[35] Contra Faustum, xxii. 1-5.
[36] Contra Faustum, xxii. 66-68.
[37] Augustine’s method in this twenty-second Book is first to consider the actual sinfulness or justification of these deeds, and afterwards to take up in succession their typological significance. So, for example, he discusses the blamefulness of Judah’s conduct with Tamar in par. 61-64 and its typology in 83-86.
[38] Contra Faustum, xxii. 87. St. Ambrose, in his Apologia Prophetae David, cap. iii. (Migne 14, col. 857), written some years before Augustine’s treatise against Faustus, finds Bathsheba to signify the “congregatio nationum quae non erat Christo legitimo quodam fidei copulata connubio.”
[39] Quaestiones in Vet. Testam. in Regum II. (Migne 83, col. 411). Isidore died A.D. 636 (ante, Chapter V.)
[40] Comment. in Libros IV. Regum, in lib. ii. cap. xi.; Migne, Pat. Lat. 109, col. 98 (written in 834). On Rabanus and Walafrid see ante, Chapter X.
[41] Glossa ordinaria, Lib. Regum, ii. cap. xi. (Migne 113, col. 571, 572).
[42] Comment. in Matthaeum (Migne 107, col. 734).
[43] Migne 114, col. 67.
[44] It was the way of Bede in his commentaries to speak briefly of the literal or historic meaning of the text, and then give the usual symbolical interpretations, paying special attention to the significance of the Old Testament narratives as types of the career of Christ (see e.g. the beginning of the Commentary on Exodus, Migne 92, col. 285 sqq.; and Prologue to the allegorical Commentary on Samuel, Migne 92, col. 501, 502). For example, in the opening of the First Book of Samuel, Elkanah is a type of Christ, and his two wives Peninnah and Hannah represent the Synagogue and the Church. When Samuel is born to Hannah he also is a type of Christ; and Bede says it need not astonish one that Hannah’s spouse and Hannah’s son should both be types of Christ, since the Mediator between God and man is at once the spouse and son of Holy Church: He is her spouse as He aids her with His confidence and hope and love, and her son when by grace He enters the hearts of those who believe and hope and love. In Samuelam, cap. iii. (Migne 91, col. 508). Bede’s monastic mind balked at the literal statement that Elkanah had two wives (see the Prologue, Migne 91, col. 499).