Chapter Twelve
CHAPTER TWELVE
P21 Ow at this time Herod the king set hands on [certain members of the church.] Not, that is, at the time of the famine, which histories report to have happened in Claudius' fourth year, since
Herod died in the third year of his reign. Instead, it was no doubt at the time when the offerings were brought to Jerusalem. We should not think that the Herod designated in this chapter was the one who was tetrarch and afterwards was made king [i.e., Herod Antipas], for Josephus reports! that Caius [i.e., Caligula], upon becoming emperor, immediately handed over the rulership of the Jews, together with the tetrarchies of both Philip and Lysanias, to this
Herod, the son of Aristobolus. He calls him, however, Agrippa. In the fourth, that is, the last year of his reign, he
[Caligula] similarly bestowed upon the same person the [tetrarchy] of Herod [Antipas], the Herod who was the cause of John's murder, and who played a role in the Lord's passion.
[Caligula] condemned him, after many sorts of torments, to perpetual exile. Afterwards, Herod, or Agrippa, in Claudius' third year, and in the seventh year of his own reign, was struck dead by an angel? and left the kingdom to his son Agrippa. Aristobolus, whom he [Josephus] mentions, was executed with his brother Alexander by their faithless father, that is, the older Herod [the Great], under whom the Lord was born.3
1. Eusebius/Rufin., Hist. eccl. 2, 4 (GCS 9, 1:115, 14/19); Josephus, Ant. Iud. 18, 6, 10-7, 2; Bell. Iud. 2, 9, 6.
2. Eusebius/Rufin., Hist. eccl. 2, 10 (GCS 9, 1:129, 10/11; 131, 5/8).
3. Eusebius/Rufin., Hist. eccl. 1, 8 (GCS 9, 1:71, 7/11); Josephus, Ant. Iud. 16, 11, 7.
Chapter Twelve 12:2
He [Herod Agrippa] killed James the brother of John with a sword. Concerning this James, Clement of Alexandria reports a certain memorable story. He says that the man who turned him (that is, James) over to the judgment of martyrdom was himself moved to confess himself a Christian. Both were led away together to punishment, and while they were being led on the way, he asked James to forgive him. He considered for a moment and said,
'Peace be to you,' and kissed him. And so both were beheaded at the same time.'
12:4
He committed [Peter] to four quaternions of soldiers. Just as a centurian has a hundred soldiers under him, so a quaternion has four.
12:7
And he [the angel] struck Peter on the side and awakened him. The striking of his side was a remembrance of the passion of Christ, from whose wound our salvation poured forth.> And to those of us who are bound by the chain of persecution, the apostle Peter himself gave this comfort: Since Christ therefore has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same intent.°® 12:8
Gird yourself and put on your shoes. We read that both the prophets and the apostles made use of waistbands. Peter had undone the ties of his on account of the chilliness of the prison at the hour, so that his tunic, lowered about his feet, might lessen somewhat the cold of the night. This provides an example to the weak—when we are tried by bodily affliction or unjust treatment by men, we are permitted to relax somewhat our intended rigor.
'* And since it is said, May your loins be girt and your shoes on your feet, making ready for the gospel of peace,'
4. Eusebius/Rufin., Hist. eccl. 2, 9 (GCS 9, 1:125, 15/24), referring to a lost work of Clement.
5. Arat., De act. ap. 1 (CSEL 72:73, 1038-74, 1041).
6.1 P 4:1.
7. Lk 12:35; Ep 6:15.
Chapter Twelve
spiritually we are commanded to again take up the insignia of the virtues and of the preaching of the word.
12:10
They came to the iron gate that leads into the city. The iron gate which leads to the heavenly Jerusalem was narrow indeed, but it has now been made passable for us by the footsteps of the apostles, who by their own blood prevailed over the enemies' iron. On this Arator has:* What wonder ts there in the iron gates making way for Peter?
God appointed him guardian of the court of heaven, caused him to hold the highest position in His church, and ordered him to conquer hell.
12:11
And Peter came to himself. That is, from the heights of contemplation he returned to what had previously been his ordinary way of understanding.
12:13
A girl came to answer. It was also a woman who first announced to the disciples that the Lord had come forth from the confinement of the grave,? so that where sin abounded grace might more abound. '° 12:15
But they said, 'It is his angel.' That each of us » has angels is found in The Book of the Shepherd" and in many places in holy scripture. The Lord said of little children, Their angels always behold the face of my father.'2 Also Jacob referring to himself spoke of the angel who saved me from all evils.!3 And here the disciples believed that the apostle Peter's angel was coming.
12:19
And he [Herod] went down from Judaea to Caesarea. Although with respect to location this would seem to refer to Caesarea Philippi (because it, like both Tyre and Sidon, was a city of Phoenicia), nevertheless, from 8. Arat., De act. ap. 1 (CSEL 72:74, 1054/1057).
9. Mk 16:10; Jn 20:18.
10. Rm 5:20.
11. Pastor Herm., Mand. 6, 2 (PG 2:927).
12. Mt 18:10.
13. Gn 48:16.
Chapter Twelve Josephus's explanation'* we learn that these things happened in Caesarea of Palestine, which was formerly called the tower of Strato,!5 and which is situated on the common boundary of Phoenicia and Palestine, on the shore of the Great Sea.
12:20
They asked for peace because their countries were supplied with food by him. The neighboring peoples had a necessary friendship with the king because their country was very narrow and pressed in by the borders of Galilee and Damascus. Hence Tyre, their capital city, has no great resources from its own land, with the result that it can be a trade center for the whole world, insofar as transportation by ship is concerned. It is, however, especially productive of shellfish and purple dye.'®
12:23
But immediately an angel of the Lord struck him [Herod] down. Josephus too says in agreement:!" He did not shudder at the impiety of the unlawful homage, and when after a little while he looked behind him he saw an angel poised above his head, and he immediately perceived that he was the agent of his destruction, though before he had recognized him as the provider of his successes. And a little further on:'® Truly, for five days in a row he was racked by abdominal pain, and his life came to a violent end.
14. Eusebius/Rufin., Hist. eccl. 2, 10 (GCS 9, 1:127, 16/19); Josephus, Ant. Iud. 19, 8, 2.
15. Pliny, Nat. bist. 5, 14, 69.
16. Pliny, Nat. bist. 5, 17, 76.
17. Eusebius/Rufin., Hist. eccl. 2, 10 (GCS 9, 1:129, 9/13); Josephus, Ant. Iud. 19, 8, 2 Jjosephus: 'owl' for Eusebius: 'angel').
18. Eusebius/Rufin., Hist. eccl. 2, 10 (GCS 9, 1:131, 3/4); Josephus, Ant. Iud. 19, 8, 2.
NOTES TO CHAPTER TWELVE
1. Bede's comment plays on dual meanings of two words, rigor and /axare. He appropriately uses concrete meanings of both words in his opening, literal-sense observation concerning Peter's action, but he switches to more abstract, psychological meanings of these words in his subsequent moral application: 'On account of the chilliness (rigorem) of the prison, Peter had undone
(laxaverat) the ties of his waistband'. So also at times, 'we are permitted to relax (laxare) somewhat our intended asceticism or rigor (rigore)'. There is probably also an intended pun upon the similarity of the verb temperaret ('to lessen') in the literal comment to the verb temptemur ('we are tried') in the moral application.
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
et apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work for which I have selected them. According to the historical order of events, it seems that it was in the thirteenth year after the Lord's passion that Saul received, with Barnabas, the office of apostle, and the name Paul.'* In the fourteenth year, in accord with the agreement of James, Cephas, and John, he [Paul] advanced to the office of teacher of the gentiles.! The History of the Church is not inconsistent, since it says that he was commanded by the apostles to preach in Judaea for twelve years.?* 13:5
They were preaching the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. For the sake of those who are unacquainted with the places, I have considered this worthy of mention this one time. Whenever you see [mention of] a synagogue of the Jews, understand that the affairs which are spoken of [took place] in a city.
13:6
Whose name was Barjesu. Barjesu is a corrupt reading, for it ought to read Berieu, that is, wrongdoer, or in evil.2 I believe that the name Jesus could be written with the identical letters, but with a mark placed above it. It is not suitable for an infamous man and a sorcerer to have been called the son of Jesus, that is, of the savior. On the contrary, Paul applied to him the term son of the devil.
1).Gai2:15 9:
2. Jer., De nom. Hebr. (CC 72:144, 25/26).
3. Ac 13:10.
Chapter Thirteen 13:9
But Saul, who also [was called] Paul, was filled with the Holy Spirit. He obtained the name Paul from Sergius Paulus, the proconsul whom he conquered for the faith of Christ.4 The remainder of this book deals with Paul's marvelous deeds. It was fitting that he supply the completion of the Acts of the Apostles, since the Lord chose him who had so long kicked against the goad.°*
13:11
Behold, the Lord's hand is upon you, and you shall be blind. Remembering his own experience,° the apostle knew that light could rise again from the darkness of the mind's eyes. One who was working to take away from others the mind's eyes was not worthy to possess physical eyes.
13:14
They came to Antioch in Pisidia. There are two cities of Antioch, one in Coele Syria, founded by King
Seleucus. It was formerly called Rebla, and they say that this city had full enjoyment of the very abundant waters of the nearby spring of Daphne.' It was there that the disciples were first given the name Christians.? The other
Antioch, mentioned here, was in the province of Pisidia.
13:19
He [God] divided their land among them by lot after about 450 years. God had said to Abraham that his offspring would be sojourners in a strange country for four hundred years,? and again he said, through Isaac will your offspring be named.'° From the birth of this offspring up until the departure of Israel from Egypt there were, as Exodus writes, 405 years.!! Add to this forty years in the desert and five years in the land of Canaan (after which it seems that the land rested from warfare, '2 and the lots were then
4. Jer., Comm. in Phm. (PL 26:604C); Ac 13:12.
5. Ac 26:14.
6. Ac 9:17-18.
7. Jer., Comm. in Ezk. 14, 47, 18 (CC 75:723, 1382/1386).
8. Ac 11:26.
9. Gn 15:13; Ac 7:6.
10. Gn 21:12.
11. Ex 12:40; see com. on 7:6.
12. Jos 11:23.
Chapter Thirteen
cast for it!3), and you will find 450 years.3* 13:21
And he [God] gave them Saul... for forty years. I believe that because the Book of Kings does not clearly explain how many years Saul reigned, the apostle, when speaking to the populace, intended to speak in accord with a widespread tradition.4* However, examining that [Book of Kings] with considerable care, we find, as the books of Chronicles also bear witness, that Samuel and Saul governed Israel for forty years.'4 It [Kings] says: It came about that in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out of Egypt,'!> Solomon began to build a temple to the Lord in the fourth year of his reign.
But when to the 396 years during which the judges governed, as their book indicates, you add the forty years of David's reign,!® and four years of Solomon's reign, there are forty years left. Of these, as Josephus is the witness, twenty years passed under Samuel's governance, and as many more under Saul's.>* 13:33
For God has fulfilled this [promise] for our children, raising up Jesus, just as it is written in the second psalm: 'You are my son, today I have begotten you'.!" It should not be supposed that this example of the psalm pertains to Christ's resurrection, even though he
[Paul] mentions it next to [his reference to] that event.
Instead, it pertains to his incarnation, about which he spoke above.'® Moreover, the following verse very clearly bears witness to the resurrection. !9 Since in the preceding verses he [Paul] concerned himself with his [Christ's] incarnation, passion, and resurrection, he wished to provide each [of these events] equally with testimonies furnished by a psalm.
You then, he says, are eternal, Son before the ages. Now 13. Jos 14:1-2.
14. Eusebius/Jer., Chron. (GCS 47:65A).
15. 1 K 6:1.
16. 1 Ch 29:27.
NW 5 Les C4G0he 18. Ac 13:23.
19. Ac 13:35.
Chapter Thirteen will you appear, born in time. Some manuscripts have: just as is written in the first psalm. This is explained as follows:
Among the Hebrews the first and second psalms ate conflated in one psalm, which begins with blessedness and comes to a close in blessedness.?° 7 13:34
I will give you the holy, reliable [promises] of David. That is, whatever things I have promised to David, as one who makes promises that can be relied on, I will most certainly fulfill them for you—[the promise], namely that Christ would be born of his line. For thus Isaiah, tasting in advance the mysteries of the new covenant, says, And I will make for you an eternal covenant, the holy reliable
[promises] of David.?! In the original Hebrew this reads:
And I will strike with you an everlasting agreement, the reliable kindnesses of David.??
13:43
Many Jews and worshippers who were strangers followed. A better reading is worshippers of God, as we see in the Greek.?3 It [this phrase] signifies those who were gentiles by birth but Jews in religion. To them the Greeks applied the term proselytes.*4 13:47.
For so has the Lord commanded us: 'I have placed you as a light for the gentiles'. What was said with specific reference to Christ the Lord?5 is here taken by the apostles as referring to themselves, as they call to mind that they are his members; just as he himself said, because of the oneness of his body, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? 6
13:51
But they [Paul and Barnabas] shook off the dust of their feet against them and came to Iconium.
20. Jer., Comm. in ps. 1, 1 (CC 72:178, 5-179, 3).
21. Is 55:3.
22. Jer., Comm. in Es. 15, 55, 3 (CC 73A:619, 2/3).
23. e.
24. See com. on 2:11.
25. Lk 2:32; Ac 26:23.
26. Ac 9:4,
Chapter Thirteen
According to the commandment in the gospel,?" dust was shaken off from their feet in testimony of their labor, because they entered into their city, and the apostolic preaching reached all the way to them [the Antiochines].
Alternatively, the dust was shaken off so that they would take nothing, not even a thing so basic to life, from those who had rejected the gospel.
13:52
And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. The Greek has, But the disciples,® so that we may understand that although the Jews persecuted the faith, the disciples on the contrary were endowed with spiritual joy.
27. Mt 10:14.
Zone:
NOTES TO CHAPTER THIRTEEN
1. In the Retr. on this verse (CC 121:144, 14-145, 19), Bede defends his view that Paul was appointed apostle in the thirteenth year after the Lord's passion. Indeed, the concern that Bede shows for this matter more than once in his Retr. is probably an indication that his understanding of the date of Paul's appointment as an apostle had been criticized. Bede's argument is based on the apparent chronology in Acts, which refers to this event a few verses after the account of the death of Herod (Ac 12:23), which occurred in the third year of the reign of Claudius. This was the thirteenth year from the Lord's passion 'according to the faith of the chronicles,' probably a reference to Eusebius/Rufin., Hist. eccl. 2, 10 (GCS 9, 1:131, 7/8), a passage which immediately follows the two quotations from Josephus which Bede had earlier cited from Eusebius in his Commentary on Ac 12:23.
Bede's argument in the Retr. on Ac 13:2 then turns to refutation of the view that Paul was appointed an apostle as early as the second year after the Lord's passion, a view based, according to Bede, on an apocryphal work on the death of Mary, the Transitus Mariae. Bede mentions that this work was attributed to Melito of Sardis. (The work is translated in The Ante-Nicene
Fathers, Vol. 8, pp. 595-598, but the passages concerning Paul are given in footnotes, being taken from Tischendorf's B version.)
Bede dismisses the work as 'fiction' (figmentum) and as 'of suspect faith' (suspectae fidei).
Several other times in the Retr. Bede argues against the authenticity of the same apocryphal work, especially faulting its chronology—see Retr. on Ac 9:27-30. (CC 121:138, 45-139, 74), and Retr. on Ac 8:1 (CC 121:134, 1-135, 35), where Bede offers an extended discussion of the chronological errors in the Transitus
Mariae, including the date of Paul's appointment as an apostle.
Bede's conclusion of this discussion indicates that the work in question must have been well-known in his time, and perhaps that it had been used to criticize his own chronological conclusions, for Bede states: 'I have taken care to note this because I know that some give their assent to the aforementioned work with incautious rashness, against the authority of the blessed Luke'
(CC 121:135, 33/35).
Notes to Chapter Thirteen
2. 'The History of the Church is not inconsistent': nec historia ecclesiastica repugnat. Bede uses historia ecclesiastica to identify Eusebius' work three times in Retr. (CC 121:107, 79; 127,
135; 129, 51). However, I have not been able to find there a statement to the effect that Paul was commanded by the apostles to preach in Judaea for twelve years, despite the fact that the Schwartz/Mommsen edition of Eusebius's text along with Rufinus' translation (GCS 9) is very well-indexed.
3. Bede's comment on Ac 13:19 is based on the Vulgate text, which places the 450-year period before the entry into the promised land. In his Retr. on this verse (CC 121:146, 44/56), Bede notes that in his Old Latin version (e), which here reflects the Western Text of Acts, the 450-year period extends from the entry into the promised land down to the time of Samuel. Bede confesses his inability to explain this use of 450 years, which does not seem to fit the biblical chronology. He suggests that perhaps
Paul was following 'popular report' (vulgarem famam), as Stephen did in the problematic passage concerning the burial place of the patriarchs (see note 3 to ch. 7).
4. See note 3 to ch. 7.
5. In the Retr. on this verse (CC 121:146, 57-147, 87), Bede presents a detailed correction of the chronological reasoning in his earlier Commentary. He says that he was wrong in assigning the authority of Josephus to the Eusebius/Jerome Chronicle (GCS
47: 65A), which gives forty years, equally divided, to the reigns of Samuel and Saul, and that looking more carefully into the histories of Josephus (Ant. Iud. 6, 13, 5; 6, 14, 9), Bede saw there only twelve years assigned to Samuel, and twenty to Saul. This led him to discover that the Chronicle omitted the ten-year reign of the judge Elon (Jjg 12:11), and since this left ten years short of the prescribed 480 years from the exodus to the building of the temple, the Chronicle added some years here and there, including eight years to the combined reigns of Samuel and Saul.
Bede concludes by stating that his assignment of 396 years to the period from Moses to Samuel in his Commentary on Ac 13:21 was also based on the authority of the Chronicle, since he had not yet observed that this was not consonant with the original
Hebrew.
Strangely enough, in his De temporibus, a very early work which probably predates the Commentary on Acts by at least six years, Bede had stated that the correct figure for the combined reigns of Samuel and Saul was thirty-two years, the same figure which according to the Retr. on Ac 13:21 he arrived at by looking into Josephus. Laistner, in the Introduction to his 1939 edition (xv-xvi), discusses this problem in relation to the date of the Commentary, and he suggests that the answer to the problem
Notes to Chapter Thirteen may be that in composing the Commentary under time pressure
(as Bede himself in his Preface says he did) he perhaps inserted, without revising, a note on this matter of chronology which he had written before his composition of De temporibus.
6. In the Retr. on this verse ( CC 121:147, 96-148, 114), Bede pelea a passage from Hilary's Tract. sup. ps. 2 (CSEL 22:59, 15/26;
2, 13/16; 63, 5/10), which argues that the psalm verse is cited primarily in relation to Christ's resurrection, not to his birth, contrary to what Bede had stated in his earlier Commentary.
7. In the Vulgate, psalm 1 begins Beatus vir, and the last verse of psalm 2 ends beati omnes, qui confidunt in eo. Hence Jerome's comment concerning their beginning and ending 'with blessedness' (beatitudine).
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
14:2 B ut they [the disbelieving Jews of Iconium] stirred up the souls of the gentiles to wrath against the brethren. Certain Latin manuscripts lack what follows in the Greek:! But God made peace.
14:6-7 And there [in Lystra and Derbe] they were preaching the gospel. In the Greek this follows:2 And the entire crowd was Stirred at their teaching. But Paul and Barnabas stayed at Lystra. Some of our manuscripts do not have these verses.
14:8
And in Lystra a certain man whose feet were crippled used to sit, and so forth. Just as that lame man whom Peter and John cured at the door of the temple? prefigured the salvation of the Jews, so too this sick Lycaonian prefigured the people of the gentiles, who were for a long time remote from the religion of the law and the temple, but who were brought in by the preaching of the apostle
Paul, who said, They [Peter, James, and John] gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the gentiles, but they to the circumcised.'
The times [when the two cures occurred] are appropriate to the exposition, for the former [i.e., the lame man cured by Peter and John] was cured in the earliest days of the faith, when the word was not yet believed by gentiles. The latter
[i.e., the lame Lycaonian] was cured in the midst of the new joys of the converted gentile world, when the Jews had been ie:
D2. CB.
3. Ac 3:1-11.
4. Ga 2:9.
Chapter Fourteen excluded for their lack of faith and sprinkled with the dust of damnation.>® 14:9
And seeing that he had the faith to be saved. The former [i.e., the lame man cured by Peter and John] in the Jewish manner asked the apostles for money,° but this man asked them for salvation by faith.
14:10
He [Paul] said in a loud voice, 'Arise straight up on your feet.' In the Greek original it reads:' He said in a loud voice, 'I say to you in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, arise straight up on your feet.' We have provided these things concerning translation so that you will not be astonished at the variety of manuscripts and fail to recognize which [version] is the more true.
14:11
The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. This was a stupid error on the part of gentiles, who thought that everything which they saw above themselves was a god.
14:12a And they called Barnabas Jupiter. From the fact that he seemed to them to be the older one,® for they thought of Jupiter as the father of the gods and the king of men.
14:12b And they called Paul Mercury, for he was the principal speaker. Because they believed that Mercury granted speech and language to mortals, in Latin the name applied to him was Mercury, as it were, 'running in the middle," that is, between ears and tongues. In Greek, however, they named him 'Eoujyv, that is, spokesman.
14:13
He [the priest of Jupiter] brought bulls and garlands to the gates. The bulls were for sacrificial victims; the garlands were either so that he might adorn the 5. Ac 13:50-51.
6. Ac 3:3.
Tae:
8. or 'more important one' (prior).
9. Isid., Etymol. 8, 11, 45.
Chapter Fourteen eae) face of the temple according to the rites of the gentiles, or so that he might put them upon the bulls which were to be sacrificed as if to gods.'* 14:14
Tearing their tunics, they [Paul and Barnabas] leapt into the crowd, and so forth. In fear they tore their garments because they were being honored with the worship of the gods. For it was according to the custom of the Jews to do this whenever they heard of something blasphemous and against God. Herod was immediately struck down by an angel because he did not give honor to God, but put his trust in the excessive favor of the people.'°®
10. Jer., Comm. in Mt. 4, 26, 65 (CC 77:261, 1418/1426).
NOTES TO CHAPTER FOURTEEN
1. In the Retr. on this verse (CC 121:148, 1/4), Bede quotes Pliny (Nat. his. 16, 9), who says that garlands were placed upon those offering sacrifice, as well as upon the victims.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
15:2 "Tes decided that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to the apostles and presbyters in Jerusalem, and so forth. Concerning this 'going up' of his, Paul himself wrote to the Galatians,! Then, after fourteen years, I went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus as well, and I conferred with them about the gospel which I preach among the gentiles. The number of years which he sets before us should be reviewed here. We know that the apostles Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom in the thirtyeighth year after the Lord's passion (that is, in Nero's last year), and that blessed Peter occupied the episcopal see for twenty-five years.2 However, twenty-five and fourteen do not make thirty-eight, but thirty-nine. It follows therefore that we must believe that blessed Peter came to Rome in the same fourteenth year after the Lord's passion [as that] in which Paul spoke to him in Jerusalem, that is, in the fourth year of [the reign of] Claudius Caesar. And at the same time, unless I am misled, from this exposition it is proven that Paul the apostle came to the faith in the very same year in which the Lord suffered and rose from the dead.'*
15:5
They [some Pharisees who had become Christians] said that they [the gentile converts] ought to be circumcised. The Galatians were deceived by this error, that they believed that circumcision and the rituals of the law should be combined with the grace of baptism.
1. Ga 2:1-2.
2. Jer., De vir, ill. 1 and 5 (TU 14:6, 24/29; 10, 21/23).
3. Ga 5:1-6.
Chapter Fifteen 15:9
He [God] purified their [the gentiles'] hearts by faith. Therefore there is no need of circumcision of the flesh to cleanse those whose hearts were purified by so much faith that even before baptism they deserved to receive the Holy Spirit.
15:11
But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are. If therefore they also, that is, the fathers who were unable to bear the yoke of the old law, believed that they were saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, it is clear that this grace made even the just men of old to live, for 'The just man lives by faith. '* Therefore, on account of the diversity of the times the sacramental signs?* could be diverse, though nevertheless reverting most harmoniously to the unity of the same faith.
15:16
After these things I shall return and build up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and so forth. The tabernacle of David signifies a trace of the law, which was corrupted and torn to pieces by the betrayals of the Pharisees.3* However, with the Lord's return, that is, his appearance in the flesh, it was built up by God with spiritual grace, so that not only the Jews, but also all the gentile nations, would seek after his name.°5
15:20
And [James instructed the gentile converts only to abstain from the meat of animals] which have been strangled, and from blood. That is, from pouring out blood or eating [meat] along with the blood. These concessions were made to those who came from a gentile life, in view of their rudimentary faith and the long-standing custom of the gentile world. However, lest these same things be thought to be sufficient even for the more perfect, he [James] watchfully added:
4. Aug., Ep. 190, 2, 6 (CSEL 57:142, 14/18); Rm 1:17; Ga 3:11.
5. Ac 15:16-17.
Chapter Fifteen
15:21
For from ancient times in every city Moses has had those who would preach him in the synagogue.
That is to say: Although they are not now weighed down by us with the full rigor of the precepts, nevertheless, as time goes on, in coming together very often for the reading of the law and the prophets, little by little they will receive the principles of life and the rules requiring the keeping of mutual love. For it is very certain that the primitive church, still practicing Jewish ways, continued to use these [readings] in their sabbath celebrations.
15:28
For it has seemed right to the Holy Spirit and to us. That is, it has pleased the Holy Spirit, who, appearing as the arbiter of his own powers, breathes where he wills,© and speaks the things which he wishes. And it has pleased us, not in accordance with our own will alone, but by virtue of the prompting of the same Spirit.
15:35
But Paul and Barnabas were staying at Antioch.
During this time what the apostle says was fulfilled, When Cephas came to Antioch, I withstood him to his face.'
15:38
But Paul asked that he [John Mark] should not be taken back. When he [John Mark] placed himself in the very front line of the fray, he had been too lukewarm about taking a stand.* Therefore Paul rightly rejected him, lest the strength of others might be corrupted by the contagious influence, so to speak, of this man.
15:39a And a quarrel occurred. Do not think this a moral fault, for it is not evil to be agitated. Rather it is evil to be agitated unreasonably, when no just reason demands ig 15:39b And Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. Because he loved him as a brother, and because
6. Jn 3:8.
7Ga 2311:
8. Ac 13:13.
Chapter Fifteen they were relatives (for we read that they were cousins'), Barnabas was separated from Paul and returned to his island homeland;!° none the less he engaged in the work imposed upon him, preaching the gospel.
9. Col 4:10.
10. Ac 4:36.
NOTES TO CHAPTER FIFTEEN
1. This comment is an excellent illustration of Bede's scrupulous concern for accurate chronology. It also shows his regard for his patristic sources, but his willingness to correct them when forced to do so by his demand for historical accuracy. Bede is here struggling to reconcile the chronological information which he evidently found in Jerome's De viris illustribus with Paul's statement in Ga 2:1-2 that 'after fourteen years' he had gone to Jerusalem to confer with the apostles, including Peter
(Ga 2:9). In chs. 1 and 5 of Jerome's work (TU 14:6, 24/29; 10, 21/23), Bede found that Peter went to Rome in Claudius' second year and remained there as bishop for twenty-five years, until his martyrdom in Nero's fourteenth year, which was also the year of Paul's martyrdom in Rome. This, says Jerome, was 'the thirtyseventh year after the Lord's passion.' Bede realized that Jerome's figures could not be reconciled with the fourteen years of Ga 2, since there was not sufficient time between Christ's passion and the martyrdom of Peter and Paul in Nero's fourteenth year to allow for both Peter's twenty-five-year Roman episcopate and the fourteen years of Ga 2. Bede's solution is to accept Jerome's assertion of Peter's twenty-five-year episcopate, and also Jerome's dating of the deaths of Peter and Paul in Nero's fourteenth year, but to alter Jerome's dating in two less-important respects: (1)
Bede asserts that Peter went to Rome in Claudius' fourth year, whereas Jerome had said Claudius' second year; (2) Bede says that the fourteenth year of Nero's reign, when Peter and Paul were martyred, was the thirty-eighth year after Christ's passion, whereas Jerome had made it the thirty-seventh year. In this way
Bede is able to keep the substance of Jerome's account and at the same time insure that Paul would still have found Peter in Jerusalem during the fourteenth year after his conversion, as he says in Ga 2.
2. 'Sacramental signs': sacramenta. See note 11 to ch. 1.
3. 'Traditions': traditionibus. The only other use of this word in the Commentary on Acts is in the comment on Ac 1:18a, where, quoting Gregory the Great, Bede refers to the sin of Judas as a 'guilty act of betrayal' (traditionis crimen). Doubtless Bede intended a play upon the double-meaning of traditio, the 'tradi-
Notes to Chapter Fifteen tions' of the Pharisees, that is, are to be regarded as 'betrayals' of the law, just as Judas' act was a betrayal of Christ. Elsewhere, when Bede refers to the teachings of a particular group, he uses doctrina or dogma, not traditio.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
16:3 H: [Paul] circumcised him [Timothy] on account of the Jews who were in those places. [It was] not because he believed that the symbolic actions of the law could provide anything of use now that the truth of the gospel was shining forth. [Paul did this] instead so that the Jewish [Christians] would not fall away from the faith because of the pretext of the gentiles. Nevertheless, the old trace [of the law of circumcision] was to be gradually removed for them, just as the depravity of their ancient ways was to be removed in the case of the gentiles, as has been said above.! For these traces of the law were used from time to time by the apostles, as if they were at one time established by the Lord, in order to avert lack of belief on the part of the Jewish [Christians].
The saints, however, never had anything to do with the practices of the gentiles, inasmuch as they were acquired from Satan.
16:6-9 They were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, and so forth, up to Come over into Macedonia and help us. Truly terrible is the Lord in his councils upon the sons of men.? The one who promised that he would follow the master through everything was not granted permission,? and another man who had been ordered to follow did not receive the delay he asked for in order to bury his father.4 Paul, who was fighting against [Christ], was attracted in spite of himself.* Cornelius,
1. See com. on 15:20-21.
2. Ps 66:5 (65:5).
3. Mt 8:19-20.
4. Mt 8:21-22.
5. Ac 9:1—9.
Chapter Sixteen who devoted himself to prayers and almsgiving, was shown the way of salvation as his reward.* And God, who knows hearts, on account of his kindness, withdrew [his] teacher from Asia lest, if what is holy were given to dogs,' the error of their wicked heart might be judged more reprebensible on account of their disregard of his preaching.* On the other hand the Macedonian legate, whom we believe to have been the angel of that people,'* asked the apostles, who were concerned with other matters, that crumbs of the Lord's bread might be offered to them.?
16:12
[Philippi], which is the principal city of part of Macedonia, a colony. A colony is a place which, because of a lack of native inhabitants, ts filled with new cultivators of the soil,?* and thus it is called a colony, from the cultivation of a field.}° 16:16
A certain girl who had a soothsaying spirit.
That a soothsaying trick of divination could occur we find in the Book of Kings!! when, at Saul's request, a female soothsayer called up from hell either the soul of Samuel or else an unclean spirit in his place.!? A certain kind of magical apparition was obtained from Pythian Apollo, and so they say that it was called after his special name.!3 However, there is also a corresponding term of the Hebrews, who call the mouth of an abyss a pithona.'4 3* 16:17
These men are servants of the most high God.
That confession is not voluntary which is followed by a reward for confessing, but under the compulsion of fear of the Holy Spirit, the deceitful spirit spoke the truth, not daring any longer to hide its darkness in the presence of 6. Ac 10.
7. Mt 7:6.
8. Greg., Hom. in ev. 1, 4, 1 (PL 76:1089D).
9. Mt 15:21-27.
10. Isid., Etymol. 15, 2, 9.
11. 1 S 28:3-19.
12. Isid., Etymol. 8, 9, 7.
13. Isid., Etymol. 8, 9, 21.
14. Jer, De nom. Hebr. (CC 72:148, 22).
Chapter Sixteen
the light. But to the sinner God says, 'Why do you recite my judgments?''5 As Arator says,!° If she who was a servant of falsehood prophesies what is true, let us not be corrupted by the bitter honey of deceit.
16:18
I command you, in the name of Jesus Christ, go out of her! [Paul] blinded the attacker of the faith Barjesu by making his craft ineffective and by making him lose his eyes,'7 but he cured this woman who, although her mind had gone awry, nevertheless spoke the truth, and he deprived her only of her wicked craft. Because it was unseemly for an unclean spirit to announce the word of the gospel, he commanded it to leave and to keep silent; demons ought to confess the Lord with trembling, not praise him with joy.
16:21
And they are announcing ways which we are not permitted to adopt or practice, since we are
Romans. They were talking about the faith of Jesus Christ, in whose name the soothsaying spirit went out. The Romans had already decreed that no god was to be accepted unless approved by the senate.
16:25
But in the middle of the night Paul and Silas were worshipping God and reciting a hymn, and so forth. The devotion of the apostles' hearts and the power of prayer are expressed [here] together, since in the depths of the prison they sang hymns, and their praise moved the earth of the prison, shook the foundation, opened the doors, and finally loosened the very chains of those who had been bound.'8 In other words, anyone of the faithful considers it all joy when he falls into various trials.'° And he gladly glories in his infirmities, so that the power of Christ may dwell in him.?° Such a one undoubtedly sings hymns with Paul and Silas within the darkness of the prison, and with 15. Ps 50:16 (49:16).
16. Arat., De act. ap. 2 (CSEL 72:102, 441/442).
17. Ac 13:6-11.
18. Ac 16:26.
19. Jm 1:2.
20. 2 Co 12:9.
Chapter Sixteen the psalmist he recites to the Lord:?1! You are my refuge from the distress which surrounds me, my exaltation.
16:33
He washed their wounds, and he was baptized.
A beautiful exchange—for them he washed the wounds from their blows, and through them he was relieved of the wounds of his own guilty acts.
21. Ps 32:7 (31:7).
NOTES TO CHAPTER SIXTEEN
1. For an illuminating discussion of the theme of the nations' guardian angels, see Jean Daniélou, Origen, trans. Walter Mitchell
(New York: Sheed and Ward, 1955), pp. 224-37. See also the article on "'Angel"' in The Catholic Encyclopaedia (New York and London: Encyclopaedia Press, 1907-22), Vol. I, p. 477, where reference is made to Acts 16:9.
2. 'Cultivators of the soil': cultoribus, which can simply mean 'inhabitants,' but Isidore's etymological observation depends on the evident relationship of cultoribus to 'the cultivation (cultu) of a field.' Bede was interested in the word-family related to the verb colo and its range of meanings (see note 1 to ch. 8).
3. Ac 16:16 reads, 'A certain girl had a spiritum pithonem,' which I have translated 'a soothsaying spirit.' Bede's discussion of this verse revolves around the unusual word pithonem. Using his characteristic concordance exegesis, he refers to another use of this word in the story of Saul and the witch of Endor in 1 Sm
28. There, in the Vulgate version, Saul orders the woman, who is descril ed as 'one who has a pithonem' (1 S 28:7), to 'divine for me in your pithone' (verse 8). In the brief reference to this episode in 1 Ch 10:13, the woman is referred to as a pithonissa.
Bede too, following Isidore, refers to her as a pithonissa, which I have translated 'a female soothsayer,' and Bede characterizes the whole episode as a pithonica divinatio, a 'soothsaying trick of divination.' In the Retr. on this verse (CC 121:151, 39/46),
Bede says that his statement in the Commentary that pithona in Hebrew could mean the mouth of an abyss was taken from Jerome's De nom. Hebr., but that the reader should know that the name is Greek and is violently interpreted according to the Hebrew language, which Jerome himself did not fail to mention—see De nom. Hebr. (CC 72:148, 26/28).
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teed
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
1 Re e disclosed and made known that the Hess had to suffer and rise from the dead, and that this is Christ Jesus. He made both things known from the scriptures at the same time, that the christ had to suffer and to rise, and that this suffering and resurrection pertained to none other than to Jesus of Nazareth. For there were certain ones among the Jews, just as there are today, who were so lacking in faith that, although they could not deny that the suffering and resurrection of the christ were present in the scriptures, nevertheless entirely denied that these things pertained to Jesus, and they preferred to look forward to the antichrist rather than to believe in Jesus Christ. And therefore Paul not only preached the mysteries of the christ, but he also taught that these mysteries were accomplished in Christ Jesus.
17:4
And a large number of worshippers and gentiles, that is, many of those who had exchanged their gentile observances for Judaism, and of those who had remained entirely gentile, came together to Christ.
17:11
Now these [Jews of Beroea] were more noble than those who are in Thessalonika. This refers to nobility of soul, by which they applied themselves to hearing and scrutinizing the word.'*
17:18a Certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were discussing with him [Paul]. The Epicureans, following the stupidity of their teacher, put the happiness of man in the pleasure of the body alone, while the Stoics placed
Chapter Seventeen it solely in the virtue' of the mind. Although indeed they disagreed with each other, they nevertheless were united in opposition to the apostle with respect to [his belief that] a human being subsists in soul and body.?* Thus he taught that [one] ought to be happy in both [body and soul]? but that this will not be achieved in the present time, nor by human power, but by the grace of God through Jesus Christ in the glory of the resurrection.
17:18b What does this sower of words want to say?
He is rightly called a sower of words (that is, omequoddyoc), for the seed was the word of God, and he himself said, Jf we have sown spiritual things for you.? 3*
17:24
I found an altar on which was written, 'To an unknown God.' God was known in Judaea,> but not accepted there, and he was unknown in Achaia, though there he was greatly desired. One who does not know will not be known, and one who refuses to take a stand will be condemned. Neither will be exempt from blame, although they are more to be excused who did not put their faith in the christ they did not know than are those who laid hands on the christ whom they did know.** 17:24
God, who made the world and everything in it: since he is the Lord of heaven and earth, he does not dwell in temples made by [human] hands, and so forth. The order of the apostle's argument deserves careful examination. Among gentiles the treatment of his subject takes the form of a series of steps. First, he teaches that the one God is the originator of the world and of all things, and in him we live and move and are, and we are his offspring.* Thus he demonstrates that God is to be loved not only because of his gifts of light and life, but also because
1. Aug., Serm. 150, 4, 5-5, 6 (PL 38:810-811).
2,1Co 9:11:
3. Ps 76:1 (75:2).
4. Ac 17:28.
Chapter Seventeen
of a certain affinity of kind. Next, he disposes of the opinion which is the explicit reason for idols [by saying] that the founder and Lord of the entire world cannot be enclosed in temples of stone, that the granter of all favors has no need of the blood of victims, that the creator and governor of all men cannot be created by the hand of man, and finally that God, in whose image man was made, should not be appraised in terms of the value of metals.© He teaches that the remedy for such errors is the practice of repentance.'
Now if he had chosen to begin by destroying the idolatrous rites, the ears of the gentiles would have rejected [him].
When he had persuaded them that there is one God, then he added that by his judgment salvation was given to us through Christ. To him, however, he applied the term man' rather than God, and he began with those things which he
[Christ] did in the body, describing them as divine, so that it might seem that he was more than a man. [He taught that] death was conquered by the power of one man, and that one who was dead was raised up again from hell (for faith grows little by little), so that when it appeared that he was more than a man, they might believe that he was God. For what difference does it make in what order anyone believes?
Perfected things are not sought at the start, but from beginnings one comes to the things which are perfect.
17:28a For in him we live and move and are. Since this verse is difficult to understand, it should be explained in the words of the blessed Augustine, who says:9 The apostle shows that God is ceaselessly at work in the things which he has created. It is not with respect to his substance that we are in him. For instance, it has been said that he has life in himself, © but since we are certainly different from him, we are not 'in him' in any other way except that he
5. Ac 17:24-25.
6. Ac 17:29. eeACe L750:
8. Ac 17:31.
9. Aug., Gen. ad litt. 4, 12 (CSEL 28:109, 13/23).
10. Jn 5:26.
Chapter Seventeen brings it [our existence] about; and this ts bis work, whereby he contains all things. And it has been said that his wisdom reaches 'mightily from one end of the earth to the other and orders all things well." It is through this 'ordering' that 'in him we live and move and are.' Hence we infer that if he withdrew this work of his from things, we would neither live nor move nor be.
And a little further on he [Augustine] says:!* Heaven and earth and all things which are in them, namely all spiritual and bodily creatures, do not remain in being in themselves, but in him, surely, of whom it is said, 'in him we live and move and are,' because although every part can exist in the whole of which it is a part, nevertheless the whole itself does not exist, except in him by whom it was made. He
[Augustine] says the same thing in another place:'3 Jf the apostle said this with respect to the body, it can also be understood with reference to this bodily world. For with respect to the body also, 'we live and move and are' in him. Hence, with respect to the mind, which was made after his image, it should be taken in a more sublime way, and at the same time in a way which ts not visible but intelligible. For what is not in him of whom by divine inspiration it was written,
'For all things are from him and through him and in him'?'4
17:28b And indeed some of your own poets have said. This is what he [Paul] says in another place: I judged that I knew nothing when I was among you except Christ
Jesus, and him as he was crucified.'5 To those who did not receive the faith of the prophets he spoke not with the testimony of Moses or Isaiah, or of any of the prophets, but with the testimony of their own authors. He recited a verse
11. Ws 8:1.
12. Aug., Gen. ad litt. 4, 18 (CSEL 28:115, 20/26).
13. Aug., De trin. 14, 12 (CC 50A:443, 30-444, 36).
14. Rm 11:36.
LS Gow 28
Chapter Seventeen
from Aratus, and from the falsehoods of those to whom they could not object, he confirmed his own truths. Surely it is the mark of great knowledge to give fellow servants their fare at the proper time,'¢ and to take into account the particular individuals who are one's listeners.
17:28c For we are also his offspring. We are very rightly called the offspring of God, not in the sense that we were brought forth out of his nature, but in the sense that through his Spirit we are both created by his will and re-created by his adoption.''
17:34
Among them was Dionysius the Areopagite.
This is the Dionysius who was afterwards ordained bishop and gloriously governed the church of the Corinthians. Also, he left many volumes containing his insights, and they remain even now apposite to the church's benefit. He took his second name from the place where he was preeminent.
The Areopagus was the civic meeting place of the Athenians, and it derived its name for Mars, since in Greek Mars is called
'Aonc, and a village is called mayoc.'® 16. Pe 31:15.
17. Greg., Moral. 20, 16, 41 (CC 143A:1033, 27/28).
18. Aug., De civ. dei 18, 10 (CC 48:600, 3-601, 14).
NOTES TO CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
1. 'Word': I follow the reading of several manuscripts, uerbo, although Laistner's edition has the plural uerba.
2. In the first sentence of this comment Bede says that the Stoics 'placed the happiness of man solely in the virtue of the mind'
(in sola animi virtute). In the second sentence he says that the apostle believed that man 'subsists in soul and body' (ex anima et corpore subsistere). His use of the masculine animi in the first sentence and the feminine anima in the second may be merely stylistic variation. It may, however, be a principled distinction, and I have therefore consistently translated animus as 'mind'
(e.g., in the comments on Ac 3:25 and 23:3) and anima as 'soul'—e.g., in the comment on 2:1, where Bede twice uses anima, once as distinct from the body (beatitudo corporis et animae), and once as distinct from the mind and heart (we are to love God ex toto corde, tota anima, tota mente). One occurrence of anima,in the Acts text itself (20:24), in its context, however, demands the translation 'life,' and Bede's comment on this verse observes that anima here 'means that temporal life in the body' as distinct from eternal life in heaven.
3. English cannot completely capture the etymological wordplay of Bede's Latin: Paul 'is rightly called a sower of words
(seminiverbius), for the seed was the word of God (semen est verbum Dei).' In addition, the verb 'have sown' used in Bede's quotation from 1 Co is the derivative seminavimus.
4. Bede's comment on this verse is structured around wordplay in which several words for 'to know' and their negative forms are arranged in neatly balanced syntactic structures in order to develop a basic contrast between two kinds of non-response to the revelation of God in Christ, that of the Athenians and that of the Jews. This wordplay largely survives translation, for the four forms of 'know' in the first two sentences of the comment correspond to Bede's notus, ignotus, ignorat, and ignorabitur, while the negative and affirmative forms of 'know' in the final sentence correspond to his nesciebant and sciebant. There is, however, additional wordplay enriching the contrast, and this cannot be captured in English. Bede uses two derivatives of the verb ferre (both in their perfect-tense form tuli) in order to
Notes to Chapter Seventeen
contrast the non-response of the Athenians, who did not 'put their faith in' fidem non obtulere) Christ because they did not know him, and that of the Jews who 'laid hands on' (manus intulere)
Christ, although they did have knowledge concerning who he truly was.
mend cb TA
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
18:2 B ecause Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome. Josephus!* recounts this as something which happened in Claudius' ninth year, but the historian Suetonius reports it in this way:!
'Claudius expelled from Rome the Jews who were constantly in an uproar instigated [in the name of] Christ.'
It is by no means clear whether he commanded that the Jews be curbed and suppressed because they were in an uproar against Christ, or whether he wanted Christians too to be expelled together with those men of the related religion.
18:3.
They were tentmakers by trade. Like exiles in the land, and wanderers, they built tents for themselves to use on their journey. Now in Greek tents are called oxjvai, which is etymologically derived from 'the giving of shade.'?*
Among them [the Greeks], shade is called oxta. oxhvat or oxnv@yata denote a kind of shady covering, which the ancients constructed from woolen, linen, or haircloth curtains, or from branches or cuttings from trees. Mystically, however, just as Peter by fishing draws us out of the waves of the world by nets of faith, so also Paul, by erecting shady coverings of protection, defends us by his word and deeds from the rain of [our] faults, from the fierce heat of temptations, and from the winds of the snare.? Here follow in the Greek two verses not contained in some of our manu1. Orosius, Hist. 7, 6 (PL 31:1075), which includes the quotation from Suetonius, Claud. 25, 4.
2. Arat., De act. ap. 2 (CSEL 72:108, 564-109, 568).
Chapter Eighteen scripts:3 Every sabbath he was debating in the synagogue, and he persuaded Jews and Greeks. And then there is added something which both [Greek and Latin] manuscripts have:4 But when Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, and so forth.
18:18
At Cenchreae he [Paul] had his head shaved, for he had a vow. Cenchreae is the port of Corinth, where, intending to board a ship, he had his head shaved because of a vow. Now according to the law of Moses, those who vowed themselves to God were ordered to let their hair grow for as long as they wished to be Nazirites, and afterwards to have it cut and to consign it to the fire.> Paul did these things, not indeed because he had forgotten what he, along with the other apostles, had settled at Jerusalem concerning the abolition of the law,° but, so that those among the Jews who had come to believe might not be scandalized, he played the part of a Jew himself in order to win over the Jews. Some manuscripts have [the verb] in the plural number:' They had their heads shaved, and they had a vow—that is, Priscilla and Aquila. However, the illustrious teachers of the church Jerome and Augustine® both put it in the singular number in their letters, and interpret [the passage] of Paul. Jerome puts it as follows:° Bidding farewell to the brethren, he sailed for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, and he had his head shaved at Cenchreae, for he had a vow.>* 18:21-22 He departed from Ephesus and landed at Caesarea, and he went up and greeted the church. This means Caesarea, the capital city of Cappadocia, for they had
3. Ac 18:4, see apparatus in Vulg. (Stuttgart, 1969).
4. Ac 18:5.
5. Nb 6:1-6, 18.
6. Ac 15.
7. Codex Amiatinus and others.
8. Aug., Ep. 82, 2, 8 (CSEL 34, 2:358, 4/5).
9. Jer., Ep. 112, 9 (CSEL 55:378, 11/13).
Chapter Eighteen
not yet arrived at Phoenician Syria. This, once named Mazaca from Mosoc, the son of Jafeth, later received the name Caesarea from Augustus Caesar.!° 18:27-28 When he [Apollos] had come, he contributed much to those who had believed, for he energetically refuted the Jews. Another translation has:!! He was a great help to the believers through grace. This, therefore, is why the apostle wrote to the same Achaians, I have planted,
Apollos watered. '?
10. Jer., Comm. in Es. 18, 66, 18.19 (CC 73A:786, 25/30).
Ih Os 12,1 Co3:G.
NOTES TO CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
1. This reference to Josephus is puzzling. Josephus does not record the event, and Eusebius (Hist. eccl. 18, 2) does not indicate during which year of Claudius' reign the event took place.
2. The Latin has three different words for 'tent': scena in the Acts verse, tentorium in the first sentence of the comment, and tabernaculum in the second sentence. English is not as rich, and I have been forced to use 'tent' in all three cases.
3. In the Retr. on this verse (CC 121:154, 28/44), Bede discusses whether it was Paul or Aquila who had his head shaved. Referring to his quotation from Jerome in the Commentary on this verse, he repeats his assertion that Jerome clearly understood that Paul was the one shaved, and he cites as further evidence more of the same quotation from Jerome's Ep. 112 (CSEL 55:378,
13/15). Bede also says that later in Acts there is another reference to Paul's head being shaved (probably Ac 21:24-26). He concludes by stating that in any case manuscripts which use the plural do not conform to the Greek, where the singular for both 'shaved' and 'had a vow' must be taken in reference to either Paul or Aquila. The question is still open, and the JB note on Ac 18:18 reads: 'The Greek is obscure, but apparently it was Paul, not Aquila, who took the vow.'
CHAPTER NINETEEN
19:2 H: [Paul] said to them, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?'
That is: After baptism did you receive the imposition of hands, by which the Holy Spirit is ordinarily given?
19:4 John baptized with a baptism of repentance.
This baptism, he says, could not grant the remission of sins, but only teach repentance. For just as the sign of circumcision among the patriarchs had been a mark of the faith that they lived by, so also repentant people received this washing as a singular mark of their devotion. Nevertheless, it also figuratively pointed to Christ's baptism, by which remission of sins would be given.
19:5
When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. A question is often put forward as to whether those should be rebaptized who, perhaps through ignorance, were baptized by others who, though correct in faith, were not baptized. I think this is explained in the chapters under discussion. For what difference does it make whether one was baptized at that time, before the inauguration of Christ's baptism, or at this time, apart from the succession [of those baptized with Christ's baptism], since even John himself procalimed that those should be rebaptized whom he had baptized in faith and in the name of the christ who was to come. He said, J baptize you in water; he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.' Now if, as 1. Mt 3:11.
Chapter Nineteen some have taught, at the present time a sharing in the body and blood of Christ can, by itself, suffice as a remedy for such as these, so also at that time those whom John had baptized with water could have been confirmed by participation in his blood alone, and it would not have been necessary for them to be baptized by Christ's disciples.
19:7
Altogether there were about twelve men, and so forth. Truly, the judgments of God [are like] mighty depths.2 Behold, Asia, which not long before was unworthy to be visited by the apostles, now consecrated by the apostolic number [i.e.12] and exalted by a prophetic gift!
And it should be noted that the Holy Spirit showed signs of his coming, both here in the twelve disciples, and earlier in the hundred and twenty' (which is the number twelve multiplied ten times). I believe that the former [manifestation occurred] in Jerusalem, and this one in Ephesus, which is a Greek city, to show that whether the one who believes is from the Jews or the gentiles, he [the Spirit] fills only those who share in the unity of the catholic and apostolic church.
19:13
Now some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried [to drive out evil spirits by Jesus' name], and so forth. Josephus reports that King Solomon devised and taught to his people methods of exorcism (that is, of adjuration) by which unclean spirits which were driven out of a person would not dare to return anymore.* This happens sometimes, even through the agency of those who are reprehensible, either for the condemnation of those-who do it, or for the benefit of those who see and hear, so that although men may despise those performing the signs, they may nevertheless honor God, through whose invocation such great miracles are done.
2. Ps 36:6. (35:7).
3. Ac 16:6.
ADACHI S920) —4
5. Josephus, Ant. Iud. 8, 2, 5.
Chapter Nineteen
19:14
Certain ones, the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish high priest, were doing this. The Greek reading is better:° There were of a certain Sceva [seven sons, and so forth]. Therefore, since Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light,' he has no fear of covering his ministers as well with the same false appearance. It is customary to represent the gifts of the Holy Spirit by the number seven.
As a figure of this, the Lord after his resurrection took food with seven disciples,' and seven of the brethren came to preach the gospel to Cornelius, who was to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.? Hence the sons of Sceva, as men who would drive out evil spirits, are reckoned as seven in number.
Because they called upon the name of Christ and the apostles not out of belief in them, but to put them to the test, they were rightly condemned for their cunning deceitfulness, not only by God but also by the demons themselves. Thus they were well called the sons of Sceva, which means a yelping little fox.!° This animal, which is very shrewd with respect to deceit and craftiness, represents the Jews, gentiles, and heretics, who are always plotting against the church of God, and, as it were, continuously making a racket with their babbling voices. Concerning them the command is given to the guardians of the church: Catch for us the tiny foxes which are wrecking the vineyards. }
19:15
I recognize Jesus and I know Paul. Of this verse Arator says:!2 Acknowledge your madness, oh hateful people. The demon admits the rule of the one whose coming you deny, and your fault is proclaimed by the very one who so annoys you that you rush away.'* 6. See apparatus in Vulg. (Stuttgart, 1969). ae 2 CO.1L1; 14:
8. Jn 21:1-2, 12-13.
9. Ac 11:12.
10. Jer., De nom. Hebr. (CC 72:149, 19/20).
11. Sg 2:15.
12. Arat., De act. ap. 2 (CSEL 72:114, 647/650).
13. Ac 19:16.
Chapter Nineteen 19:19a Many of those who had pursued the occult brought their books, and so forth. 'The occult'!* means diligent concern with the magical arts, whose followers rightly burned their books, although they were valued at a high price,!5 when they saw that the very demons whom they served honored the Lord Jesus and his apostle.
19:19b They found the sum to be 50,000 denarii. In the gospel too debtors are forgiven debts which number fifty and five hundred denarii!® because, I believe, while we are subsisting with the five senses of the body in this life, we transgress the commandments of the decalogue.
Here, however, because of the enormity of the crime of magic, the number [fifty] is increased by a thousandfold.
Alternatively, the number fifty is often related to repentance,'7 and to the pardon of sins. Hence also the fiftieth psalm!8 is the psalm of repentance, and the fiftieth year is the year of pardon.!9
19:22
He [Paul] sent two of his assistants to Macedonia, and so forth. He sent disciples ahead to prepare the alms which he was going to bring to Jerusalem,?° so that when he himself came, they would not then be found still uncollected.
19:24
For a certain silversmith named Demetrius, and so forth. This Demetrius, who strove to make trouble for the way of the Lord, acted in accord with his own name, for it means Persecuting greatly.*! Hence it is appropriate that the shrines of Diana which he made were constructed of no other metal than silver, for in the scriptures eloquence is customarily indicated by silver,?? just as true knowledge
14. 'the occult': curiosa.
15. Ac 19:19b.
16. Lk 7:41-42.
17. Jer., Comm. in Es. 2, 3, 3 (CC 73:44, 9/10).
18. fifty-first in the Hebrew numbering.
19. Lv 25:8-19.
20. Ac 24:17.
21. Jer., De nom. Hebr. (CC 72:145, 16/17).
22. Ps 12:6 (11:7).
Chapter Nineteen
is indicated by gold, and the craftiness of the gentiles customarily constructed its religion not out of any consideration of meaning, but out of the empty brilliance of discourse.?> !* 19:27
There is danger, not only that this [trade] of ours will come into discredit, and so forth. That is:
Not only will our work be discredited as vain and not deserving of payment, but indeed our religion too will be brought into disgrace, if Paul prevails with his teaching that idols are not gods, and that it is an extraordinary stupidity on the part of the gentiles not to be ashamed to worship those whom they acknowledge can be constructed or destroyed by man.
19:28
And they cried out saying, 'Great is Diana of the Ephesians!' As Demetrius said that Diana would be destroyed, they, on the other hand, marveled at her greatness."4
19:29
And with one mind they charged into the theater. A theater is a place with a semicircular shape, in which people stand and watch theatrical performances inside. Hence it takes the name theater from the Greek word for a stage show.?> Accordingly, as Arator says:*¢ It was fitting that lascivious men dealt with the claims and the worth of Diana nowhere else than in the marketplace."*
Befouled ground held the work of a shameful assembly.
23. Arat., De act. ap. 2 (CSEL 72:118, 723-119, 752).
24. Ac 19:27b.
25. Isid., Etymol. 15, 2, 34-35.
26. Arat., De act. ap. 2 (CSEL 72:117, 714-118, 716).
NOTES TO CHAPTER NINETEEN
1. Bede enriches his comment on this verse by a kind of etymological pun which resists translation. He brackets his comment with two words which appear to be etymologically related, although in fact they are not: Demetrius 'strove (nititur) to make trouble for the way of the Lord,' and his idols were appropriately made out of silver, which signifies eloquence, because gentile religion is constructed 'out of the empty brilliance (nitore) of discourse'.
2. My translation is based on the reading Lascivos tractare foro found in McKinlay's edition of Arator (CSEL 72:117, 715). Laistner shows considerable manuscript support for this reading, although the reading which he adopts in his text is Lascivo tractare foro, which would demand the translation, 'the claims and worth of Diana were dealt with nowhere else than in the lascivious marketplace.'
CHAPTER TWENTY
20:1-2 nd he [Paul] set out to go to Macedonia.
When he had traveled through those regions and encouraged them with many a discourse, he came to Greece. Greece is the province of Achaia, which the Greeks call 'EAAdda. In point of fact, where the Latin manuscripts have 'Greeks,' or 'gentiles,'
(to distinguish them from the Jews), there the Greek text wrote 'EAAnvac and 'EAAnuiotac. Paul came to this place after Macedonia because he had resolved, as was said above, that when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, he would go to Jerusalem. '
20:7
On the day after the Sabbath, when we had come together for the breaking of the bread, and so forth. That is: On the Lord's day, which is the first day after the Sabbath, when we had gathered to celebrate the mysteries.
20:7-8 He prolonged his discourse until midnight.
There were a number of lamps in the upper room."
We can speak allegorically here, for the upper room is the loftiness of spiritual gifts; night is the obscurity of the scriptures; the abundance of lamps is the explanation of the more enigmatic sayings; the Lord's day is the remembrance of either the Lord's resurrection or our own. And [this passage serves] to warn the spiritual teacher that, if he is ever attracted by the sweetness of the resurrection and the joys
1. Ac 19:21.
2. Aug., Ep. 36, 12, 28 (CSEL 34, 2:57, 18/24).
3. Arat., De act. ap. 2 (CSEL 72:120, 760).
Chapter Twenty of the life to come, and he arouses his listeners to the heights of virtue, and if in a lengthy discussion he touches upon any enigmas of the scriptures, he should very soon, for the sake of weak listeners, shed light on those same [enigmas] by the lamp of plain explanation, just as the apostle did.
When he said, Abraham had two sons, the one by a slave girl and the other by a free woman,' he soon added by way of explanation, These are the two covenants, and so forth.®
20:94
Acertain youth named Eutychus was sitting at the window, and so forth. In Hebrew Eutychus means senseless, while in Greek it means fortunate.® One of these
[meanings] fits a person who, through the pleasures of youth, has fallen from the peak of virtues. The other fits a person who, through the loving help?* of a preacher, has returned to the heights of virtue.
20:9b He was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third story, and so forth. An opportunity for healing occurred during the words of the sermon so that the teaching discourse might be confirmed by the sweetness of a miracle, the hardship of going without sleep might be alleviated, and the memory of the teacher, who was about to depart,' might be the more firmly impressed upon the minds [of the listeners]. The three stories, in the highest of which Paul was arguing his case, are faith, hope, and charity.
But the greatest of these is charity,® and if one ceases to practice it through idleness and has no fear of sleeping during the words of the apostle, one will already be counted among the dead. For when he has offended in one [point of the law], be has become guilty of all.°
20:10
Paul went down to him and lay down upon him. That he goes down, lies down on him, and embraces
4. Ga 4:22.
5. Ga 4:24.
6. Jer., De nom. Hebr. (CSEL 72:145, 29/30).
7. Ac 20:11.
8. 1 Co 13:13.
9. Jm 2:10.
Chapter Twenty
him, this is what he [Paul] himself said,1° My little children, again I am in labor with you until Christ is formed in you.** It is harder work to revive those who sin through negligence than it is to revive those who do so through weakness. The former is represented by Eutychus, the latter by Tabitha, whom Peter restored to life.!! She fell ill and died in the daytime;** he fell and died at midnight. !
After her death she was washed and placed in an upper room; he dropped from the third story'3 and was mourned as dead below. In the latter case the teacher [Paul] was present and teaching; in the earlier case the teacher [Peter] was absent.'* Paul went down to him; Peter went up to restore her to life. She sat up as soon as she saw Peter; he died at midnight and finally in the morning he rose again, and, revived by the inspiring son of righteousness, was led away.!5
20:16
For he [Paul] was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if it were possible for him, to spend Pentecost. There was a certain commandment of the law that all Jews should gather in Jerusalem three times a year—that is, at the times of Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. The apostle, however, since he had broken the ties to his people,5* was hurrying to celebrate the fiftieth day, that is, the day of pardon and of the Holy Spirit.'° 20:17
He summoned the elders of the church. For elders, the Greek has presbyters.
20:23a Except that in all the cities the Holy Spirit assures me. When he says in the cities, he clearly shows that the things that were going to happen to him had not been revealed to him directly, but to others concerning him.
Among them were the prophet Agabus,'" and also those 10. Ga 4:19.
11. Ac 9:36-42.
12. Ac 20:7.
13. Ac 20:9b.
14. Ac 9:38-39.
15. MI 4:2, Vulg.; Ac 20:12.
16. See coms. on 2:1 and 19:19b.
Nf, ING PALI
Chapter Twenty disciples who, when he was staying in Tyre, admonished him through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem.
'* 20:23b Saying that chains and tribulations await me in Jerusalem—so that he might now contend for the peace of the church in the place where he once persecuted the church.!9
20:24
And I do not value my life as more precious than myself. By /ife,** he means that temporal life in the body which he reckoned as least in value, since he looked forward to eternal joy in another life.
20:26
That I am innocent of the blood of you all. Paul believed that he was innocent of the blood of his neighbor, inasmuch as he did not spare their vices which demanded to be castigated."° 20:28a [Take care of the flock] in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops. He had said previously?! that the presbyters of Ephesus had been summoned to Miletus.
Now he calls them bishops, that is, overseers. One city could not have several bishops, but under the name bishops he indicates these presbyters as being in fact priests, for the order was connected, and in many it was practically the same.
20:28b To rule the church of God which he has purchased with his own blood. He did not hesitate to say
'the blood of God,' because of the oneness of person in two natures of the same Jesus Christ. On account of this it has also been said, the son of man, who is in heaven.?2
Therefore let Nestorius stop separating the son of man from the son of God, and making for himself two Christs.7*
18. Ac 21:4.
19. Ac 9:21.
20. Greg., Reg. past. 3, 25 (PL 77:96D).
21. Ac 20:17.
225 )nG5. 5"
Chapter Twenty
20:30
And from among you yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things. John also said of these same people, They have gone forth from us, but they were not of us.?3
20:31
Since for three years, night and day I did not stop admonishing each and every one of you with tears. Arator explains this beautifully and concisely:24 He proclaims three teachings of the church. He very frequently brings forth an historical sense, one which expresses a moral, and a typological sense.** Hence empty Judaea, which ts said to be a sterile tree,?> did not produce fruit, though for three years it was awaited.
20:35a Ihave shown you all things. That is, not only that devotion to teaching is necessary amid oppression and tears, but also that manual labor is demanded so that none of the weak may be burdened.*° This is, however, what was said: And whatever you spend in addition I will repay you when I return,*"? which means to preach the gospel and not to seek one's support from the gospel.?8
20:35b It is more blessed to give than to receive. He does not value the rich, even if they give alms, more highly than those who have left all things and followed the Lord.
Rather, he extols most highly those who have given up at once everything they had, and who nevertheless labor, working with their hands at what is good in order to have something to give to one who ts suffering need.?°
23. 1 Jn 2:19.
24. Arat., De act. ap. 2 (CSEL 72:127, 890/891; 128, 909/910).
25. Lk 13:6-9.
26. 2 Th 3:7-9.
27. Lk 10:35.
28. 1 Co 9:14-15.
29. Ep 4:28.
NOTES TO CHAPTER TWENTY
1. 'Upper room': cenaculo. In Ac 20:8, as in 9:37b, cenaculum clearly signifies an upper room. In Ac 20:9b, however, tertio cenaculo demands the translation 'from the third story'. Likewise,
Bede's commentary on 20:7-8, 20:9b, and 20:10 uses cenaculum sometimes with the meaning 'upper room,' and sometimes, when the context involves 'falling from,' with the meaning 'story.' I have translated accordingly.
2. 'Loving help': condescensionem. Bede chose this word, which is somewhat unusual, for its literal function in its own sentence and because he wanted to play it off against the etymologically related verb descendo, which occurs in verse 10: when Eutychus fell, 'Paul went down (descendisset) to him'.
3. The general meaning of the verb incubo is 'to lie on,' and it is used with this meaning in the Acts verse. Bede's introduction of Ga 4:19, with its metaphor of giving birth, is evidently based upon a more specific meaning of incubo as applied to birds sitting on eggs to hatch them, i.e., to produce life, as Paul's action does in the case of Eutychus.
4. 'In the daytime': in diebus. Ac 9:37 states that Tabitha fell ill and died in diebus. In this expression, which is frequent in the Vulgate, dies usually does not mean day as opposed to night, but simply 'at that time.' Here, however, Bede takes the expression literally in order to develop his extended contrast between Tabitha and Eutychus, whose accident occurred at night.
5. 'The ties to his people': saeculi nexibus. Elsewhere Bede uses saeculum with the meaning 'world,' in the sense of this world as opposed to the life to come. Here, however, the context demands the translation 'his people,' the Jews, from whom
Paul had separated himself.
6. 'Life': anima. See note 2 to ch. 17.
7. See note 4 to ch. 3.
8. 'An historical sense, one which expresses a moral, and a typological sense': Historicum, morale sonans, typicumque volumen. By volumen Arator refers to the contents of a writing, but 'sense' seems to be the required translation, although Bede himself simply uses the words historia or allegoria by themselves for 'historical sense' or 'allegorical sense.' See note 6 to ch. 1.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
e left [Tyre] and went on, and all of them \ X / with their wives and children escorted us, and so forth. That prophecy was fulfilled which says, proclaiming about the church, The daughters of Tyre offer you gifts; all the wealthy among the people plead for your favor,! and so forth, up to the end of the psalm. For no city received the apostle, kept him,? and sent him on his way with greater kindness [than Tyre]. Finally, today the place is pointed out where they prayed together on the shore.3
21:10
Acertain prophet came up from Judaea. It says from Judaea because the Caesarea in which they were staying belonged to the region of Samaria, and was situated on the common border of Phoenicia and Palestine.4
21:11
The Holy Spirit says this: 'At Jerusalem the Jews will bind in this way the man whose belt this is'.
He [Agabus] is imitating the ancient prophets who were accustomed to say, The Lord God says this,* because the Holy Spirit is Lord and God in the same way as the Father and the Son are, and it is impossible to separate the operation of those whose nature and will are one. Hence too we read above: The Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work for which I have called them,' namely the office of apostle. And Paul himself writes,' Paul,
1. Ps 45:12-13 (44:13).
2. Ac 21:4.
3. Ac 21:5b.
4. See com. on 12:19.
5. Is 49:22; Jr 11:3, etc.
6. Ac 13:2.
Fm Gaeleie
Chapter Twenty-One an apostle sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father. We have said these things so that no one might believe, following Macedonius,'* that the Holy Spirit is a creature, or of less authority than the Father or the Son.
21:18
On the next day Paul went with us to James.
This James was the brother of the Lord, that is, the son of Mary, the sister of the Lord's mother, whom John the Evangelist mentions.® It was he who was appointed bishop by the apostles immediately after the Lord's passion and ruled the church at Jerusalem for thirty years, that is, until Nero's seventh year.® Since the Jews were not able to kill Paul, though they very much sought to, soon afterwards, as Festus had died and Albinus had not yet come to the province, they turned their hand against James, who was buried next to the temple, where he had also been thrown down. '°
21:21
They have heard about you, that you teach the Jews who are among the gentiles to depart from Moses, and so forth. That is, [they have heard] that!! you say that the prescripts conveyed to their fathers through Moses were condemned by Christ's teaching as if they were idolatrous and not ordained by God. Now those who had spread this about Paul were not people who understood with what spirit these things were to be observed at that time by faithful Jews, namely as a way to call attention to the divine authority and prophetic holiness of these sacramental signs,** not as a way to win salvation, which had already been revealed in Christ and was conveyed through the sacrament of baptism. On the contrary, those who circulated this report about Paul were people who 8. Jn 19:25; see com. on 1:13b.
9. Jer., De vir. ill. 2 (TU 14:7, 6/11; 8, 23/24).
10. Jer., De vir. ill. 2 (TU 14:8, 24/25).
11. Aug., Ep. 82, 2, 9-10 (CSEL 34, 2:359, 17-361, 5).
Chapter Twenty-One
wanted these things observed as if without them there could be no salvation for those who believed in the gospel. They had perceived that he was a most zealous preacher of grace, and that he was teaching what was very much opposed to their purposes—that man is not justified through these things, but through the grace of Jesus Christ, which those faint shadows in the law were ordained to foretell.
Therefore, plotting to stir up envy and persecution against him, they accused him of being an enemy of the law and of the divine mandates. There was no more fitting way in which he could counter their envy [expressed in] these false charges than for him to observe those rites which he was thought to have condemned as idolatrous. In this way he could show that the Jews were not at that time to be forbidden to observe them as abominations, nor were the gentiles to be compelled to observe them as necessities. |?
If he really disapproved of those things, as was heard [said] of him, and if he undertook to observe [them] in order to hide his belief by a feigned action, James would not have said of him:
21:24
'And all will know that what they have heard about you is false.' Rather he would have said: "All will suppose,' especially since it was in Jerusalem itself that the apostles had already decided that no one was to force the gentiles to follow Jewish practices;'> but they had not decided that anyone should at that time forbid Jews to follow Jewish practices, although even now they were not forced by Christian teaching to do so.'4
21:27
For when the seven days [of purification] were coming to an end. These days had not yet come to an end, but they were in progress, and their end was in sight. In the Greek it is stated more precisely:'5 but when the seven
12. Ac 21:23-26.
13. Ac 15.
14. end of quote from Aug., Ep. 82.
15. e.
Chapter Twenty-One days began to come to an end. Otherwise the statement which he [Paul] himself expressed to the governor five days after his arrival at Caesarea, Jt is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem could not hold up.!° For if to the seven days mentioned earlier [Ac 21:27] and the five days mentioned later [24:1] you add the day of his hearing, at which he set the Pharisees and Sadducees at variance with each other,!7 and that [day] on which the Jews bound themselves by a vow to kill him, '8 without a doubt the total obtained from this [reckoning] would be more than twelve days.
21:28
This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere in opposition to the people and the law and this place. Because they saw that the followers of the new grace were less diligent about observing the rituals of the law and the rites of the temple, they became afraid, as we read in the gospel,!9 that the Romans would come and take away their place and their people.
21:37
He [the tribune] said, 'Do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian?' and so forth. For a certain Egyptian had come to Judaea, and by magical arts he arrogated faith to himself as to a prophet, and he gathered as many as thirty-thousand Jews. Leading them through the wilderness, he came to the Mount of Olives and prepared to make an attack on Jerusalem from there, and to subject the city to himself. However, Felix forestalled his designs, meeting him directly with armed troops. When the Egyptian fled with a few men, and the others had also been easily slain, he [Felix] put an end to the undertaking without difficulty.*° 16. Ac 24:1, 11.
17. Ac 23:6-11.
18. Ac 23:12.
19. Jn 11:48.
20. Eusebius/Rufin., Hist. eccl. 2, 21 (GCS 9, 1:161, 11/21); Josephus, Bell. Iud. 2, 13, 5.
Chapter Twenty-One
21:38
Four-thousand men who were assassins.?! Concerning the number of accomplices there is not necessarily any disagreement between the tribune who said these things and Josephus, who wrote about the Egyptian. For it could have happened that he first came with a few of these same agents of tyranny in secret, and afterwards by public deception he got more people to join him. We read?? that in Felix's time this kind of brigand arose, men who did not search for out-of-the-way places or times, but rather carried in their hands sicas, that is, short swords, and in the very light of day, mingling with people while sticking to their shady dealings, they bloodied {the earth] by a blow, so that death might precede an outcry and the murderer might escape notice. And, if anyone was aroused because such things were done in the middle of the city, he also perished. Thus through fear of danger, or through the dissimulation of the criminal, the assassin was not caught.
21:39
[I am] from Tarsus in Cilicia, a burgher of a well-known city. The apostle was actually born?? in Gischala, a town of Galilee.3* When it was taken by the Romans he moved with his parents to Tarsus in Cilicia.
They sent him to Jerusalem in order to study the law, and he was instructed by the very learned man Gamaliel, as he himself recalls below.24 Now he does not name himself a 'citizen,' but a 'burgher' from [the word for] the municipality or the territory of the same city in which he grew up.** A municipality was so-called because it gave in return [for such status] great duties, that is, tribute which was owed, or services for legal factors which pertain to freemen, and those factors which are most celebrated, as well as things which emanate from a prince, relate to the 21. 'assassins': sicariorum.
22. Josephus/Hegesip., Bell. Iud. 2, 6, 3 (CSEL 66:142, 10/20).
23. Jer., De vir. ill. 5 (TU 14:9, 17/21).
24. Ac 22:3.
Chapter Twenty-One dignity of a city.25 Nor should we be surprised if he calls himself a Tarsean and not a Giscalite, since the Lord himself, who was born in Bethlehem, was not given the name
Bethlehemite but Nazarean.
25. Isid., Etymol. 15, 2, 10.
NOTES TO CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
1. See note 1 to ch. 5.
2. 'Sacramental signs': sacramentorum. To conform to my translation of Bede's use of sacramentum for Old Testament signs
(see note 11 to ch. 1), I have here used 'sacramental signs' for Augustine's similar use of sacramentum. Note, however, that later in the same sentence Augustine uses baptismi sacramentum, which I have translated 'the sacrament of baptism.'
3. 'Galilee': Bede substituted Galilaeae for Iudaeae (Judaea) in the quotation from Jerome's De vir. ill. (TU 14:9, 18). Bede is correct—Gischala is in Galilee. Richardson's edition of Jerome's work shows no variants for Iudaeae. Either Bede had a version of Jerome's work with the reading Galilaeae, or he corrected the error on his own, although it is not clear how Bede could have known that Gischala is in Galilee.
4. Paul, as quoted in Ac 21:39, refers to himself as a municeps of Tarsus. Bede's comment explains Paul's use of this term instead of the more usual cives. I have used 'citizen' and 'city' to translate cives and civitas, but I have been forced to resort to 'burgher' for municeps, thus obscuring the relationship between this word and municipium, which I have translated 'municipality,' I have also been unable to capture in English the basis for the etymology taken from Isidore, who derives municipium from the 'duties' (munia) or the 'services' (munera) for which this type of city was responsible.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
22:9 B ut they [Paul's companions] did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking with me. The earlier story of this vision relates that his companions stood stunned, hearing indeed the voice, but seeing no one.' Hence it can be inferred that they heard the sound of a garbled voice, but they did not hear the distinct words.
22:23
However, they were shouting and flinging off their garments and hurling dust into the air. At the Lord's passion only the priest leapt from his throne and tore his garments," because on that occasion the old priesthood was being changed to a new one. Now, however, since after the killing of the apostles the whole people together would be robbed of the glory of the kingdom, all of them flung off their apparel and raised up to the heavens an outcry mixed with dust, in accord with what the psalm says, The pride of those who hate you ever rises.
22:28a I attained this citizenship for a large sum of money. Another edition more clearly reveals what he said:*
The tribune said, 'How can you say so lightly that you are a Roman citizen? For I know at what a great price I gained this citizenship.'
22:28b And Paul said, 'But I was born [a Roman citizen]'. That is, in this respect Iam more Roman than you:
I was not born other, and did not buy the name Roman, but I was born in their citizenship.
AC, 9:i7/, 2. Mt 26:65.
3. Ps 74:23 (73:23).
4. HTR 30, 42.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
le GG" will strike you, you whitewashed wall!
He [Paul] did not say this because he was stirred by passion in his mind. Rather, he surely spoke by way of prophesying, for, as a figure, that high priesthood which had been compared to the likeness of a whitewashed wall was to be struck and destroyed, since the true priesthood of Christ had now come with the apostles' preaching of the gospel. And that is why he said, God will strike you.
He did not say, 'May God strike you'. In fact he signified by the indicative mood that this thing was going to happen; he did not utter a curse by using the optative mood.
He showed by the response which follows with what a tranquil mind he said these things:
23:5
I did not know, brothers, that he was the chief priest. Although he had actually recognized that this man was not the chief priest in the new covenant, nevertheless, in instructing others and advising them to conduct themselves more decorously toward those in power, he himself also decided to use moderation here.
23:6
Brothers, I am a Pharisee, and so forth. Just as agreement among good men is always beneficial, so agreement among evil men is always harmful to the good. Hence, the apostle attempted to cause dissension among his persecutors, so that they might in their division release the man whom in their agreement they had bound.! So it was
1. Greg., Moral. 34, 4, 8-9 (PL 76:722C/D).
Chapter Twenty-Three that the Red Sea, which when it was whole had blocked the passage of the sons of Israel, freed them from Egypt when it was divided.? This is why he testified that he was the son of Pharisees? (or, according to the Greek,' the son of a Pharisee), which is what he gloried in above,° [and] that he learned the prophets and the law at the feet of Gamaliel, who, as we read, was a Pharisee.®
23:12 And they bound themselves under a vow, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. While the Lord said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice,' these people on the contrary hungered for iniquity and thirsted as much for blood, so that they even gave up food for the body until they might be satiated by the death of a just man. But there is no wisdom, there is no prudence, there is no counsel in opposition to the Lord.® For [as we have read] also above, although Paul offered sacrifices, shaved his head, went barefoot, and to the Jews became a Jew,? nevertheless he could not escape the chains which had been foretold.!° In this case too, although these men took counsel together, bound themselves under a vow, and laid snares [for Paul], nevertheless the apostle was kept unharmed so that he could also give testimony to Christ in Rome, just as had also been said.!!
2. Ex 14:9-10, 21-22.
3. Ac 23:6b.
4. e.
SPACE 2 Zion 6. Ac 5:34.
7. Mt 5:6.
8. Pr 21:30.
9. Ac 18:18; 21:23-26; 1 Co 9:20; Jer., Comm. in Ga. 2, 4, 8-9
(PL 26:375D).
10. Ac 21:11.
11. Ac 23:11
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
24:5 nd an originator of the sedition of the Nazarene sect. At that time Christians were called Nazarenes as an insult. Afterwards, however, an heretical sect arose among the Jews, which was called the Nazarenes. They believed in Christ as the son of God, born of the virgin Mary, and they said that it was he who suffered under Pontius Pilate and rose from the grave. In him we also believe. But while they wanted to be both Jews and Christians, they were neither Jews nor Christians. '
24:6-8 And we arrested him. By judging him yourself you will be able to discover all these things. Here some of our manuscripts have several verses which read as follows in the Greek:? And we arrested him and wanted to judge him according to our law. But the tribune Lysias intervened, and with great force took him out of our hands, ordering his accusors to come before you. By judging him yourself you can discover all these things, and so forth.
24:14
ButI confess this to you, that according to the sect which they say is an heretical sect, I thus devote myself to the service of God, my Father. The Greek reading is better:3 That according to the way which they call an heretical sect, I thus devote myself to the service of the God of the ancestors. For what logical sense is there for someone who spoke Greek to say, 'According to the 1. Jer., Ep. 112, 13, (CSEL 55:381, 26-382, 2). ngs 3.@
Chapter Twenty-Four sect [sectam] which they call an heretical sect [beresim],' since secta means the same thing in Latin as heresis does in Greek? But he says, J thus devote myself to the service of God my Father, namely in accordance with that way to which unbelievers apply the term heresis, that is, a secta, as though it had more persistence in eagerly pursuing everything that comes along than diligence in discerning things which are right.
24:19
But some Jews from Asia. Relate this to what was mentioned previously, that is, these people are the ones who found me in the temple.+ 24:27
But when the two years came to an end, Felix received a successor, Porcius Festus. He refers to Paul's two-year period of time spent!* in Caesarea, not to the governorship of Felix. For it was said earlier that he was the people's judge for many years,> especially since histories recount that the apostle was sent to Rome in Nero's second year,° but Claudius was Caesar at the time when he set up
Agrippa the son of Herod (whom the angel struck down at Caesarea') as king of the Jews, and also sent Felix as procurator of the whole province of Samaria and Galilee, and of that region which is called Transjordan.®
4. Ac 24:18.
5. Ac 24:10.
6. Jer., De vir. ill. 5 (TU 14:10, 3/4).
7. Ac 12:23; see com. on 12:1.
8. Eusebius/Rufin., Hist. eccl. 2, 19 (GCS 9, 1:159, 7/9).
NOTES TO CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
1. 'Period of time spent': conversationis. See note 3 to ch. 1.
vii
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
75d OAT O One can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar. That he appealed to Caesar and hastened to Rome he did so that he could pursue [his] preaching longer, and from there, with many believers and crowned by all,! he might go to Christ.
25:13
King Agrippa and Bernice came down to Caesarea. This Agrippa, who came to Caesarea with his sister, was the son, as I have said,? of Herod Agrippa, who, as we have read above,?> was killed by an angel. He [Agrippa II] held the kingdom of Judaea until the overthrow of Jerusalem. He was always a friend to the Romans, and he was in no danger from all of the sedition of the Jews.
1. Ph 4:1.
2. See com. on 12:1.
3. Ac 12:23.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
20-2 I consider myself fortunate before you, King Agrippa, since you are to defend me today concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews. Another text! translates this verse as follows: I consider myself fortunate before you, commencing to give a reckoning today. It is put as follows by Saint
Jerome in a certain place, along with his explanation:? J consider myself fortunate, O King Agrippa, since before you today I am to be defended concerning all those things of which I am accused by the Jews, especially since you are acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies.
For he had read that {saying] of Isaiah,> 'Fortunate is he who speaks in the ears of those who will hear,''* and he recognized that the words of a speech will only be successful to the extent that the wisdom of the judge has come to acknowledge the facts of the case.
26:10
And when they were put to death I handed down the judgment. Another text says:4 [1 handed down to them the judgment that they were to be put to death— that is, I myself gave the judgment about how they should be killed.
26:24
Festus said in a loud voice, 'Paul, you are insane'. He reckoned it insanity that a man in chains, put in the position of defending himself, would deliver a discourse not about the false charges with which he was assailed from l.e.
2. Jer., Ep. 57, 1 (CSEL 54:504, 1/8).
3. Si 25:12.
4. HTR 30, 45.
Chapter Twenty-Six without, but rather about the private knowledge which he interiorly gloried in; and that he would review all the wonders of the revelation by which he had been changed from a persecutor into an apostle; moreover that in the style and vigor of public address he would discuss the resurrection of the dead revealed by our redeemer's will.> Truly, however, just as it was foolish madness for the prodigal son to forsake his father and feed the pigs,® so also it was spiritual, that is, true madness, of which the apostle spoke
[when he said], 'For if we were out of our mind, it was for God; if we are sane, it is for you.'? And, in agreement with this the psalmist sang: Happy the man whose hope is the name of the Lord, and who has no regard for vanities and false insanities.® 26:27
Do you believe the prophets, King Agrippa?
I know that you do believe. He did not say this in flattery, as some think, but he made a true statement. Agrippa, inasmuch as he was imbued with the ritual and laws of the Jews, believed that the prophets spoke the truth; but, as one lacking faith, he did not know to whom this truth pertained, that is, the Lord Christ. Although we read that he said in a certain public assembly held with the Jews, But you are making a presumption concerning the support
[given to] religion, since the disciples of Jesus have now filled the Roman world; or are we to think that religion is increasing without God's approval?
5. Ac 26:12-23.
6. Lk 15:11-15.
7. Jer., Comm. in ps. 39, 5 (CC 72:207, 1/3); 2 Co 5:13.
8. Ps 40:4 (39:5).
9. Josephus/Hegesip., Bell. Iud. 2, 9, 1 (CSEL 66:155, 11/13).
NOTES TO CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
1. The attribution to Isaiah of this quotation from Sirach is found in Jerome.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
2S ah nd when we had been sailing slowly for many days and had with difficulty arrived off Cius. A better reading is off Cnidus, which is an island off Asia.
27:11
But the centurian believed the pilot and the ship's captain rather [than Paul]. A ship's captain in Greek! is called a navicularius in Latin.'*
27:14
A typhoon wind burst against it [the ship].
Another Latin translation says:? A seasonable wind, for tudwe¢ in Greek is called a blowing [inflatio] in Latin.
27:15
And since the ship was caught and could not endeavor to go against the wind, and so forth. Another translation puts this more clearly:3 And the ship was caught when they could not oppose the wind; with the ship at the mercy of the gale, they began to furl the sails. Then we sailed past an island which ts called Cauda, which they could not reach, but having lowered the skiff, they began to strengthen the ship, girding her [with ropes]. Also they dragged anchors, being afraid to encounter the Syrtis banks. From this it is shown that they lowered ropes from the middle of both sides of the ship and around its foremost parts, and to these they attached anchors which were dragged along, just as in our, that is, the British sea, they customarily tie millstone-sized stones behind the stern, so 1. 'ship's captain': nauclerus.
2. ventus tempestivus, a reading unique to Bede.
SAH ITR 30.45:
Chapter Twenty-Seven as to hold a ship back: They did these things to restrain the vessel, lest by a misdirected rush of waves she might run aground on the Syrtis banks, which are terrifying even when they are only heard of, because they seize all things to themselves.' Hence Sallust says that their name was derived from the word for a dragging away.° 27:16-17 We scarcely managed to secure the skiff.
When it was hoisted aboard they used supports. A skiff or catascopos is a light boat constructed of withes and covered with untanned hide.* In Greek it is called after the word for watching,° because with such a vessel sailors or pirates are accustomed to look for the first sign of land and shores. When, then, they had put this [skiff] down into the sea in order to help the bigger ship, because of the force of the waves they scarcely managed to secure it so that it did not sink.
27:17
The equipment was let down and so they were borne along. Another translation puts it this way:? And being afraid lest they might perish on the Syrtis banks, they loosened the yard-arm, and so were borne along.
27:23
For last night an angel of God stood by me. He was not building himself up in saying this, but he was summoning them to faith. For this reason the sea was permitted to be stirred up, that both through that which was not heard and through that which was heard, the spiritual grace in Paul might be revealed.
27:31
Unless these men remain on the ship, you cannot be saved, and so forth. Since when there was danger of shipwreck the knowledge of the sailors, who are familiar with the sea, was more helpful than the arms of the soldiers,
4. Josephus/Hegesip., Bell. Iud. 2, 9, 1 (CSEL 66:153, 5/7).
5. Isid., Etymol. 13, 18, 6; Sallust, Jug. 78, 3.
6. Isid., Etymol. 19, 1, 18 and 21.
7. HTR 30, 45.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
they more willingly endured the loss of the skiff than the sailors.8
27:33
And when it began to grow light, Paul entreated them all to take food. A most beautiful allegorical sense is evident in this passage, when Paul persuaded the men he had promised would be saved from shipwreck to take food;? also in the fact that in the middle of the night they were kept from going wrong by four anchors in the violence of the waves;!° and that with the coming of day they climbed out onto a point of land.!! No one escapes the tempests of this world except those who are nourished by the bread of life, and one who in the night of present tribulations depends for all his strength on wisdom, fortitude, temperance, and justice will soon, with the shining forth of divine help, reach the port of salvation which he had sought, provided that, unencumbered by things of the world, he seeks only the flame of love with which he may warm his heart.!2
27:40
And with the foresail hoisted to the blowing of the breeze, they made for the shore. A /foresail is a sail of moderate size, designed for the purpose of steering the ship, rather than for speed.*
27:41a And when we had struck a place between two seas [locum bithalassum], they drove the ship aground.
He says bithalassum for lying between two seas [bimaritimum], because the Greeks call a sea @aAaooav. It
[locum bithalassum| signifies a strand which is extended out into the sea and which is surrounded by that same sea, which divides itself on this side and on that.
27:41b And the prow was stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern was being dashed to pieces by 8. Ac 27:28-32.
OAC A222 10. Ac 27:29.
11. Ac 27:39-44.
12. See com. on 28:3a.
13. Isid., Etymol. 19, 3, 3.
Chapter Twenty-Seven the force of the sea, and so forth. This ship perished because it did not glide over the waves with a smooth movement. Rather it became violently stuck upon the sea floor, a part only held fast, while part was broken up by the smashing waves. Such, without a doubt, is the fate of a mind attached to this world. When such a one has made no effort to trample mundane desires underfoot, he fixes the prow of his intention radically upon the earth, and therefore with the waves of cares he dashes to pieces the whole structure of works which follow [from that intention.]3* However, those who escaped on the pieces of this ship!4 made for the land, because, affected by the example of those who are perishing, others conduct themselves with greater care.
14. Ac 27:44.
NOTES TO CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
1. Navicularius actually means a ship owner, not a ship captain (Glare, 1161). Bede evidently realized that his definition in his Commentary was not precisely correct, for in the Retr. on this verse (CC 121:160, 1-161,4) he quotes Isidore (Etymol. 19,
1, 3) to the effect that nauclerus is the Greek for the master of a ship (dominus navis.) 2. In the Retr. on these verses (CC 121:162, 29/34), Bede recalls the definition of skiff (scapha) which he had given in his Commentary, and he mentions that he took that definition from Isidore, but that in his subsequent reading he found that scapha is also used for 'little vessels hollowed out of one tree, which the Greeks call povoévAac,' a quotation from Vegetius 2, 25.
3. This comment is another example of Bede's use of wordplay as a mirror for the development of his thought, from the literal sense to the allegorical. Several verbs, used with a concrete meaning in the Acts verse or in the immediately-following paraphrase, are then repeated in the allegorical interpretation, but with an extended meaning. The verse says that the ship's prow was 'stuck' (fixa), and Bede's literal clarification attributes the ship's destruction to its becoming 'stuck' (infixa) upon the floor of the sea. In the allegory the sinner, 'fixes' (infigit, the present form of the same verb) the prow of his intention on this world.
Similarly, just as the ship's stern is 'dashed to pieces' (solvebatur) in the verse, so the sinful soul 'dashes to pieces' (solvit) the spiritual structure of good works which follows from that intention, as a ship's stern follows its prow. There is also untranslatable etymological wordplay on the noun fundus and the adverb funditus: Just as the ship was stuck on the 'floor' (fundo) of the sea, so the wordly soul is 'radically' (funditus) misdirected in intention. Finally, Bede probably intends a pun in the antithesis of the 'smooth movement over the waves' (levi cursu fluctibus), which the ship tragically lacked, and the 'waves of cares'
(curarum fluctibus), which the worldly soul will have in great plenty.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
28:3a N= when Paul had gathered a great many sticks and put them on the fire. When the apostle came out of the sea, he kindled a fire on account of the cold, for with the heat of love he warmed the hearts of those whom by his teaching he had saved from the waves of the tempests. For the sticks are any things said in his exortations which, having the power to enkindle charity, are plucked from the fullness of the scriptures as though they were cut from sprigs of foliage.
28:3b A viper, when it had come out because of the burning heat, fastened on his hand. Because an unclean spirit is driven out of the hearts of the faithful by the flame of the virtues, it strives to pour out the venom of its persecutions upon teachers of the truth, so that it can in this way wound their hand, that is, hinder the work of spiritual teaching.
28:5
And he shook the beast off into the fire and suffered no harm. He burned up the beast in the same fire with which he provided them [his companions] with warmth. The saints advance by the same virtues which are the downfall of the impious, and their instigator because of their envy. As the prophet says, Zeal lays hold on an uneducated people, and now fire consumes enemies.'
28:8
Now it happened that Publius' father lay troubled by fever and dysentery. Why did he heal a sick unbeliever
1. Is 26:11 in the version of Jer., Comm. in Es. 3, 26, 11 (CC 73:335, 4/5).
Chapter Twenty-Eight by prayer,? when he 'restored Timothy, one of the sick believers, by the art of medicine,> and Trophimus, another sick believer, he left entirely?4 Was it not because this outsider had to be healed by a miracle since he was not inwardly alive, while those who were living with inner health had no need [of healing]?
28:11
We sailed in an Alexandrian ship which had wintered at the island [Malta]. [ts insignia was fortified camps [insigne castrorum]. | believe that what was originally written was: [ts insignia was Castor and Pollus [insigne Castorum], but through the fault of scribes the letter r was added, just as we often find frustra written for a piece
[frusta] of bread, and adpropriat for adpropiat in the most ancient exemplars. For in the Greek nagaonuw Alooxoveoic is written for insigne castrorum. The twin Castores, that is, Castor and Pollux, are called Aiéoxoveo: in Greek. A witness of this is a city of the Colchi founded by Amphitus and Circius, the twins' drivers, which was given the name
Dioscoria from their name.> The gentiles invoked them as gods upon the sea because, in sailors' portents, if stars appeared singly on the ship or on the sailyard they were a sign of a hazardous voyage, but if they appeared in a pair they were a sign of a prosperous voyage; and their approach ts said to put to flight that fearful star called Helen.°
In another translation, for nagaonpw Atooxoveoicg we have seen written, [ts sign was the sons of Jupiter,' for tales tell that Jupiter, transformed into a swan, ravished Leda, the wife of Theseus, and from that [union] Helen was born.
Hence it is said, as a melodious bird he sought the embraces of Leda.*® Again, he defiled the same woman [Leda], who . Ac 28:8b.
Salelimen= 23.
4. 2 Tm 4:20.
. Isid., Etymol. 15, 1, 40. p bio, Mets LOK Po ail, KO.
. cui erat signum Iovis filiis, a reading unique to Bede.
. Athanasius/Evag., Vit. Ant. 75 (PG 26:947-948).
OaNaWnn
Chapter Twenty-Eight
was changed into a star, and begot the twins Castor and Pollux.
28:25-26 Well did the Holy Spirit speak through Isaiah the prophet? to your fathers, saying, 'Go to this people and say, "'With the ear you will hear,' ' and so forth. This prophecy, which the apostle affirms was uttered by the Holy Spirit, is recorded in the book of the prophet as having been said by the Lord." From this it is plainly shown that the will and the nature of the Lord and of the Holy Spirit are one, and in the naming of the Spirit, the name of the Lord is also understood. Nor indeed did
Paul possess a different Holy Spirit, when he wrote these things about him, from the one which was in the prophets before the advent of the Lord. Rather [he wrote] about him whom he himself had shared in, as well as all those who led their lives in the faith of virtue brought to perfection.
Hence he also mentioned him with the article, as though to bear witness to his being one and unique, and, just as he did not say simply nveipa ayiov (that is, Holy Spirit), but with the added element of the article, td nvebpa tO aytov
(that is, the Holy Spirit), so also he recalls that Isaiah prophesied in his own voice with the article, dia tot ayiou nvevpatoc. Peter also, in the sermon in which he persuaded those who were present, said, 'The scripture must be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit' (that is, to mvetpa to aytov)
'declared before by the mouth of David concerning Judas." Thus he also showed that the same Spirit was at work in the prophets and in the apostles.'? These excerpts from the books of the blessed Didymus should have this place in our little work.
28:27a For the heart of this people has been hardened, and with their ears they have been hard of 9. Is 6:9.
10. Is 6:8.
11. Ac 1:16.
12. Didymus/Jer., De spir. sancto 29, 3 (PL 23:129A/B; 105C-106A).
Chapter Twenty-Eight hearing. Lest we think that their hardness of heart and their being hard of hearing are attributable to their nature and not to their will, he added a fault, their free will, saying:
28:27b And they have closed their eyes, lest perhaps they might see with their eyes. That is, because of their earlier faults, they themselves were the cause of God's closing of their eyes. Or, this should be joined to the above,' where the Lord says to the prophet: Go to this people and reproach them for the sins by which they have merited their blindness, even if perhaps they deign to listen and turn to me.'*
28:3la For two whole years he remained in his rented lodgings. That is, in the quarters which he had rented for himself, he preached Christ to everyone, not only to the Jews, but also to the gentiles, whom he said were to be saved when they [the Jews] had been rejected.
28:31b And he taught those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without being hindered. Not only was he not hindered from preaching in Rome, but the imperial power of Nero had not yet become strong, nor had he broken out into such wicked deeds as histories recount about him. [Paul] was released so that Christ's gospel might also be preached in the regions of the West,'> as he himself said to the Romans,!* Now therefore I will set out for Jerusalem to minister to the saints, and a little further on,!7 Therefore, when I have finished this , I will set out for Spain by way of you. But afterwards, that is, in Nero's last year, he was arrested by him and crowned by martyrdom.
He expressed both of these things!8 in the second epistle 13. Ac 28:26-27.
14. Ac 28:28; 18:6.
15. Jer., De vir. ill. 5 (TU 14:10, 6/9).
16. Rm 15:25.
17. Rm 15:28.
18. Jer., De vir. ill. 5 (TU 14:10, 10/20).
Chapter Twenty-Eight 17, to Timothy, which he composed while he was in chains, when about to suffer, saying, '9 'At my first defense no one came to my assistance, but everyone forsook me. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the preaching might be completed and all the gentiles might hear; and I was freed from the mouth of the lion', very clearly it was because of his cruelty that he spoke of Nero as a lion.
And following this he says,*° 'And he saved me and he will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.' He felt that this was close at hand for him since his martyrdom was imminent. Hence in the same epistle he had mentioned
'For I am already being sacrificed and the time of my release is at hand." I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.?? Amen.
19. 2 Tm 4:16-17.
20. 2 Tm 4:18.
21. 2 Tm 4:6; end of quote from Jer., De vir. ill.
2252 Tml4272
NOTES TO CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
1. From 'Go to this people' until the end of the comment, Bede seems to be paraphrasing Ac 28:26-27 (Is 6:9-10). However, his paraphrase appears to reverse the meaning of the last clause, since
Bede's 'even if perhaps' (si forte vel) corresponds to 'lest perhaps'
(ne forte) in Acts and Isaiah. In any case, Laistner's edition erroneously represents the paraphrase as a direct biblical quotation.
INDEX Items marked with an asterisk are quotations or allusions which are not to be attributed to Bede because they occur within the context of a passage borrowed from another source.
Scriptural index Psalm verses are cited according to the Hebrew enumeration.
References to passages in the synoptic gospels are generally cited only according to Matthew.
Commentary: chapter and verse page DEM Mee Ran rere teyene Meee cene aio bepe she eae
Gn 11:31-12:1
*Gn 12:1
Gnei5213 Gn 21:9
AE PANNA Tine RET CRN RcIC OME TCO OR a oe
ie fall BES An sree eee erence Sec oka Gace ek tee ae anene 118 Wo Oe ree Cr Neck eas I Ae aa
TSE ae PO Oe IT oe rs ter es eat
LS 1D BER
See TPR ne ee
ol Gee oe ee ner pees Wil iA, Si DRAB RY RN aN ee Dice PAIR gee Pr ea ng i ae
TAN Nt eee ae AO ty eR as
i ate
TS Ne REN DE: eStore een mene: %: 70
U2 U5 ap sectcd acn sncsok sc Mehs inthe a: caine chien meets Vile} 7S VG pes a Ae OR ECS a ES Pe ht Wl FAS eli? AetierNectic areo an ee ay Users PET
Gn 21:12
Gn 23:3-20 Gn 32:24-29 Gn 33:19
Gn 46:26-27 Gn 48:16
Gn 49:30-32 Gn 50:13 sss LA ey Baer ee nd nema ce, Se trai ee
DL DAE ec ERO Ee oat ES ed Oe EC OR Set Wize SSO pee fate eared are ep eons ite eae
2 OSE a goers nk Totes Cohen eke atom emi Ie age 176 IAA Gy SV ote CMS CO. PERC ca ot re CRA.
Di eae towels tedeieksies ys fe RRS oats Ra To avaToN eset
Dial 9 werecicre sks CAL PUR ee ore otc otter ens 3) AG: aL Be eee ELS chore, CREME R C
n EORTC Y
RSIS SPRY ht ee ee easy eA ants 5 art arian ning AaeOe ere Wi Th 4
RE INE ART
Soe ol Re EON MEE Tc Tie) Ex 1:5
Ex 2:11-14 Ex 12:40
Ex 14:9-10 Ex 14:21-22 Ex 19:18
Ex 19:18
Ex 23:16
Ex 26:7
*Ex 32:1-5
Index gf Yee AE a Poe es are Pe, The) D1 eR eh aisle OR Ole ee ai Ded Wee tea pth tet aye ene ee ee
*Ex 32:25-29 Ex 34:22
Ex 34:26
1081 Ae oe ee Ce
O58 Giese ah ode St a ale, oer ane eee ams
*Lv 11:2-8 Lv 11:3
Ly 25:8-19 Lv 25:8-19 1:3
Re ee ae ee eee
TORT OD es ore Re Ae Bree eee sete os 156 18:18 eg oes Be a ee eee
LSil See ee ne ee eee
ADD © De ei uring 3 Aachen cake Teena ae Si C99
RE Oe EON
AL OME Te RT See SIT
Nb 6:1-6 Nb 6:18
Nb 11:4-6 Nb 21:5
1 OF VA eae er a eee ee eae
O236 Ca fee ice cee oe ee
TST ee RO a Ae Ss cece Ota Sie
Ey to eae ee eee SE ON De Ay.
*Dt 14:3-20 Dt 14:6
Dt 18:15-18 Dt 34:7
1S eel oes ee ee ere 118
Ue Teal ES a ara al at ee chara gh reg Re ec Mri oe (bs 119 STA oo RH eee een tre RNA hve TE gS ogy.
Jos 11:23
Jos 14:1-2 Jos 24:32
1 S 28:3-19
162160 tte ek Oe eee
2eSely/e25 25S 18:9
PST Slice. ores eae ceca eene le, ea eee ae
DSU SD brethren a ee oe
1K 6:1
1K 10:1-13
1322.1 weeks canoe le oe cree ee
8227.) Fs ee ee kn eee
eer ll i) UN a ean gy Ae reine owned.
1Che29°27 | a A a ee a ee oe eh aS ee yO URE ein, 3
Jdt 14:6
DM css. jokiots. Cee pd ae eS een ee eee ee
Jb 9:31
DES 22 TNS a 5 Roe atone meee Fe eh eee
LL LS a > cul eA ee Ce ae
Ps 2:2
AD TNs gegen ee ike coe See
mS. 27
P3233 25.2. och Oe ee ee a ee
LZ. stot at Pak oe ee eee ene han, 1
19524 Nic. donckr Ws
Re eC Tone
P silo oY: WM PR SR es Ae cht ea ee eat,
Ps 5:9
Ps 12:6
Ps 16:8
Ps 16:10
*Ps 16:11
PAW OAD Ae tiie Ce Dae yn OA nets Paes 0.) iret
Index
"Psi 2221 TS 6 Pyeng ceea sake ae ae ee se ee
LG225 Gigante ees ese ohh er Le 138 D2 Obasyneewe rats Sis eae ek acne oe bee &
Ps 32:7
Ps 36:1
Ps 36:6
Depts att teakiat ok ais s ee Mee IS See eto ERE
2OPD4 Si hdeane us ay ee Soe tah
AD TWO AG AE Bib a ee Nantes fe eee acento aa
Bi 2 Cae OS SR Fi ee ee che
DAS Weck cm cm Panis 8s Lin Yrs eee ewa RTE ae Ree
Ps 40:4
Ps 45:7
Ps 45:10
Ps 45:12-13 LOST UD gen ae en a ee eee
TORT Oy ieee rs chase oe eS CO as Eee
VOM Dae ca A SE Se ae
Ps 48:1-2 Ps 49:12
Ps 50:16
Ps 66:5
Ps 68:31
TGS G=9 ea orn os iN Ree Sct iy ee
SEZ2OA es beer ees ae ee ene
Ps 69:25
Ps 74:23
LF ZO i crak Oe ae aoe ate Met ee
ZOD the oes Rae te es En SS Se
NWI ACP a ec age er ag hhh AM a ER
1: O Rts
a eee Fs ee Stn ee eee
1220 ae an Ae nace roar ae
LEZO Ue Gia ces ciate eee San haan Bn ees
8233) od Seo cas 3 CR ee ee ee
Ps 76:1
Ps 89:38
Ps 109:6
Ps 109:29
Ps) 110:3
PANO SR SO
Ae Be cc he Ree eet Aa Road 176 Pr 21:30
15722 SD REA
Re ee iin cer ieainke ae
Pr 31:15
VO2T 2 Be he cn eee eet el en ee
Oo, 12-13 LOC ARR ee tat os Meee th Sata eS ee
Sg 2:15 its V4 Pe ree ae ates ic a a one ey
Ve 2B ae eae as EO Os st SE
Ws 1:5
*Ws 8:1
PX OR at 58 eae DN eRe Run RENTS ene TEAMS
Solez ol 2 28225 — LO eee oo ee ae 195 28325 267 eee ee eee
Ne bt lc oie Mee en Er aes (PSR cy Ma or
*Is 6:8
*Is 6:9
Is 9:7
Is'11:2
TEA OWS ceva esol UN oO eile, eee eet i DS 5 Pe aa eT io ea ee
2) Perr es ieee CMTC ee eek cee ait ete
EAD a ae Ae ei ed Arde Reet lao fer: Serial eee
PA Wd Wh lp hae EROS SA 'o Chck Re RT maaan otot he
ey Rain eee Gey acer ERE Cen Rec ot moka
TROP rs oa ecient a reece ccncho Ce CE ER OeS Gira eS
ALAS) OW cohen oes eeert ERE: COMER eR RC eciG..
1B PA seco eee ess Cen tn Ce nr a Meme ment Sere E
*Is 26:11
Is 29:17
Is 40:12
Is 49:22
Isp5 5:3
*Is 66:1
Is 66:2
Is 66:23
Index LOS 2 cee ee ore eer C7 Th. OE NTP ee he 5s PUR eS cron c
IEC: ee ORO TRE. ie OMe Romero God fe &
DAV RA ake ee ee 165 Jr 5:8
Jr 7:4
Jr 7:12-15 Jr 11:3
Jr 13:23
Bi 27a yates ee cee Oe en ee
Bt enn, Meer aNe hE Amin AA rote, cor aaa A ENG
Dn 2:45
Dn 6:10
DF SRR een cw 3 ACR ote kot cae ae I ac
DAT Ae uchiha named Wer eas Med a WT cot ET
Ji 3:1 ieSro Jl 3:3
Delia bepkdcechlee stasis Dae ee ee
DBT Eee Rack Ree ee
Tea Cs oe che eae en Sa ee en oe
*Am 5:27
152.6 nee ee Oe
Morn he 7/ ZOSTO eee ee eee
MI 4:2
LEG?) tea gs A rer art Pay Me
UME R EOE,
DTP GRAS oe Oe oe eee
MOD a eet to ee roe ral eee
LOS 2 ee ee eee eee
Mt 2:2
Mt 2:2
Mt 2:9-10 Mt 3:7
Mt 3:11
LO S38 ara soc acts oR ee ee
1 Oe 5 cS Sek: gk odes REE te oe
BS SD bP ta the ea Pgh ee oe eee ee
LOM 2 eae oR eee
16:6—9 FA
Gage ne a eee a ee
16:6=9 8 eas ance ee
LOT 2 eet hope Ls eee eee
16:6=9 mei een ee ee 135 IA ie eee CR te Me ae Rene ihe SIS ae
os ee ee eee ara Py ites Pte Ay 8 ee eA)
1355 1 cts. hei racy eee eetees ae Sie eee TAA Mt 3:11
Mt 5:6
Mt 7:6
Mt 7:6
Mt 8:19-20 Mt 8:20
Mt 8:21-22 Mt 9:17
Mt 10:9
Mt 10:14
Mt 10:23
Mt 14:13-21 Mt 15:21-27 Mt 16:16-19 Mt 16:17
Mt 17:1
Mt 18:10
Mt 20:1-16 Mt 20:5-6 *Mt 22:17
Mt 22:23 bo et Me ee ee Te MER <1 Blea ar:
= ARAM BARC ar
BATT inch sie INS Re Oe inn eA
16:6-9 atic ads ee ee ee
DSi jr Oenrictivey stats oe RR ee
AB GBs sins stdeciice Ree OD ee ee
Ls LL Dhaene Oe en eee
P2315) i ccecesecneirotcaceee RE ee ae ee eee 113 PA RPE NE. TES, 2 othe Win xem PNP Hl ca
Diy ces ay eee va tice racer ME ee cee eee
2 he eee TORE «oy 1k Mr pene A
AT iisua seh aha coil ope Ge OE ee
Index
Mt 23:33
Mt 24:20
Mt 25:35
Mt 25:40
Mt 26:15
Mt 26:29
Mt 26:62-64 Mt 26:65
Mt 26:73
Mt 27:11-14 OAL S BW Wwe acct ate Tl ecu ec
LSEE2 Deere eee eee ce paras
pOV A Sy 5, Set Se tal atte le tig RR a ten ATE ra
LS Es er itp Siok beara ENS Can eI a Mie A See E A
32 O Peep eer eee ee eRe a OE pa
LOA hin ee cee ete ere reas, aioe
823.2 Die ee wee eric nein ee amo
PAPAO NAEP
Ppa Mirena te DA nt RANT Ay as Slr
PAS Non SPACE rst ee at ceyt hl Wee AE OSE, ae a el
B32 a roby hee eT SNe eee
Ze ie pene aE oe ee eee ae
SPAS PNG EG CUCU
is Silh AA SVs aS ee RRR
DAR We Eoin Se Earn og eee tune Aal eRR dae e ee We I
Do?) aera eas Be ee ee eT ete
2 Set ee ee CORT es Re a ee
1Os3 OR aoa Pees RCE AN sae Stewie
Mt 27:25
Mt 27:25
Mt 27:45
Mt 27:45
Mt 27:45-46 Mt 27:45-46 *Mt 27:46
Mt 27:46
Mt 27:51-52 Mt 28:13
Mt 28:19
Mt 28:20
SORE eee ee eee
iL Os3 Been See eee re tee eae
DP All WYP Bettas PRR RS ES mn Rh
SIA Sa Ape A RN ee yO (Se DR Rey Meee ae
fe Roy otter. Marta cy eet ake UMN tier A SE
Ree hoe, See cmeenc sal shy euaniel ne Ain non eaten Aes
LSD Yee eee ee ee er oe ee
LelS Dee ee ee se co eee
I ae con eee oes 2 eee ene, fe pS oe
LO ae eat ee es Cee eee
71 Ogee eae TR Ae See ee le ey Ree
Mk 3:18
Mk 15:40
Mk 16:10
Mk 16:19
*Mk 16:19
PLetac€ eee a ee eae alee a
12 OP re er aee Aedes ney onl ane
BAS De ee ig Rea yea oie eee:
USA Pe ee ee cea rie sane epee
Pretace ry ccta ct ians aemtene ey he eee tee eats
LOT OD ee eee ta tee A LEO
Lk 1:1-3 Lk 1:9
Lkat<35 Lk 2:32
Lk 3:34-36 Lk 7:41-42 DO: 35 ae econo eke ha ieee eee
TIS ee ea dec eons Shee eae ees 112 DOS Been ae eh eo Pe re ates
Lk 10:35
Lk 12:35
*Lk 13:6-9 1 KOE EOP beh. UGS ie ae OMe TRIN ES De eae eee care ee
Dike ges Lk 15:11-15 Pkei9s1 PA CII A ee) See Ses 5 aN Ma Ma ER EA rian PEPE.
TEGO oe ei ee ae bicesiasoay ae ree
FeEUNO): 2m een eter red 5. 3) hn, CRE Pee ae meer cL er
B23 2 Dime eaciaee eee CR celeueies Soreene ahededs
RE 2115 Lk 23:6-9
Index Lk 24:21
LGieticeko.s dons aca es bE ee eae ial TOSS 8a ike Soe ed eens
LOZ) ee ere catcky ee tua ena ge eee eeaeniae
Jn 1:32
Jn 1:51
Jn 2:1-11 Jn 3:8
Jn 3:13
We DAD sea ten cette oncaeid ea eae
V5 28h cer yeioce one es Ge ee ee
2D. yD SPD ees te aoe oats ake yes tecceochek oaee
TE Lo PE a Ry Gn Che tee ake Tuk *Jn 4:5-6 AKO Lo) pay A rem Cra WE Joe Boe, Os A SUNG 2
SG es are A Oe eo ee heen We!
L728 ae ee eee ee er che ne ees
Jn 4:5-7 Jn 4:39
*Jn 5:26
Jn 7:39
Jn 11:48
*Jn 13:1-15 Jn 14:6
Jn 14:12
Jn 15:19
Jn 19:23-24 Jn 19:25
*Jn 19:25
Jn 19:34
Jn 20:18
Jn 20:26
Jn 20:30
Jn 21:1-2 Jn 21:12-13 *Jn 21:15-17 SON eee tN to eee hae Ree Me eae
DED Bes Oia c sete igs Se ee oe
Ds Sy sah so ud ce arty es SRS ay et ee ae eR
S226B 4 oh ee cate Oe eae eres
Sd Seay) ieee
ATE CUSROREE CuGeO
ET cos
Wits \ «cee Ce at no oe es comeakes
LOST Ta Ae tk ace Sac eee eee Oa ae
Vel 3 Di toe avecntde-SS oo sae tages Rea eee
DVS Se eh Ee Rae hake ene Oe Lee
ZH OS Ae Rete Seek. 4 Seis, Sete ee Oo eae Az, PAs Oe ee ee ee a ee SNPs et aes 113 SEO Ae ehh Aa Seg MPSA ee ae
| al Oe ne ene 2 | oe ek ee ee eS
19! 14 Bnei Gis eye Te Oe ee ee
NOTA Tose, PM ee eee oe oe ee eee
1021164 paniadcate. sys Me. sok ee eee
passim Ac PSs ieee oct Se Cee een ee ne
LE 2 OR eT Bean Ate ee eee Ree A nee
i Al I ee one eee NaF aces se eve weap one tamey rk
LO:4 8 eae ee CR ed Oe Bie em 104 Rm 1:17
Rm 3:13-18 Rm 5:20
Rm 6:3
Rm 6:4
Rm 7:6
*Rm 9:7
*Rm 11:36
Rm 15:25
Rm 15:28
LES SEO PAO CaS eter cae iy eee ee
DEUS Fe pre os CORR as Oe ee ee
Cs Otitis aa Rte Rae CA ee 8 ah ae
LUSZB a See eis ee Oe ee
285 Lee cecil aa ee ee ee en ee
2823 Tp Peas cee Ar OA ee ee
1 Co 1:17 rT Ha viods sl ecene eae wale bie eat ed ee
VE ZED Spode Hep vcp octets RR acs ee
18527 — 28: win snccornne eek 65 ee
1 Co 2:2
1 Co 3:6
Index
MCo 57 SA 2a gay. cere he a dee Aree ieee. hte
Le SD ere ee eee Poem eeteee reo
ZO5 5 Aas ee case ee ae ihre he
PA NA WM aaa eet BS he NR a REO ih a Re
I Ss fa rave ey ay On encase acs em Nat ba 104 ZOSO by Mtr rece a cesta eee Screens At oar 160 1 Co 9:11
1 Co 9:14-15 1 Co 9:20 mit Co 12414 1 Co 13:13
OAH BS DAE
Fh oo oR te ELEN V1 tet oe Di 2 Co 4:17
2 Corsst LO:2ORSR ca rt bt ar eee ar ee Tee ee
2624 ee ae te ea ote eee ee 184 TOS ae ert ee Ee ee ees 155 O°2'5 Dee eee oe eee ate ree oe pene
16:25 Bite See ee EE ar ot ine
*2 Co 5:13
ZiGorlte14 2, Co 1132=33 2COw2-9 Gaiet Ga 1:17-21 GAanels Ga 1:19
Gare t PANU IRL: 2 Pee eee >, EAE ote Or aN en Ae See gate
OD 6 BNR a Oe AC ! ART ee
IS iS Oe ae eT ei epee
cA ADR ASA eeee. oe ee Eres
TA DOE en SOE Oe es ee eee
1532 ete 5 See ee aie ee ee oar 129
ee ee ee.
AS ons tetrad
1A; S ee SEO nae oh. eo oo es
153 Seo ee es oe eee
L031 Se fe SA ot Gt in ee os
LO si Se SF cd eee ce sears
IS SeU I 2 eee oh See BV a Oe 8) eR ee
Ga 2:1-2 Ga 2:9
Ga 2:9
GarZ11 Ga 2:19
Gal2:20
*Ga3ell Ga 3:19
EE Sir OoStoh a6 At RELA Ceo Fa ENE Siu. Sone VS $335372 by eee Ce rie he Neon ene ea een ae
AEA pei sept OS NN PEO OD orth ce ee nahisvasetius weaee
DOELO Bie eek ea ae ore ee Ph ohare ae
Ga 4:4
Ga 4:19
Ga 4:22
Ga 4:24
Ga 5:1-6 SAW (ee STi) <A WE es BO RAY eae 1 Ba apn FeO 160 2 OS PAPO ee eRe vine ree
I Be ine Ne oy ae Oho Roan Cr ee A aie
223 SD enemas eicebis ea hintaan mene ouaatch a ren: 163
TQS ree er Meant he aC es dette aanenge feet
Ep 4:28
Ep 6:15
O20 cee
ee Se ey La
252 Mill Pape AOR tre PNP rc Sktue deere cy tote ons 181 Ph 3:20
Ph 4:1
T5339 Dae oe ee Ee Pons Calcot eerie See 132 PLeLAC Cee eR Hn he rete ahs
Col 4:10
*Col 4:14
2083 Saye ay oeh & fede Mute 163 2 Th 3:7-9
Index P42 Sh ae ee ee Ph.
ER ei LES i.
1 Tm 5:23
2823 Die. eta tee ee ee
ZBISD costs chs oro pcp hee rele ei eaee
2823 Dieter xt ee oe ee
28331 D cise eee ea ee ae ae
2S Sr Grd ed aie ee eee
*2 Tm 4:6
2 Tm 4:7
*2 Tm 4:16-17 *2 Tm 4:18
2 Tm 4:20
Bi sock che Mos
SAPS CORRES ER
RE ee
T26 Shia iin oe a Se eee Zi L229 ae, Ein 5 sac ee ee ae eee
Heb 9:1
Heb 9:12
Heb 10:34
*Heb 11:18
TOs chet eee alee a
Jm 1:2
Jm 2:10
162255, ancien Pe ae ee eee 157 ZOZOD: ieictotey FLARES TR ee ae
1 P2222 DED Site Beek A tO eR oe eee
LZ aisle de hE SR Oe eee
1 P 4:1
1 Jn 2:19
20: 308 oes ea s.2 Ieee ee eee
Rv 1:7; 14:14
Rv 21:2
DS Dati ete ee
LOAD SAR A Ras fa ee eee
Index
Index of patristic and other ancient sources quoted or referred to by Bede Commentary: chapter and verse page Ambrose the Holy Spirit 1, 3, 43-45 On On 10:48...... 103 the Holy Spirit 2, 10, 105
MOBICOR INS 2e
Arator LslSbiz aera
L235 eens
LEZ rete
437 teen
LlSb ieee
the Acts of the Apostles 1, 89-91 the Acts of the Apostles 1, 106 the Acts of the Apostles 1, 108-110 the Acts of the Apostles 1, 407-410 the Acts of the Apostles 1, 443-450 On On On On the Acts of the Apostles 1, 570-572 62225. Sone
the Acts of the Apostles 1, 593-595 the Acts of the Apostles 1, 624-625 the Acts of the Apostles 1, 881-883 the Acts of the Apostles 1, 904-906 T2586.
SEO aee
8:14. Re V9 10:9b2ee es
LOs1 bees Oy 12 ae a ee
the Acts of the Apostles 1, 1038-1041 the Acts of the Apostles 1, 1054-1057 the Acts of the Apostles 2, 441-442 the Acts of the Apostles 2, 564-568 the Acts of the Apostles 2, 647-650 the Acts of the Apostles 2, 714-716 the Acts of the Apostles 2, 723-752 UZ LO een een cs 113 LO ee ee 137 TS: 3 eae 149 19:1 5a 155 19:29 eae 157 19240 ee IY 2. Oy — Onan e 159 the Acts of the Apostles 2, 760 the Acts of the Apostles 2, 890-891, 909-910 2.0) 35) erence 163 Athanasius 7d (leer a 194 Life of St. Anthony 75 Augustine Commentary on Genesis according to the Literal Sense 4, 12, 4, 18 Commentary on John's Gospel 44, 5; 71, 3
Commentary on the Psalms 15, 8-10 Commentary on the Psalms 30, 1 Commentary on the Psalms 58, 1, 5 Harmony on the Gospels 4, 8 5:15 ecw
PATO AS ace Pace ited he
2 LOR, Beet
GO: 8 ase
Lely. actu
2: 7ge4. ee 159 Letters 36, 12, 28 Letters 55, 1, 2 2S Ika, AME
Index Letters 82, 2, 8 Letters 82, 2, 9-10 Letters 190, 2, 6 Letters 265, 3-5 On the City of God 16, 15 On the City of God 16, 15 On the City of God 16, 38 On the City of God 16, 39 On the City of God 18, 10 On the Trinity 14, 12 On the Trinity 15, 26 On the Trinity 15, 26 Questions on the Heptateuch 2, 47, 6 Sermons 149, 5, 6 Sermons 149, 5, 6 Sermons 149, 8, 9 Sermons 149, 9, 10 Sermons 150, 4, 5-5, 6 Sermons 315, 3, 3 Sermons 319, 4, 4 Benedict of Nursia Rule for Monks 1, 6 John Cassian Conferences 18, 7 Didymus the Blind On the Holy Spirit 29, 3 On the Holy Spirit 60 Eusebius Chronicle Church History 1, 5 Church History 1, 8 *Church History 1, 13, 4 Church History 2, 1 Church History 2, 4 Church History 2, 9 Church History 2, 10 Church History 2, 10 Church History 2, 10 Church History 2, 11 Church History 2, 12
Index
Church History 2, 19 24:27, cle' 178
Church History 2, 21 MM MII ake wash 168 Church History 3, 11 113b voce
Church History 10, 14 11 8b ese
Gregory the Great Homilies on Ezekiel 1, 1, 11-12 LO 2 ea teas 100 Homilies on Ezekiel 2, 7,9 LO sgae eee a
Homilies on the Gospel 1, 4, 1 16:6-9..... 136
Homilies on the Gospel 2, 29, 7 7s One ee
Homilies on the Gospel 2, 29, 9 1S Oe er
Morals, Commentary on Job 1, 14, 19 L166 3 3 ee
Morals, Commentary on Job 4, 1, 2 82204 Fania
Morals, Commentary on Job 9, 36, 58 L3l 8a fa
Morals, Commentary on Job 20, 16, 41 ING /SVA STO es hc
Morals, Commentary on Job 27, 43, 71 1ast8 Se ae
Morals, Commentary on Job 28, 1, 2 252A ae
Morals, Commentary on Job 32, 15, 27 116i oe,
Morals, Commentary on Job 34, 4, 8-9 23:0. 175
Pastoral Care 3, 25 20: 260 ae.
Pastoral Care 3, 30 23.8 ey.
Pastoral Care 3, 34 9: Oona.
Gregory of Nazianzus Orations 4, 15 PORE AS
Hegesippus See Josephus, Wars of the Jews Innocent I, Pope Letter to Decentius 25, 3, 6 cE Sepa es. 80
Isidore Etymologies 7, 3, 10 ASsOb ee:
Etymologies 7, 3, 12 4:36b 0...
Etymologies 7, 9, 4 M3 0D
Etymologies 7, 9, 18 LIS ber ee
Etymologies 7, 11, 3 CSF
Etymologies 8, 3, 1 ar ahtonaeihes
Etymologies 8, 4, 4 Sst7ee ee
Etymologies 8, 9, 7 LGiloe 136 Etymologies 8, 9, 21 16164 136 Etymologies 8, 11, 45 (sobs
Etymologies 12, 1, 15 OBO
Etymologies 12, 1, 22 SBOr eve
Index Etymologies 13, 18, 6° Etymologies 15, 1, 40 Etymologies 15, 1, 24 Etymologies 15, 2, 9 Etymologies 15, 2, 10 19229 5 eee Die O— lye 27:16-17 ...
Etymologies 15, 2, 34-35 Etymologies 19, 1, 18 Etymologies 19, 1, 21 Etymologies 19, 3, 3 On the Birth and Death of the Fathers 80, 139
Jerome Against Helvidius 13 Book of Places Book of Places Book of Places Commentary on Amos 2, 5, 25/27 Commentary on Amos 2, 5, 25/27 Commentary on Amos 2, 5, 25/27 Commentary on Daniel 2, 6, 10 Commentary on Ezekiel 14, 47, 18 Commentary on Galatians 1, 1, 17 Commentary on Galatians 2, 4, 8-9 Commentary on Galatians 3, 5, 19-21 Commentary on Isaiah 2, 3, 3 Commentary on Isaiah 3, 6, 9, 10 Commentary on Isaiah 3, 26, 11 Commentary on Isaiah Commentary on Isaiah Commentary on Isaiah Commentary on Isaiah Commentary on Isaiah Commentary on Isaiah Commentary on Isaiah Commentary on Isaiah Commentary on Isaiah Commentary on Isaiah LOs19D eee 14, 53, 8/10 14, 53, 8/10 14, 53, 8/10 14, 53, 8/10 Le igede Fee) 15;,56,°3 16, prol.
16757, 9 17, 63, 11/14 18, 66, 18.19
Commentary on Jonab 1, 7 Commentary on Matthew 1, 10, 4 Commentary on Matthew 1, 10, 23 Commentary on Matthew 2, 15, 11 Commentary on Matthew 3, 22, 23-32
Index Commentary on Matthew 4, 24, 36 Commentary on Matthew 4, 26, 65 Commentary on Philemon Commentary on Psalms 1, 1 Commentary on Psalms 39, 5 Commentary on Psalms 88, 39 Commentary on Psalms 109, 1 Commentary on Titus 3, 1/2 Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation Letters 53, 5 Letters 53, 9 Letters 57, 1 of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names of Hebrew Names Letters 57, 10 Letters 108, 8 Letters 108, 13 Letters 112, 9 Letters 112, 13 Life of Hilarion 25 On Famous Men 1 On Famous Men 2 On Famous Men 5 On Famous Men 5 On Famous Men 5 On Famous Men 5 On Famous Men 5
Index Prefacemer.
On Famous Men 7 Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 8, 2,5 Loe Ss
Weel lie ea ae fa Ma Oo Wine Pek ae 60 *Antiquities of the Jews 16, 11, 7 *Antiquities of the Jews 18, 1, 1 *Antiquities of the Jews 18, 6, *Antiquities of the Jews 19, 8, *Antiquities of the Jews 19, 8, 10-7, 2
*Antiquities of the Jews 20, 5, 1 Wars of the Jews 2, 6, 3 *Wars of the Jews 2, 8, 1 Wars of the Jews 2, 9, 1 Wars of the Jews 2, 9, 1 *Wars of the Jews 2, 9, 6 *Wars of the Jews 2, 13, 5
[PP AaI WAS
oe Se tit T2219 ee
22 ee
ereion Slke
21°38. ee
5 eee
IX SSI a ae
ON CS ee
1 OSS Se eee
94 Tee Wy Peewee
Martial *Epigrams 13, 94 LS eT ea
Orosius History against the Pagans 7, 6 TS22h4 ee 149 Pliny Natural History 2, 37, 101 Natural History 5, 14, 69 Natural History 5, 17, 76 Natural History 6, 35, 186 PAO eM ll ie Beles ees
tO aoe
I WP ARPA OWE ade.
S22 pe ae
Pseudo-Clement of Rome Recognitions 1, 65, 2 Recognitions 2,7, 1 5 34 Seek
S21S 4 See
Sallust *Jugurtha 78, 3 PATIENCE ope we 188 Shepherd of Hermas Mand. 6, 2 L235 + eee
Suetonius *Lives of the Caesars: Claudius 25, 4
TABULATIONS
These tabulations do not include quotations or allusions which occur within the context of a passage borrowed by Bede from another source.
I) Scripture Gn
15€o
Ex jt Pr
2 Co
Jos
Col
2 Th
Dn Z 1 Tm
2 Tm
IZA
Jon
Heb
1Ch
Jdt it Synoptic gospels
"Pp
1 Jn
Totals Old Testament
New Testament 138* Total o> *Note that this tabulation does not include the numerous references to other passages within Acts.
Tabulations Il) The Fathers and other Ancient Writers Ambrose
Arator
Athanasius
Augustine
Benedict
Cassian
Didymus
Eusebius
Gregory the Great
Gregory of Nazianzus
Innocent I
Isidore
Jerome aS Josephus 4 (3 of these in Hegisippus) Orosius
Pliny
Pseudo-Clement of Rome je Shepherd of Hermas
Total:
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THE VENERABLE BEDE
COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
'I have spent all my, life in this monastery', wrote Bede from,his isolated | ~ Northumbrian cell, 'applying myself entirely to the study of the Scriptures...I have made it my business, for my own benéfit and that of my brothers, to make brief extracts: from the works of the venerable fathers on the holy
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From the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, Bede's authority as a scriptural exegete waS-second only to that of the Doctors of the Latin Church.
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Yet modem readers associate this remarkable '\ scholar-monk only with his History of the English Church and Nation and ignore the works he saw as his chief accomplishment. ea!
His commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, one of his earliest works, was * also one of his most popular. It reflects the breadth of. loca s mind andthe, great diversity of his interests. i ; ; | Lawrence T. Martin studied theology at the Catholic University of American and. medieval literature at the University of Wisconsin. Now professor of English at the University of Akron, he has edited The Somniale Danielis, and apocryphal manual of dream interpretation, and. published articles on medieval dream interpretation, early medieval preaching, and the Venerable
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