CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER ONE
1:1 [: the former discourse, oh Theophilus, I dealt with all the things which Jesus did and taught from the beginning. He says that in his Gospel he wrote about everything that Christ did and said—not that he could have included everything, lest that run counter to John's statement,! Jn the sight of his disciples Jesus performed many other signs which are not written about in this book. Rather, in the making of his discourse he [Luke] selected from all {of Jesus' deeds and words] those which he considered sufficiently apt and appropriate for the carrying out of his own particular purpose.
Theophilus means lover of God, or beloved of God.
Therefore, anyone who is a lover of God may believe that this [work] was written for him, because the physician Luke wrote it in order that he [the reader] might find health for his soul. Note also that he says, which Jesus did and taught from the beginning—first 'did' and then 'taught,' because
Jesus, establishing the pattern of a good teacher, taught nothing except those things which he did.
1:2
Until the day on which instructing through the Holy Spirit the apostles whom he had chosen, he was taken up. Through hyperbaton"™ until the day on which he was taken up, he was instructing (that is, giving his apostles the commandments which are read of either here or in the gospels) is to be read before [the reference to his]
1. Jn 20:30.
2. Aug., De consens. evan 4, 8 (CSEL 43:405, 1/3).
3. Jer., De nom. Hebr. (CC 72:149, 5/6).
Chapter One being taken up. The sense therefore is this: I have written about Jesus from the time when he began working signs and teaching, up to the day on which, with these things brought to completion, he returned whence he had come.
1:3
During forty days appearing to them and speaking of the kingdom of God and eating with them. In order to build up faith in his resurrection, the Lord quite often after his passion appeared alive to his apostles; he took food, and showed them the same tangible body which he had raised up from the dead. Yet in terms of a loftier symbolism,2* by this forty-day period of association3* with his disciples he signified that by his hidden presence he would fulfill what he had promised—Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.* Now this number [forty] designates this temporal earthly life, either on account of the four seasons of the year, or on account of the four winds of the heavens. For after we have been buried in death with Christ through baptism,> as though having passed over the path through the Red Sea, it is necessary for us, in this wilderness, to have the Lord's guidance. May he lead us to the heavenly kingdom and repay us with the denarius of his image. In the presence of the Holy Spirit, may he bless us as by a true jubilee rest.°
1:5
But you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence. The apostles had not yet been baptized.
[This refers] not [to baptism] with water, but [to baptism] with the Holy Spirit. We understand that they had already been baptized, either by the baptism of John, as some people think, or, as is more believable, by the baptism of Christ. For since he did not shun a ministry of memorable humility when he washed their feet,' he would not have shunned the ministry of baptizing them, so as to have servants who had been baptized, through whom he could bap4. Mt 28:20.
5. Rm 6:4.
6. Lv 25:8-19.
7. Jn 13:1-15.
Chapter One
tize others.* Therefore, when the Lord said, John indeed baptized with water, he did not continue with, 'yet you shall baptize,' but with yet you shall be baptized in the Holy
Spirit, because neither the apostles nor their followers, who still baptize in the church to this day, had the power to baptize except as John did, that is, with water. However, when the name of Christ is invoked, the interior power of the Holy Spirit is present, which, with the human administration of water, simultaneously purifies the souls and the bodies of those being baptized. This did not happen in the baptism of John—/or the Spirit had not yet been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.'° There follows:
1:6
Those therefore who had come together kept asking him, saying, 'Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel at this time?' For when he appeared to them he spoke about the kingdom of God, and promised that after not many days the Holy Spirit would come. Consequently, they pointedly questioned him about this kingdom, namely whether they should believe that it was soon to be restored at the imminent coming of the Spirit, or that it was to be reserved for the saints in the future. For the disciples, who were still materially-minded, believed that, since the resurrection of Christ had been accomplished, the kingdom of Israel would come immediately. In line with this [notion], Cleopas said, But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel." And before that the evangelist [Luke] mentioned that, with the coming of the Lord to Jerusalem, they expected that the kingdom of God was going to be made manifest without delay.'?
But it was necessary that the prophecy be fulfilled in which he [Christ] addresses the Father as he foretells, Yet you have abandoned, rejected, and scorned your Christ.'> For the 8. Aug., Ep. 265, 3-5 (CSEL 57:640, 4/5; 643, 9/14).
OF AcE s5> LOM 59:
Diy Dike 24:2
12. Lk 19:11.
13. Ps 89:38 (88:39).
We Chapter One Father abandoned and rejected his son when during the passion he deserted him as he cried out, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?''4 He scorned him, however, so that the saints, who thought that he was going to reign at that time, would look forward to his coming in his majesty on the day of judgment.'> Hence the Lord himself, making known the spiritual Israel and the heavenly kingdom which had been promised by the prophets, said:
1:7.
Itis not for you to know the times or dates which the Father in his power has appointed. He was telling them that the time of that kingdom is so secret that it is accessible only to the Father's knowledge. And, when he said, 'It is not for you to know,' he showed them that he himself also knew (since all things are his which are the Father's), but that it would not be expedient for them, as mortals, to know. Thus, being always uncertain about the coming of the Judge, they should live every day as if the next day they were to be judged. '® 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, and so forth. He says: When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, it certainly will not be to bring the kingdom of Israel, or the kingdom of God to Israel, as you think, but rather it will be to furnish you the power to bear witness concerning me. Also, it will be so long until the coming of that kingdom that first the fame of the Gospel must spread not only through this city, Jerusalem, but also to the bounds of Judaea, and from there on to the neighboring people of Samaria, and finally throughout the farthest borders of the world.
1:Ja And when he had said these things, he was lifted 14. Mt 27:46; Ps 22:1 (21:2).
15. Jer., Comm. in ps. 88, 39 (CC 72:223, 23/27).
16. Jer., Comm. in Mt. 4, 24, 36 (CC 77:232, 616/619).
Chapter One
up before their eyes. Mark, indeed, recalling another speech of the Lord, says,!" So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven. Luke, however, because he adds more clearly, when he had said these things, he was lifted up, actually shows that, when the discourses which he had recorded!® were finished, the Lord ascended into heaven.
1:95
Anda cloud took him out of their sight. Everywhere creation offers obedient service to its creator. The stars indicated his birth;!9° clouds overshadowed him in his suffering, received him in his ascension, and they will accompany him?° when he returns for the judgment.**
1:10
Behold two men stood by them in white garments. White garments are more appropriate to exaltation than to humiliation. At the Lord's ascension, therefore, angels appeared in white clothes, but it is not said that they appeared in white clothes when he was born, for at his birth God appeared humble, while in his ascension man was shown to be sublime.?! The place also was appropriate, for he who was born as a man in a humble little town returned to heaven from a high mountain.
1:1la This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven. The angels appeared to them [the disciples] for two reasons, namely to console them in their sorrow at his ascension by reminding them of his return, and to show that he had truly gone to heaven, not merely apparently so, as in the case of Elijah.??
1:11b He will come in the same way as you have seen him going to heaven. That is, he will come to judge in the same form and substance of a body in which he had
17. Mk 16:19.
18. Ac 1:4-8.
19. Mt 2:2, 9-10.
20. Rv 1:7; 14:14.
21. Greg., Hom. in ev. 2, 29, 9 (PL 76:1218B).
RbIR INE PEMA.
Chapter One come to be judged [by Pilate]. To him he [God] truly gave, he did not take away, an immortal nature. His eternal and divine glory, which once was manifested to three of his disciples on a mountain,?3 will be seen by all the saints with the accomplishment of the judgment, when the wicked man will be removed so that he may not see the glory of God.
1:12a Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet. When he had vanquished the prince of darkness, our Lord and Savior led the faithful forth into a place of peace and light, and with good cause he ascended the mount of chrism to send the Holy Spirit, by whose anointing we are taught all things.** 1:12b.
Which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath's day journey. According to the historical sense,®* this indicates that the Mount of Olives was a thousand paces distant from the city of Jerusalem, for the law did not permit one to walk more than a thousand paces on the Sabbath. According to the allegorical sense, however, anyone who becomes worthy of an interior vision of the glory of the Lord as he ascends to the Father, and of enrichment by the promise of the Holy Spirit, here enters the city of everlasting peace by a Sabbath journey. There will be for him, in Isaiah's words,"4 Sabbath after Sabbath, because, having been free of wicked works here [in this life], he will be at rest there in heavenly recompense. On the other hand, anyone who in this world, as if during the period of the six [week] days, has neglected the working out of his salvation, showing scorn for that text of the gospel [which says], Pray that your flight may not be in the winter, or on the Sabbath,?> will at that time of everlasting rest be shut out from the boundaries of the blessed Jerusalem. There follows:
1:13a And when they had entered [the city,] they went 25. Mts ale 24. Is 66:23.
25. Mt 24:20.
Chapter One
up to the upper room where they were staying. He designates a place in the upper [part of the house] because having already been raised up from an earthly way of life,"* they [the apostles] had mounted up to greater heights of knowledge and virtue.
1:13b James of Alpheus and Simon the Zealot and Jude of James. Some think that two apostles were called by the name of James, namely James [son] of Zebedee and James [son] of Alpheus, and that a third James, the brother of the Lord, was not an apostle but the bishop of Jerusalem.
This is by no means true. Rather, according to the faith of the gospels we must know that the same James, [who was] son of Alpheus was the apostle who governed [the church in] Jerusalem. He is said to be the Lord's brother because he was the son of Mary who was the Lord's maternal aunt, whom John the evangelist mentions saying,*° There stood by the cross of the Lord Jesus his mother and his mother's sister, Mary of Clopas. This Mary he calls Mary of Clopas from [the name of] her father or her family. For how could it be said that the brother of the Lord was not the apostle, but a third James, since Paul also gives him the name of an apostle, saying,?" J saw none of the other apostles except
James, the brother of the Lord; and the evangelist Mark names the same man, not a third, but one of the two
[Jameses], saying,?® There were women also watching from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of the lesser James and of Joseph and Salome?
Now since 'greater' and 'lesser' are customarily used to establish a difference not among three, but between two, *° the lesser James is named 'of Alpheus,' in distinction from the greater, who was the son of Zebedee. (Read St Jerome's book against Helvidius).
26. Jn 19:25.
27. Ga 1:19.
28. Mk 15:40.
29. Jer., Adv. Helv. 13 (PL 23:196A).
Chapter One Now?2° Simon the Zealot is the same man who is described in the gospels as 'the Cananean' (indeed, Cana means zeal, for it was at Cana in the region of Galilee that the Lord changed water into wine}'). He ruled the church of Jerusalem after his brother James, and as a man of one hundred and twenty years he ascended the cross under Trajan.32 8* He is said to have been a cousin of the savior according to the flesh, because his father Clopas was the brother of Joseph, as Hegesippus attests. >>
Jude of James, that is the brother of James, is the same man who in the gospels is called Thaddeus.34 He was sent to Edessa, to Abgar the King of Osroena, as The Ecclesiastical History has handed it down.*> °* There follows:
1:14
These all with one mind were persevering in prayer. With one mind they persevere in prayer who wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, for the holy spirit of discipline flees deceit,*° and therefore anyone who longs to receive his promised gifts should with perseverance apply himself to prayers founded in fraternal charity.
1:15
Now there was a crowd of about a hundred and twenty people. These hundred and twenty, built up gradually by addition [of the numbers] from one to fifteen yields fifteen as the number of steps [in the calculation].
By reason of the perfection of both laws, this is mystically contained in the psalter, and for this [number of days] the 'vessel of election' dwelled with Peter3" in Jerusalem.!°* For it was necessary that the preachers of the new grace would
30. Isid., Etymol. 7, 9, 18.
31. Jn 2:1-11.
32. Isid., De ort. et obit. patr. 80, 139 (PL 83:153C).
33. Eusebius/Rufin., Hist. eccl. 3, 11 (GCS 9, 1:229, 4/6).
34. Mk 3:18.
35. Jer., Comm. in Mt. 1, 10, 4 (CC 77:64, 1520/1522), referring to Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1, 13, 4.
36. Ws 1:5.
37. Ac 9:15; Ga 1:18.
Chapter One
designate by their number the sacramental sign!!* which the lawgiver [Moses] exhibited in the years [of his life].38
1:16
Brothers, that passage of scripture must be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit foretold, and so forth.
The apostle Peter was apprehensive about continuing with the number eleven [of apostles], for every sin is an eleven, because when one does wicked things he goes beyond the commandments of the decalog.39 Hence, because no righteousness of ours is innocent of itself, the tabernacle which contained the Lord's ark was covered from above by eleven veils of goats' hair.4° He [Peter] restored the number of apostles to twelve, so that through two parts of six each (for three times four is twelve)!2* they might preserve by an eternal number the grace which they were preaching by word, and so that those who were to preach the faith of the holy Trinity to the four parts of the world
(in line with the Lord's saying,*! Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit) might already certify the perfection of the work by the sacramental sign'>* of [their] number as well.42 According to a deeper sense, however, the evil which the church suffers in false brethren remains so far uncorrected for the most part. But since at the end of the world it is believed that the Jewish people who crucified the Lord are to be reconciled to the church, as the fiftieth day drew nigh the full number of apostles was restored.
1:18a And he [Judas] came into possession of a field by the price of iniquity. When he had forsaken the land of the living, the man who sold the Lord of life came into possession of a field of blood and eternal death, in memory
38. DtB4:7.
39. Greg., Moral. 32, 15, 27 (PL 76:652C).
40. Ex 26:7.
41. Mt 28:19.
42. Gréeg:, Moral.
1, 14, 19(CC 143:34,\22/25).
Chapter One of his crime and his name. As a matter of fact, Judas himself could not have come into possession of the potter's field which was bought with the price of blood, because when he had returned the thirty pieces of silver, he immediately punished his guilty act of betrayal by a death inflicted with greater guilt upon himself. However, in accordance with the custom of sacred writing,43 'be came into possession' is said for 'he caused it to be possessed.' In the same way, the blessed Job said,*4 and my garments will abhor me, that is to say, my corruptible members will make me abhorred.
1:18b And when he was hung he burst asunder in the middle. The betrayer, out of his mind, found the punishment that he well deserved, namely that the knot of the noose slew the throat through which the word of treachery had gone out. He also got the death-place that he deserved, for in hatred of both heaven and earth (as though he would be associated only with the spirits of the air), he had betrayed the Lord of men and angels to death, and so he perished in the middle of the air,*> following the example of Ahithophel and Absalom, who proceeded against King
David.** For him death itself surely followed by a welldeserved termination, inasmuch as his bowels, which had conceived the evil scheme of treachery, fell torn asunder, and his bodily cavities were exposed to the wind. It is reported that the heresiarch Arius was condemned to a very similar death penalty.'7 Thus because the one [Judas] endeavored to destroy Christ's humanity and the other
[Arius] endeavored to destroy his divinity, so they both perished empty of entrails just as they had lived devoid of sense.
43. Greg., Moral. 9, 36, 58 (CC 143:498, 64/67).
44, Jb 9:31, 45. Arat., De act. ap. 1 (CSEL 72:15, 89/91).
46. 2 § 17:23; 18:9.
47. Arat., De act. ap. 1 (CSEL 72:38, 443-450); Eusebius/Rufin., Hist. eccl. 10, 14 (GCS 9, 2:979, 19/21).
Chapter One
1:20
May his habitation become desolate and may there be none to dwell in it, and may another take his office.'* Indeed these verses are clear and plainly set forth by the blessed Peter's interpretation. On the one hand Judas received a deserved penalty for his double-dealing, and as he went to his own proper place (namely, infernal hell), by his untimely and impious death he forsook the common dwelling place of the human way of life.!4* On the other hand, however, by St Matthias's acceptance of the place of his [Judas's] ministry and apostolate, the most sacred fullness of apostolic perfection was restored.
But it should be noted that, according to the Vulgate edition, the whole testimony is by no means taken from the single hundred-and-eighth psalm'>* ; indeed only the last part is. The first part indeed is taken from the sixty-eighth, where it is said of the Jews, May their habitation become desolate and may there be none to abide in their tents.*? Since the blessed Peter wished to furnish both Judas's rejection and Matthias's election with prophetic testimonies, he joined the testimony which had been put forth with specific reference to Matthias's office and that referring to the rejection of the Jews in general, Judas also having been one of their number.
This was added originally to the hundred—and-eighth psalm by an unknown, unskilled emendator. Because he saw that his psalter did not have these verses as they were put forth by the blessed Peter, he began to think that he had a faulty codex, and he presumed to add what it did not have. In the same way eight verses from Paul's epistle to the Romans* were added to the thirteenth psalm. He himself
[Paul] wove these verses together from diverse psalms and from the prophet Isaiah.*! (The first of these verses is, Their throat is an open sepulchre,*? and the last is, There is no 48. Ps 69:25 (68:26); Ps 109:8 (108:8).
49. Ps 69:25 (68:26).
50. Rm 3:13-18.
51. Jer., Comm. in Es. 16, prol. (CC 73A:641, 7/18).
52a Psi -9(5s 1):
Chapter One fear of God before their eyes.°3) Not only the original Hebrew and the quite faultless edition of the Septuagint, but also clear reason confirm these things which I have said, since in this same hundred-and-eighth psalm, not counting these verses, there are thirty curses directed against Judas
Iscariot, in accordance with the number of silver pieces for which he did not fear to sell the Lord.54 The first of these is, Set a sinful man against him,*> while the last is, And let them be clothed with their shame like a cloak.*°
1:23
Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was given the name Justus, and Matthias. Barsabbas means son of rest,
>" and Matthias little one of God.** Arator says of him: Ob what a difference is there between human judgments and those on high! He who was righteous according to the praise of men was passed over because of the merit of the little one.>°
1:26
And they drew lots between them, and so forth.
Neither because of this example, nor because the prophet Jonas was found® out by lot, are we to believe indiscriminately in lots, since the prerogative of individuals, as Jerome says,°! can in no way make a general law. For in that instance pagan men were compelled by a storm to seek by lot the source of their danger, and here Matthias was chosen by lot so that the choice of the apostle would not appear to be out of harmony with the command of the old law, where it was ordered that the high priest be sought, as was said of Zechariah: according to the custom of the priest's office, it came about by lot that he offered incense. ®
He [Zechariah] was, as I suppose, selected by lot at that time Stoke 13 Skeet) (Gib):
54. Mt 26:15.
55. Ps 109:6 (108:6).
56. Ps 109:29 (108:29).
57. Jer., De nom. Hebr. (CC 72:144, 22).
58. Arat., De act. ap. 1; (CSEL-72:17, 106).
59. Arat., De act. ap. 1, (CSEL 72:17 108/110).
60. Jon 1:7.
61. Jer., Comm. in Ion. 1, 7 (CC 76:387, 243/244).
62. Lk 1:9.
Chapter One 7a so that it might be typologically prefigured'™* that they were to continue to seek out a priest until the one came who had replaced him, the one who, not by bloody sacrifices, but by virtue of his own blood, entered once for all into the holy places, having obtained eternal redemption.® His sacrifice was immolated at the time of the Passover, but truly brought to perfection by the Holy Spirit in the appearance of fire on the day of Pentecost. For according to old customs, victims acceptable to God were brought to perfection by celestial fire. Therefore until the truth was fulfilled, the practice of the figure was permissible. So it was that Matthias, who was appointed before Pentecost, was chosen by lot, while in the case of the seven deacons, who came later, there was no shaking of lots but only the disciples' choice; and indeed they were appointed by the prayer of the apostles and the imposition of hands. Therefore if there are any who, under the compulsion of some difficult situation think that because of the example of the apostles they should consult God with lots, they should see that these same apostles needed only the assembly of the brethren gathered together and prayers poured forth to God.
63, Hep 9:17)
NOTES TO CHAPTER ONE
1. Hyperbaton (in Greek a 'stepping over') is defined by Bede in his little rhetorical work De schematibus et tropis (2, 10) as 'a kind of transposition of words which upsets their natural order,' and five types of hyperbaton are there illustrated (CC
123A:158, 107-161, 172). Quintillian defines hyperbaton as the separation of two words which normally belong together by the interposing of an alien sentence element, which therefore must be 'stepped over' in reading (The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, ed. Alex Preminger [Princeton: Princeton
Univ. Press, 1972], p. 38). In the case in question, the normal word order would be: usque in diem qua adsumptus est praectpiens apostolis per Spiritum Sanctum quos elegit, but the Latin text of Acts has instead: usque in diem qua praecipiens apostolis per Spiritum Sanctum quos elegit adsumptus est.
2. 'In terms of a loftier symbolism': altiori mysterio. Mysterium occurs frequently, and I have generally translated it 'mystery,' as in 'the mystery of the trinity.' Here, however, and also in the comments on Ac 6:3, 9:36, and 11:6, the context seems to demand the translation 'symbolism.'
3. 'Period of association': conversationem. Bede uses conversatio several times in this work, and I have found it impossible to translate it consistently. Here it clearly refers to a period of time that Jesus spent with his disciples, and the word is used similarly in the comment on 24:27. In the comments on 1:13a, 1:20, and 10:9a, however, conversatio does not refer to an amount of time, but to a 'way of life,' and in the comment on 2:1, I have translated the verbal form conversor as 'keep company with.'
4. Bede's commentary on this verse has an interesting parallel in the Old English poem The Dream of the Rood: 'I saw the God of hosts cruelly stretched out. Darkness with its clouds had covered the Lord's corpse, the bright radiance.
A shadow went forth, dark beneath the clouds. All creation wept, lamented the king's death. Christ was on the cross' (ASPR 2:62, 51/56). This portion of The Dream of the Rood was probably included in the runic inscription on the Ruthwell Cross, a Northumbrian monument which has been dated c. 670-750 (Bruce Dickens and Alan
C. Ross, eds., The Dream of the Rood [New York: Appleton-
Notes to Chapter One
Century-Crofts, 1966], pp. 7, 27). Since this portion of the poem was probably known in Northumbria during Bede's lifetime, therefore, it is tempting to imagine some sort of influence, althougth it is impossible to say whether Bede knew the poem or the poet was influenced by Bede. In any case, Bede's comment on Ac 1:9b is perhaps a better parallel to this passage in the poem than the Norse story of the lament for Baldr, which Dickens and Ross cite (pp. 27-28).
5. Bede's commentary here hinges on the traditional etymology of Jerusalem as 'vision of peace' (Isid., Etymol. 8, 1, 6), and on Bede's interpretation of the Mount of Olives as the Mount of Chrism. Chrism is the olive oil mixed with balm and spices which was used in the sacrament of confirmation, to which Bede probably refers in his reference to 'the Holy Spirit, by whose anointing we are taught all things.'
6. 'According to the historical sense': iuxta historiam. This translation parallels 'according to the allegorical sense' for iuxta allegoriam in the following sentence. 'Historical sense' is also the demanded translation of historia in the comments on Ac 2:1,
4:22, and 8:35. Elsewhere I have translated historia simply as 'history,' although at times Bede probably intended a meaning more like 'narrative,' without necessarily implying the element of fact carried by the word 'history' today. See, for example, the comment on Ac 2:22-23.
7. See note 3 above.
8. In his Retr. on this verse (CC 121:106, 52-107, 75), Bede reflects upon a doubt which has arisen in his mind concerning
Isidore's identification of Simon the Zealot as the man who ruled the church of Jerusalem after James and who was, at the age of 120, martyred under Trajan. In the years between his Commentary on Acts and his Retractatio, Bede had discovered a work which he calls 'The Passions of the Apostles,' apparently referring to an apocryphal work by pseudo-Abdias on the labors and deaths of the apostles. Here he found that Simon the Zealot preached and was martyred in Persia. Bede says that in his earlier
Commentary on Acts he had followed Isidore, 'not examining what he wrote too scrupulously, but simply listening to his words, confident that he had learned them from proven histories of the ancients.' Bede then confesses that he still thinks that Isidore may have been right since pseudo-Abdias makes definite errors in other laces.
4 9. In his later Retr. on this verse (CC 121:107, 75/82), Bede corrects this information concerning Jude or Thaddeus. He says that in his earlier Commentary on Acts he had followed Jerome's commentary (on Matthew), where it was said that this Thaddeus was sent to King Abgar, 'as the Ecclesiastical History has handed it
Notes to Chapter One down.' Since writing his,earlier work, however, Bede says that he has more diligently inspected the Ecclesiastical History itself, and discovered that this journey was not attributed to Thaddeus the apostle, who is mentioned in Ac 1:13, but to another Thaddeus, who was one of the seventy disciples (Eusebius/Rufinus,
Hist. eccl. 1, 13 [GCS 9, 1:83,4/8]). Bede concludes his discussion with an unusually personal comment which reveals how critical he had become of his sources by the time he came to write his Retractatio: 'I do not think that error should be imputed to me when, following the authority of the great doctors [Jerome in this case], I believed that I should adopt without scruple what
I found in their writings' (CC 121:107, 82/85).
10. From the number 120 in Ac 1:15, Bede derives the number fifteen by adding 1 + 2 + 3...
+15 = 120, the number of additions required being 15. The 'vessel of election' is a designation for St. Paul based on Ac 9:15, and in Ga 1:18 Paul states,
'I went to Jerusalem to see Peter, and I remained with him fifteen days.' This comment may be compared with Bede's De templo (CC 119A:157, 408/414). Commenting on the statement of 1 K 6:1 that the temple is said to have been built 480 years after the exodus, Bede notes that 480 is four times 120. Four is the number of evangelical perfection, being the number of the evangelists, while 120 is appropriate to the teaching of the law because the lawgiver Moses lived 120 years, and the infant church received the grace of the Holy Spirit in the same number of persons, referring to Ac 1:15.
11. 'Sacramental sign': sacramentum. Bede several times uses sacramentum in a more general sense than the later restricted meaning of sacrament. Nevertheless, it seemed that 'sign' might be too weak a translation, and I have chosen to use 'sacramental sign' here, as well as in the comments on Ac 1:16, 5:15, 15:11, andy2 ezie 12. 'For three times four is twelve': ter enim quaterni decus dipondius. Decus dipondius is a rather curious expression for 'twelve' — decus, a variant of decussis, is a coin or weight of ten asses, and by extension it designates the number ten (Glare, 495).
Dipondius is a variant for dupondius, which designates the sum of two asses in weight or money, or two feet in linear measurement (Glare, 581). David Hurst has pointed out to me another use of this circumlocution in Bede's Explanatio apocalypsis (PL
93:150B), and the Thesaurus Lingue Latinae includes the expression with a citation from Primasius' Commentary on the Apocalypse, which was one of the sources of Bede's own work on the Apocalypse. It appears that Primasius' elaborate way of expressing the number twelve appealed to Bede in some way.
13. See note 11 above.
Notes to Chapter One
14. See note 3 above.
15. 'From the single hundred-and-eighth psalm': An apparent typographical error in Laistner's edition is the omission of octavo ('eighth'). The word is present in the earlier printed edition of Bede's Commentary on Acts (PL 92:944D), and the context clearly demands reference to Ps 108 (Vulgate), since the last part of Ac 1:20, 'May another take his office,' is taken from verse eight of that psalm (109:8 in the Hebrew numbering). Furthermore, three sentences later Laistner's edition shows Bede using the correct number, saying that the quotation from Ps 69:25 (68:26) was
'added to the hundred-and-eighth psalm out of ignorance.'
16. 'Be typologically prefigured': in typo figuretur. In a sense the translation is redundant, as is Bede's Latin, for the verb figuro and its noun figura already contain the idea of typological symbolization. Note that later in his comment on this same verse Bede uses the word veritas ('truth'), in contrast to figura. I have translated figura consistently as 'figure' or 'figural meaning,' the verb figuro as 'prefigure,' and the adverb figuraliter as 'figurally.' For a full discussion of the meaning of figura, see E. Auerbach, Scenes from the Drama of European Literature, trans. R.
Manheim (New York: Meridian Books, 1959), pp. 11-75.
P ike t tied | a i & We Pave! opie $9) 4g) math "aa :
& 54st) 2Ys tos PPPOE rss ae 9nRGg@ Wicd wh «, Mi ii Sell
b y e Speionimetenee 3
v F rise » wy ia "wry Asdtee ool a ube —, :
"hu hy "WG ;
4 Ora, eneke es iy +7 ewes L727ss Hip fim pe a hee nibs | ve ee Oeairtital is, atl gS] ga tang ie ae {rigs gat aetna Ah WA IAL OCA tg Lomas teal, eo he egy binns Os Sry 0 iw ipa ard i?" i es ow ~ oH 2h, Vi Ase ae j eee G7) *i08 Jah tes 5 ee > eee ee eee a eS a ae.
Me +) Oat pes iM Alt gs Mw &, =a glts oe! antl mit saw ms Veer eameeg D £4, D> Ad ihhodh iy erie aca hee eee = ue Aw Ome ~~ A=@ Oe SegtPabe = Le see 19 @ Clg USE Bad Oe * ; Lead & « 2; teed aft (Se PPE oF Sey 460 Aint im Sandy CORRS & Saheb ws Sze . tng 1 PORE aly ie =F Ae Sing A= Sete, (ee ee Saget wer avess vie ie Oo a Se ee bie rom ~ ae ieee Rene bane i< eH ed Ow tS — (o)< teases & 6
Owed. Hee eae a Sate — "rs ig Ao a a, ell 5% athdate i a i a« i it punts