3. THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL ARE COMMANDED TO OFFER: Firstfruits To The Lord And To Make A Sanctuary
BOOK ONE
the children of Israel look from afar toward the mountain of God and toward the sight of his glory whenever those weak ones in the Church who earnestly desire to see God himself diligently keep their minds' eyes fixed on the recollection of eternal splendour. It is as if they stay near to the mountain of God, upon which they know that Moses has ascended, whenever they confine themselves upon it by living temperately, so as never to divert the course of their action very far away from the imitation of the highest men, although they are not yet fully able to follow their footsteps to perfection.
[IO] 24: 18 And Moses, entering into the midst of the cloud, went up onto the mountain, and he was there forty days and forty nights. Moses enters into the midst of the cloud and goes up onto the mountain when the preachers of the divine law, among whom Moses himself was preeminent, are invited and led by the Lord to penetrate the hei hts in order to contemplate the ambiguities and secrets of divine wisdorn. Now Moses was with the Lord forty days and forty nights so that he might learn from this amount of time that the only ones who are able to fulfill the Decalogue of the law which he, with his people, had received are those whom [the Lord] assists with the grace of evangelical truth, which was to be recorded in fourbooks; for four times ten makes forty. Or perhaps [it means] that the time would come when those same teachings of the Decalogue, which he then received with the one people of the children of Israel, would be spread abroad through the generosity of divine grace and would be made known to all the races contained in the four parts of the world, and that by observing them all tio on^ would come to eternal salvation. And because Moses arrived so quickly in his miraculous ascent to receive the law, we have learned that even at this moment we ought to direct our e m to hearing what he heard and our minds to expounding those same commandments of the law, as far as we are able.
THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL ARE COMMANDED TO OFFER
FIRSTFRUITS TO THE LORD AND TO MAKE A SANCTUARY
There follows:
25:l-2 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Tell the children of Israel that they should bring me firstfruits; from every person who offers voluntarily, you shall take firstfruits for me. We bring the firstfruits of our possessions to the Lord when, if we do anything good, we truthfully attribute it all to divine grace. Acknowledging from the inmost heart that we are unable even to begin a good action or thought without the 1 Ps. 51:6 (50:8)
BEDE: ON THE TABERNACLE
Lord, we must confess that our misdeeds, although instigated by the devil, are always begun and brought to completion by us ourselves, nor can they be undone unless the Lord forgives. The Pelagians are unwilling to bring the firstfruits of their possessions to the Lord but retain whatever they own for themselves, because with foolish presumption they allege that they have something good from themselves apart from the grace of God.' And Moses was well advised to take firstfruits from every person who offers voluntarily,for God loves a cheerfulgiver, and the Apostle commands us to do good
[woIlts] not reluctantly or under compulsion, but from a intention that is heartfelt.2 Knowing that he is to do this, the prophet takes pride in saying to the Lord, 'Of my own accord will I sacrrjice to you.
25:3-8Now these are the things you must take: gold and silver and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet twice dyed and fine linen, goats' hair and rams' skins dyed red, blue skins and acacia wood, oil for preparing lamps, spices for ointment and for sweet-smelling incense, onyx stones and precious stones to adorn the ephod and the rational.
And they shall make me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in the midst of them. All these things that the Lord directed to be offered to him in a material fashion for the malung of a sanctuary by the people of earlier times should also be offered with spiritual understanding by us who desire to be the s iritual children of Israel (that is, imitators of the people who saw
God 4; . For it is through freewill oblations of this sort that we may merit for him to make in us a sanctuary for himself and that he may deign to abide in our midst, that is to say, that he may consecrate a dwelling place for himself in our hearts.
( I l l 1 Pelagius (c.350-c.425) was a British monk who taught in Rome, North Africa, and Palestine. His affirmation of human freedom and his denial of original sin, which brought him into conflict with Augustine of Hippo, were later developed by others such as the Italian bishop
Julian of Eclanum (c.380-485) against whose teachings Bede directed the preface to his commentary on the Song of Songs (CCSL 119B: 167-80). Harsh condemnations of Pelagianism appear throughout many of Bede's works; see the list of citations in Plummer
(1 896), 1 : Ixii-lxiii. Controversy surrounds many aspects of the development and demise of Pelagianism in Roman Britain. Myres (1960) and Moms (1965) argued that the Pelagian heresy originated in Britain (not, as generally supposed, in Rome) against the background of Roman withdrawal early in the fiflh century. They were opposed by Liebeschuetz (1963 and 1967) and Brown (1968). More recently, Markus (1986) has suggested that the theological orientation of British Christianity may well have tended toward a 'pre-Pelagian' position before the controversy arose, and maintained an ill-defined mixture of Pelagian and orthodox elements well into the sixth century.
2 2 Cor. 9:7
3 Ps. 54:6 (53:8) 4The etymology is found in Jerome, Nom. (CCSr. 72: 75, 21; 139,22; 152, 15-16; 155,
20), and Quaest. heb. (CCSL 72: 41,8-23).
BOOK ONE
We offer gold to him when we shine brightly with the splendour of the true wisdom whch is in ri ht faith; silver when with our mouth we make confession unto salvation; bronze when we rejoice in spreading that same faith by public preaching; blue when we lift up our hearts; purple when we subject the body to suffering; scarlet twice dyed whenwe burn withadouble love (that is, for God and neighbour); fine linen when we shine. with chastity of the flesh; goats' h r when we put on the habit of penitence and lamentation; rams' skins dyed red when as leaders of the Lord's flock we see ourselves baptized in his blood; blue skins when we hope to be clothed after death with spiritual bodies in heaven; acacia wood when the thornthickets of sin have been cleared away and we serve the Lord alone, pure in body and in soul; oil for preparing lamps when we shine brightly with the fruits of chanty and mercy; spices for ointment and sweet-smelling incense when our reputation for good deeds spreads far and wide among the multitudes as an example of living well.
Ig We offer onyx stones and precious stones to adorn the ephod and rational when with the praise that is due we extol the miracles which adorn both the thoughts that the saints have devoted to God and their virtuous works, and when we use these [miracles] to support our faith whenever there is the need. For since we are accustomed to bear burdens on [our] shouldes, it is fitting for the ephod (which is [worn] on the shoulders2) to suggest the works of the righteous and their devoted labours for the Lord. And since the seat of thought is in the chest, it is fitting for the pure thoughts of the elect to be portrayed in the rational, which is the vestment for the priest's chest. Both onyx stones and precious stones adorn the ephod and the rational when miracles are joined like insignia to the outstanding acts and thoughts of the most excellent fathers. Nor is there anything to prevent us from understanding the onyx stones, which are said to be the colour of blood,3 as the merits of martyrdom which are added to good works. With the assistance of God's grace, we shall discuss all of these thmgs more fully, each one in its own proper place.
1 Rom. 1O:lO 2 literally, 'that is, the superhumerale'
3 Onyx, which derived its name from the Greek 6vvt('fingernail'), wils usually said to be yellowish in colour. However, the late fourth-century Greek Christian author Epiphanius explained that some fornis of onyx were so called 'because the nails of refined men are like marble somewhat reddened with a mixture of blood'; see De XII gemmis 34 (ed. Dindorf, 4,
1: 193, 19 - 194, 2). Kitson (1983). 80-8, has shown that Bede knew a Latin version of Epiphanius' work, which he used in composing his commentary In Apocdysrn (PL 93:
129-206).
BEDE: ON THE TABERNACLE
253-9 He says: And they shall make me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in the midst of them, in accordance with every likeness of the tabernacle that I will show you, and of all the vessels for its service. The Lord showed Moses the tabernacle on the mountain and the vessels consecrated for its service because while he kept [Moses] there with him for such a long time he ccrtainly must have indicated to him the great piety, humility, and purity with which the angelic powers rejoice to obey their Creator. They are his perfect tabernacle in every way, for the one by whom they were made never ceases to remain and to dwell in them. A life like theirs and a share in their conversation in the Lord's presence is promised to us also in the resurrection, provided that we strive, while we are on earlh, to leave the contagions of this world behind and to imitate their life by praising and loving God, by loving the neighbour in God, and also by even helping our enemies, through acts of kindness calling to the love of God people such as those to whom the Apostle said, 'But you, brothers, are not in theJesh but in the spirit. J Thus the tabernacle that was shown to Moses on the mountain is that heavenly city and celestial homeland which we believe to have existed at that time for the holy angels alone, but which after the passion, resurrection 1 and ascension into heaven of the Mediator between God and humankind
[now] receives the countless multitude of radiant and holy souls. Surely the vessels of that tabernacle are all the individual persons of those blessed spirits for whom that Jerusalem which is the mother of us all3 stands in true peace and unity. And we should take care to note that the children of Israel were ordered to make for the Lord a sanctuary that was not to be similar only in part, but was to be according to eveIy likeness of the tabernacle that he showed to Moses, and of all the vessels for its service. Now if we aspire to fellowship with the angels in heaven, we who are on earth should always imitate their life, to the degree that sinful bodies do not hinder [us], nor earthly limbs and mortal members make [us] dull.4
Perhaps you are asking how you, a fleshly human being born from the earth, can possibly imitate this celestial tabernacle which is spiritual. They
(131 1 Rom. 8:9
2 1 Tim. 2 5 3 Gal. 4:26
4 Vergil, den. 6: 731-2 (LCL 1: 556); Bede may have come across these lines quoted in Augustine,De civ. Dei 14,3 (CSEL 40: 5,25-6). Hunter Blair, in Bonner (1976), 250, suggested that all of Bede's quotations from Vergil were taken from other writers, and that Bede had no knowledge of Vergil in the original. But Wright (198 1) has argued persuasively that Bede's
Vergilian quotations were more extensive than those recognized by Hunter Blair and that he must have had access to all that poet's works.