Egeria, RML iv.3-4

Felix dies gratiarum!

          There was a lot of confusion over lines 3-4 of the fourth passage from Egeria in RML, particularly because of the verb eicitur. So here's one more attempt to put it simply.
          First, you must pay attention to the context, in this case the previous sentence, where E. says that "all the candles and wax tapers are lit and an infinite light arises/comes into existence." The lumen that starts the following sentence is clearly referring to the lumen in the previous one, and autem emphasizes the continuation: "Moreover, the light (i.e., of the candles etc.)...." This makes it clear that the light being referred to is not the light of the sun coming in from outside. It is possible that Egeria is saying "Moreover, light (in general) ...", but that will be unsatisfactory in light of the next clause. The candles etc. have to be lit from something (no matches), which is another source of flame. That source is not brought in from the outside, but comes from within the cave of the Anastasis. Admittedly, Egeria's use of eicio here is odd and very vivid. When eicio is used with physical things, it is usually boats being brought to land or people being ejected from somewhere. But given what comes before, lumen eicitur ([e + iacio] in constrast to affertur [ad + fero] has to refer to the source of the light for the candles and tapers. There is not some huge fire in the cave that would "cast" a lot of light into the church. It is possible that E. is influenced by the occasional use of eicio with nouns meaning "fire" and, very very rarely, "light," and is making what might be considered a type of pun (the light is brought out of/casts its light out from) but "cast" is still not what is needed for a good English translation in this particular context. It is more a problem that in English we use "cast" commonly in such a way, and that dictionaries often give "cast out" as a definition for eicio (note that we do not say usually say that a lamp "cast out" light).
          Since E. is, therefore, meaning that the source of light (for the candles, etc.) is physicallyl brought out from the cave, we have to use an appropriate verb in English: "driven out", "expelled" etc. are not appropriate in English ("the light was driven out of the cave"). "Thrust out" is not really tolerable, either. But, as one can see from Lewis and Short, the meaning of eicio does come very close to "remove" and the like. In short, I would favour "produced".

          Later in the day I'll say something about the first sentence (i.1-3).