M E SSI AN I C T I M E AN D TH E A L L E G O R I C A L T R AD I TI O N OF M E D I E V AL A R T :

A T YP O L O G I C A L E X E G E S IS O F TH E P A UL I N E E P IS TL E S

W I L M A R B E R M UD E Z
AR T 4 0 7 2
12 /06 /06
Messianic Time and the Allegorical Tradition of Medieval Ar t Bermudez 1

O U TL I N E

I. INTRODUCTION
i. Thesis: T he intent of this essay is to take A gam ben’s exegesis of the P auline epistles
further by revealing that the fundamental aspects of messianic time, are in fact the
underlying principles of the allegorical tradition of Christianity and all artistic production
during the Middle ages.

II. UNDERSTANDING ST. PAUL’S ANNOUNCEMENT OF MESSIANIC TIME

i. For Paul, the messianic event was the resurrection of Christ, which as a result,
overturned the underling principles which governed all social behavior and the
conventions of artistic production during this period in Western history.
ii. Messianic event, therefore, is fundamental in understanding the prevailing medieval
paradigm which is constituted by a figural conception of the world and underlines the
basis for all artistic production of the period.

III. T HE PRAESENTIA OF THE P AST IN THE PRESENT

i. Messianic time is explicitly reflected by the stained-glass windows of the Abbey church
of St. Denis.
ii. In the Linddisfarne Gospels, the evangelist portrait of St. Matthew illustrates the same
figurative transition from the Old to the New Testament.
iii. Both illustrate Moses as the emblematic figure of the past who finds a fulfillment and an
end in ho nyn kairos, that is, messianic time.

IV. T HE M ESSIANIC C ALLING

i. For Paul, the messianic calling indicates a transformation that every worldly condition
undergoes in its relation to the Ressurection.
ii. In other words, within the messianic community there exist no separation between men
from men, heaven and earth, the living and the dead, or between the past, present, and
future.
iii. This is echoed by P eter B row n w hen describing the rise of the cult of the saints “to have
broken most of the imaginary boundaries which ancient men had placed between heaven
and earth.”

V. FURTHER C ODIFICATIONS OF M ESSIANIC T IME IN M EDIEVAL ART

i. Typology of the Te Igitor of the Drogo Sacramentary
ii. The cross as the emblematic symbol of messianic time, insofar as the figure of the
Messiah dictates all social interactions within the time of the Messiah.

VI. R ECAPITULATION OF THE R ESEARCH

Messianic Time and the Allegorical Tradition of Medieval Art Bermudez 2

A B S TR AC T

Within the epistles of Saint Paul lies a conception of temporality which is of particular interest

to Medieval studies; since it is precisely this understanding of time was adopted by people of the

Middle Ages. Saint Paul describes a time of becoming h e ca lls “ ho nyn ka iro s,” th e n o w -time,

which is defined in everyway with the resurrected Christ. In The Time That Remains, Giorgio

Agamben argues centuries of translation has obscured the Pauline temporality— which he refers

to as messianic time— and as a result, the epistles have been mistakenly interpreted as an

eschatological discourse. On the contrary, messianic time designates an epoch after the

resurrection of the Messiah in which the past and present contract in preparation for the Second

Coming. What is important to us here is th e “ typo lo g ica l rela tio n ” an d “ reca p itu lation ” that

Agamben delineates from the Pauline epistles to describe messianic time, are in fact the

underlying principles for all artistic production during the Middle ages. Thus, it is our aim in

this essay is to demonstrate the extent to which the allegorical tradition of early Christianity art

and messianic time are inextricably linked by examining several examples from the Medieval

period.
Messianic Time and the Allegorical Tradition of Medieval Art Bermudez 3

… the present of thing s pa st

-St. Augustine

t is important to begin by clarifying that “Christ” is the etymological derivative of term

I christos, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word mashiah, “Messiah.” This

fact has been obscured from the epistles of Saint Paul since the Vulgate translation, and has lead

many scholars to interpret them as an eschatological discourse. In The Time That Remains,

Giorgio Agamben argues the contrary, explaining these letters are not about the end times rather

fundamentally about what Saint Paul refers to as “ho nyn kairos,” the now-time, which refers to

a time situated between the Resurrection and the Second Coming of the Messiah. Agamben

refers to this time as “m essianic tim e,” since it is defined in every way by the dominion of the

Messiah Jesus has taken over the world.1 For Saint Paul, the Resurrection caused a major

paradigmatic shift in human history that is characterized by an inversion of values, and it will

become clear through the course of this paper how this is reflected by the dramatic social

changes experienced around the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages.

1
Agamben, Giorgio. The Time That Remains: A Commentary on the Letters to the Romans. Stanford:

Stanford University Press, 2005; pp. 15-43; The distinction between prophet and an apostle made by

Agamben in these pages disproves the letters being eschatological, since the prophet speaks of the future

and the apostle speaks of the present. Also, I chose to reference the Greek in the same format used

Agamben.
Messianic Time and the Allegorical Tradition of Medieval Art Bermudez 4

The intent of this essay is to take Agamben’s exegesis of the Pauline epistles further by

revealing that the fundamental aspects of messianic time, are in fact the underlying principles of

the allegorical tradition of Christianity and all artistic production during the Middle ages. In fact,

messianic time intrinsically constitutes the medieval paradigm of history and time. To make this

clear, we examine several works of art that exemplify the allegorical tradition of medieval

Christianity.

First, an elaboration of the meaning of messianic time is necessary in order to discover its full

historical implications. What does Saint Paul mean by ho nyn kairos and how does it relate to

the typology of Medieval art? Agamben begins to answers the former question with a rigorous

analyses of the first ten words in Letters to the Romans, of which he explains “recapitu late th e

m eanin g o f the text in its entirety .” 2 From that point of departure, Agamben delineates two terms

Saint Paul uses to describe messianic time: figure [typos] and recapitulation

[anakephalaiosasthai]. For Paul, living in ho nyn kairos is to live in the Messiah, in which he

describ es “tim e contracted itself, th e rest is.” It is in this co ntraction “the en d s o f the ages come

to face each other,” and the events of the past recapitulate to find a sort of fulfillment in the

present by becoming a figure or foreshadowing of the future [typos tou mellentos]. 3

The typological interconnection between the past and the present established in messianic

time is explicitly reflected by the stained-glass windows of the Abbey church of St. Denis. These

2
Agamben, The Time That Remains, pp. 6. Agamben references an interlinear translation by Morgan

Meis, who translates the epistles specifically for this book.

3
Agamben, The Time That Remains, pp. 73-76.
Messianic Time and the Allegorical Tradition of Medieval Art Bermudez 5

anagogical windows depict a transition from the Old to the New Testament and reveals the

medieval understanding, where in which the Old Testament codified a prefiguring of the New

Testament. The inscription o n th e w in do w w hich read s. “w hat M o ses v eils the doctrine of Christ

u nveils,” is a direct qu ote fro m 2 C orinthians and u nqu estionable co nfirm s the anagogical

narrative as a whole-hearted translation of Pauline messianic time. The roundel illustrating this

unveiling codifies a summation of the past w here M o ses beco m es “a figu re o f th e fu tu re” [typos

tou mellentos] that finds fulfillment only in the Messiah Jesus. When Michael Camille explains

that the past, present, and fu tu re “exist in the con stantly u nfoldin g present, w hich is th e real tim e

of the G othic im age,” it b ecom es im po ssible to ig nore the echo of Paul’s ho nyn kairos.4

Moving further back in history we find that the use of the past, inasmuch as it is recapitulated

as a figure that is fulfilled in the present, is not isolated to Gothic art. In the Lindisfarne Gospels,

the evangelist portrait of St. Matthew illustrates the same figurative transition from the Old to

the New Testament disclosed by the stained-glass windows at St. Denis. Analyzing the formal

aspects of this portrait, we find the seated figure of St. Matthew depicted writing in the open

book which rests on his lap. Hovering behind him is the trumpet-bearing angel that symbolizes

St. Matthew and points our attention to the large curtain which eclipses a haloed figure. This

elusive figure is identified by William Diebold as Moses since his relatively smaller proportions

indicates his lesser importance with respect to St. Matthew, who dominates the unframed picture

plane. The crucial point made by Diebold regarding the closed book held by the lesser figure

that stand s in contrast to S t. M atthew ’s op en b ook is analog ou s to the w ay m edieval C hristian s

4
Camille, Micheal. Gothic Art: Glorious Visions. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc, 1996; pp. 74-76.
Messianic Time and the Allegorical Tradition of Medieval Art Bermudez 6

respectively viewed the Old and New Testaments as closed and open books. 5 Once again this

illustrates Moses as the emblematic figure of the past who finds a fulfillment and an end in ho

nyn kairos, that is, messianic time.

Another decisive passage in the Pauline epistles states, “F or h e that is called in the Lord,

bein g a slave, is th e L ord’s freem an: lik ew ise also h e that is called, bein g free, is a slave o f th e

M essiah” d escribes the m essianic calling [klesis] that characterizes the dynamic temporality of

medieval Christian thought.6 For Paul, the messianic calling indicates a transformation that

every worldly condition undergoes in its relation to the Resurrection. What this means for the

community [ekklesis] living in accordance to the messianic calling is that divisions which

defined man are nullified in the Messiah.7 In other words, within the messianic ekklesis there

exist no separation between men from men, heaven and earth, the living and the dead, or

between the past, present, and future.

The messianic calling elucidates the revolutionary movement of ho nyn kairos, the ever-

present now. This is why, according to Paul, the one who is set free by the messianic calling is a

5
Diebold, William J. Word and Image: an Introduction to Early Medieval Art. Boulder: Westview

Press, 2000; pp. 37-39.

6
Agamben, The Time That Remains, pp. 19; Agamben uses interlinear translation by Morgan Meis

anytime he quotes St. Paul.

7
Ekklesis means literally every calling [klesis] and is etymological origin for the Latin term

ecclesia. Hence every calling, or vocation, under the Messiah refers to the Ecclesia.
Messianic Time and the Allegorical Tradition of Medieval Art Bermudez 7

slave to the Messiah, implying that to live in the time in which Jesus Christ has affirmed

dominion means to live in accordance to figure of the Messiah, which is the law of faith that

finds complete fulfillment in love. This is echoed by Peter Brown when describing the rise of

the cu lt o f th e saints “to have brok en m o st o f th e im aginary boundaries which ancient men had

placed between heaven and earth, the divine and the human. the living and the dead, the town

and its antith esis.” 8 This is why the fall of the Roman Empire and rise of Christianity find

meaning in the prophetic statement “th e m eek shall inh erit th e earth .” The rise of the cult of the

saints coincides in everyway with the messianic calling since its birth takes place on the

graveyards of Roman towns and from the paradigmatic inversion which invested the dead with

life. With this said, the reasons why reliquaries take a central place in early Christianity becomes

obvious, since the Christian community is defined by the inversion and re-appropriation of the

values of Antiquity, that is, everything before the Resurrection.

Medieval Christianity understanding of the written text of the Old Testament to be

incomplete, which in fact leads to sin and death, originates from the typological temporality

central during the Middle Ages; and as a result, becomes one explanation why images become

central to Christianity at the end of the 6th century. Besides the use of pictorial narratives as

didactic tool to educate the laity, typology is one way images are appropriated to convey

information that was impossible with text using a complex system of images. Diebold uses the

Te igitor page of the Drogo Sacramentary to exemplify the typological art of the Middle Ages.

8
Brown, Peter. The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity. Chicago: The

University of Chicago Press, 1981; pp. 21.

Messianic Time and the Allegorical Tradition of Medieval Art Bermudez 8

Although this Te igitor was used commonly as the opening prayer for the mass devoted to the

Eucharist, the Drogo Sacramentary does not depict any scenes of the last supper. Instead it

depicts events of the Old Testament that prefigure the Last Supper. The priest-king,

Melchizedek is depicted in a central position due to the fact that his figure was seem to resemble

the figure of Christ. According to the Christian association made between the cross and the

death of Christ, Abel and Abraham are depicted at the extremities of the top of the T, and serve

as prefigurations of his ultimate sacrifice. In this rendition of Te igitor, the utilization of figures

from the Old Testament to prefigure the New Testament defines the typology of early

Christianity and expresses the medieval temporality that underlines all artistic production during

the Middle Ages. 9

In a similar vein, we can use the cross implied in the Te igitor to illustrate the character of

messianic time. Since the Resurrection brought forth a major paradigmatic transformation of the

world, the cross becomes the emblematic sign of Christian faith. After Christianity rises to its

historical status of dominion over the West, the cross comes to symbolize the figure of the

Messiah, who reigns over the whole world. Therefore the cross is the emblematic symbol of

messianic time, insofar as the figure of the Messiah dictates all social interactions within the

time of the Messiah; and further by virtue of the in between illustrated by the intersection at

9
Diebold, Word and image, pp. 75-76; The definition for liturgical time is surprising to messianic time.

Diebold w rites, “liturgical tim e stretches beyond the linear and the cyclical; the mass, with its literal

reenactm ent of C hrist’s original sacrifice, implies a much more unusual conception of time as a single,

seminal event from a distant past is daily made fully present.”

Messianic Time and the Allegorical Tradition of Medieval Art Bermudez 9

middle of the cross. Chronological time is represented by the horizontal line and the axis mundi

with the vertical line. The typological interconnection between the past, present and future, as

well as, the hierarchal placement of earth between heaven and hell, illustrate the structure of

messianic time par excellence.

Messianic time designates an epoch after the resurrection of the Messiah in which the past

and present contract in preparation for the Second Coming. The typological interconnection

between the past and the present that is established in messianic time, in which the events of the

past is made present in a juridical summation in order to find fulfillment, are in fact the

underlying principles for all artistic production during the Middle ages. From the anagogical

windows of St. Denis, to the evangelist portrait in the Lindisfarne Gospels, there is an obvious

attempt to illustrate the presence of the past recapitulated in the present. Thus, the typological

examples of medieval art used in this essay demonstrate with out a shadow of a doubt the extent

to which the allegorical tradition of early Christianity art and messianic time described in the

epistles of St. Paul are inextricably linked.

 Messianic Time and the Allegorical Tradition of Medieval Art Bermudez 10

REFERENCE

Agamben, Giorgio. Patricia Dailey, trans. The Time That Remains: A Commentary on the Letters to the

Romans. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005. This book offers a rigorous description of

“m essianic tim e,” and S aint P aul’s sense of tem porality. In relation to M ed ieval art, P auline

temporality has a surprising correlation to the interaction between a work of art in a reliquary or

shrine.

A gam ben, G iorgio. “T he T m e that Is L eft.” Epoche, v. 7 (Fall 2002). Article used to compare with the book

published later.

Badiou, Alain, Ray Brassier, trans. Saint Paul: the Foundation of Universalism. Stanford: Stanford

University Press, 2003. According to Badiou, the Epistles of Saint Paul offers a model towards

understanding “love” and w hat that m eans in an age of globalization. T his also offers B adiou’s

perspective on Pauline temporality.

Brown, Peter. The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity. Chicago: The University of

Chicago Press, 1981. A historical account of the Cult of Saints and the medieval concept of an

“invisible com panion,” in relevance to S t. P aul’s und erstanding of love and tem porality.

Camille, Micheal. Gothic Art: Glorious Visions. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc, 1996. A reference to the

Gothic understanding of time and to the images of exemplary Gothic art.

Diebold, William J. Word and Image: an Introduction to Early Medieval Art. Boulder: Westview Press,

2000. A view on the relationship between word and image in early Christian art as it pertains to the

portrayal of St. Paul.

 Messianic Time and the Allegorical Tradition of Medieval Art Bermudez 11

Selby, Donald Joseph. Toward the Understanding of St. Paul. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1962. A

general overview of the theology of S aint P aul to com pare w ith B ad iou and A gam ben’s

interpretation.

Marcucci, Luisa, Emma Micheletti, and H.E. Scott, trans. Medieval painting: a History of European

Painting. New York: Viking Press, 1960. Historical overview of medieval painting, as well as, an

account of the common symbols used to portray the saints.

Sandnes. Karl Olav. Belly and Body in the Pauline Epistles. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

A n interpretation of S aint P aul’s E pistles regarding the “flesh,” and the sim ilarities it has w ith

materialism.

Smith, David. The Life and Letters of St. Paul. New York: George H. Doran, 1920. A general overview of

the life and writings of Saint Paul.

Comfort, Philip, trans. The New Greek-English interlinear New Testament. Illinois: Tyndale House

Publishers, 1990. The Epistles of Paul; mainly as a reference to the actual writing of our beloved St.

Paul.

Volpe. Carlo, Pearl Sanders, trans. Early Christian to Medieval Painting. New York: Golden Press, 1963. A

historical reference to early Christian painting as it applies to the portrayal of saints in the Middle

Ages.