Bede's temple: an image and its interpretation

Thesis

This thesis studies, for the first time, Bede’s use of the image of the Jewish temple across all his writings. Not only analysing how Bede developed earlier Christian interpretations of the temple, it also uses the temple-image to shine light on under-explored aspects of his theological thought. Throughout, I argue that the communal understanding of the temple-image in Bede’s monastery helped shape his exegesis; we should think of Bede, not as an individual scholar, but as a monk engaged i...

Expand abstract

Authors: O'Brien, C

• Publication date: 2013
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: medieval theology; Bede; Jewish temple; Anglo-Saxon; biblical Interpretation
• Subjects: History of Britain and Europe; Church history; Late antiquity and the Middle Ages