The Venerable Bede: On the Song of Songs and Selected Writings
Overview
This volume contains the first English translation of Bede’s allegorical commentary On the Song of Songs, along with selections from his homilies, his Ecclesiastical History, and an introduction to his spirituality. Learn from ancient authors about how the Scriptures impacted their spiritual life. Scholars of biblical interpretation will benefit from a deeper knowledge of Bede’s allegorical perspective.
For a massive collection including over a hundred and twenty of the volumes in this series, see the Classics of Western Spirituality Bundle (126 vols.).
Key Features
- A clear presentation of classic biblical interpretation in one volume
- Fully integrates and cross references with other resources from your Logos library
- Examples of Bede’s thought from multiple sources
Top Highlights
“Some are more like myrrh, earnestly mortifying the desires of the flesh after the example of him who said: I punish my body and subject it to servitude (1 Cor 9:27); some are like a form of frankincense, devoting themselves to particularly frequent prayers; still others exert themselves in offering to God the fruits of good works; nevertheless, all are inflamed by the one fire of the Spirit, and like a single column of smoke they seek the heights of a common heavenly life with completely undivided zeal and devotion.” (Page 96)
“And when the church is said to be black like the tents of Cedar, this is asserted not as if it were really so, but according to the opinion of those fools who imagine that she furnishes in herself a dwelling place for vices or for evil spirits, but when she is called beautiful like the curtains of Solomon, this is asserted as if it really is the case, because just as Solomon was accustomed to make tents for himself out of the skins of dead animals, in the same way the Lord gathers the church together to himself from those souls who have learned to renounce carnal desires.” (Page 45)
“But if we attend to what is written concerning the Lord: We have seen him, and he had no form nor comeliness (Is 53:2), which was not said concerning his sin (for he had no sin at all), but of his suffering, surely it is obvious that the church also is said to be black not on account of sins or the defects of sinners, but on account of her own trials and sufferings, with which she is continuously vexed.” (Pages 45–46)
About the Author
Bede (672/673 – 26 May 735), was an English monk at the monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth and its companion monastery, Saint Paul’s, in modern Jarrow, then in the Kingdom of Northumbria. He is well known as an author and scholar, and his most famous work, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People gained him the title “The Father of English History”.