A Santa vinha de David

The Holy Vine of David in its theological exploration, requires greater nurture of its soil, so that the fruits of reflection, harvested from selected vines, might be savoured in a multiple reading of spiritual aromas. The present work by Joaquim O. Bragança does not seek to make known a vine belonging to a demarcated region, somewhere among the sunny slopes of Israel, but to deepen the sense of a theological-liturgical expression, formulated in Chapter IX (n.º 2) of the Didache: “We thank You, our Father, for the holy vine of Your servant David… which was revealed through Jesus”. Following preliminary observations, concerned with the philological significance of certain terms and on the nature of the Eucharistic prayers of Chapters 9 and 10 of the Didache, the subject is treated in a more detailed fashion in the patristic literature of the 2nd and 3rd centuries: in the writings of Hermas, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyon, Hypollitus of Rome and, though briefly, in the celebrated apocryphal book of the Dormition of Mary (ms. Vatican Greek 1982). The hermeneutics of the texts permit the author to capture the significance of various determinations and relations concerning the Holy Vine of David, and to conclude that many of the messages of a theological and spiritual nature continue to this day to be of considerable importance.