8. OF THE STAIRS AND THE MAKING OF THE MIDDLE: And Third Tabernacle
BOOK ONE
live truly perfect and without stain as long as he is on the road of this life. There is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. l7 Nevertheless, in a certain earthly manner of speaking, those are called perfect and undefiled who are truly perfected at the time when they are freed from the bonds of the body and reach the immortal beauty of the Lord's house and ascend to the place of the tabernacle of his glory.
8. OF THE STAIRS AND THE MAKING OF THE MIDDLE
AND THIRD TABERNACLE
8.1 (6:8) The door to the middle section was on the right of the house, and by the winding stairs they went up to the middle storey, and from the middle to the third. Some misinterpret this and think the door of the temple was facing south, forgetting that if scripture had meant this it would not have said, The door to the middle section was on the right of the house, but rather would have said simply, 'And the house had its door facing south.' As it is, it means something quite different. For it calls the right-hand side of the house the south side of the temple, in the east side of which a door had been made in the very corner near the ground, and those who entered it went straight up a flight of steps to the upper floors with a stairway along by the very inside of the wall until (following this route) they reached the middle storey and from the middle storey to the third.
Nor, although the scripture does not say so, is it to be doubted that those who thus went up had windows on the south at very frequent intervals by whose light they could make their way through all the floors safely and without danger of stumbling. This place, of course, properly refers to the Lord's body which he received from the virgin.
For the door to the middle section was on the right of the house because when the Lord died on the cross one of the soMiers opened his side with a spear:' And aptly (does it say) on the right hand of the house because the holy Church believes his right side was opened by the soldier. Here too the evangelist used the appropriate word when instead of saying he struck or wounded his side, said opened, that is to say, as it were, the door of the middle side through which a path to heavenly things might be thrown open to us. Finally he added the l7 Qo7:21
Jn1934
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
following: and forthwith there flowed out blood and water; i.e. water with which we are washed in baptism, and blood with which we are consecrated in the holy chalice. For it is through this door that we have a stairway to the middle storey and from the middle storey to the third, because it is through faith and the mysteries of our redeemer that we ascend from the present life of the Church to the repose of our souls after death and then, come judgement day, from the repose of our souls to the immortality of our bodies too, we shall penetrate, as it were, to the third storey by a more lofty progress, and from this point on we shall live for ever in the great happiness of both, namely, of body and of soul. This journey, of course, was made invisibly so that only those who entered here knew it, although they used to see the actual door while they were on the outside, that is to say, because the actions of the faithful in this world and the celebrations of the mysteries can be seen even by the wicked, but the mysteries of the faith and the grace of love in the inmost heart no one knows but the one who, under the Lord's guidance, mounts by way of these to heavenly things. For he who says he knows God and does not keep his commandments is a liaK2 8.2
It is to be noted, of course, that the thirty cubits of height spoken of above3 reached to the middle storey; from there up to the third storey another thirty cubits were added until the portico which was around the temple on the south and north and east reached the roof as we learn from Josephus's a c c o ~ n t ; ~ from there to the top of the temple roof was another sixty cubits, and so the total height of the house according to the Book of Paralipomenon amounted to a hundred and twenty cubits.' Also the portico which was in front of the temple to the east, according to the account of the aforesaid volume was the same number of cubits in height. That is, the porticoes around the temple of which we have just spoken, this book calls treasuries and inner chambers. David, it says, gave his son Solomon a plan of the portico, and of the temple, and of the treasuries, and of the upper room, and of the inner chambers, and of the room for [167] 1 Jn 2:4 supra 6.1 ** Joscphus Anf. 8.3.2 cf. 2 Paralip 3:4
BOOK ONE
the mercy seat;6 here too he refers to the outer houses which were outside the courtyard of the priests surrounding the temple, when he adds, As also of all the courts which he had in mind, and of the surrounding chambers for the treasuries of the house of the Lord, and for the treasuries for dedicated objects. The fact that the entire height of the temple was a hundred and twenty cubits refers to the same mystery as when the primitive Church in Jerusalem after the passion and resurrection and ascension of the Lord into heaven received the grace of the Holy Spirit in the same number of men.7 For fifteen, which is the sum of seven and eight, is sometimes taken to signify the life which is now lived in the sabbath rest of the souls of the faithful8 but will be brought to perfection at the end of the world by the resurrection of their immortal bodies. Now this fifteen arranged in a triangle, i.e. numbered with all its parts, makes a hundred and twenty.g Hence by the number one hundred and twenty the great happiness of the elect in the life to come is aptly represented, and by it the third storey of the Lord's house is aptly completed because after the present hardships of the faithful, and after their souls receive their rest in the life to come, the complete happiness of the whole Church will be achieved in the glory of the resurrection. To this mystery likewise refers, as we have said, the fact that the Lord on rising from the dead and ascending into heaven sent to this number of men in tongues of fire, the Holy Spirit, who enabled them, though
1 Paralip 28:ll-12 cf. Ac 1:IS;supra 6.1 ** cf. Heb 4 9 supra 3.4 ** 8.2: At first sight it is difficult to make much sense, mathematically or othelwise, of the statement: 'fifteen arranged in a triangle, i.e. numbered with all its parts, makes a hundred and twenty.' The mathematics of it are that the sum of the integers 1+2+3+. . . 15 is 120. The Greeks, as we know from Plutarch. 2.1003f. cf. Nicomachus. Arifhrnetica Introductio, 2.8, spoke of dpbepoi T P ~ ~ W V O ~
(arirhmoi frigonoi) 'triangular numbers', i.e. numbers whose units can be arranged in a triangle.
So Bede's 'fifteen arranged in a triangle, i.e. numbered with all its parts' can be represented graphically as follows:
1 1
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
differing from each other on account of the diversity of their languages, suddenly to speak in his praise in a common tongue by giving them a knowledge of all languages.'O For the Church too in its own turn rising from the dead and ascending to heaven in incorruptible flesh will be fully and perfectly enlightened by the gift of the Holy
Spirit when, according to the promise of the Apostle, God will be all in all.
Then there will be complete unity of languages universally for the preaching of the wonderful works of God because all join with one mind and voice in praising the glory of the divine majesty which they see before them.
8.3
(6:9) So he built the house and finished it. And he covered the house with ceilings of cedar. Ceilings are boardwork constructed and adorned with great beauty and fixed to the beams on the lower side, and because the house of the Lord had been built three times the double height, naturally it had three ceilings. What is more fitting for us to believe than that these ceilings signify all the just people of most exalted virtue in the holy Church? And their work and teaching is held up as an example to all as being much loftier than any other and by their intercessions and exhortations they keep the spirits of the weak from failing in temptation. These ceilings are indeed rightly described as being of cedarwood. For cedar is by nature a completely incorruptible tree, of pleasant fragrance and luxuriant appearance and when it is set on fire it drives away and destroys serpents by its dazzling brightness.12 These things are an apt figure of all the perfect whose patience is indomitable, whose outstanding reputation for virtue is far more pleasing to the good than that of anyone else, whose powers of refuting and proving wrong those who resist the [I681 truth are utterly unshakable, and who, both in this life and the life to come, shine with a resplendence that outshines the rest of the saints.
8.4 (6:lO) And he built a structure over all the house five cubits in height. This means the breastworks which were constructed on top of the roof of the house all round in case anyone who came up to the upper parts of the building should suddenly fall to the bottom. And in every house which anyone built, Moses ordered this to be done, lo cf. Ac 2:3-4; supra 6.1 ** l 1 1 Co 15:28 l2 cf. Isid., Erymol. 17.7.33; infm 11.1 **; 17.8 **
BOOK ONE
saying, when you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof all the way round lest blood be shed in your house and you be to blame should any one slip and fall down headlong. l3 Now these structures or breastworks are called sides above,14 where, after the words,
And upon the wall of the temple he built structures all round, running round the walk of the house, both the temple and the oracle, l5 the following is immediately added: and he made side chambers all round.
These side chambers, of course, we have understood as denoting the divine protection which helps us not to give up while still struggling in this world and daily striving after higher things according to our capacity. We ought to understand this passage also in the same sense, but with this distinction that in this life, whether amid the frequent temptations of our implacable enemy or the obstacles of our frailty, we are often, indeed constantly, protected by heavenly compassion, but in the life which, as we have stated above, the top of the roof of the temple suggests, we are protected by so great a grace of God who is with us, that we neither want nor are able to sin, nor are we affected by fear of either death or pain or the adversary who tempts us. The Lord himself speaks of the helps he gives us in the present life, as if they were the sides of the structures, when he says of his people, They will call upon me and I shall hear them, I am with them in their tribulation and I shall rescue them and glorijj them.16 Of his grace to come whereby that heavenly city is illumined, the prophet says to the same city, Praise the Lord, Jer~salern'~ and so forth as far as peace in your borders. Now this structure on the roof of the house of the Lord is rightly said to be five cubits high because, of course, the presence of God's glory in that homeland (of ours) fills us in such a way that nothing else is sweet to our sight, our hearing, our sense of smell or taste or touchla except to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind, and also to love our neighbour as o~rselves.'~ (1691 l3 Dt 2223 l4 supra 7.2 ** l5 3K65 l6 Ps90.15 l7 Ps 147:12-14 infra 15 ** l9 cf. Mk 12:30-31
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
8.5 (6:lO) And he covered the house with planks ofcedanvood. Here the very top of the roof of the house is meant, i.e. the structure which was laid on top of the beams. The temple did not have a ridge on top any more than the tabernacle did, but was flat, as was the prevailing fashion with all who built houses in Palestine and Egypt. Now this is the very structure with which the house is covered and which denotes the ceilings, i.e. all the people who are most eminent in the glory of the resurrection and who reach the very pinnacle of virtue by their exceptional sanctity, concerning one of whom it is said: Among those born of women there has not arisen a greater than John the Baptist.2o
And if you want to know whose greatness I compare him to, listen to what the angel said to his father: And he shall go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah.21
8.6
(6:15) And he lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the top of the walls and to the rafters of the ceilings he covered it with boards. On the inside, indeed, the house was lined with cedar, for on the outside, the actual stone it was built of glinted with as much brilliance as if it had been covered with glowing white marble. Taken in the mystical sense, however, the temple walls are the nations of believers of whom the holy universal Church consists and whose widespread distribution throughout the whole world is denoted by the width of the walls, whereas the height denotes the hope and whole upward thrust of the Church towards heavenly things, or at any rate the height of the wall which consists of courses of stones laid one on top of the other denotes the state of the present Church where the elect are all built upon the foundation of Christ and follow each other in succession through the course of the ages and, by supporting each other, fulfil the law of Christ,22 which is charity.
8.7
For when those who are now being instructed by the masters who precede them, themselves in turn instruct others as courses laid upon each other, thanks to the unshaken firmness of the living stones in the house of God, they are supported by others in such a way that they themselves too are equal to the task of supporting others right
2o Mt 11:11
21 Lk 1:17
22 cf. Ga 6 2