221
edits
Changes
Bede
,no edit summary
The '''Venerable Bede''' (c. 672 - [[May 25]], 735) was a [[monk]] at the Northumbrian [[monastery]] of Saint Peter at Wearmouth (today part of Sunderland), and of its daughter monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow. He is well known as an author and scholar, whose best-known work is ''[[Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum]]'' (''The Ecclesiastical History of the English People''), which gained him the title ''The Father of English History''. St. Bede wrote on many other topics, from music and musical metrics to [[scripture]] commentaries. His [[feast day]] is observed on [[May 2625]]or May 27.
[[Image:Bede.jpg|right|thumb|325px|The Venerable Bede]]
Bede practiced the allegorical method of interpretation, and was by modern standards credulous concerning the miraculous; but in most things his good sense is conspicuous, and his kindly and broad sympathies, his love of truth and fairness, his unfeigned piety, and his devotion to the service of others combine to make him an exceedingly attractive character.
The Venerable Bede's commentaries on Holy Scriptures owed much to other patristic sources, as he often inserted long quotations from other Latin Fathers, especially Pope St. Gregory the Great, St. Augustine of Hippo, and St. Jerome. In addition to two books of homilies on the Gospel pericopes of the liturgical year, the great monk of Wearmouth's surviving works include verse-by-verse commentaries on the Acts of the Apostles, the Seven Catholic Epistles, and [http://www.apocalyptic-theories.com/theories/bede/bede.html The Explanation of the Apocalypse]. His commentaries on the Paul Epistles is contained in ''The Biblical Miscellany''. He also compiled St. Augustine of Hippo's commentary on the Pauline Epistles into a single volume that follows their order in our present canon. His allegorical interpretations of the Old Testament survive in two works: ''On the Temple'' and [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1995/95.02.14.html ''On the Tabernacle''].
Bede's writings are classed as scientific, historical, and theological. The scientific include treatises on grammar (written for his pupils), a work on natural phenomena (''De rerum natura''), and two on chronology (''De temporibus'' and ''De temporum ratione''). Bede made a new calculation of the age of the Earth and began the practice of dividing the Christian era into B.C. and A.D. Interestingly, Bede wrote that the Earth was round "like a playground ball," contrasting that with being "round like a shield."
His re-editing of the [[Bible]] was important, and was used by the [[Roman Catholic Church]] until 1966. He did not copy any one source, but researched from several sources to create single volume Bibles (highly unusual for the time—the Bible normally had circulated as separate books).
His other historical works were lives of the abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow, and the life in verse and prose of St. [[Cuthbert of Lindisfarne]]. The most numerous of his writings are theological, and consist of commentaries on the books of the Old and New Testaments, homilies, and treatises on detached portions of Scripture. He also composed a number of [http://web.archive.org/web/20020611051718/www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/history/people/crisp.23/Hymns.html hymns].
His last work, completed on his death-bed, was a translation into Anglo-Saxon of the [[Gospel of John]].
