Bede, iconoclasm and the Temple of Solomon

Darby, Peter

Abstract

In Bede's lifetime (c. 673–735) the churches at Wearmouth-Jarrow were richly decorated with panel paintings from Rome. This essay examines the significance that those paintings held for Bede and his community, and it reveals the strategies that Bede employed to defend them in his commentary on the Temple of Solomon (De templo), which was written after images had become a contentious issue in Byzantium during the reign of Emperor Leo III (714–741). This has important implications for our understanding of Bede's place in the intellectual landscape of early-eighth-century Europe and it shows the ambitious nature and topical relevance of his mature exegetical programme.

Citation

Darby, P. (2013). Bede, iconoclasm and the Temple of Solomon. Early Medieval Europe, 21(4), https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12024

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Jan 30, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 30, 2015
• Journal: Early Medieval Europe
• Print ISSN: 0963-9462
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-0254
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 4
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12024
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1000898
• Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/emed.12024/abstract
• Additional Information: This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Darby, P. (2013), Bede, iconoclasm and the Temple of Solomon. Early Medieval Europe, 21: 390–421. doi: 10.1111/emed.12024, which has been published in final form at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/emed.12024/abstract