Celia Chazelle, The Codex Amiatinus and its “Sister” Bibles: Scripture, Liturgy, and Art in the Milieu of the Venerable Bede

The Venerable Bede on Prayer and Contemplation

Traditio ◽

10.1017/s0362152900012186 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 54 ◽

pp. 1-39 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Scott DeGregorio

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Distinctive Feature ◽

English Translation ◽

Anglo Saxon ◽

Good Sense ◽

Venerable Bede ◽

The Middle Ages

As a monk at the famous Northumbrian monastery of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede (673–735) produced a body of exegetical work that enjoyed enormous popularity throughout the Middle Ages. Something of that spirit seems to have reawakened in recent years, as Bede's commentaries are increasingly being studied and made available to wider audiences in English translation. One distinctive feature of this development is a growing awareness that Bede's reputation as an exegete is more multifaceted than has been previously realized, that it goes beyond what Beryl Smalley called “his faithful presentation of the tradition in its many aspects. Whereas earlier interpreters were content to regard Bede as a mere compiler reputed for his good sense and able Latinity, scholars are now paying homage to him as a penetrating and perceptive biblical commentator who did more than reproduce the thought of the fathers who preceded him. As I intend to show in what follows, Bede's treatment of prayer and contemplation in his exegesis attests well to this quality of his thought. The topic to date has received only minimal commentary, mainly on what Bede actually taught about prayer. My approach will be different. I begin with a discussion not of Bede's exegetical method but of his occupations and aims as a spiritual writer. Neither Bede's spirituality nor his role as spiritual writer have received the attention they deserve, and it is hoped that the reflections offered here will help rekindle interest in these neglected subjects. I then consider four prayer-related themes in his exegesis that bring his aims as a spiritual writer into view. Patristic tradition had commented widely on prayer, and Bede, we will see, did not set out to summarize this tradition in its entirety but rather to highlight and distill certain themes within it, those that best suited the needs of his Anglo-Saxon audience.

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Timothy J. Furry, Allegorizing History: The Venerable Bede, Figural Exegesis, and Historical Theory. (Distinguished Dissertations in Christian Theology.) Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2013. Paper. Pp. xi, 162; 1 black-and-white figure. $20. ISBN: 978-1-62032-656-5.

Speculum ◽

10.1017/s0038713415001098 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 90 (3) ◽

pp. 811-813

Author(s):

Richard Shaw

Keyword(s):

Christian Theology ◽

Black And White ◽

Venerable Bede ◽

Figural Exegesis ◽

Historical Theory

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Two Hiberno-Latin Texts on the Gospels

Traditio ◽

10.1017/s0362152900008308 ◽

1959 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

pp. 387-401

Author(s):

Robert E. McNally

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Latin Literature ◽

Biblical Exegesis ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

Intellectual Activity ◽

Isidore Of Seville ◽

Clear Insight ◽

Venerable Bede ◽

Alcuin Of York ◽

Insight Into

The two texts presented here as a contribution to Hiberno-Latin literature are only a fragment of the still unedited Bible commentaries which came forth from the Irish Bible Schools of the Early Middle Ages. These two pieces are valuable sources for the development of biblical exegesis in the pre-Carolingian age, which, except for the accomplishment of the Venerable Bede (d. 735), is distinguished neither for the richness nor the depth of its theological writing. The years between the death of St. Isidore of Seville (d. 636) and Alcuin of York (d. 804) were dominated by the intellectual activity of the Irish monks, whose reputation for learning was mainly founded on their Bible scholarship. But the fruit of this scholarship is not well known. Though the two texts edited below do not represent all the intellectual factors involved in the biblical exegesis of the ancient schools of Ireland, they do reflect the spirit and method of these schools; and they do afford a clear insight into the cultural problem of the development of medieval exegesis at its earliest stage.

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