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Explanation of the Apocalypse (Commentary on Revelation)
St Bede, tr. Marshall, 1878
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P. 3, note d, and p. 8. It is not certain that the Exposition of the Apocalypse by Tichonius, which Beda made use of, has been preserved. There are nineteen Homilies, entitled, Expositio in Apocalypsim B. Johannis, in the Appendix to the third volume of the Benedictine edition of St. Augustine, col. 159—182, which have been commonly supposed to be his. But this is questioned by the editors (c. 159). They were assigned to St. Augustine in the earlier editions of his works.
P. 16, note n, “Lebani,” cor. “Libani.”
P. 33, note k. It appears from the Exposition of Primasius that it was largely made use of by Beda. Primasius was Bishop of Adrumetum, in Africa, and flourished A.D. 550; about a hundred and sixty years later than Tichonius, who was a contemporary of St. Augustine, and whose date is circ. A.D. 390.
P. 34. The editions of Beda have “Duo assignantes,” a manifest error for “Dño,” or “Deo,” as it is in Primasius, from whose Exposition the sentence is taken.
P. 80, note c, פז, cor. פז.
P. 87, ch. xiii. 1, “this world,” or rather “age,” as seculum is elsewhere commonly translated.
P. 100, ch. xiv. 9, “As it were slain.” The editions of Beda, Basil. 1563, and Col. Agr. 1612, have “caput vetuli occisum,” and Migne’s, Par. 1850, 51, has “vituli.” It is conjectured that the reading may be “veluti,” which is in accordance with ch. xiii. 3.
P. 112, ch. xvi. 12. The punctuation of Dr. Giles’ and the old editions, which connects “passes over” with “his accustomed manner,” has been altered to make sense of the passage. It is confirmed by a reference to Tichonius (?), in St. Aug.: Opp., tom. iii. col. 174 c, Append.
P. 132, ch. xviii. 19, “deceitful world,” rather, “age.” See above, on p. 87, ch. xiii. 1.
P. 136, ch. xx. 3, “more grievously,” rather, “with more pleasure.”
P. 143, ch. xxi. 1. The remarks as to the sea are from St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, bk. xx. ch. 16.
P. 157, l. 27, “Topazion.” Pliny describes the supposed site of this island, as stated by Juba, to be in the Red Sea, at a distance of three hundred stadia from the mainland. Nat. Hist., bk. xxxvii. ch. 8.
P. 162, note m. Oecumenius was Bishop of Tricca, in Thessaly, probably in the tenth century. Arethas was Bishop of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, in the tenth century. Andreas was earlier, and most probably was Bishop of Caesarea in the sixth or seventh century.
P. 165, ch. xxii. 2, “in the golden Jerusalem;” “in aurea Hierusalem,” Beda. Compare Bernard de Morlaix, circ. A.D. 1150, De contemptu mundi, p. 43, ed. J. M. Neale, Lond. Hayes, 1862, p. 43:—
Urbs Syon aurea, patria lactea, cive decora.
“Jerusalem the golden,
With milk and honey blest!”—p. 27.
and p. 46:—
O mea, spes mea, tu Syon aurea, clarior auro.
“O mine, my golden Syon!
O lovelier far than gold!”—p. 33.
Note
Page 148, line 17, “the attire of wisdom,” or “for the religious service (cultus) of wisdom.”
The expression is adopted by Beda, with some alteration, from Primasius.