(This article was originally published in the January 2020 edition of the church newsletter.)
Were you at our 11:00 service of Lessons & Carols on December 15th? If so, you will have heard composer John Ireland’s setting of a rather unique medieval carol, which the choir sang as a response to the first scripture lesson (Genesis 3:8-19). I thought I might use this space to unpack that carol, because behind the obscure text is a wealth of theology:
Adam lay y-bounden, bounden in a bond,
Four thousand winter thought he not too long.
In other words, Adam (and his descendants — all of humanity) lay bound in the chains of sin. What does 'four thousand winter' mean? Interestingly, if we tally up the genealogies of the patriarchs and kings in the Old Testament, we end up with a span of approximately 4,000 years between the fall of Adam and the birth of Jesus.
And all was for an apple, an apple that he took,
As clerkes finden written in their book.
The Genesis text refers to "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil", whose fruit is popularly depicted in art and song as an apple. Clerkes are the clergy: in an age when literacy was rare, the clergy were the only ones who knew what the Bible actually contained.
Né had the apple taken been, the apple taken been,
Né had never our Lady a-been hevené queen.
In other words: if the apple had not been taken, our Lady (Mary, the mother of Christ) would never have become the queen of heaven. Although we Protestants don't revere Mary with that title, it's occasionally worth reminding ourselves that our Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters do honor her in a special way.
Blessed be the time that apple taken was!
Therefore we moun singen: Deo Gracias!
The last line means “Therefore we may sing ‘thanks be to God!’” So what's this whole strange story about, anyway – God creating people in a garden, but forbidding them to eat fruit that makes them wise? In order to understand the story, let’s imagine Adam and Eve as children. We tell our children not to touch certain things (knives, for example) because they are inherently dangerous. But as children grow, we teach them to use knives safely and responsibly. Perhaps Adam and Eve would have been ready for the fruit eventually, as they grew in their relationship with God…but instead they decided to take a shortcut and seek that wisdom apart from God. In this story I hear God in the voice of an exasperated parent, saying “why couldn’t you just listen?!” But as any parent well knows, that exasperation comes from a place of love and concern for his children’s safety. Just my two cents!
Until next time,
Kevin
