ABSTRACT
The Epistle to the Hebrews emphasizes the condescension of the son of god in the incarnation and, after his purificatory expiation for sins, his heavenly exaltation. Interestingly, the resurrection of Christ is mentioned only once in the Epistle, in the formulaic blessing; Christ’s Ascension into heaven, where he is gloriously enthroned at the right hand of god the father, is the central focus, as in our poem. Like Irenaeus, Augustine considers the ascended Christ anthropologically as the totus homo, the summation of mankind, raising fallen man. He is the Christ who descended to earth and raised up earth to heaven. Cynewulf’s repetition of the inherited descent-ascent motif of the theology of glory seems also uniquely apt for the Old English poetic mode, with its heroic vocabulary, contrasting and interlaced themes, and typological allusions, so that his poem represents both contemporary Christological verse and splendid old English poetry.
