Christians read the genealogies from the side of the eternal. Péguy, reading Hugo’s “Booz endormi,” asks what they look like from the side of the earth.
The texts
13So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and Yahweh enabled her to conceive, and she bore a son.
14The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be Yahweh, who has not left you today without a near kinsman. Let his name be famous in Israel.
15He shall be to you a restorer of life and sustain you in your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”
16Naomi took the child, laid him in her bosom, and became nurse to him.
17The women, her neighbors, gave him a name, saying, “A son is born to Naomi”. They named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
1A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.
Péguy and Hugo
Charles Péguy, Victor-Marie, comte Hugo (1910), on the genealogies and on Hugo’s “Booz endormi.”
In 1910 Charles Péguy published Victor-Marie, comte Hugo in his Cahiers de la Quinzaine, a book-length open letter to his friend Daniel Halévy. At its center is a reading of Hugo’s poem “Booz endormi” (1859), and to read the poem Péguy sets out both genealogies in full, in the Vulgate’s Latin, and comments on them.
His argument runs like this. Christians look at the Incarnation from the side of the eternal: the eternal entered time. Matthew and Luke, as Christians, do the same, whichever direction they write in. What we lack is the view from the other side, the Incarnation as something that happened to the earth — a flowering of the flesh, the crown of a long carnal line. Only a pagan could give that view, and only by an accident. Hugo, “not at all Christian,” gave it once, in the dream of the oak rising from Boaz’s body.
Along the way Péguy makes three observations about the lists themselves that are worth having on their own: that Matthew’s line is frightening because it runs through the crimes of the flesh and of the kings; that Matthew moves in two beats and Luke in one; and that the beauty of Luke’s list is the equality of its obscure names with its famous ones.
Matthew takes it by the foot
Matthieu prend non point la généalogie mais la génération même de Jésus pour ainsi dire par le pied. Par la base. Depuis Abraham qui fut le deuxième Adam. Non plus seulement un Adam-charnel, créé, tenté, perdu, chassé, père de tout homme, mais un deuxième Adam charnel, enfanté, élu, choisi père d’un peuple élu.
Matthew takes not the genealogy but the very generation of Jesus, so to speak, by the foot. By the base. Since Abraham, who was the second Adam. No longer just a carnal Adam, created, tempted, lost, driven out, father of all men, but a second carnal Adam, begotten, elected, chosen father of a chosen people.
A frightening lineage
Il faut l’avouer, la lignée charnelle de Jésus est effrayante. Peu d’hommes, d’autres hommes, ont peut-être eu autant d’ancêtres criminels, et si criminels. Particulièrement si charnellement criminels. C’est en partie ce qui donne au mystère de l’Incarnation tout son prix, toute sa profondeur, une reculée effrayante. Tout son emportement, tout son chargement d’humanité.
We must say it, the carnal lineage of Jesus is frightening. Few men, other men, have perhaps had so many criminal ancestors, and such criminals. Especially so carnally criminal. This is partly what gives the mystery of the Incarnation all its value, all its depth, a frightening remoteness. All his outburst, all his load of humanity.
“Or very near”
elle n’est pas même seulement la génération d’Eliacin et des crimes, du crime racinien, du guet-apens de Joad ; elle passe, ou tout près, si près que réellement elle y passe, elle passe par les crimes des rois. Matthieu, dans sa grande loyauté, […] Matthieu ne nous le cache pas. Il ne s’agit pas seulement du roi Salomon, Ex ea quae fuit Uriae.
it is not even only the generation of Eliakim and of the crimes, of the Racinian crime, of the ambush of Joad; it passes, or very near by, so near that it really passes, it passes through the crimes of kings. Matthew, in his great loyalty, […] Matthew does not hide it from us. It’s not just King Solomon. Of her that had been the wife of Uriah.
Eliacin is the boy-king Joash as Racine names him in Athalie (1691), hidden by the high priest Joad (Jehoiada). Matthew actually omits Joash (see the omitted kings). Péguy’s “or very near” shows he knew it.
The one proceeds, the other recedes
Luc fait au contraire une extraction. Au contraire, je veux dire qu’il marche, qu’il va dans le sens contraire. L’un procède, l’autre recède. Se plaçant à Jésus, et même à Jésus âgé, commençant comme de trente ans, il fait une remontée verticale […] Il remonte le temps.
On the contrary, Luke makes an extraction. On the contrary, I mean that he walks, that he goes in the opposite direction. One proceeds, the other recedes. Placing himself at Jesus, and even at the aged Jesus, beginning as if he was thirty years old, he makes a vertical ascent […] He goes back in time.
Two beats and one
Elle est à deux temps. Chaque nom y figure deux fois. Comme fils, comme père. Qui filius, idem pater. Qui genitus, idem genuit. Il procède, il décède. Luc recède. […] Il est à un temps. Chaque héritier n’est cité qu’une fois, par le ministère de ce qui fuit.
It is binary. Each name appears twice. Like son, like father. Qui filius, idem pater. Qui genitus, idem genuit. He proceeds, he dies. Luke recedes. […] It is at a time. Each heir is quoted only once, by the ministry of that who was.
Look at the two texts below: in Matthew every name except the first and last is written twice (“Isaac became the father of Jacob. Jacob became…”); in Luke each appears once.
Obscure sameness
Ce qui fait l’unique beauté de cette liste, c’est précisément cette modeste, cette obscure homogénéité ; tous au même rang, qui est le rang de père et le rang de fils ; paternité, filiation ; père, fils, père, fils, tous la même chose ; tous la même obscure grandeur […] les chaînons obscurs ne comptent pas moins que les chaînons célèbres, que les chaînons illustres, puisqu’il s’agit d’une chaîne charnelle.
What makes the unique beauty of this list is precisely this modest, this obscure homogeneity; all of the same rank, which is the rank of father and the rank of son; paternity, parentage; father, son, father, son, all the same; all the same obscure greatness […] the dark links count for no less than the famous links, than the illustrious links, since it is a carnal chain.
Péguy adds that he was wrong to set the famous names in distinctive type: they should be lost among the others. The chart above keeps every name the same size for that reason.
Adam, who was of God
Adam qui fuit Dei. […] tout ce mystère est déjà, merveilleusement ramassé, dans ce qui fuit venant continûment, sans que rien le distingue, sans que rien le sépare, en série continue […] Rien ne le distingue, sinon qu’il est le dernier, qu’il est le suprême ; qu’il n’y en a pas après.
Adam who was of God. […] all this mystery is already, marvelously collected, in this who was coming continuously, without anything distinguishing it, without anything separating it, in a continuous series […] Nothing distinguishes him, except that he is the last, that he is the supreme; that there is none after.
The same time
Matthieu descend le temps, Luc le monte. Mais c’est le même temps. […] C’est toujours une histoire arrivée à Jésus. Et c’est toujours de l’avènement beaucoup plus que de l’événement. Dans le seul Hugo c’est une histoire arrivée à la terre.
Matthew lowers time, Luke raises it. But it’s the same time. […] It’s always a story that happened to Jesus. And it is always an advent much more than an event. Only in Hugo is it a story come to earth.
The hinge
L’incarnation n’est qu’un cas culminant, plus qu’éminent, suprême, un cas limite, un suprême ramassement en un point de cette perpétuelle inscription, de cette (toute) mystérieuse insertion de l’éternel dans le temporel, du spirituel dans le charnel qui est le gond, qui est cardinale, qui est, qui fait l’articulation même, le coude et le genou de toute création du monde et de l’homme.
The incarnation is only a culminating case, more than eminent, supreme, a limit case, a supreme collection at one point of this perpetual inscription, of this (entirely) mysterious insertion of the eternal into the temporal, of the spiritual into the carnal which is the hinge, which is cardinal, which is, which makes the very articulation, the elbow and the knee of all creation of the world and of man.
From “Booz endormi”
Et ce songe était tel, que Booz vit un chêne Qui, sorti de son ventre, allait jusqu’au ciel bleu ; Une race y montait comme une longue chaîne ; Un roi chantait en bas, en haut mourait un Dieu.
And this dream was such that Boaz saw an oak Which, coming out of his belly, went up to the blue sky; A race rose there like a long chain; A king was singing below, above was dying a God.
Pendant qu’il sommeillait, Ruth, une moabite, S’était couchée aux pieds de Booz, le sein nu, Espérant on ne sait quel rayon inconnu, Quand viendrait du réveil la lumière subite.
While he was sleeping, Ruth, a Moabite, had lain down at the feet of Boaz, her breast bare, hoping for who knows what unknown ray when the sudden light of waking came.
Péguy does not quote this stanza; it is given here for the scene. Translation new.
Tout reposait dans Ur et dans Jérimadeth ; Les astres émaillaient le ciel profond et sombre ; Le croissant fin et clair parmi ces fleurs de l’ombre Brillait à l’occident, et Ruth se demandait, Immobile, ouvrant l’œil à moitié sous ses voiles, Quel dieu, quel moissonneur de l’éternel été, Avait, en s’en allant, négligemment jeté Cette faucille d’or dans le champ des étoiles.
All rested in Ur and in Jerimadeth; The stars dotted the sky, deep and dark; The thin, clear crescent among these flowers of shadow Shone in the west, and Ruth wondered, Motionless, half opening her eyes under her veils. What a god, what a reaper of eternal summer Had, in departing, negligently thrown This golden sickle into the field of stars.
“un dieu” or “un Dieu”
The Wikisource text of the poem prints “en haut mourait un Dieu”. Péguy quotes it as “un dieu” and spends a page on the small d: the free-thinker’s politics policing the poet’s genius — or perhaps just a misprint, “il y en a tant.” He then rewrites the line with a capital. Which reading stood in which edition is worth checking against the 1859 first edition before publication.
Jérimadeth
No place of that name exists. Péguy relates the reading, which he credits to Eugène Marsan, that the name is a joke about rhyming: “j’ai rime à dait” — Hugo needed a rhyme for se demandait. Péguy admires the effrontery.
Where the lists disagree with Péguy
Péguy’s ‘crimes of the kings’ belong to Matthew only. Luke’s line leaves the royal house at Nathan and does not return to it until Shealtiel. Péguy also reads Luke’s ‘qui fuit Jesu’ at 3:29, the Vulgate’s reading where the WEB has Jose.
For the theology, Hans Urs von Balthasar’s long chapter on Péguy in The Glory of the Lord, vol. 3 (Studies in Theological Style: Lay Styles), reads this carnal-spiritual theme across Péguy’s work, including Ève (1913), where the claim becomes a line of verse: “Car le surnaturel est lui-même charnel.”
Read Victor-Marie, comte Hugo in English at charlespeguy.org
In the tradition
Boaz · Hugo Victor Hugo’s ‘Booz endormi’ (La Légende des siècles, 1859) makes Boaz dream of an oak growing from his body up to the sky, “a race climbing it like a long chain,” a king singing at the bottom and at the top a dying God. Péguy made this poem the center of his reading of the genealogies.
Ruth · Hugo “Ruth, une moabite,” lies at the feet of the sleeping Boaz; the poem ends with her wondering what god let fall the golden sickle of the moon.
Abraham · Péguy For Péguy, Matthew starts at Abraham as at a ‘second Adam’, an origin both carnal and elect, and from there ‘descends time’.
Jacob · Péguy Péguy borrows Hugo’s line “Comme dormait Jacob, comme dormait Judith” and calls Luke’s ascent a ‘Jacob’s ladder’ of a single line.
David · Péguy ‘David roi criminel, David roi adultère, David le roi psalmiste, et roi victorieux’: Péguy’s point is that Matthew keeps all four in the line.
Uriah · Péguy Péguy repeats the Vulgate phrase ‘ex ea quae fuit Uriae’ like a refrain: honest Matthew hides nothing.
Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah · Péguy Péguy says the line passes by ‘Eliacin’ (Joash, in Racine’s Athalie) and his murder of Zechariah son of the high priest, “ou tout près, si près que réellement elle y passe.” He knows Matthew skips Joash, and says the line passes through him anyway.
Boaz · Jewish b. Bava Batra 91a identifies Boaz with the judge Ibzan of Bethlehem (Judg 12:8–10).
Jesse · Art The Tree of Jesse: Jesse reclining, a vine rising from his side through kings to Mary and Christ. Among the earliest surviving stained-glass versions are Suger’s window at Saint-Denis (c. 1140–44) and the west window at Chartres (c. 1145–55). Hugo’s oak rising from Boaz’s belly can be read as a displaced Jesse Tree.
Jesse · Liturgy The Advent antiphon O Radix Iesse (19 December in the Roman series of O Antiphons) takes Isaiah 11:10.
Ruth · Art Keats’s nightingale sings to ‘the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home, / She stood in tears amid the alien corn’ (1819).