2. The Priesthood Of Aaron And His Sons
BOOK THREE
that tlus saying is meant to be fulfilled in the Holy Church, in which there are teachers and also hearers of the truth who succeed one another in turn.
For [the Church] will never lack either spiritual children of Israel who offer glfts of piety in the house of the Lord, or sons of Aaron (that is, of our true
Priest) who administer the light of the word to them, until such time as the order of this world will be finished and the entire tabernacle of God itself
(that is, the whole multitude of the elect) will be transported to a heavenly kingdom where people will no longer be taught by other human beings, since God will be all in all.'
THE PRIESTHOOD OF AARON AND HIS SONS
28: 1 Bring to yourself also Aaron your brother and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that they may exercise the priestly office for me-Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. After the making of the tabernacle has been described, the priests who minister in it arc subsequently ordained. Surely their ordination and vesture rightly pertain to the priests of the Church, so that everything in the adornment of their vestments there which was shining brightly on the outside is here understood spiritually as visible deep within, in the very thoughts of our priests, and as shining abroad gloriously in their deeds, which surpass those of the rest of the faithful in merit.2
[96] For Uus reason, Moses is aptly commanded to bring to himself Aaron his brother and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, to exercise the priestly office before the Lord. For all those who are to be advanced to a higher rank in the Holy Church must apply3 their minds to the law of God with greater industriousness, that is, they should be attached to the obscrvance of the chine commandments with a mind4 that is more astute than the rcst. This implies that those who are going to exercise the priestly oflice
1 1 Cor. 15:28
2 There was a widespread tendency in early Christianity to assimilate the threefold ministry of bishop, presbyter, and deacon to the Old Testament offices of high priest, priest, and Levite; see Dassrnann (1970). Nevertheless, most early Christian writers followed Origen, Honi. in Elrod. 9,4 (GCS29: 240-4) in understanding the vestments of Aaron and his sons as syn~bolic of virtues requisite not forthe ordained alone, but for all members of the priestly body ofChrist.
Bede's interpretive emphasis on the clergy follows rather in the tradition of Gregory the Great,
Reg. past. 2,2-7 and 11 (SC 381: 176-230 and 252-56) and Regrst. 1, 24 (CCSr. 140: 22-32), on which see Judic (1985).
3 apphcenc another form ofthe same verb is used in Exod. 28: 1 above, where it is translated
'bring'.
4 ammo, but apparently without any difference in meaning from mens, the word used earlier in the sanie sentence.
BEDE: ON THE TABERNACLE
are brought to Moses from among the children of Israel and that the leaders and teachers of the Holy Church transcend the common life of the elect by the exceptional eminence of their minds. By habitual contemplation, they distinguish whch law was spoken to all the elect in general, and which to the few who are more perfect, so that by the higherexcellence of their merits they may be able to attain to higher rewards. For when Moses is commanded to ordain his brother and his sons with him to the priesthood, what else is he mystically recommending to us except that all who are appointed to the office of teacher must cleave to meditation on the divine law with so much zeal and love that they seem to be joined to it as though they were related to it as brothers?
Now Aaron's first [two] sons were destroyed by fire from heaven, when after their ordination they offered illicit fire before the Lord.' This is not far from being a sign of our unhappy time, in wluch some who have attained positions as priests and teacherseerely to mention it is both distressing and sad enough-are consumed by the fire of heavenly vengeance because they prefer the fire of cupidity to the fire of heavenly love; their eternal damnation was figured by the temporal death of Aaron's sons.2 Yet this is the figure of a more excellent mystery. Just as the tabernacle with its decorations and vessels designates the Holy Church which is distinguished by the quite beautiful variety of virtues or characters [found] among the faithful, so also does the high priest of that same tabernacle contain a figure of the true High Priest,3 Jesus Christ, who offered his very self for us as a sweet-smelling oblation and sacnfice to God.4 He also can rightly be called
Moses' brother, for who could be joined more closely to another in a fraternal covenant than Christ is to Moses, grace to the law, and the New
Testament to the Old? Moses himself gves a testimony of this sort concerning [Christ], when he says to the people he has been teaching, 'The Lord your Godwill raise up foryou a prophet like mepom your own people and from among your own brethren; you shall listen to him, and a little later
.5 on [he speaks] in the character of the Lord, 'I will raise up for fhetn aprophet 1 Lev. 1O:l-2 2 Bede's stringent criticisms of the Northumbrian clergy of his day are set forth in Ep. Ecg.
(ed. Plummer, 1: 405-23). a letter written in 734 just a few months before his death. On correspondences between Bede's programmatic call for reform and the canons of the Council of Clofesho in 747 (ed. Haddan and Stubbs, 3: 360-76), see Plummer ( 1 896), 378-88; Thacker
(1983), 150-1; and Cubitt (1992).
3 veri ponrrficrs; here and elsewhere in what follows, Bede does not seem to make any distinction between pontfkx and summus sacerdos, both of which mean 'high priest'.
4 Eph. 5:2
5 h u t . 18:15