‘Nostrorum socordiam temporum’: the reforming impulse of Bede’s later exegesis

This paper attempts to provide a synoptic view of the thematic development of Bede’s exergesis. It examines a selection of his commentaries written at different periods in his career and, by placing them against the social and political background of early eighth–century Northumbria, tries to indicate some important differences amongst them. The core of my argument is that, in contrast to his early commentaries, Bede’s mature exegesis is decisively infused by the aims and concerns of his later non–exegetical works such as the Ecclesiastical History and the Letter to Ecgberht. It will be shown, for example, that earlier commentaries such as On the Apocalypse and On Acts devote less attention to pastoral concerns than do such later works as On Ezra and Nehemiah , On the Tabernacle and On the Temple . Further, the earlier commentaries contain fewer topical comments on the social and religious demise of contemporary Northumbria than the later exegesis (especially On Ezra and Nehemiah ), comments whose substance and tone align this later work with the reform program of the Ecgberht letter. By considering these and other related issues, my analysis has a twofold aim: to provide a better sense of the overall shape and development of Bede’s commentaries, and to highlight the social investedness and intertextuality of his later writings as a whole.