''Christ III'' is an anonymous

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

religious poem which forms the last part of ''

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

'', a poetic triad found at the beginning of the

Exeter Book The Exeter Book, also known as the Codex Exoniensis or Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501, is a large codex of Old English poetry, believed to have been produced in the late tenth century AD. It is one of the four major manuscripts of Old Englis ...

. ''Christ III'' is found on fols. 20b–32a and constitutes lines 867–1664 of ''Christ'' in Krapp and Dobbie's ''

Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records (ASPR) is a six-volume edition intended at the time of its publication to encompass all known Old English poetry. Despite many subsequent editions of individual poems or collections, it has remained the standard refere ...

'' edition. The poem is concerned with the

Second Coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is a Christian (as well as Islamic and Baha'i) belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messian ...

of Christ (''parousia'') and the Last Judgment.

Sample

This passage, about fire engulfing the world at Judgement Day, gives a modern English translation of Christ III, lines 993–1013 (in the line-numbering of the

Other Old English eschatological poems

* Blickling Homily nos. 7 and 10 *''Judgement Day I'' *''Judgement Day II''

Editions and translations

*Krapp, George Philip, and Dobbie, E. V. K. (eds.) (1936) ''The Exeter Book''.
The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records
3.) New York: Columbia U. P. *Bradley, S. A. J. (tr.) (1982) ''Anglo-Saxon Poetry: an anthology of Old English poems in prose translation''. London: Dent

References

External links

Apocalyptic Ideas in Old English Literature

A Modern English translation
( PDF), by Charles W. Kennedy. From
In Parentheses
. Old English poems {{UK-poem-stub