St. Bede the Venerable
Commentary on Luke 4:16–30
[Christ Returns to Nazareth: On Synagogue and Church]
And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and, as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day. "Synagogue" is a Greek word which in Latin means congregatio ("a gathering"); by this name the Jews were accustomed to designate not only the assembly of crowds that flocked together, but also the building in which they convened to hear or proclaim the Word of God. Hence the Lord said to the high priest Annas: "I have always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews convene" (John 18:20). Just as we, too, call the gathering-places of the faithful "churches," and refer to their assemblies and choirs by that name.
Yet there is a difference between Synagoga, which is interpreted "congregation," and Ecclesia, which is interpreted "convocation": the people of the Old Testament are designated by both terms, but the people of the New Testament only by Ecclesia. For obviously, both cattle and even inanimate things can be "gathered together" into one place; but only rational beings can be "called together" (convocari). Therefore, the writers and teachers of the apostolic age judged it more fitting to describe the people of the new grace—endowed as it were with greater dignity—as "convoked" into the unity of faith, that is, to name them Ecclesia rather than Synagoga.
Moreover, they would gather in the synagogues on the Sabbath day so that, in accordance with what the Lord commanded—"Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 45:10)—they might set aside worldly affairs and, with tranquil hearts, devote themselves to meditating on the precepts of the Law. A trace of this devotion, observed on that day, endures even now in the Church: in memory of the ancient religion, in certain places it has been customary to chant on the Sabbath the Song of Deuteronomy, which recounts the entire condition of the ancient people—what they merited when God was offended, and what when He was propitious. Otherwise, it would be incongruous for the song of Moses to be recited last, after the poems of the prophets had been sung on the earlier days of the week.
Therefore, Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day, that He might fulfill the ritual of the Mosaic Law with the fullness of heavenly grace.
[Christ Reads from Isaiah: The Mystery of the Anointing]
And He stood up to read; and the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. This is indeed a sign of His most humble dispensation: God, who came among men "to minister, not to be ministered to" (Matthew 20:28), did not disdain to undertake even the office of reader. Yet by a deeper providence, Luke begins his account of the Lord's deeds with the reading and explanation of the prophet, because clearly all the Scripture of prophecy reaches unto Him, is to be opened to us through Him, and finds its fulfillment in Him. Hence, at the close of his Gospel, Luke makes both points even more explicit: after first recording the Savior's words—"It is necessary that all things be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning Me" (Luke 24:44)—he immediately adds: "Then He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures" (ibid.).
Therefore, Jesus stood up to read, that He might correct by the testimony of prophetic reading those whom the novelty of His signs had not converted. And when He had unrolled the book, He found the place where it was written.
Beautifully does He take up the book of the prophet closed, yet reads it unrolled: because the mystery of His Incarnation, foretold in the voice of the prophets, He first received to be manifested, and afterward opened to mortals to be understood.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor," etc. Having spoken above of the calling of the Gentiles and the strengthening of the Church through the prophet, the Savior—when among other things He had said, "I am the Lord; in its time I will suddenly accomplish this" (Isaiah 60:22)—immediately introduces what is here read: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." Not that the Lord God has a Lord God, but that, according to the dispensation of the flesh He assumed, He speaks these words concerning Himself. To Him the Psalmist had already said: "You have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions" (Psalm 44:8). For when "companions" are mentioned, understand the nature of the flesh, by which God has us as companions of His substance. And because His anointing was spiritual, and by no means like that of the human body—as was the case with the priests of the Jews—therefore He is recorded as having been anointed "above His companions," that is, above the other saints. This anointing was fulfilled at that time when He was baptized in the Jordan, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove and remained on Him (Luke 3:22).
He was anointed, therefore, with spiritual oil and heavenly power: that He might water the poverty of the human condition with the eternal treasure of the resurrection; that He might remove the captivity of the mind; that He might illuminate the blindness of souls. As He says: "Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God" (Luke 6:20). And again: "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). And again: "He who follows Me does not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (ibid.).
"To set at liberty those who are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of recompense." He says: "A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit; a contrite and humbled heart, O God, You will not despise" (Psalm 50:19). And therefore He declares Himself sent—or anointed—to heal those who are bruised or contrite in heart; just as the Psalmist says concerning Him: "Who heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds" (Psalm 146:3). Or certainly, "to set at liberty those who are bruised, unto remission" means to lift up those who had been weighed down by the heavy and unbearable burden of the Law, and to admit them into the remission of spiritual grace. And this itself is "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." For then the true year of Jubilee—that is, of liberty—was at hand: namely, the time of the Church, in which, while dwelling in the body, she "is absent from the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:6). Concerning this the Psalmist sings: "You shall bless the crown of the year of Your goodness" (Psalm 64:12). Nor was that year alone in which the Lord preached "acceptable"; but also this one in which the Apostle preaches, saying: "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). After the "acceptable year of the Lord," he also proclaims the final "day of recompense," saying: "For the Son of Man will come in His glory with His angels, and then He will render to each one according to his works" (Matthew 16:27).
Therefore, He declares Himself sent to proclaim the Gospel concerning all these things, because the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him.
[The Symbolism of Standing, Reading, and Sitting]
And when He had closed the book, He gave it back to the minister and sat down. The Lord read the book while all who were present heard; but after reading, He returned it to the minister. For, as He Himself testifies elsewhere: while He was in the world, "I spoke openly to the world; I always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews always convened" (John 18:20). But when He was about to return to heavenly things, He handed over the office of preaching the Gospel to those who from the beginning had seen Him and had been ministers of the Word (Luke 1:2). And appropriately, while reading He stood, but after returning the book, He sat down. For standing is the posture of one working; sitting, of one resting or judging. Because the Lord Jesus Christ, that He might open for us the way of knowledge concerning what was written about Him, deigned for a time to work in the flesh. But when the office of His pious dispensation was completed, He chose disciples to follow His teaching, and He restored Himself to the throne of heavenly rest—whence even now He administers all things by His hidden judgment, and at the end of the age will appear as the manifest Judge.
At the same time, He mystically proposes an example: that whoever is a preacher of the Word should also be a doer of it. Let him stand, read, and sit down: that is, let him work, let him preach, and thus await the rewards of rest. And note this: He Himself read the book unrolled, but returned it to the minister folded. Because, although He taught His Church—through the Spirit of truth sent from the Father—to be led "into all truth" (John 16:13), nevertheless He forewarned by His own example that not all things are to be said to all people, but that the word is to be dispensed by the teacher according to the capacity of the hearers, as He said: "I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now" (John 16:12).
And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them: "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears." It was fulfilled, of course, in this: that just as that prophecy had foretold, so the Lord both performed great deeds and proclaimed greater ones. What greater testimony, then, do we seek than that He marked with His own voice that He Himself was the one who spoke in the prophets?—removing the sacrileges of the faithless, who claim that the God of the Old Testament is one, and of the New another; or who assert that Christ's beginning is from the Virgin. For how could He whose voice spoke before the Virgin ever existed have His beginning from the Virgin?
And all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the words of grace which proceeded from His mouth. They bore witness, affirming that He truly was the one concerning whom the prophets had sung; that He was truly anointed with the grace of holiness; that the poor, the captives, and the bruised were truly, in all things, recipients of His gifts. And they said: "Is not this the son of Joseph?" Such is the blindness of the Nazarenes: they acknowledge Him to be Christ in words and deeds, yet despise Him on account of their familiarity with His lineage. Yet their error is the condemnation both of us and of heretics. For they beheld the man Jesus Christ as the son of Joseph; and according to the other Evangelists, some even cried out that He was "the carpenter's son" (Mark 6:3).
Among these things, one may ask why Christ, appearing in the flesh, wished to be called the son of a carpenter, and to be a carpenter Himself. By a sound understanding, we perceive that even by this He taught that He was, before the ages, the very One who is the Fashioner of all things: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). For even if divine realities are not to be compared with types, nevertheless there is a figure here: because the Father of Christ works with fire and spirit; and concerning Him, as though concerning the son of a carpenter, His forerunner says: "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire" (Luke 3:16). In the great house of this world (cf. 2 Timothy 2:20), He fashions vessels of diverse kinds; indeed, by softening vessels of wrath with the fire of the Spirit, He transforms them into vessels of mercy. Hence Malachias, speaking in the person of the Father, says well: "Behold, I send My angel, and he shall prepare the way before My face; and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple"—and after a few words adds: "And He shall sit, refining and purifying silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and as silver" (Malachi 3:1–3).
But the Jews, ignorant of this mystery, despise the works of divine power by their contemplation of carnal descent—as is clear not only from what precedes, but also from the Lord's subsequent words, when it is added: And He said to them: "You will surely say to me this likeness: 'Physician, heal yourself; whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your own country.'" Their perfidy, though unwittingly, confesses a sound faith: they call the Lord Christ both "carpenter" and "physician." He is the true Carpenter, because "all things were made through Him" (John 1:3); He is the Physician, because through Him "all things consist" in heaven and on earth (Colossians 1:17). And as He Himself testifies: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick" (Mark 2:17).
And since we have mentioned with what instrument He works as Carpenter, let us also mention with what method He practices healing: Passing by, He saw a man blind from birth; He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and anointed the man's eyes with the clay, and said to him: "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which is interpreted "Sent"). He went therefore and washed, and came seeing (John 9:6–7). Recognize, therefore, the manner of this great healing, and rejoice that you have deserved to be enlightened through it: the clay from the earth is the flesh of Christ; the spittle from His mouth is His divinity—because "the head of Christ is God" (1 Corinthians 11:3). The spittle mingled with the clay enlightens us when we are baptized in the pool of Siloam: because "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory" (John 1:14)—which previously, with darkness hindering, we could not comprehend.
Through Christ the Carpenter, you were created, that you might be; through Christ the Physician, you were recreated, that after your wounds you might be whole. He is indeed urged by His mocking fellow-citizens to "heal Himself"—that is, to work wonders in His own country—but not without reason is He excused by the other Evangelist, who says that "He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands upon a few sick people and healed them; and He marveled because of their unbelief" (Mark 6:5–6). Lest perhaps someone might think that affection for one's homeland ought to be held in lower esteem by us: He loved His fellow-citizens, but they deprived themselves of His love by their envy.
[No Prophet Is Accepted in His Own Country]
And He said: "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country." That the Lord Christ is called "Prophet" in the Scriptures, Moses himself bears witness, saying: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet from your brethren, like me" (Deuteronomy 18:15). And not only He who is the Head and Lord of the prophets, but also Elijah, Jeremiah, and the other lesser prophets were held in lower esteem in their own country than in remote cities. For it is almost natural for citizens always to envy their fellow-citizens: they do not consider the present works of the man, but recall his fragile infancy—as though they themselves had not passed through the same stages of age to reach maturity.
"In truth I say to you: many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years…" (Luke 4:25). He says: "It is not that I withhold divine benefits from disdainful fellow-citizens that I oppose the deeds of the prophets. For just as, when famine once pressed upon the whole earth, no one was found in Judea worthy to host Elijah—but a widow of a foreign nation was sought, who on account of the grace of faith deserved to be visited by so great a prophet; and just as, though there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, only Naaman the Syrian, because he had sought devoutly, deserved to be cleansed by the prophet: so you also, for no other cause than envy and perfidy, will be deprived of the heavenly gift."
If you examine the deeds of the prophets already mentioned in an allegorical sense, you will surely find that the Lord, by the name of "His own country" from which He was not received, marked the pride of the perfidious Jews. But by the name of Capernaum, which is interpreted "field of consolation," He signified the salvation preached to the Gentiles—where greater signs are wrought daily through the apostles and their successors, not so much in the healing of bodies as in the healing of souls.
Therefore, the widow to whom Elijah was sent signifies the Church of the Gentiles: she, long deserted by her Creator, nourished a people ignorant of right faith—like a poor son—with beggarly sustenance; that is, she taught with a word barren of fruit—until the prophetic word came, which, with the fleece of Israel dried up (as it were, with the gate of heaven shut), was perishing from famine in Judea; and there it was both fed itself and fed others: namely, received by believers, and itself refreshing believers. Hence this same widow is rightly said to have dwelt in Sarepta of Sidon. For Sidonia is interpreted "useless hunting"; Sarepta, "conflagration" or "narrowness of bread." Because "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20): where care was expended on acquiring superfluous things, as though in fowling; where the conflagration of dire thirst and the narrowness of spiritual bread once prevailed—there flour and oil are blessed by the prophetic mouth: that is, the fruit and gladness of charity, or the grace of the Lord's body and the anointing of chrism, were made fruitful by the unfailing gift of the heavenly Word. To this day, in her vessels, the oil of spiritual joy and the flour of blessing do not fail—while the other nations, which do not believe, suffer want of divine bread, wretched and given to useless hunting.
Moreover, this widow herself most beautifully declares, before she was to die, that she wished to gather two sticks to prepare for herself a mystical bread: expressing by the very name and number of the sticks the sign of the Cross, by which the bread of eternal life has been prepared for us.
"And many lepers were in Israel under Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian" (Luke 4:27). Because the story is well known, it is necessary to intimate the mystery briefly. This Naaman the Syrian—which is interpreted "beauty of a people"—demonstrates the population of the nations: once stained with the leprosy of perfidy and crimes, but cleansed through the sacrament of baptism from all defilement of mind and body. Admonished by the counsel of a captive girl—that is, by the grace of heavenly inspiration, which the Gentiles seized for salvation when the Jews proved unable to preserve it—he is commanded to be washed seven times. Because clearly, that alone is the kind of baptism which regenerates and saves through the Holy Spirit. Hence his flesh is rightly recorded as having appeared after the washing "like the flesh of a little child": either because grace brings forth all baptized in Christ into one infancy; or rather, because that "child" is to be understood of whom it is said: "A child is born to us, a son is given to us" (Isaiah 9:6)—to whose body the entire offspring of believers is united through baptism.
And that you might know that all the sacraments of baptism were prefigured here—in which we are commanded to renounce Satan and confess the faith—Naaman denies that he will ever again offer sacrifice to alien gods, but will serve the Lord alone in all things. He also rejoices to take with him a portion of the holy land: because it behooves the baptized to be strengthened also by participation in the Lord's body. Rightly, therefore, is Naaman—whose body was washed by water, whose heart was washed by faith—preferred before the Jews, who were squalid with the leprosy of obstinacy. Rightly is the widow of Sarepta—that is, the Church, desiring to be refreshed by the wood of the Cross—renewed by the bread of the Body and the anointing of the life-giving Spirit, while the Jews perish from famine of the Word.
And it is proved that the Lord denied the gifts of wonders to His fellow-citizens not on account of His own inability, but on account of their envy; and by this example, finally, that the entire nation was abandoned by Him—not because He did not love them, but because they themselves refused to be loved: namely, with the teachers dispersed throughout the whole world for the salvation of the Gentiles. That the Lord spoke this concerning the Jews, they themselves testify concerning Him by this very deed. For it follows: And all in the synagogue, hearing these things, were filled with wrath; and they rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong. But He, passing through the midst of them, went His way.
O inheritance of the disciples, worse than the Master! The devil tempts the Lord with words; the Jews, with deeds. He says, "Cast Yourself down"; they endeavor to cast Him down. And indeed, the Lord—about to ascend the brow of the hill to be cast down—not on just any Sabbath, but on the Parasceve (the day of Preparation)—descends through the midst of them, when suddenly the mind of the raging multitude was changed or stupefied: whom He still preferred to heal rather than to destroy, so that, seeing their malicious undertaking frustrated, they might thereafter cease from seeking His death. For the hour of the future Passover had not yet come; nor had He yet approached the place of His passion—which was figured not in Nazareth, but in Jerusalem, by the blood of sacrifices; nor had He yet chosen the kind of death—which had been proclaimed from eternity: that He was to be crucified. Therefore, He did not wish to be consumed by being cast down by the Nazarenes, nor stoned by the Jerusalemites, nor slain among the infants of Bethlehem by Herod, nor by any other death. For by such a death, the sign of royal power—by which the forehead of the faithful might be armed—would have been obscured. But He awaited alone the standard of the Cross: whose figure could both be depicted with the swiftest motion of the right hand against the temptations of the malignant foe, and could likewise be regarded as a type of the monarchy of His singular power. So that, as the Apostle, expounding the triumph of the Cross, says: "In the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth" (Philippians 2:10). For this is why the summit of that same Cross reaches toward heaven, its base seeks the lower realms, and its arms cover the earth.
Notes on the Translation:
Source: This passage is from St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735 AD), likely from his Homiliae super Evangelia or Expositio in Lucam. Bede's exegesis is characterized by literal, allegorical, and moral interpretation in the tradition of the Latin Fathers.
Key Distinctions:
Synagoga (συναγωγή) = "congregation" (passive gathering)
Ecclesia (ἐκκλησία) = "convocation" (active calling-out of rational beings)
This etymological distinction reflects Bede's ecclesiology and his view of the New Covenant's superiority.
Christological Themes:
The co-eternity of the Trinity: Christ spoke through the prophets before His birth of the Virgin.
The hypostatic union: Christ is both divine Carpenter (Creator) and human physician (Redeemer).
The "anointing" at the Jordan: the baptismal theophany as the manifestation of Christ's messianic mission.
Sacramental Typology:
The clay and spittle (John 9): flesh and divinity united in the Incarnation, effecting illumination through baptism.
Naaman's sevenfold washing: prefiguration of baptismal regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
The two sticks of the widow of Zarephath: the wood of the Cross preparing the "bread of life."
Moral Exegesis:
Envy (invidia) as the root of the rejection of grace.
The voluntary nature of Christ's passion: He "passes through their midst" not by compulsion, but by divine power.
The preacher must be both doer and teacher: "stand, read, sit" as a model of apostolic ministry.
Historical Context: Bede writes in post-Conquest Northumbria, addressing a Church consolidating its identity. His emphasis on the Gentile mission (widow of Zarephath, Naaman) would have resonated with Anglo-Saxon converts.
CONTINUE
Comments
Post a Comment