9. HOW THE WALLS WERE COVERED WITH CEDAR AND: The Floor With Fir
BOOK ONE
down to the last righteous ones to be born at the end of the world.
These, as it were, placed on the very summit of God's house are taught and supported by others but they themselves do not have any
(others) to teach or any (others) whose frailty they (must) bear with.
That is to say, these walls are lined on the inside with planks of cedar when the hearts of the faithful overflow with the love of virtue. For just as the nature of cedar typifies perfect people, as we have said
[I701 above, so also there is good reason to say that in the relevant context it denotes the loftiness of the virtues whereby the same perfection is reached. Now everything from the floor of the house to the top of the walls and even to the ceilings is covered with wood when the elect, from the first rudiments of the faith to the perfection of good behaviour and even to their entrance into their heavenly homeland, do not cease in their efforts to perform good works, when from the first righteous persons to the last at the end of the world, all strive after virtue and by their merits can justly claim, We are the aroma of Christ to God in every place.23
9. HOW THE WALLS WERE COVERED WITH CEDAR AND
THE FLOOR WITH FIR
9.1
(6:15) And he covered the floor with planks of fir. How this was done he explains more fully in the Book of Paralipomenon where it is written: He also paved the poor of the temple with most precious marble.' From this it is clear that he certainly did not lay on the ground the fir planks with which he covered the floor, but that he first covered the floor with marble and then laid the planks on top of that and on these two layers he superimposed a coating of gold as we read in what follows.2 Now just as the height of the wall as it rises aloft and reaches the ceiling, signifies the progress in virtue whereby the elect reach the heavenly kingdom, or, at the very least, the actual choirs of the elect which succeed each other in the course of the different ages, so the evenness of the floor may with good reason be said to demonstrate their harmonious humility while they are still in this temporal life and live sociably with each other according
23 2C02:lS 2 Paralip 3:6 cf. 3 K 6:22
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
to the dictates of ~harity.~ In other words, this floor was paved with most precious marble of great beauty and this marble was later covered with fir planks because, of course, the life of the righteous must first be fortified in the heart in advance by the firmness of faith and then adorned in action by the wide range of spiritual virtues. Otherwise what good would the beauty of the most precious marble be when covered from view by planks of wood, unless it tacitly signified something mystical, and taught that the abundance of good works had to be grounded on the strength of unblemished faith? But on account of its height and lasting strength the fir tree is a quite appropriate analogy of the mind of the elect which spurns every lowest craving and is ever intent upon the contemplation of heavenly things and moreover, especially excels in the virtue of patience. On the other hand, the gold leaf with which the marble and the fir planks are overlaid is the expansiveness of charie of pure heart and good conscience and faith not feigned.5 Just as gold is more precious than other metals so this is more outstanding than the other virtues and shines forth with a light all its own in the temple of God. Hence the Apostle, enumerating the great many rewards of virtue to be stored up for the humble of heart, the adornments of the floor, so to speak, puts it well when he says, Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against anothel; for- [I711 giving each other; as Christ has forgiven you, so you also must forgive6
(and), like a veil of gold to be added from above, he immediately added: and above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
9.2 (6:16) And he built up twenty cubits with boards of cedar at the rear of the temple, from the floor to the top, and made the inner house of the oracle the Holy of Holies. He calls the east side of the temple the rear; for the temple had its entrance on the east and its inner house, i.e. the Holy of Holies, on the west. The fact that he says that the board partitions which separated the inner house infro 9.3 **; 14.3 ** infra 9.3 ** 1 Trn 1 5 Col3:12-14
BOOK ONE
from the outer one were erected from the floor to the top,' does not mean they were built to the ceiling which was at a height of thirty cubits from the floor, as has already been said above! but only up to a height of twenty cubits, as one can clearly read in what f01lows.~
But the portion above these partitions up as far as the ceiling was left open and empty to a height of ten cubits and a length of twenty cubits across the width of the house, and, of course, through this aperture the smoke of the burnt offerings from the altar of sacrifice used to ascend and penetrate all the way in to cover the ark of the Lord. This division of the Lord's house is a clear figure of a mystery'O and, thanks to the explanation of the Apostle, is clearer than daylight because the first house into which the priests continually go pegomzing their ritual duties" is the present Church where intent upon works of piety we daily offer sacrifices of praise to the Lord, but the inner house which was built at the rear of the temple12 is the promised life in heaven which indeed precedes this life of our exile which is celebrated there in the presence of the supreme king as a perpetual solemnity of the blessed, both angels and humankind. Hence it is with reference to it that the servant is quite deservedly told, Enter into the joy ofyour Lord,13 but it is later in time because it is after the labours of this world that we succeed in entering it.
9.3
Now the board partitions which separate each house from the other are actually the gates of heaven which we daily long to have opened to us and which, in so far as the Lord grants us, we are ever knocking upon with pious importunity until they are opened to let us enter where, even though not yet allowed to enter before the dissolution of our bodies, we nevertheless have open to us the door of divine compassion through which we send ahead of us the incense of our alms, fasting and other works of piety. This is why the cedarwood wall of the inner house had an aperture at the top all the way across whereby the smoke of the burnt offerings might go in because the [I721 infm 12.2 ** supm 6.1 **; 8.2 ** cf. 3 K 620 lo infra 101. l1 Heb9:l-9 l2 infiu 12.1 ** l3 Mt 25:21