5. When And Where The Temple Was Built
BOOK ONE
each in his own time, and by whose preaching and ministry the fabric of the Church grows or by whose virtues it is shaped.
4.5
What colour the stones were with which the temple was made is openly stated in the Book of Paralipomenon when David said to Solomon on showing him the materials of the temple which he had procured, I have prepared all manner of precious stones and marble of Paros in great abundance.* White marble is called Parian marble because it was produced on the island of that name. Hence the poet writes of it:
(past the) Isle of Olives, and then post snow-white Paros and the Cychdes sprinkled about the sea we sped o'er the waters tossed by many a wind'
4.6 The reason why Paros is called 'snowy' is that it produces a brilliant white variety of marble. That the temple was made of this stone, Josephus hints when he says, Therefore, he built the temple of white stone up as far as the room; it was a hundred and twenty cubits high. lo Nor is the meaning of the mystery obscure. For it is obvious to everyone that the white marble of which the house of the Lord was built denotes the pure manner of acting of the elect as well as their conscience purified of all blemish of corruption, such as that wise architect wanted those stones to be which he laid upon the foundation of Christ, precious stones adorned with gold and silver.
Dearly beloved, he said, let us cleanse ourselves of every defilement of flesh and spirit, achieving our sanct$cation in the fear of God.
[I571
5. WHEN AND WHERE THE TEMPLE WAS BUILT
5.1 (6:l) Therefore, it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Zio, which is the second month, he began to build a house to the Lord. Where it says, in the fourth year in the month of Zio, which is
1 Paralip29:2
Virg. Aen, 3:126127 lo Josephus Ant., 8.3.2 l 1 2C07:l
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
the second month of the reign of Solomon over Israel, the intended order is, in the fourth year of the reign of Solomon in the month of Zio, i.e. the second month. He calls the second month May, for April in which the Pasch, the principal feast among the Hebrews, is held, was the first month of the year.'
From this it is quite clear that later when the Pasch was over he began to build a house for the Lord, and after they had been consecrated by the mystical solemnity, the people set their hands to the mystical task. A commemoration is made of the exodus from Egypt when work began on the building of the tabernacle so that the reader may be made aware what a period of time had passed between the building of both houses, and also learn the spiritual mystery attaching to this period of time. For four times a hundred and twenty make four hundred and eighty; now four is very appropriate to evangelical perfection on account of the actual number of the evangelists; a hundred and twenty is appropriate to the teaching of the law on account of the same number of years of the legislator.2 It was also in this number of men that the primitive
Church received the grace of the Holy Spirit,3 clearly showing that those who use the law legitimately, i.e. those who recognize and embrace the grace of Christ in it are deservedly filled with the grace of his Spirit so that they may become more ardent in his love.
5.2 Now we have said that the Synagogue could be denoted by thc tabernacle which Moses and the children of Israel built in the desert, but the Church of the gentiles by the temple which Solomon and the children of Israel erected with the help of the proselytes and gentiles. The worship and religion of the tabernacle lasted four hundred and eighty years and then work began on the building of the temple because the writing of the Old Testament overflows with such perfection that, if one understands it properly, it contains in itself all the mysteries of the New Testament. Besides, a great many of the patriarchs of the Old Testament attained such a peak of perfection by the way they lived that they are not in any way to be considered inferior to the apostles or apostolic men. The tabernacle remained among the people of God for four hundred and eighty years, until the construction of the temple, i.e. for a hundred and twenty years cf. Ex 12:2 cf. Dt 34:7 cf. Ac 1:15
BOOK ONE
(1581 multiplied by four, because from the time the Law was given until the Lord's incarnation and the time of the revelation of grace there was no lack of people who were grounded in the Law and observed evangelical perfection in all things in outlook and action; and there was no lack of scripture to intimate by its prophetic words the grace of the New Testament in the Old. But the fact that it was in the fourth year of Solomon's reign that work began on the house of the Lord can be applied mystically to the fact that after the completion of the dispensation of the Lord's incarnation which was treated in the four books of the Gospel, the construction of the holy Church began when the Holy Spirit was sent from heaven. And the fact that it was begun in the second month can be applied to the election of the gentiles that undertook the creator's building in the second place after Israel.
Hence also the second month was granted for celebrating the Pasch to those who, because they were unclean in soul or lived at a distance, were unable to attend the Pasch in the first month.4 This obviously refers to us who, because we are unclean on account of the death of our soul and still live far from the people of God, cannot hold the first Pasch which was celebrated with the flesh and blood of a lamb.
But we celebrate today the second Pasch which is enacted with the body and blood of our redeemer by whom we were sought and have been cleansed.
5.3
Where the temple was built is shown rather clearly in the Book of Paralipomenon where it is written: And Solomon began to buiM the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where David his father had had a vision at the place which David had prepared on the threshing-poor of Oman the Jebu~ite.~ The reason why the house of the Lord is built in the vision of peace is that the Church which is spread throughout the world consists in one and the same faith and fellowship of universal truth. For God is not in division of minds; rather his place is in peace and his dwelling in It is built on the mountain, that is to say, on the Lord the saviour himself of whom
Isaiah says, And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be set up on the top of the mountains,' and he says of himself cf. Nb 9:lO-11 2 Paralip 3:l Ps75:3
Is 2:2
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
in the Gospel, a city set on a hill cannot be hidden.8 For he himself is the mountain of mountains that rose indeed from the earth as a result of his taking flesh but transcends the power and holiness of all the earth-born by the peak of its singular dignity. That is to say, on this mountain the city or house of the Lord has been built because unless it fixes its root in him, our hope and faith are nothing. He is rightly called Mount Moriah, that is, the mountain of vision, because he deigns to watch over and help his elect whom he preserves for the eternal vision of his glory as they toil in this passing life. For he is the place in which Abraham offered his son Isaac to the Lord and merited by the devotion of his obedience to be seen by him; which is also how it received its name.g Finally where the Lord says, Take your only begotten son Isaac and go into the land of vkion and offer
[159] him as a holocaust,'O for 'the land of vision' he has in the Hebrew 'the land of Moriah'. And because the immolation of Isaac is a type of the Lord's passion it is right that the temple should be built on the site of the same sacrifice because it is by the faith and mysteries of the Lord's passion that the Church is dedicated and grows into a temple which is holy in the Lord.
5.4
About this mountain are aptly added (the words): which was shown to David his father; for to David and the other prophets was shown the Lord who was to come in the flesh and who through the mysteries of his own very incarnation would cleanse from her sins the Church which was called from the gentiles, and consecrate her as a house faithful and dear to himself. And the phrase in theplace which David had prepared is fittingly added. For David had prepared by singing psalms, and the other prophets too by prophesying prepared for the Lord who was indeed the true Solomon, a place in which he might build a house, because they taught the hearts of their hearers by true faith, earnestly urging them to receive with faith and devotion the Son of God who was coming in the flesh. Indeed that is why the Lord said to his disciples concerning the peoples prepared to believe in him, Lift up your eyes and see the fiela3 because they are white for the harvest. He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal
* Mt5:14 cf. Gn 22:14 lo Gn 22:2
BOOK ONE
lqe, so that sower and reaper may rejoice togethel; in other words, as if he were speaking about the building of the temple: lift up your eyes and see the place because it is already prepared for building the house of the Lord, and he who builds by teaching receives a reward and gathers precious stones for eternal life, so that both the one who prepares the site for the building and the one who builds it rejoice together, i.e. the prophet who foretells the one who is to come, and the apostle who proclaims the coming Lord, share in him together the one reward.
5.5
It is appropriate that this place should be on the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite because the Church is customarily designated by the word threshing-floor as John says of the Lord: His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor:12 Ornan whose name means 'enlightened' and who was a Jebusite by origin, signifies the gentiles by his origin,13 and by his name he indicates these same (gentiles) who were to be enlightened by the Lord and transformed into children of the Church to whom the Apostle rightly says, once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.14
Jebus is the same city as Jeru~a1ern.l~ Now Jebus means 'trampled upon' but Jerusalem 'the vision of peace'.16 As long as the gentile
Ornan reigned there it was called Jebus; but when David bought a place of holocaust there,17 when Solomon built a temple to the Lord there, it was no longer called Jebus but Jerusalem, because, that is, as long as the gentiles continued in ignorance of divine worship they were trampled upon and made a mockery of by the unclean spirits, following mute idols according as they were led to do;18 but when they called to mind the grace of their creator they immediately found in themselves both the place and the name of peace, as the Lord says of them, Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the [I601 l 1 Jn 4:35-36 l 2 Mt 3:12 l3 cf. Jer., Nom Hebr: CCSL 72:83,29 l 4 Ep5:8 l5 cf. Jer., Sir. PL 23:904C lG cf. Jer., Nom. Hebr: CCSL 72:67,13; 121.9-10 l7 cf. 1 Paralip 21:25-26 cf. 1 co 12:2