1. Evangelization
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
1. Evangelization The same evangelizing imperative underlying the HE is described in Bede's exposition of the large bronze water laverwhich stood in the Temple for ritual purification as prefiguring Christian baptism (19.1;
1 Co 1O:l-2). It was supported by twelve bronze oxen arranged in groups of three looking outwards to the north, south, east and west
(19.5). Bede interprets the oxen not only as the twelve apostles but as their successors as well, 'all the ministers of the word' taking belief in the Trinity to the four corners of the world, teaching and baptizing all nations (omnes gentes) as directly commanded by Christ
(Mt 28:19-20). In a letter of 624 which Bede quotes in HE 2.8, Pope Boniface commends Justus, archbishop of Canterbury, for his work among the gentiles, namely the peoples subject to King Eadbald, commenting that the Matthean text 'has been fulfilled in your own ministry, opening the hearts of nations to receive the mystery of the gospel through your preaching'.
In De templo the distinction between the apostles Paul and Barnabas who took the Gospel to the gentiles and the apostle James who was ordered to remain in Jerusalem to strengthen the Church already established there is directly applied to the different roles of Augustine, Paulinus and the rest of the mission to the Anglo-Saxons and to Pope Gregory who had to remain in Rome (20.7). Gregory is acclaimed as combining both roles, however, in the laudatory biography in HE 2.1, which describes both the continuing need for Gregory's pastoral work in Rome, 'long converted to the true faith', and his active role in sending and supporting the English mission so that he may properly be called 'our apostle' who 'made our nation, till then enslaved to idols, into a Church of Christ'.
Part of Bede's distinction between the Tabernacle and the Temple is that the Jews alone built the Tabernacle in the desert but Solomon was assisted in constructing the Temple by the gentile workforce sent by Hiram king of Tyre (2.3). Though both structures are 'an image of the universal Church', in De templo the Tabernacle is particularly associated with 'the ancient people of God' and the Temple with the Church assembled from the gentiles as well as the Jews. In the H.E. the process by which the gens Anglomm were initially brought to the faith and then drawn ever more fully into the universal Church is presented as a continuation of the conversion of the gentiles recorded in the Acts of the Apostles in response to Christ's command to teach