Monday, March 28, 2022

Bede on Ephesians 2:20

In Book 1.1 of his On the Temple, Bede (d. 735) understands Eph 2:20 to be teaching that the foundation of the Church is both the prophets and apostles and the person of Jesus; not either-or:

 

. . . it is quite clear that the material temple was a figure of us all, that is, both of the Lord himself and his members which we are. But (it was a figure) of him as the uniquely chosen and precious cornerstone laid on the foundation, and of us as the living stones built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, i.e. on the Lord himself. (Bede: On the Temple [trans. Seán Connolly; Translated Texts for Historians; Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1995], 5-6)