纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 066圣荆棘之匣（2）
时间：2023-01-09 07:12:30
搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。
（单词翻译）
This week's programmes are about how we talk to our god, or our gods. The objects are, if you like, just aids to conversation, but these conversations are about very big subjects indeed. They are about salvation1, not only of individuals but of communities and even empires. Around six hundred years ago, religion and society all round the world were so closely connected that it would have been impossible for most people to say where one ended and the other began. Perhaps that's why unworldly hopes were so often articulated through worldly wealth, and given shape in temples and precious objects. It's a paradox2 that we see at its most extreme in the Holy Thorn Reliquary, now held here at the British Museum.
The Holy Thorn Reliquary is a one-foot (30 cm) -high theatre, made of solid gold and encrusted with jewels. In it we watch the terrifying drama of the end of the world, the day on which we, along with all the other dead, will be raised and will face judgement. This is a drama in which one day every spectator will be a participant. It's in three acts. At the bottom, as the angels blow their trumpets3 at the earth's imagined corners, graves open on an enamel4 hillside of vivid green. Four figures - two men, two women, naked, in white enamel and still in their coffins5 - look up and raise their hands in supplication6. Far above them, at the very top of the Reliquary, sits God the Father, enthroned in judgement, among radiant gold and precious gems7. And in between is the focus of the whole Reliquary.
六百年前，世界各地的宗教都与世俗密切相连，大多数人都无法划清二者之间的分水岭。也许这就是为什么超凡的希望常常表现为俗世的财富—一堂皇的神殿与贵重的物品。这种矛盾在这个圣荆棘之匣中被表现得淋漓尽致。制造此圣物匣的目的是存放一根荆棘。有人笃信这根荆棘取自耶酥被钉上十字架之前头戴的荆棘冠，是至高无上的圣物。
那顶荆棘冠如今保存在巴黎圣母院。但它起初被安放在圣礼拜堂，一座十三世纪四十年代由法国国王兴建、专门用来存放当时全欧洲顶极珍宝的教堂—一荆棘冠毫无疑问是重中之重。以中世纪基督教徒的视角来看，这一世人生的主要目的便是保证在下一世获得救赎。圣人的遗物无疑是通往天堂的捷径，而其中没有哪一件能与曾经见证基督苦难的物品相提并论。用于展示这些国王所收藏圣物的圣礼拜堂富丽堂皇，造价计四万枚法国银币，而仅为荆棘冠这一件物品所花费的钱财便三倍于此。它也许是全欧洲斥资最巨的物品。从荆棘冠上取下的一根刺是法兰西国王所能献出的最贵重的礼物。
分享到：
收听单词发音 
