Bede

And Jonathan answered Saul: He earnestly requested me that he might go to Bethlehem, etc. It indeed seems strange according to the letter, why he should think and inquire about David in this manner, or Jonathan should respond, when the very obvious cause of royal jealousy had occurred, by which David should rightly seek his own safety, or even life: unless perhaps Saul ought to be supposed to have done or said many things under the frequent invasion of the demon, which, like those possessed, he was neither able to premeditate beforehand nor to remember afterward: and among these, also, the matter regarding David is believed to have occurred rather in the spirit of one enraged than one listening. Even Scripture seems to support this view, which, with David absent from Saul’s table, says that Saul did not reconsider the previously inflicted injury, but only thought that he might be unclean, either due to nocturnal sleep, or intercourse, or some touch of a funeral or something defiled, by which he would be kept from the company of the pure according to the edict of the law. Moreover, it supports what is written at the beginning of this entire reading: And the evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul (1 Samuel 19). However, whatever may be the case, the mystical sense is clear. For the dove-like simplicity of the chosen ones of Christ answered the ruling Synagogue that persecutes: Jesus Christ, whom you ask about, my God and Lord, earnestly requested me, that, by sending teachers for this very purpose and in every direction, I might bring Him into the heart of the New Testament of those rejoicing in grace, where there is no blood of victims, no Mosaic manna, but according to the order of Melchizedek, the living bread which came down from heaven is celebrated in a mystery. Hence the assembly of such people is most rightly called by the sacred name of Bethlehem, that is, house of bread. Let me go, he says, to such people, believing in the mystery of the same baptism, and also the companionship of your catholic peace. And what is first and last becomes fitting, the guardianship of the word by which they are catechized and perpetually confirmed is to be entrusted to them; for the solemn sacrifice is the very life of the converted in the city of our God, on his holy mountain (Ps. 47). The unity of my chosen ones, who are my brothers and coheirs by grace, beseeches me with frequent prayers that I may always deign to multiply their number with a new generation of believers. Now if you love me with all your heart, also allow me to make others future brothers of mine by visiting through you for this cause. Nor did he longer care to seek the typical table of the law with its own; nor in the Scripture, which you do not understand by reading carnally, do you find him who is to be sought spiritually.

But Saul, angry against Jonathan, etc. The elders of the Synagogue, angry against the assembly of spiritual people, call his mother the Church by the name of an adulteress, because she has nobly taken Christ instead of Moses, the bridegroom instead of the friend of the bridegroom, the Lord instead of the servant, to be governed. "Do we not know," they say, "that you love Jesus to your own confusion, and to the confusion of Christian doctrine?" Which is deservedly called disgraceful, because, carrying the sacred law, it gleefully abandons even the most august and widely glorified gathering of the temple, and prefers to gather its congregations in secret places despised. For as long as faith in Jesus is on earth, you will not be stable, nor will your kingdom. So now, send teachers, and even those who believe and confess Jesus Christ as God, let them rather listen to us, follow our teachings, because the assembly serving this name is the son of death. Indeed, these things were said by the perfidious; yet it turned out far otherwise than they complained, because those who, out of love for an earthly kingdom, were persecuting the citizens of heaven wandering on earth, lost both the earthly kingdom and the heavenly kingdom together: both of which they could have had if they preferred not to impiously drive away the one Lord of both by persecuting, but to piously receive by following.

And when the morning dawned, Jonathan came into the field, etc. When, after the teaching and glorious operation, even the exhibition of virtues began to rise like the third day of the Kalends in the Church, the harmonious society of spiritual teachers came, having left the table of literal observance for the fruitful liberty of grace, according to the disposition of the Lord Savior; and the chorus of humble listeners followed, to whom she herself instructing said: "See that you grow with the steps of good deeds, and understand that all the ministers of the word whom I disperse near or far are to be preserved in my catholic peace, and do not be disturbed by the seeming harsh outcome of anyone at present, although untimely death may snatch away, although a fierce Indian, although a savage and barbarous Scythian may separate by mutual theft, the integrity of all my state unites with one heart and soul, having granted the same reward of life in heaven. Or certainly gathering the boy saying thus, and bringing Jonathan the arrows he shot, recognizing the good disciples who diligently captured both the words and deeds of their masters, and these were to be piously and soberly referred back for the confirmation of the universal Church. And when the attentive listeners had persisted in saying and doing the word together, that dove-like unity of the saints, customarily called the Church, sent other teachers, who, progressing beyond the first listeners, even committed the word to the external towns of the nations. Therefore, humility of learners came, and to observe the deeds or teachings of those whom the wretched Church sent, for suddenly from the very mission a new voice of the fervent faith of the Church struck, which the humility of the lesser ones could not foresee, showing that they who would wound hearts healthily with the sharpness of the word like arrows, were to be destined among the nations; the first and prominent arrow struck the heart of Cornelius the centurion, expelling the deadly filth, wounding better to receive new life. And the Church cried out to its listeners still ignorant of the heavenly disposition; which is behind the boy, lest anyone delay to follow the path of virtue in the time of growing grace.

And when the boy had gone, David arose from his place, etc. When the disciples, obeying the command of their elders, went to compile the events of their times according to the writings of their predecessors, the grace of Christ appeared more abundantly, shining forth from the virtues of the saints, those, of course, who kept their hearts open to receive the gifts of the most fervent charity given by the Holy Spirit with humble submission. For this is the most splendid diversity of the growing Church, which the forty-fourth Psalm sings, so that some manifest Christ’s presence in themselves by shining with miracles; others, still intent on sacred writings, consider how the old and new harmonize with each other; others perform various services of the same faith; and still others embody what the following words signify, that divine love suddenly coming to earthly hearts provokes them with diligent contrition to adore more fervently the glory of the Holy Trinity; which our strong and desirable Lord Himself is said to do when He kindles His saints inwardly to act. As it is also said about the Holy Spirit: "The Spirit helps our infirmities (for we do not know how to pray as we ought), but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspeakable groanings" (Romans VIII); that is, He causes; this figure of speech is very common in sacred Scriptures, called "metonymy" by grammarians in Greek, that is, transnaming, while through the efficient the effect is intended to be understood. Just like the lawgiver's words: "The Lord your God tests you to know whether you love Him or not" (Deut. XIII); that is, to make it known. And they kissed each other and wept. Not in vain; for the more mutual love, which inward virtue nourished, sweetly incited those very holy youths to embraces and kisses, the more the everlasting separation, which they now saw impending for them, provoked them more sharply to tears and lamentations. But in the typological sense, it must be said that our Lord bestowed His holy gifts of His mouth on those believing in Him from among the Jews; for the non-believers and those expelling Him by persecution, He did not refuse to weep, saying: "If you too had known." For David and Jonathan kissing each other signifies the Lord bestowing to the Church the salutary gifts of His word, and the Church responding devoutly to the Lord with the same word’s confession or teaching. They weep together, and this signifies the Lord, in our flesh, shedding tears both for awakening the elect to life and for the reprobate remaining in eternal death; one proven in the resurrection of Lazarus, the other in seeing and lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem; and His saints even now, inspired by Him, mourn many who sin and have not cared to return to salvation through repentance. For the believers could not see without pain and sorrow the Lord Christ leaving their compatriots in unbelief to convert to the salvation of the Gentiles. They wept together, he said, but David even more; because whatever the Church works for either her growth, in which she rejoices, or her loss, in which she grieves, it is far less indeed in comparison to what God could do in the flesh for her.

Then Jonathan said to David: Go in peace, etc. However, the Lord rose from the midst of the unbelieving Synagogue, saying: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often I have wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing? Behold, your house is left to you desolate (Matthew 23); and He went to seek a Church for Himself from the Gentiles. But even the more perfect returned to the teachers in the primitive Church from the consideration of the aforementioned right hand of the Most High, to complete the new peaks of the city descending from God out of heaven. If the city, as seen above, is pleasing to be understood as the fortification of prophetic reading, from which it is said: And we have the more sure prophetic word, to which you do well to attend, as to a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the day star arises in your hearts (2 Peter 1); and it is very pleasing for the afflicted and sorrowful to enter this, so that under its protection each one may either more secretly indulge in tears or more wisely wipe away the tears.

And Achimelech was astonished, etc. The ancient chosen ones were astonished, and the modern ones are astonished too, whenever they receive the coming of the Lord's visitation with a simple mind. They are not only stunned by the majesty of His vision, but also disturbed by the rarity of those who desire to follow the grace of such great piety. For it is said: Why are you alone, and no one with you? As it is said elsewhere: My escape has perished, and there is no one who seeks my soul (Psalm 141). Though it is certain that during the time of the passion, many saints, although very few compared to the crowd of persecutors, lovingly sought the soul of Christ. But just as where it was not among them, of those whose snares are set for me, those who seek the soul of Christ (Psalm 34), so here there was none of those who expelled Christ who followed the faith of Christ. And elsewhere, when he says: All have turned aside, they have together become worthless; there is none who does good, not even one (Psalm 13). To show that he meant not all men entirely, but all of those who were to be spoken about, he added further and said: They devour my people as they devour bread: they do not call upon the Lord, they trembled with fear where there was no fear, because God is in the generation of the righteous. And in the Gospel the Lord says: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12). It is known that the same grain before the passion of its death had many faithful followers. But it is said to be alone without the company of those who were previously unbelievers who were to be called to faith through the same passion. Why then, he says, are you alone, and no one with you? Why are you alone, that is, with your faithful members, and none outside the predetermined number by the Father could be saved from such a multitude? This is said more with astonishment than for the chosen ones to speak by reasoning against proud counsel.

And David said to Achimelech the priest: "The king has commanded me a certain matter," etc. The Lord said to the apostles, the heirs of the everlasting kingdom and priesthood: "The people of persecutors and unbelievers commanded me, as much as possible, not to call them to faith by teaching. And he said, as it were, in my ears: Let no one know the reason for the envy and plots for which, having left me, you were sent to bring salvation to the nations, and what kind of deceitful commands overflowing with wicked hatred I strove to remove you from my borders." Similar to what the Psalmist said: "They have plotted to hide snares: they said, 'Who will see them?' (Psalm 63)?" When he saw, who even searched the kidneys and hearts of the plotters, God (Jer. 17). For he said, "I have separated the peoples of the nations who would believe and obey me in various parts of the world; to whom, I beseech you, if you have anything at hand of perfect work, use it as an example for conversion, or the food of the sacred law, which shines forth in the five books written by Moses, or whatever you can find from yourselves, diligently offer it for their salvation." Some boast either of the impunity of their lie or of the denigration of Scripture, claiming that David did not hesitate to seek his and his followers' salvation by lying. They should be answered that David himself elsewhere and many of the saints often offended God by sinning, indeed no living being is justified before Him, as the great apostle said, who deserved to recline in the bosom of his Creator and Lord due to his exceptional love: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1). However, the words of Holy Scripture were not given to us so that we might learn to sin by the examples of good people; but their sins were included in the sacred Scriptures so that we might be taught not to presume upon our own righteousness from their faults, but to trust in obtaining pardon for our own sins by their penance. Nevertheless, I believe it can be easily defended in this passage that the blessed David did not lie, but, given the necessity, concealed the truth in more cautious words. For he did not say the king was his friend, nor denied fleeing the king’s plots; but he said, "The king has commanded me a certain matter, and said: Let no one know the matter about which you are being sent by me." To this statement, such a sense can be applied without the stain of falsehood: "Therefore, I come alone and deserted by the company of others, because the king gave me such a command to flee quickly, which none of the enemies should know lest they betray my presence here." But if anyone desires to know about the necessity of lies or the constancy of a just man possibly requiring such a necessity, let him read the book of Saint Augustine on the eight kinds of lies, wonderfully and healthily moderated; and also the conferences of the Fathers, where Joseph, a distinguished figure amongst the Fathers, disputed excellently about not defining anything, also fully addressing this minor question. I have proposed only that this is enough to say briefly for the present. While truth should always be preferred to a lie without any doubt, sometimes, due to the circumstances, a lie might be usefully resorted to for a time, and the truth healthily hidden. Finally, did not Rahab the harlot, justified by works, receive the messengers and send them out another way? But she could not fulfill the merit of justification without temporarily assuming the aid of a lie. And Doeg the Edomite, whose present reading includes spying, and the following reading shows betrayal, deserved to be destroyed in the type of Judas Iscariot, to be plucked up, rooted out, and eradicated from the land of the living due to his evident knowledge of the truth.

And David answered the priest, and said to him: Indeed, if it concerns women, etc. He answered those sending forth the apostles to teach the nations: What God has purified, do not call common (Acts X). For the Church restrained itself with my present help from idolatry and other crimes, from the time when it emerged through confession from the hiding place of ancient blindness, until it came to the light of knowing the holy Trinity, which is God; and the hearts of the humble were holy through the renunciation of Satan. Moreover, this manner of life, which is lived among the nations, is polluted, not yet purified, sanctified, and justified by those being catechized through the fountain of regeneration and the grace of the Spirit; but the very light of present reconciliation will sanctify it in those who receive baptism with a devout heart. It should truly be noted, according to the letter, how cautiously and wisely David either questioned the priest, or responded to the priest about his own and his followers' purity. For he not only inquired if the boys could receive the holy bread if they were clean from women, but also examined if they were clean from all pollution, which typically happens to mortals, especially concerning the contamination of womanly coupling, as if investigating matters greater than others. For indeed, this is the greatest of those things which, though they do not make people guilty by fault, yet deter them from the touch of the saints through the impurity of any kind, for example, the touch of a dead body, or of a reptile. But David, not without discernment, examining himself and his followers, asserts that they abstained from the embrace of a wife, carefully explaining the duration of the same abstinence. He testifies that all the utensils of the boys are holy, that is, their weapons, clothes, and even the small vessels they carried for likely provisions were clean from the contamination of any filth. And because he knew that what was consecrated to divine ministries was not to be transferred to common use without great discernment, so that he would hide nothing of his state from the priest who was a steward of these things, he says only that the road by which they had come was polluted, evidently with some funerary object lying on it, or by being unclean itself. But he also says that today it will be sanctified in the vessels; that is, I do not believe that we could be defiled by the fact that we traveled a path containing something unclean, since we carefully preserved all our utensils and bodies from the touch of the same contamination.

For there was no bread there but that, etc. The apostles gave to those who believed, and were baptized from among the Gentiles, the word of the law and the prophets, sanctified by the grace of the Gospel. For there was no literal knowledge among the apostles and the disciples of the apostles, except only the prophetic books, which had been openly proposed to the ancient people for reading, and had recently been fulfilled by the Incarnation of the Lord, so that they were no longer held to be said, in order that the books of the New Testament might be written, to refresh the souls of priests, that is, those united to the eternal priest's members, warmed by the fire of the Holy Spirit. And it should be noted that David asked for bread, not five or twelve (for that was the number of the showbread), but it is said that he received sanctified bread singularly; just as he is remembered to have put five stones into his pouch, but struck down Goliath with one. There are five books containing the elements of legal doctrine. But, as the apostle says, the whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22; Mark 12). It can also rightly be understood that the sanctified bread is singularly named, either because of the unity of faith and love, but should be understood plurally due to either the various works of virtues or the multiple abundance of divine Scriptures by which we are instructed in virtues; just as what is written singularly in the Psalms: He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them (Psalm 77), there is no doubt that it must be understood in the plural, especially since the Lord in the Gospels, preferring mercy over sacrifice, affirms that the bread given to him must be understood in the plural (Matthew 9). Have you not read, he says, what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests (Luke 6)? Where, according to the interpretation in which we said that the Lord our Savior was figuratively shown in this reading as both priest and king, it must be understood as prefigured, that the priestly food, upon the coming of the Lord, was no longer to be given to Levi or the people of the children of Israel only, but to all the Gentiles who are to be called to faith. For it has been said to all who hunger for righteousness, who wish to belong to the company of the true David: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession (1 Peter 2). And because we have spoken about the mystery to the best of our ability, Josephus's statements (Antiquities 3, 13) also help to elucidate the plain sense of the letter more clearly regarding the showbread, which we thought should be briefly looked into and inserted into our treatise for the benefit of the readers. For, since the religion and status of Jerusalem and the temple were still standing in his times, he could very easily know and reveal to the readers what was carried out by the priests through hereditary succession, as he himself was a priest. He says, therefore, "they used to make them out of fine flour without leaven, twenty-four in number." And he adds: "They are baked two by two, split before the Sabbath, and on the Sabbath morning, they are placed on the sacred table, facing each other, with two golden dishes full of incense placed on top of them, which remain until the next Sabbath, when other loaves are brought in their place. Those loaves are then offered to the priests, and after the incense is burnt in the sacred fire, in which all holocausts are made, other incense is added to the other loaves."

Now there was there a man of the servants of Saul... and his name was Doeg, etc. There were among the preaching apostles false brothers, the foremost being Judas; indeed within the Church, constituted by the mystery of faith, but moved from the firmness of their stability, bloodthirsty to betray the peace of fraternity (for Doeg is called the Edomite, a bloodthirsty man), the most powerful of the Jewish persecutors, because he received it recently. Nor do I think it should be overlooked that this Doeg, according to the Septuagint interpreters, was not merely any shepherd, but a muleteer; evidently, a shepherd of a sterile and unfruitful flock. For we know a mule, because it is a hybrid from a mare and a donkey, just as conversely a hinny from a stallion and a she-donkey, tends to seek the pleasure of mating without the fruit of generating. Their works are similar to the unfruitful works of darkness, produced from a defiled seed, so to speak, of luxurious or deceitful thoughts. For both animals are equally lustful. Whence it is said of certain ones: "Whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is as the issue of horses" (Ezekiel 23). But the donkey's kind, moreover, with more acute sense, is always intent upon deceptions and snares. By these same wicked works, accumulating to a greater degree, with any movement itself from justice, and he is prompt to weave frauds against the just, he is placed in charge with impious zeal, as if feeding, Doeg the Edomite is preferred over the flock of mules.

And the priest said: Behold the sword of Goliath the Philistine, etc. The apostles said to Christ, teachers seeking against the kingdom of the world: Behold men accustomed to battle for the devil with perverse doctrines for a long time, whom you have overcome in the humility of the cross, are entangled in the trappings of the first transgression, far removed from the garments or ornaments of the priesthood, that is, works worthy of divine sight; if you wish to release them from these same trappings, and promote them to the rank of preaching truth, we know this is due to your power, not to our virtue or piety. For there is no mortal on earth who was not immediately subjected to the service of this kingdom upon being born, because the corrupted root, once defiled, could only produce branches of a corrupted progeny. And the Lord said: No one is better equipped to refute doctrines of vanity than those who were once imbued with them and accustomed to defend them against the Church: from their number, whom I already know to have been snatched from the hands of the devil, I will make teachers and bishops of the Church through teaching and baptizing. The title of Psalm 34 aptly recalls this choice, which reads: A Psalm of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed. For he changed his behavior by declaring a false reason for his journey and concealing the true one. This can be interpreted as the Lord changing his appearance before the apostles, either by appearing immortal after the glory of the resurrection, having previously been seen as mortal before the agony of the passion; or by commanding them to go and teach and baptize all nations (Matthew 28), whereas shortly before he had instructed them to preach only to Judea, avoiding the ways of the Gentiles and the cities of the Samaritans; but he sent them out to preach everywhere, himself cooperating and confirming the word by the accompanying signs (Mark 16), and he himself departed by the triumph of his ascension, returning to heaven. And in the same Psalm, the Lord himself testifies in the first part that he continuously blesses the Father, admonishing his meek ones—the apostles—to persevere with him in preaching his praise, who had delivered him from the tribulation of passion and death. In the second part, he declares the rewards for the faithful's conversion, especially encouraging them to the feast of that most sweet bread, which in the present reading he receives sanctified, to be shared with his own in the kingdom of the Father. In the third part, he admonishes his boys as if they were his children, from whom they should abstain from impurities when approaching this bread. In the fourth part, he says the just will be delivered from all tribulations, and the impious will suffer due punishments. These things have been briefly stated by way of summary, so that every reader may recognize how excellently and harmoniously Scripture always and everywhere concurs with itself. And if anyone wishes to object that the priest to whom David came was called Ahimelech, not Abimelech, we respond that he had two names, not according to our opinion, but according to the inscription of another Psalm, which states: When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said to him: David has come to the house of Abimelech (Psalm 52). And even by this name the glory of the saints is not improperly shown, for it means "My Father's kingdom." They are the ones of whom the Lord spoke the parable of the kingdom: A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive a kingdom for himself, and to return (Luke 19). That is, Christ the man, departing from the bosom of the Father, went to men who had distanced themselves from his grace by sinning, to make them worthy of his reign, and to return with them to the joys of eternal peace. And concerning whom the Apostle, preaching the glory of the resurrection, had said: Christ the firstfruits, then those who belong to Christ at his coming, then the end; he added and said: When he hands over the kingdom to God the Father (1 Corinthians 15), that is, when he leads those saints he redeemed to the vision of the Father to be glorified.