"Virga" in the Hands of Christ, Moses and Peter : Pagan Heritage or Christian Novelty?

Abstrakt

In one of the earliest Christian depictions in cubiculum A3 of the Catacombs of Callixtus, dated to the beginning of the 3rd c. (Fig. 1), where Moses is portrayed performing a miracle, he holds a rod or staff, commonly referred to as a virga with which he strikes a rock so that water comes out. 1 The scene corresponds literally to the old Testament, according to which Moses was equipped with a miraculous walking staff when he met God in the burning bush on Mountain horeb (Ex 4, 2–5). Moses used the staff to do miracles: in front of Pharaoh (Ex 7, 10), when crossing the Red Sea (Ex 14, 16–27), and finally to make water come out of a rock in the desert (Ex 17, 5–6). It iscommonly assumed in theliteraturethat it is theimage of Moses that provided inspiration for presenting others with similar rods in early Christian art: 2 Christ when performing miracles, especially when raising Lazarus from the dead (e.g., in cubiculum A6 in the Catacombs of Callixtus, dated to the beginning of the 3rd c. (Fig. 2) 3 and on a tomb relief in the Capitoline Museums dated to the end of the 3rd c. 4 ); Ezekiel when reviving dry bones (at the front of a sarcophagus in the vatican Museo Pio Cristiano, dated to the first quarter of the 4th c.), 5 and St Peter when performing the water miracle(thefront of thesarcophagus of Sabinus, in the same museum, dated to the same period (Fig. 3). 6 The bible does not mention any such miraculous instruments that these figures could use when performingmiracles. both the Church Fathers and contemporary researchers are convinced that the virga in the hand of Christ, the new Moses, is symbolic of his spiritual power: his Godly power. 7 The meaning of the symbol is deeply rooted in the Ancient tradition, in which a staff or rod was an attribute of power, as an ordinary ferula for lashing disobedient slaves or disciples or as a vindicta for distinguishing a state official and for liberating slaves as well as in the most mundane function as a pedum for controlling animals (Fig. 4). 8 besides, in Greek art and less often in Roman art, a staff was held by messengers and heralds as a sign of being a god’s or a monarch’s missionary. In the Roman representational art of the Imperial era, a staff symbolised power – virga virtutis, and was presented as a simple or decorative sceptre in the hands of judges, procurators, consuls and emperors.