He Arose as a Lion Cub: The Lamentations of Great and Holy Saturday as Exegesis of Israel's Warrior

The Lamentations (Enkomia) of Great and Holy Saturday, the liturgical poem employed in the Slavic Churches in the commemoration of Christ’s entombment and descent into Hell, is a text clearly invested in tying the events of the Paschal Mystery to the imagery of Israel and Israel’s symbols of military triumph. Despite the beloved status of this medieval liturgical poem in the Holy Week celebrations of so many Orthodox communities, there has been no systematic treatment of it from a distinctly Scriptural and hermeneutical perspective. This paper provides such an analysis of those specific moments of the Enkomia in which Christ is depicted as the warrior-hero of Israel’s Scriptures. These types are not the central focus of the liturgy, but constitute the main way in which the Enkomia exegetizes the Old Testament text and proposes the Paschal Mystery as the fulfillment of former prophetic signs. The Enkomia (Stasis A, stanza 38) declare that Christ “slept in the flesh” as a lion but “arose as a lion cub (skumnos),” making clear reference to LXX Genesis 49:9 in its description of Judah as a lion/lion cub. Stasis B, verse 59 describes Christ crushing the teeth of the beast, making reference to LXX Psalm 57:7 and the crushing of the lion’s teeth. In Stasis B, stanza 1 Christ is described as destroying (syntribo) the power of the enemy by having His hands outspread in reference to LXX Exodus 17:8-13 where by Moses spreading his hands the Amalekites are destroyed (tribo). Explicit reference to Joshua is again made in Stasis B, stanza 45 where Christ is described as “casting down the prince (archegon) of darkness” just as Joshua did before (prin) him. In addition to these direct references the Enkomia are populated with the angelic hosts who primarily act as witnesses to the extraordinary events of the Paschal Mystery, the death of the God-Christ, the burial, and the descent. In this way Christ is demonstrated to be the Lord of Sabaoth according to the prophetic title. These warrior types allow the faithful to enter into the twofold meditation of which the entire poem consists– Christ in the Tomb in the flesh even as he is conquering Hell, the divine human natures are implicated in both– with the fulfillment of Israelite types in mind.