22. The Two Altars
BOOK TWO
kept enclosed in clay moulds either; instead, when they had reached the point of completion, the casings of the moulds were broken and they were brought out into the light and each of them arranged in its proper place in the temple of the Lord. Now we say this, not because the works of the saints are ever to perish, but because by the time they receive the crown of righteousness which they have earned by their good works, there should be an end to every obligation of performing toilsome works. After all who is to suffer martyrdom for belief in Christ in that life, where, having repulsed their adversaries, all the elect rejoice in the presence of Christ? Who is to bury the dead there where it is the land of the living only? Who is to console the mourner where God will wipe away every tearfrom the eyes of the saints ?5 Who is to open his house to the stranger and the guest where all the elect together have their dwelling from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ?6 Who is to bring me bread when I am hungry or drink when I am thirsty7 where the Lord feeds me and I shall want for nothing?8 So when the vessels' moulds
(2241 which were once necessary, are broken, the vessels themselves shine resplendent in the house of the Lord inasmuch as, when, at the end of the world, there is an end not only to the persecutions which of their own accord they suffer for righteousness' sake but also to the laborious works of righteousness at which the elect toil and sweat for eternal blessedness, they will rejoice in the vision of the creator in the glory of the immortality they have obtained.
22. THE TWO ALTARS
22.1 (7:48) And Solomon made all the vessels for the house of the Lord: the altar of gold, and the table of gold upon which the loaves of proposition' should be set. The altar of gold signifies the hearts of the perfect righteous ones, shining with the light of inner love and Rv7:17
2Co5:l cf. Bede, In Luc. 3 CCSL I20:226, 2370-2372; Greg., Horn in Ezech. PL 76:954A
Ps 22:l The 'loaves of proposition', more commonly known to readers of the English Bible as the 'showbread', are variously termed in Hebrew: (1) omn on$ (lehem hnpprinim)
'the bread of the face (of God)' or 'the bread of the Presence' because it was placed before the presence of Yahweh; and (2) n m y m on5 (lehem hnmma'ureker) 'the showbread' or lit. 'bread of disposition or arrangement or setting forth in order'. It
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
chastity, whose sublimity even the position of this altar is well fitted to express. For it stood in front of the door of the Holy of Holies, as we can plainly read in the construction of the tabernacle.2 That is to say, on this altar it was not the blood of the victims nor the libations that were burned but only the incense, the smoke of which went up and covered the ark and oracle and filled it with a sweet fragran~e.~
In this was portrayed a figure of the saints, who, disregarding their cravings for temporal things and concentrating all their efforts on the quest for heavenly things, stand, as it were, inside close by the oracle; nor are they far removed from the veil by which the temple and the Holy of Holies are separated from each other, inasmuch as they dwell on carth in body only, but in their inner selves spend their whole life in heaven, and the smoke of the incense rises from this altar inside the Holy of Holies where the ark is hidden, when the saints' prayers, prompted by the flame of love, reach all the way to heaven where
Christ is seated on the right hand of God4 For on this altar it is not the blood of victims that is burned but only the incense, inasmuch as such men have not the works of flesh and blood to immolate on the altar of their heart and sacrifice to the Lord, but offer him only the votive offerings of tears and prayer in token of their desire for the heavenly kingdom. is this second expression that is reflected in Septuagint Greek'GproL rqc rrpocqh~pdc
(urtoi t6prosphoms) 'loaves of presenting or offering or setting forth' which in turn is reflected in the Vulgate version panes propositionis, the word propositio meaning, interalia, 'a setting forth for public view.' The Douay's 'loaves of proposition' was a close imitation of the Vulgate. I have retained it both because Bede was using the Vulgate and because the specific plural 'loaves' sits better with Bede's text than the generic singular 'bread'. These loaves (cf. de Vaux (1973). 422) consisted of 12 cakes of pure wheaten flour laid out in two rows on a table in front of the Holy of Holies each week on the eve of the sabbath; after a week they were replaced by fresh ones and eaten by the priests but were not placed on the altar. (cf. Lv 245-9). They were a pledge of the Covenant between the 12 tribes of Israel and Yahweh; however, incense was placed beside each row as a 'memorial-offering' and was burnt (on the altar of perfumes) when the loaves were changed. The presence of incense on the table with them shows they were something like a sacrificial offering. We know from some magical texts and ritual tablets that in the Ancient East it was a very common custom to set bread before the deity. cf. Ex 301-6; 405.24 cf. Greg., Horn in Ezech. PL 76:1070A-D Col3:l
BOOK TWO
22.2 However, because no one suddenly reaches the top, but climbs to the point of heavenly desire by conscientiously sacrificing carnal pleasures, scripture in its mystical construction of the Lord's house has not neglected to include the figure of those who struggle to cauterize with the flame of heavenly fear the carnal passions still in them which war against the soul5 in order to be able to rise to higher things as a result of eradicating these from heart or body and offer to God the incense of spiritual prayers and compunction. For another altar was made to offer victims on, a much bigger one it is true, but as inferior in situation and quality of metal as it was superior in size. For one thing it was made of bronze, and for another it was sited before the temple doors. On it were depicted figuratively those, doubtless, who serve the Lord with a devotedness of such a kind that their flesh still lusts against the spirit and their spirit against the flesh,6 and that they are wont to say, 'we serve the law of God in our minds but the law of sin in our fle~h'.~ And when by frequent fasting they strive to curb the promptings of the flesh, restrain the dissoluteness of wanton behaviour, and rise upwards in a manner worthy of God by prayer, vigils and alms and the other fruits of the Spirit to the peace which comes from abstinence, what else are they doing but immolating to him the victim of their devotedness, in fulfilment of the saying of the Apostle which beseeches us through God's mercy to offer up our bodies as a living sacrifice, consecrated to God and worthy of his acceptance?8 And since they are aflame with the fervour of spiritual love but have not yet emerged triumphant from the conquest of their carnal passions, the altar of holocaust, though it has the sacred fire from heaven, has the appearance of bronze and not of gold. But because the carnal in the holy Church outnumber the spiritual, and those who hold the allurements of vice in check by practising restraint outnumber those who have won the battle with their vices and laid them to rest and have the joy of being secure in the attainment of virtue, the altar of holocaust was quite rightly said to be much bigger than the a altar of in~ense.~ For it is written of it in the Book of Paralipomenon: He also made an altar of bronze fwenfy cubits long,
1 P2:11 cf.Ga5:17 cf. Rm 725 cf. Rm 1 2 1 cf. Greg., Horn. in Ezech. PL 76:983A-B
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
of bronze twenty cubits long, and twenty cubits broad, and ten cubits high.'O And indeed Moses made the altar of incense in the desert a cubit in length and another in breadth and fwo in height. l 1 How big
Solomon made this, the scripture does not say. All it says is that he made an altar of gold. It is evident, however, that he could not make it as big as that of the holocaust, for if it had been made twenty cubits in length and breadth, it would have stretched the entire width of the temple. Therefore, to the extent that the altar of holocaust was sited in a more public place than that of the incense, and was less imposing by reason of the kind of offering made upon it and the baseness of the metal it was made of, to that extent it excelled in the amount and number of victims offered on it, doubtless because the number of those to whom it is said: rfyou wish to enter into lqe, keep the commandments,12 is far greater than the number of those who /226/ arc attracted by the call, Zfyou wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and so forth.I3 22.3 Nevertheless the dimensions of this altar are not without a mystical explanation. For it is twenty cubits long and as many cubits broad and ten cubits high, a number which, in fact, we have spoken of above in our commentary on the temple and its ~estibu1e.l~
But it must also be briefly added here that if the altar of holocaust is a type of those in the Church who seek to consecrate their body and soul to God through the fire of his love, the perseverance of these others in good works is represented by the length of the altar, the generosity of their love of God and their neighbour by its width, their hope in expecting the vision of God by its height. The fact that the length and breadth of the altar was twenty cubits denotes how truly great was the perfection of this untiring patience and genuine love which is given us through the observance of both testaments. For four fives make twenty; now the books of the Mosaic law are five and those of the liberty of the Gospel are four; when we attain to the spiritual understanding and observance of the law by the light of the grace of the Gospel, we truly complete the number twenty; and this number lo 2 Paralip 4.1
Ex3Ck1-2 MI 19:17
I:'
Mt 19:21 l 4 supra 6.1 * *
BOOK TWO
the hearts of the elect, with the guidance of both testaments and the help of the selfsame author of both testaments, remain steadfast in the performance of good works even in persecution, and display the cheerfulness of love even towards those who persecute them. The number ten conventionally designates the hope of heavenly rewards, as the Lord affirms when he declares that those who worked in the vineyard of the great householder are to be rem~nerated;'~ and this number is rightly used as a figure of the eternal reward in which our nature is eternally united to God in vision, because in this number the divine and human nature together are mystically expressed. For God is a trinity, but man is made up of the number seven, i.e. of four on account of his body which comprises four elements, and of three on account of the threefold interior difference which holy scripture shows us when it bids us love God with our whole heart, our whole soul and our whole strength.16 This is why in the decalogue of the Law there are three commandments which spur us on to the service of divine love, and seven which enjoin love of the neighbour." Hence those who observe the decalogue by loving God and the neighbour, deservedly receive the reward of this observance in the simultaneous vision of God and the neighbour; and those who in this life love both the neighbour whom they see and God whom they do not see,18 will in the next life see both God, the king in his beaufy,lg and the neighbour glorified and beautified in God. And that is why the altar, which was made as a figure of the elect with a view to signifying their everlasting life, was ten cubits high. But after it was said that Solomon had made the altar of gold, it was immediately added:
22.4 (7:48) And the table of gold upon which the loaves of proposition should be set. The table of gold is the sacred scripture, rich in the light of spiritual understanding of which the psalmist says to the Lord, You have prepared a table before me in the presence of those who aflict For lest our enemies who afflict us should divert us into the path of error, our creator has prepared us a table of knowledge l5 cf. MI 201-2 l6 cf. Mk 12:30 l7 cf. Ex 20:2-17 l 8 cf. 1 Jn 4:20 l 9 Is3317 2o Ps22:5