Volume 17, Issue 2, 2025, pages 338-351

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64438/sbsLLBY2188
Published online: 2025-12-01
Published in print: 2025-12-30

Abstract: In his Easter Song, Sedulius, alongside numerous other miracles, also offers a description of the sign in which Jesus transformed water into wine at Cana in Galilee. At first glance, it may seem that the modest scope of eleven verses can hardly provide a sufficiently precise account of the Lord’s sign. The opposite, however, proves to be the case. This brilliant epyllion does not aim merely to render the Gospel prose into poetic form, but within what at first sight appears to be a casual poetic variation of terms designating wine, it also conveys a striking exegesis of the miraculous drink offered at the wedding. This leads us to the conclusion that biblical epic has certainly not yet disclosed all its secrets to the modern reader, and therefore deserves to be regarded as a relevant – though often still undiscovered – source for the study of the history of the exegesis of individual biblical pericopes.