6. THETABLE
BOOK ONE
either the angelic assistance with which it is always aided by a gracious God, or the testaments in which it is taught how it ought to live and in what manner it ought to seek the aid of divine propitiation so that it may live properly. Now the cherubim were set over the propitiatory in Uus way just as the city of Christ (that is, the Holy Church) is said to have been built upon the mountain' (that is, upon Christ himself); not that his city can be higher than he, but because it derives support from his assistance. The ark has cherubim over the propitiatory because both the angelic ministries and the Divine Eloquences surely give aid to the Church in so far as they themselves stand firm upon the foundation of the highest truth.
THETABLE 25:23 You shall also make a table of acacia wood, two cubits in length, and a cubit in width, and a cubit and a half in height. The table made from acacia wood is the Holy Scripture composed out of the bold words and deeds of the holy fathers. In showing us what the joys of eternal blessedness might be and how they might be attained, it surely supplies us with the food of salvation and life. This [table] has length, because it suggests to us perseverance in religious undertakings; width, because it suggests the amplitude of chanty; height, because it suggests the hope of everlasting reward. And it is properly two cubits long because our active life is comprised of two virtues in particular, namely mercy and innocence, as the apostle James says: But religion that is pure and undejled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneseyunstainedfrom this world2 For by commanding us to visit orphans and widows in their distress he indicates that we ought mercifully to do all things that are needful toward our neighbours, and by admonishing us to keep ourselves unstained from this world he expresses all the ways in which we ourselves ought to live uprightly.
The Lord himself also declared that these two cubits of good action are in the table of his own words, for he said: 'Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning. Evidently, our loins should be girded so that we may remain free from the contamination of t h ~ s world, and our lamps should be burning so that through works of mercy we may shine bright before the Lord. For what follows, 'and be likepeople who are waiting for their master
1 Man. 5:14; Eph. 2:19-20; Heb. 12:22
2 Jas. 1:27
3 Luke 12:35
BEDE: ON THE TABERNACLE
when he returnsfrom the wedding, J pertains to the height of that same table, that is, to the hope of future recompense.
The table is one cubit wide, figuratively indicating the unity of that same love which the entire sequence of the Old and New Testaments commends to us. For charity is indeed one (that is, piety is simple' and pure in heart), inasmuch as we are commanded to love God and neighbour and even our veIy enemies, although with a considerable difference in quality and a most proper distinction of that same love. We ought to love God in the first place, enemies in the last; and the measure of love that ought to be weighed out to our neighbours will vary according to the diversity of their merits, just as we know that the patriarch Jacob, although he loved all his sons, nevertheless loved Joseph more than the rest because of h s singular innocence, as Scripture bears witne~s.~ Hence the Church says pleasingly of Chnst in the Song of Songs: 'He brought me into the wine chamber, he set charity in order in me.
@?] A Furthermore, since [the table] was a cubit and a half high, the cubit (just as the cubit in width) suggests the unity of our heavenly hope, with which we expect that our Lord when he returns from heaven will reward those servants whom he will find keeping watch with their loins girded and their lamps of good works burning. For although there are many mansions in the Father's house' on account of the diversity of merits, there is nevertheless one kingdom of heaven into which all the elect are received.
The additional half [cubit] indicates the beginning of the contemplative life, whch some of the saints merit to enjoy even while still remaining in the flesh. To them it is granted not only to hope for heavenly rewards but also to have a foretaste [of them] by seeing in part, as did Isaiah and Micah and the rest of the prophets, who saw the Lord sitting upon the throne of his glory surrounded by the host of heaveq6 as did Peter, James, and John, who saw the Lord glorified between Moses and Elijah on the holy mounas dld [Paul] the teacher of the Gentiles, to whom it was grantedbefore he paid the debt of the flesh' to be caught up to Paradise and the third heaven and to hear secret words whch human beings are not permitted to speak.'
1 Luke 12:36
2 wnple,q cf. the English 'simple', which can also mean 'without guile'
3 Gen. 37:3
4 S. of S. 2:4
5 John 14:2
6 Isa. 6.1; 1 Kgs. 22:19; 2 Chr. 18:18
7 Matt. 17:l-3 8 i.e., before he died.
9 2 Cor. 12:4
BOOKONE
In these, then, and in other such servants of Christ, the table of the tabernacle
(that is, the Divine Scripture from whch the Holy Church is refreshed without ceasing) adds unto us beyond the cubit in height another half [cubit] of our common hope, because to them it reveals the joys of celestial blessedness which are foreshown before they are given. Surely ths foreshowing, since it appears to the minds of the saints fleetingly and only in passing, is rightly figured by a half cubit and not by a full cubit.
25:24 And you shall overlay it with the purest gold. The table of the tabernacle is overlaid with the purest gold because Sacred Scripture shines brightly with the perception of heavenly knowledge, and bccause those who produced it were prophets resplendent in life and in speech.
(231 25:24-5 And you shall make for [the table] a golden lip all around, and on the lip itself an embossed crown four inches high. A golden lip is made all around the table because the doctrine of Sacred Eloquence is taught to us through the most pure mouths of faithful preachers. Those who delivered the divine secrets to us dld not allow their speech to be defiled in any way whatsoever with words of human conversation; rather, they took care to spurn and contradict not only hurtful human words but idle ones as well. Or perhaps a golden lip is made all around the table because Sacred
Scripture, if rightly understood, resounds to us with the clarity of heavenly wisdom from every part of its speech.
To this lip, evidently, a crown is added because the tongues of those who are preaching promise their hearers the reward of life eternal. And that crown is properly ordered to be made four inches high bccause the eminence of the eternal crown is shown to us by the four books of the holy gospel, or because it is necessary for us to attain the crown of life by keeping the evangelical faith and work. And the books are pleasingly designated by inches, doubtless because the tablets of the law are reported to have been written by the finger of God,' and because in the gospel the Lord, when he was going to temper the punishment [prescribed by] the law, wrote with his
Jnger on the ground, saying to the Phansees and scribes concerning the adulteress whom they were accusing: 'Ifany one o f p u is without sin, let that one be thefirst to cast a stone at her. '
Now the finger of God is understood to be the Spirit of God; hence when Luke reports that the Lord said, 'If then by theJnger of God I cast out demons, Matthew says, as if by way of explanation, 'by the Spirit ofGod '. And so a golden crown four
1 Exod. 31:18; digrlus, which literally means 'finger', is also the word for 'inch'
2 John 8:6-7 3 Luke 11:20
4 Matt. 7:28
BEDE: ON THE TABERNACLE
inches high is set upon the golden lip of the table because the most pure words of the holy preachers anticipate the hope of celestial blessedness, which is contained and described in the four books of the holy gospel by the ministry ofthe Holy Spirit. Not only do the preachers themselves receive in heaven the reward of their labour, but with the certain authority of evangelical truth they also promise the same crown of life to all those who attend to them.
Now that same crown is properly commanded to be made embossed, doubtless because the reward of the eternal kingdom is not given indiscriminately to everyone but is distributed to one and all in accordance with the character of the recipients, as distinguished by divine examination For surely the golden crown on the Lord's table would be unadorned and not embossed if the brightness of the future reward of the righteous were revealed equally to all, after the fashion of the sun in this present world, whose splendour God makes to rise indiscriminately upon the good and the bad;' but just as star differs from star in brightness, so will it be in the resurrection of the dead.2 A crown was set upon the Lord's table, adorned with various carvings that were diverse but decorously arranged; for surely the future life has been promised to all the righteous but the glory in it is multiform, according to the diversity of individual merits. Wherefore after one crown has been described first, there is added:
(-341 25:25 And over the same, another little golden crown. This can be rightly understood as the reward of those who surpass the general commandments of Holy Scripture by willingly choosing the more perfect life, and can therefore expect a special reward beyond that of the rest of the faithful in return for their voluntaIy offering. A golden crown four inches high is set upon the golden lip of the table because through the gospel eternal life is promised to those who keep the commandments of the divine law, as the Lord says to the rich man: 'ryou want to enter into Irfe, keep the commandments. You shall not commit murder. You shall not commit adultety. You shall not steal. You shall not bearfalse witness. Honourfather and mother, and love your neighbour as yoursew Over that crown is set another little golden crown, because farther on there is added: 'ryou would be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come,foNow me. 'To tlus crown pertains that new song which thevirgins are reported to sing so much before the Lamb-those who have been purchasedfrom among humankind asJirst fruits for God
1 Matt. 5:45
2 1 Cor. 1941-2 3 Matt. 19:17-21
BOOK ONE
and the Lamb; to this it pertains that they follow the Lamb wherever he goes.
Or perhaps a golden crown is set upon the lip of the Lord's table because we learn in the words of Sacred Scripture that when souls go forth from the flesh they will be admitted to eternal rewards in heaven, and over that [crown] another little golden crown is added because in the same Scripture it is discovered that a glory even more sublime is laid up for them in the reception of immortal bodies also, at the end of the age.
25:26 You shall prepare also four golden rings, and you shall put them in the four corners of the same table at each foot. These things here are also to be taken as we set forth above in relation to the ark.2 For surely the four golden rings are the four books of the gospels, through faith in which it has come to pass that all Sacred scripture is read and understood throughout the whole world.3
Now the table has four feet because the whole succession of the Divine Eloquences is distinguished by a fourfold system, for in all the holy books it is necessary to consider what eternal things are announced, what deeds are narrated, what future things are foretold, and what things are enjoined or admonished to be done.4 Likewise, the table of the tabernacle has four feet because the words of the celestial oracle are customarily taken in either a historical, or an allegorical, or a tropological (that is, moral), or even an anagogical sense.' For it is history when something is reported as having been done or said in plain discourse according to the letter; for example,
[25] 1 Rev. 14:3-4 2 Bede, De tab. 1,4 (CCSL 119A: 15,419-24) 3 Gregory the Great, Reg. pasf. 2, 11 (SC 38 I : 254, 25-8)
4 Augustine, Gen. adlrff. 1, 1, 1 (CEL 28, 1: I, 7-10) 5 Note that Bede does not say here that every verse in Scripture contains each of the four senses; in fact, he selects a different verse to illustrate each sense. Cf. De sch. ef frop. 2, 2
(CCSL 123A: 169, 273-9), where Bede did suggest that a single verse can be interpreted in multiple senses. Here he quotes the words of Augustine in support of the fourfold scheme, but immediately thereafter names the senses in an entirely different order, which is similar to that of John Cassian in CON. 14,8 (SC 54: 190), exceptthat Cassian put anagogy third and tropology fourth while Dede has it the other way around. By making no effort to harmonize the two schemes, Ekde implied that he did not understand the four senses to be arranged in a definite hierarchical pattern. Note also that each of the four senses is divided into two: history and allegory may appear in either words or events [cf. the discussion of allegorra rnfactis and allegoria in verbis in De sch. et trop. 2, 2 (CCSL 123A: 164, 218 - 166, 235)], whereas tropology and anagogy may be indicated either openly or figuratively. In De sch. et frop. Bede spoke of all three non-literal senses as 'allegorical', which seems to imply that they are necessarily expressed in symbolic language, but this passage shows that he, like Augustine, could considera straightforward ethical injunction as 'tropology ' and a direct promise offuture reward as 'anagogy'; see Barrows (1963), 69.
BEDE: ON THE TABERNACLE
the people of Israel, after they had been delivered from Egypt, are said to have made a tabernacle for the Lord in the wilderness. It is allegory when the presence of Chnst and the sacraments of the Church are designated by mystical words or thmgs; by words, certainly, as when Isaiah says: 'A shoot
[virga] shall come forthj?om the root of Jesse, and ajlower shall rise up from his root, which is to say openly, 'The Virgin May will be born from the stock of David and Christ will proceed from his lineage;' and by things, as when the people delivered from Egyptian slavery through the blood of the lamb signifies the Church freed from the devil's domination by the passion of Christ. Tropology (that is, a moral manner of speech) has regard to the establishment and correction of manners, pronounced in words that are either plain or figurative; in plain words, as when John admonishes, saying, 'My little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and in truth, " or in figurative words, as when Solomon said: <Let your garments be always white and let not oil be lacking on your head, which is to say openly, 'At all times let your works be pure and let not charity be lacking from your heart.' Anagogy (that is, speech leading to higher things) is that which discusses, in words either mystical or plain, future rewards and what the future life in heaven consists of; in plain [words], such as 'Blessed are the pure in heart,fir they shall see God, * and in mystical [words], such as 'Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have a right to the tree of I@ and that they may enter the ci& by its gates, l5 which is to say openly, 'Blessed are those who cleanse their thoughts and deeds so that they may be able to see the Lord Jesus who says, '7 am the way and the truth and the I@, '6 and that they may come into the kingdom of heaven through the teaching and by the example of the fathers who went before.'
25:27-8 The golden rings shall be under the crown, so that the poles may be put through them and the table may be carried. The poles themselves, which are used to bear the table, you shall also make out of acacia wood, and you shall overlay them with gold. The rings are aptly under the crown because we enjoy the books of the holy gospels in this life, but we hope for the future crown of celestial life in heaven. The poles used to bear the table are put through these rings because it is necessary for the holy teachers to keep their minds entirely fixed on the texT of thc gospels,
1 Isa. 11:l; Bede's interpretation depends upon the similarity in sound between vrrga
(='shoot') and wrgo (='Virgin').
2 1 John 3:18
3 Eccles. 9:s 4 Man. 5:s 5 Rev. 22:14
6 John 14:6