Gripla - 20.12.2005, Síða 22

GRIPLA20
powers, displayed first when he cures two demoniacs and later when through
his prayers to God he cures those injured by Astaroth (Post.:758.17-36 and
*755.21-34).
The second of the demoniacs cured by Bartholomew is the daughter of
King Polimius, and the interactions between the apostle and the king fol-
lowing this miraculous cure are once again characterized by a typical ‘dual-
ism’: as a reward for affecting the cure Polimius desires to heap worldly riches
upon the apostle, who desires or needs no such things, and the apostle’s ‘re-
buke’ against the king’s misguidedness takes the form of a multifaceted ser-
mon in which the various parts, all built on typological examples, are com-
bined to expound ultimately upon the predominance of eternal power and
truth over temporal ‘diversions’ or desires. The contents of the sermon are as
follows: 1) God who is divine and eternal, who has no origin, takes upon
himself humanity (and with it the promise of a temporal death) and an origin
(in the womb of Mary); 2) Mary is the first mortal virgin, yet she is able to
conceive (by the power of the Holy Spirit); 3) Christ overcomes Satan by
fasting whereas Satan overcame Adam by tempting him to eat; 4) Christ
overcomes Satan twice more by resisting Satan’s temptations (first greed and
then pride), whereas Adam had succumbed to Satan’s temptations, thereby
displaying the fact that the son of the virgin (Mary) overcomes the one (Satan)
who first overcame the son of a virgin (the virgin being earth, and her son
Adam), and thus, 5) Christ replaces Adam and repairs the sin that was brought
into the world by Adam (Post.:758.36-760.30; *748.6-28).24
Interestingly, the commonly-seen juxtaposition of Adam’s tree of desire
with Christ’s cross is not included by the apostle in his sermon, and thus the
preeminent Christian lesson on the redemption of mankind and overcoming of
death through Christ’s giving of himself to death and his subsequent resur-
rection is deemphasized; in fact it is only mentioned briefly in Bartholomew’s
second, abbreviated sermon, which is addressed to the citizens of Polimius’
kingdom („[...] at hann leysti oss, me› sinu blo›i, fla er ver vorum flrælar
synda,“ *Post.:750.8-9), yet even here it seems of secondary importance to the
fact that the ‘one unchangeable God’ („einn gu› oskiptiligr,“ Post.: *750.12)
gives to his apostles the power to cure in his name („[...] Drottin varr gaf oss flat
velldi i nafni sinu, at ver grø›im siuka,“ *Post.:750.12-13). The redemptive
24 See Post.:760.21-25: „Enn var in flriflia freistni ofmetnaflar, su er andscotenn hóf hann upp a
mustere oc bafl hann ofan stiga, ef hann være gofls sonr. En sá er of sinn haffli stigit ifer
meyiar son, hann varfl nu flrefaldliga iferstiginn af meyiar sƒni.“