11. HOW THE WHOLE BUILDING WAS COVERED WITH: Cedar And Gold
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
the Lord we both fast from the vanity of the present world and are cheered with the promise of the world to come, not setting our heart on the (life) here below but feeding our heart (on the life) up there.
11. HOW THE WHOLE BUILDING WAS COVERED WITH
CEDAR AND GOLD
11.1 (6:18) And the whole house was covered inside with cedar, having its turnings and joints skilfully wrought and carvings in relief. We have said of cedarwood that it betokened the unsurpassable beauty of the virtues.' Now the entire house is covered inside with this wood when the hearts of the righteous begin to shine with nothing but the love of good works and the house has its turnings made of cedar boards and its joints skilfully wrought when these elect are joined to each other by the most beautiful bond of charity so that, though the multitude of the faithful is innumerable, they can nevertheless, with good reason, be said to have one heart and one soul on account of the community of the faith and love they share.2 For the turnings which were attached to the joints of the planks in order that they might all make one partition, are the very services of charity by which the holy brotherhood is bound together and formed into one house of Christ all over the world. Moreover, this house has carvings standing in relief when, far from covering and hiding their works of virtue, the saints, by a clear outward expression, show forth to all, as /I741 an example for living, what they themselves are like and what they do, as did the apostle Paul who not only by preaching Christ to the gentiles and by personally suffering for Christ showed how outstanding he was, but also in his letters addressed to the churches declared how many perils he underwent for Christ, and by what great revelations he was raised aloft in a blessed gl~rification.~
And when he said to his listeners without any hesitation, Be imitators of me just as I am of C h r i ~ t , ~ what did he show them but the carvings standing in relief in the house of the Lord, which by the exceptional eminence of his virtue showed itself to be within the power of all to imitate? supra 8.3 ** cf. Ac 432 cf. 2 Co 11:26ff.
1 Co11:l
BOOK ONE
11.2 (6:18) All was lined with boards of cedar, and no stone at all could be seen in the wall. Both the stones of the wall or of the floor and the boards and the gold all denote the life of the saints in the Church, but with this distinction, of course, that when they are compared, the living stones are the saints cemented to each other by the strength of their faith in one and the same rule (of faith); the planks of cedar or fir are the saints joined to each other in one and the same faith by reason of the compass of their various virtues according to the gifts of the Holy Spirit; the sheets of gold leaf are the saints who have a love that surpasses knowledge5 and rejoice together in its most delightful splendour. These three things the blessed Apostle comprised in one sentence saying, For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision nor the lack of it is of any use but the faith which works through love. For the stone was a figure of unconquered faith, the cedar a figure of fragrant action, the gold a figure of alltranscending love, and the stone wall is covered with cedar planks when the profession of faith is adorned with good works, lest without works it be judged useless or dead.7 But because the law was written in stone* whereas the teaching of the Gospel was confirmed by the wood of the Lord's passion, so too the people were circumcised by a flintstone in the foresking whereas we are consecrated by the sign of the cross on the forehead. The stone walls of the temple or the floor paved with most precious marble can quite appropriately be taken as a type of those who lived faithfully and perfectly in the law, whereas the planks of cedar or fir can signify the righteous of the New Testament who in their desire to go after the Lord deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow him.1° And since the common glory of a heavenly reward awaits the righteous of both eras, a third lund of material, that of gold leaf, is added to the stones and precious wood.
(1 751 11.3 Nor should there seem to be any conflict between this and cf. Ep 3:19
Ga 5:6
'I cf. Jm 2:17,20 * cf. Ex31:lE cf. Jos 52-3 lo cf. Mt 16:24
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
what wc said above" to the effect that the portico which was in front of the temple was a figure of the faithful of old, whereas the temple is a figure of those who came into the world after the time of the Lord's incarnation, and moreover, that the inner house prefigured the joys of the heavenly kingdom which are granted to both groups of the righteous; but let us now say that the stone walls stand for the ancient people of God whereas the cedar planks stand for the new (people of God) and the gold leaf denotes the rewards of both in heaven, since these temple walls, both in the portico and in the temple itself and in the Holy of Holies equally were made up of stones and timber and gold. For in the different materials there is a manifold repetition of the same figures. But it must also be said that both in the (era of the) law and before the written law there were a great many who zealously served the Lord by not killing or fornicating or stealing or bearing false witness, by honouring their father and mother and loving their neighbour as themselves.12 These belong to the stone walls of the portico. There were others who with greater perfection gave up the affairs of the world and took up their cross and followed the Lord, who, as the Apostle writes, suffered mockery and scourging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated; people of whom the world was unworthy. l3
These who before the clear era of the Gospel led the life of the Gospel, what are they but the cedar boardwork shining in the portico before the entrance to the temple? The same kingdom of heaven receives both of these (groups of people) alike, albeit in separate dwellings, just as the portico of the temple was covered inside with gold after the stone and cedarwood. There are a great many at the present time who, content with (observing) the precepts of the law which we have mentioned above, believe that it will be enough for them merely if they merit entrance into life; there are others who, striving for perfection, sell all they have and follow the Lord,14 mindful of his promise whereby he foretold that in the resurrection not only life but special honour would be given: Truly I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of man shall sit upon h b glorious throne, supra 6.2 ** l 2 cf. MI 19:18-19 Heb 1 1 :36-38 l4 cf. MI 19:21