Bible: Aids to Biblical Study

Summary

Gathered here in alphabetical order are four short works that, like the COMMENTARIES, were written to help others understand scripture but that lack the sustained arguments of Bede's exegesis. It would, of course, have been possible to include many other works here as well. Most obviously, the CHAPTER DIVISIONS and PROLOGUES for books of the Bible are in some ways similar to the COLLECTIO PSALTERII in that they distil complex texts into more understandable forms. Moreover, while M.L.W. Laistner (1939 p xxxvii) is somewhat dismissive of the NOMINA REGIONUM ET LOCORUM DE ACTIBUS APOSTOLORUM, calling it “a not very distinguished performance,” we are more impressed by Bede's systematic study of diverse materials in order to acquire the knowledge he needed in order to understand God's unfolding plan. The three geographical works included here appear to be like his early study of time that led to DE TEMPORIBUS and the COMMENTARIUS IN APOCALYPSIM.

COLLECTIO PSALTERII [BEDA.Coll.Psalt.]: CPL 1371.

ed.: Browne 2001.

MSS – Quots/Cits

none.

Refs

ALCVIN.Epist.259, 417.9-11.

This little florilegium consists of, usually, one to a dozen key verses selected from each of the Psalms. Noting ALCUIN's “dicitur” in the reference listed above – which will be discussed in more detail in a moment – and the lack of any mention of this work in Bede's list of his writings at the end of the HISTORIA ECCLESIASTICA GENTIS ANGLORUM (ed. Lapidge 2010 2.480-84), Michael Gorman (1998 pp 230-31) casts doubt on the attribution. Alcuin's remark is, however, less ambiguous than Gorman suggests, and the work is, as he notes, identified as Bede's in the three ninth-century manuscripts in which it survives.

In a more extensive study of “Bede and the Psalter,” Benedicta Ward (1991 p 10) discusses Bede's method in compiling the work:

He selected the best text he knew, JEROME's third psalter, iuxta hebriacos. From this, he selected verses from each psalm which could be used as direct prayer or praise, as food for meditation, plea for mercy, protest, contrition, or adoration and exultation. Sometimes one verse alone was used, sometimes several. The verses were also selected so that a sense of the meaning of the psalm as whole was retained; it would be possible to recall the whole psalm from these clues.