Bede: In Ezram et Neemiam

Bede’s commentary on the books of Ezra and Nehemiah is dedicated to Acca, bishop of Hexham, at whose urging it was written. The preface quotes Jerome’s summary of these books, which tell of the rebuilding of the temple and the walls of Jerusalem and list the priests, Levites and families of the returning exiles, and which, Jerome says, show one thing on the surface and hold another in the marrow. Bede sets out to remove the bark of the letter and find within the spiritual sense: Christ, his temple and his city, which is the Church. The work is divided into three books.

This was the first full Latin commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah, and it shows Bede applying allegorical exegesis to historical books that earlier Fathers had largely neglected. The rebuilding of Jerusalem after the exile becomes an image of the building of the Church and of the soul, but Bede also attends closely to the historical and textual details, as in his note that some priests and Levites remained in Babylon. Scholars have also read the work as reflecting his concern for the reform of the Northumbrian church.