate and evaluate the history of each of the tribes by making predictions about the future. If we compare this with other passages which provide historical-prophetical summaries about the tribes (such as the "Blessings of Moses" in Deuteronomy 33 and the "canticle of Deborah" in Judges 5), we can see that what is described here reflects the situation of the tribes of Israel after the conquest of Canaan. The "Blessings of Jacob" show the tribe of Judah's pride of place, refer to its connection with the Messiah and highlight the importance of the tribes descended Joseph.
49:8-12. The disqualification of the first three tribes has opened the way to the advancement of the tribe of Judah. Although Judah was not the first-born, he is going to be given primacy, because his three older brothers have lost it on account of their sins. The oracle about Judah not only acclaims Judah's strength as like that of a lion, but announces that the royal scepter will be held by this tribe until one comes whom the peoples will obey and who will bring peace and prosperity. This may contain an immediate reference to David and his successors, but the text itself points to a descendant of Judah who will be universal king.
The Hebrew term used to describe this descendant ("siloh") has been interpreted by Jewish and Christian tradition in a messianic sense, linking it to other oracles about the dynasty of David (cf. 2 Sam 7:14; Is 9:5ff; Mic 5:1-3; Zech 9:9). In the light of the New Testament we can see what the oracle means: with David royalty in Israel will emerge from the tribe of Judah and will extend until the coming of the "Son of David", Jesus Christ, in whom all the prophecies find fulfillment (cf. Mt 21:9).
In the words of v. 11,"he washes garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes," some Fathers saw allusion to the passion of Christ. Ambrose, for example, interprets wine as being the blood of Christ and the "garments" as his sacred humanity: "garments are the flesh of Christ, who covers up the sins of all, who bears the crimes of all, who takes on the faults of all. The garments clothe everyone in an outfit of joy. He washed these garments in wine when, on being baptized in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit came down on him in shape of a dove and stayed over him [...] For Jesus washed his garments to clean away any filth of his own (for he had none) but to clean away our filth. And in the blood of grapes he washed his tunic, that is, he cleansed men with blood in the passion of his body. [...] And it is right to speak of grapes because he was hung like a bunch of them on the wood (of the cross). He is the vine and he is the grape: the vine because he is fixed to the wood; the grape because when his side was pierced by the lance, blood and water flowed out. Water as purification, blood as the ransom price. Through the water he washed us clean; through the blood he redeemed us" ("De Benedictionem Patriarcharum", 4, 24).
According to a tradition, or rather a series of traditions combined at different epochs, the members of the family at Bethany, the friends of Christ, together with some holy women and others of His disciples, were put out to sea by the Jews hostile to Christianity in a vessel without sails, oars, or helm, and after a miraculous voyage landed in Provence at a place called today the Saintes-Maries. It is related that they separated there to go and preach the Gospel in different parts of the southeast of Gaul. Lazarus, of whom alone we have to treat here, went to Marseilles, and, having converted a number of its inhabitants to Christianity, became their first pastor. During the first persecution under Nero he hid himself in a crypt, over which the celebrated Abbey of St.-Victor was constructed in the fifth century. In this same crypt he was interred, when he shed his blood for the faith. During the new persecution of Domitian he was cast into prison and beheaded in a spot which is believed to be identical with a cave beneath the prison Saint-Lazare. His body was later translated to Autun, and buried in the cathedral of that town. But the inhabitants of Marseilles claim to be in possession of his head which they still venerate.
Like the other legends concerning the saints of the Palestinian group, this tradition, which was believed for several centuries and which still finds some advocates, has no solid foundation. It is in a writing, contained in an eleventh century manuscript, with some other documents relating to St. Magdalen of Vézelay, that we first read of Lazarus in connection with the voyage that brought Magdalen to Gaul. Before the middle of the eleventh century there does not seem to be the slightest trace of the tradition according to which the Palestinian saints came to Provence. At the beginning of the twelfth century, perhaps through a confusion of names, it was believed at Autun that the tomb of St. Lazarus was to be found in the cathedral dedicated to St. Nazarius. A search was made and remains were discovered, which were solemnly translated and were considered to be those of him whom Christ raised from the dead, but it was not thought necessary to inquire why they should be found in France.
The question, however, deserved to be examined with care, seeing that, according to a tradition of the Greek Church, the body of St. Lazarus had been brought to Constantinople, just as all the other saints of the Palestinian group were said to have died in the Orient, and to have been buried, translated, and honoured there. It is only in the thirteenth century that the belief that Lazarus had come to Gaul with his two sisters and had been Bishop of Marseilles spread in Provence. It is true that a letter is cited (its origin is uncertain), written in 1040 by Pope Benedict IX on the occasion of the consecration of the new church of St.-Victor in which Lazarus is mentioned. But in this text the pope speaks only of relics of St. Lazarus, merely calling him the saint who was raised again to life. He does not speak of him as having lived in Provence, or as having been Bishop of Marseilles.
The most ancient Provençal text alluding to the episcopacy of St. Lazarus is a passage in the "Otia imperialia" of Gervase of Tillbury (1212). Thus the belief in his Provençal apostolate is of very late date, and its supporters must produce more ancient and reliable documentary evidence. In the crypt of St.-Victor at Marseilles an epitaph of the fifth century has been discovered, which informs us that a bishop named Lazarus was buried there. In the opinion of the most competent archæologists, however, this personage is Lazarus, Bishop of Aix, who was consecrated at Marseilles about 407, and who, having had to abandon his see in 411, passed some time in Palestine, whence he returned to end his days in Marseilles. It is more than likely that it is the name of this bishop and his return from Palestine, that gave rise to the legend of the coming of the Biblical Lazarus to Provence, and his apostolate in the city of Marseilles.
Sources CHEVALIER, Gallia christ. noviss., II (Paris, 1899), 1-6; Analect. Bolland., VI (Brussels, 1887), 88-92; BOUCHE, Vindicœ fidei et pietatis Provinciœ pro cflitibus illius tutelaribus restituendis (Aix, 1644); DE CHANTELOUP, L'apttre de la Provence ou la vie du glorieux S. Lazare, premier ivjque de Marseille (Marseilles, 1864); FAILLON, Mon. inid. sur l'apostolat de Ste. Marie Madeleine en Provence et sur les autres apttres de cette contrie (Paris, 1848); DE LAUNOY, De commentitio Lazari et Maximini Magdalenœ et Marthœ in Provinciam appulsu dissertatio (Paris, 1641); DE MAZENOD, Preuves de la mission de S. Lazare ' Marseille in Annales de philos. Chrit., XIII (Paris, 1846), 338-50; TILLEMONT, Mem. pour servir ' l'hist. ecclis., II (Paris, 1694); 32-4; L. DUCHESNE, Fastes ipisc. de l'anc. Gaule, I (Paris, 1894), 324-5, 341-4; MORIN, S. Lazare et S. Maximin, donnies nouvelles sur plusieurs personnages de la tradition de Provence in Mim. de la Soc. des ant. de France, F, VI (Paris, 1897) 27-51.