Description
Book SynopsisDistilling a decade of research by leading experts on the Venerable Bede, Bede the scholar investigates the Northumbrian monk’s place within the wider intellectual developments of the early medieval world. Demonstrating the centrality of the Bible to his scholarship, chapters focus on Bede’s engagement with scriptural languages, his knowledge and use of earlier works of Latin literature, and a pastoral commitment to teaching and preaching. The book breaks new ground for our understanding of Bede’s self image by investigating his famous Ecclesiastical history of the English people alongside lesser-known works such as the Martyrology, the commentary On Genesis, and the chapter headings he developed for different parts of the Vulgate Bible. Contributors highlight the importance of appreciating Bede’s work within its local setting: the kingdom of Northumbria and the monastery of Wearmouth, whose founders, Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrith, inspired Bede in various ways. The monastery provided an environment in which Bede could flourish, and where he contributed to an intellectual enterprise which also generated the Codex Amiatinus, the earliest one-volume Vulgate to survive fully intact.
Combining rigorous scholarly research with a celebration of the depth and complexity of Bede’s work, Bede the scholar deepens our understanding of the scholarly programme undertaken by one of the most important intellectual figures of the early middle ages.
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Peter Darby and Máirín MacCarron
1. The autobiographical statement of Bede the scholar in Ecclesiastical history 5:24
Peter Darby and Máirín MacCarron
2. Co-heirs of Christ’s glory: deification in Bede
Arthur Holder
3. Bede’s biblical capitula and the oriented reading of Scripture at Wearmouth–Jarrow
Appendix
Celia Chazelle
4. Bede and the Gospel of John: theology, preaching and the Historia ecclesiastica gentis anglorum
Susan Cremin
5. Bede’s perfecti and the Gospel of Matthew
Emily Quigley
6. Bede, Ceolfrith, and Cassiodorus: biblical scholarship at Wearmouth and Jarrow
Alan T. Thacker
7. Bede and the Hebrew alphabets
Damian Fleming
8. Biblical-textual criticism in Bede’s commentary on Genesis
John J. Gallagher
9. Bede and ‘the nature of things’
Eoghan Ahern
10. Revisiting Bede’s miracles: earth, water, and healing in the Ecclesiastical history, commentary On Genesis, and prose Life of Cuthbert
Sharon M. Rowley
11. Bede’s Martyrology: a resource and spiritual lesson
Paul C. Hilliard
Bibliography
Index
