9. The Lamps For The Lampstand, And The Snuffers
BOOK ONE
say to its maker, 'With a metalsmith's pummelling you have stretched me out, and by pounding me you have afforded me greater progress.'
THE LAMPS FOR THE LAMPSTAND, AND THE SNUFFERS
25:37 You shall also make scven lamps, and you shall set them upon the lampstand, to give light on the opposite side. The seven lamps arc the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, all of which remain in our Lord and Redeemer forever and are distributed in hs members (that is, in all the elect) according to his will. Therefore the seven lamps arc set upon the lampstand because upon our Redeemer, the firstbornfrom the root ofJesse, rested the Spirit ofwisdoni andofunderstanding, the Spirit ofcounselandoffortitude, the Spirit ofknowledge and of godliness, and he was fillcd with the Spirit of thefear of the Lord.' As he himself also says through the same prophet:
'The Spirit of the Lord is upon rile because the Lord has anointed me.
But what is [then] said, to give light on the opposite side, is what the prophet immediately adds: 'He hassent nie to bringgoodnews to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart. and to preach release to the captives, and deliverance to those who are imprisoned, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God
For surely the lamps of the lampstand gave light on the opposite side and illuminated the tabernacle of the Lord when the Lord who was full of grace and truth gave to us all from his fullness, and grace f i r grace,4 when he committed the word of the gospel to the meek and the poor in spirit, and when he conferred the healing of remission upon sinners. For he declared that now is the time for pleasing the Lord, but the day of universal judgement is coming.
What John says in the Apocalypse accords with the number and position of these lamps: And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the mi& of the elders, there was a Lamb standing as if it had been slain, having seven horns and sewn eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.' For if in that place the seven horns and seven eyes of the Lamb can suggest the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, why should the seven lamps of the lampstand not also deserve to be believed to designate the same? More precisely, just as the same sevenfold Spirit is rightly signified by horns and eyes on account of (37j 1 Isa. 1 1 : 1-3 2 Isa. 61:l; Luke 4:18
3 Isa. 61:l-2 4John 1:14, 16 5 Rev. 5:6
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the omnipotence of power with which it rules all things and the plenitude of knowledge with which it perceives all things, so also is it aptly expressed through the figure of lamps on account of the light of grace with which it illuminates the shadows of our blindness in the night of this world. Here it is also aptly added:
25:38 The snuffers also, and [the trays] in which the snuffings shall be extinguished, shall be made of the purest gold. There are some commands in the Divine Scriptures which must always be observed, both in this life and in that which is to come, such as that [command]: 'You shall not have strange gods before me, and 'You shall love the Lordyour God with allyour heart, andwith allyour soul, andwith allyour strength, " and 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself: '
Other ttungs are ordered to be observed throughout the entire duration of this life but the eternal reward of their observance is received only in the life to come. Such is that [command] of the gospel: 'Make for yourselvespiends of the mammon of iniquity, so that they too may receive you into everlasting dwellings; A for the time for giving alms is now, but only then will the fruit of almsgiving be perpetually received. Still other things, however, were diligently kept in the time of the Old Testament in accordance with the Lord's command, but, now that the gospel gleams throughout the world, they are ordered to be observed in the Church not according to the letter but according to the mystical sense. These are such things as the keeping of the sabbath, the rite of the bloody sacrifices of the paschal lamb, and other things of this sort.
In their own time, when these things were being kept scrupulously by the people of Go4 it was as ifwicks were burning in the lamps of the lampstand, filled with the oil of pious devotion and lit with the fire of the celestial word.
But when the apostles and apostolic men proclaimed that the Lord had imposed an end to these and other such observances and that all these things were to be kept in the Church spiritually rather than according to the letter, it was as if the wicks of the lampstand were being snuffed, so that after being repaired they might give better light. For they supplied the Holy
Church with the light of saving doctrine more sublimely once they began to be understood through the Spirit.
[38] The Lord makes a promise to his people concerning th~s reparation of the lamps of the tabernacle (that is, the more sublime understanding of the Divine Scriptures) when he says in Leviticus: 'You shall be multiplied, and 1 Exod. 20:3
2 Deut. 6:5; Mark 12:30
3 Matt. 22~39 4 Luke 16:9
BOOK ONE
I will establish my covenant with you; you shall eat the oldest of the old [grain], and you shall cast away the old [to make room] for the new that is coming on. J The children of Israel being so multiplied, the covenant of God was confirmed with them, and with the Gentiles called to faith, by the grace of the New Testament planted with a firm root in the hearts of the elect. And we eat the oldest of the old [grain] when we retain in our hearts the sweet memory of the old commandment whch was given to the human race from the beginning, by loving the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength, and by loving our neighbour as ourselves.2
And we cast away the old [to make room] for the new that is coming on when we cease to keep the typic statutes of the Mosaic law according to the letter, but keep these same statutes quite gladly as they are understood through the Spirit, our hearts being renewed in the hope of the heavenly kingdom in accordance with that [saying] of the Apostle: lf then anyone is in Christ a new creature, the old things have passed away; behold, things have been made new;3 and [with that saying] in the Apocaly se And he that sat upon the throne said, 'Behold, 1 make all things new.
1 :
Now the snuffers with which these things were accomplished are the very words of Sacred Eloquence, in which it is clearly indicated in many places that the letter of the law is to be annulled, and that it is to kept only in a spiritual sense. Among those [passages] is that [account] in the Acts of the Apostles in which believers from among the Gentiles were fohidden to be circumcised and were enjoined to be obedient io the grace of the gospel, without the ceremonial sacrifices of the law,5 as well as what the Apostle says to the Hebrews in expounding a verse from one of the psalms:
When he said above 'You did not want sacrifices, and oblations, and holocausts for sin, neither are those things pleasing to you ' which are offered according to the law. 'then I said, "Behold, 1 come to do your will,
0 God, "' he takes away theJrst, that he may establish that which follows.
In that will, we have been sanctfied through the oblation of Christ Jesus.6
Therefore the snuffers and the trays in which the snuffings are extinguished are made of the purest gold, because they are the divine words with which the cessation of the ceremonies of the law is proclaimed and the hearts of those in whom the same figurative shadow of the law receives an end, which are illuminated by the grace of God so that the truth of the gospel that 1 Lev. 26:9-10 2 Deut. 6:5; Mark 12:30-1 3 2 Cor. 5:17
4 Rev. 21:5
5 Acts 25128-9 6 IIeb. 103-10, with reference to Ps. 40:6, 8 (39:7, 9)
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follows may shine more clearly in the world. For it is well known that in the gospel the first apostles broke the sabbath before the Lord's passion, and after the ascension of the Lord and the coming of the Holy Spirit they completely put an end to the legal sacrifices, and many things that were decreed by the letter of the law were changed by the grace of the liberty of the gospel. Therefore in these [trays] were extinguished the wicks that were put out, in whch the literal observance, being completed, displayed the beginning of grace shining clearly in the world. In the same way, when the mortal life is ended and the immortal follows, the works (or gifts of light) that we now enjoy will for the most part cease, so that the reward of eternal light may follow in the presence of the Divine Vision.
(391 The gold sntdfers are doubtless those scriptural testimonies which bear witness that things will come to pass in this way, because [they are] distinguishedby the hope of future brightness. And surely the trays in which the snuffings are extinguished are the immortal bodies and souls' of all thc rightcous. Quite rightly are they made to be like gold, for they will undergo a most highly desired alteration, so that after the temporal benefits of God they may come to the ones that are eternal. Accordingly, the Apostle shows us that the snuffers of the lamps of God and the places where the snuffings are extinguished are made of gold when he speaks of the difference between present and future blessings, saying, Prophecies shall be made void, and tongues shall cease, andknowledge shall be destroyed, for we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect comes, that which is in part shall be made void. And a little after: We see now in a mirror, dimly; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know just as I am also h0wn.3
25:39 The whole weight of the lampstand with all its vessels shall be a talent of the purest gold. The whole weight of the lampstand with all its vessels is the whole body of Christ, with himself as our Head, the Medlator
1 corda, literally 'hearts'
2 1 Cor. 13:8-10 3 1 Cor. 13:12
3OOK ONE
between God and humanlund,' and all hs elect from the h@&- tn thelowest, from those of whom he says, 'Among those born of women, there is no one greater, down to those of whom he says, 'See that you despise not one of these little ones who believe in me. Although they are diverse in their ranks, ages, sexes, conditions, abilities, and times, all of these, in their own times and places, cleave by the fixed root of their minds to one and the same Author and Giver of perpetual light, as if to a golden lampstand in which they are able to become partakers of his own light.
,2 It is rightly said of this lampstand that it ought to weigh a talent of purest gold. A talent is a full and perfect weight, because the Lord is righteous in all his ways,' and he who imparts his grace to the faithful in this life so that they may work well is the very same one who in that life will render the crown of righteousness in return for their good deeds. On the other hand,
Zechariah the prophet describes Wickedness as sitting [before the Lord] upon a talent of lead,5 because in the same just weighng he will also recompense the reprobate according to their deeds. 'For you will render, ' it says, 'to all according lo their works. But it makes a dfference whether one brings gold or lead to the &vine weighing. For those who shine like gold with good works advance to the lampstand of the Lord, because they are partakers of their Maker's glory; but those who a ar at the strict weighing heavy with sins are plunged into the raging water like lead, because by reason of their sins they fall into the abyss of grave punishment.
But both the lead and the gold measure one talent, because it is certain that the decision of our Maker is just, both in damning the impious and in saving and crowning the elect.
F .
1 1 Tim. 25. Jones (1969-70), 146, suggested that in this section Bede had in mind the seven exegetical rules of the fourth-century Donatist author Tyconius as reported by Augustine inDe docf. chr. 3,30-56 (CCSL 32: 102-16). ?he first rule ofTyconius explains that Scripture often speaks of Christ and the Church as the head and the body of a single person, which is clearly the case in Ekde's interpretation here. The second rule warns that biblical passages referring to the present Church must sometimes be understood as refcrring to a mixed body containing both the elect and the reprobate, as Ekde does in his comments on the lampstand which follow. Whether or not he was consciously thinking of Tyconius when he composed this section, Bede was certainly well familiar with Augustine's exposition of the Tyconian rules, which he discussed in the preface to his InApocalypsin (PL 93: 13 1 B133B); see Bonner
(1966) and Mackay (1979).
2 Luke 7 2 8 3 Matt. 18:6, 10 4Ps. 145:17(144:17) 5 Zech. 5:7-8; lalenturn (Vulg.) translates the Hebrew;IQ'K ('ephah'), a unit of measure here referring to the capacity of a basket.
6Ps.62:13(61:13) 7 validissirnu, literally 'strongest'
BEDE: ON THE TABERNACLE
25:40 Look, and make [these things] according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. The mystery of tlus commandment is quite readily apparent from the things that have been set forth above. For surely the pattern of the lampstand that he was to make was shown to Moses on a mountain because it was on the height of most secret contemplation that he openly learned the manifold sacraments of Christ and the Church.
Nevertheless, he was not able to bring them forthopenly to the people whom he was instructing; instead, he sigrufied them by means of a type through the form and the workmanship of the lampstand and its vessels, until such time as our Lord and Redeemer himself might come in flesh and disclose the inner meaning of that same form to his Church by conferring the grace of the Holy Spirit. Hence, when he died on the cross he tore asunder the veil of the temple and opened those secret places of the saints that had been covered up,' and after the resurrection when he appeared to his disciples he opened the meaning fo so that they might be able to understand these things and the other secrets of the Scriptures spiritually, with their minds' eyes unveiled.
But when every scribe instrucfed in the kingdom of heaven3 is enjoined both to follow diligently those things that he has learned in the Sacred
Writings concerning the catholic faith or pious action, and to teach them to others, is that scribe not being commanded to look, and to make [things] according to the pattern that was shown to him on the mountain? The scribe looks diligently at the pattern that is shown to him on the mountain and makes things accordmg to it when he returns to the regions below, for those things which by the sublimity of the divine word he inwardly understands are to be believed or done he considers earnestly in his heart, and shows their perpetual exemplar to his hearers both by the performance of right action and by the word of saving doctrine.
[41] 1 Man. 2751-2 2 Luke 24:45
3 Man. 1352