Numerous passages of the Book of Revelations, beginning with the prologue (Rev. 1), through letters to the seven Churches (Rev. 2-3), to the vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem (Rev. 21), accentuate the image of the Church as well as the role of God’s word and the issuing necessity to preach it. Those themes found their reflection in the Commentary on the Apocalypse, composed by Bede the Venerable in the first period of his erudite exegetical creative output. This article, in three subsequent stages presents the following themes: 1) the image of the Church; 2) proclamation of the word of God by the Church; 3) attributes and tasks of God’s word preachers.
PL
W przesłaniu Księgi Apokalipsy w różnych miejscach, rozpoczynając od prologu (Rev 1), poprzez listy do siedmiu Kościołów (Rev 2–3), aż po wizję Niebieskiego Jeruzalem (Rev 21) mocno wyakcentowany został obraz Kościoła oraz rola słowa Bożego, a w związku z tym – również konieczność jego głoszenia. Tematy te znalazły swoiste odzwierciedlenie w Komentarzu do Apokalipsy, który Beda Czcigodny skompilował już w pierwszym okresie swojej pełnej erudycji twórczości egzegetycznej. Niniejszy artykuł w trzech odsłonach ujmuje tematy: 1) obrazu Kościoła; 2) głoszenia przez Kościół słowa Bożego; 3) zadań u przymiotów głosicieli słowa.
Chociaż trudno się dopatrywać w epistolarium Pawłowym systematycznego wykładu na temat głoszenia, to jednak prawie z każdego jego pisma wybrzmiewa prawda wyrażona tak bardzo dobitnie na kartach Pierwszego Listu do Koryntian: „Nie posłał mnie Chrystus, abym chrzcił, lecz abym głosił Ewangelię” (1Kor 1,17). Z kolei w Liście do Rzymian Apostoł umieścił refleksję na temat źródła dynamizmu jego posługi ewangelizacyjnej oraz obrazowy opis tej posługi. Tak nakreślona tematyka jest zgłębiona w artykule poprzez: 1) zapoznanie się z terminologią, jakiej Apostoł używa w swoich listach w odniesieniu do głoszenia Ewangelii; 2) eksplorację refleksji Listu do Rzymian, dotyczącej dynamizmu Bożego działania poprzez Ewangelię; 3) przyjrzenie się wybranym obrazom, których św. Paweł używa w Liście do Rzymian dla opisania głoszenia prawdy Ewangelii.
EN
Although, it is difficult to discern a systematic lecture on proclamation in St. Paul’s epistles, almost each of his writings proclaims the truth expressed so clearly on the pages of the First Letter to the Corinthians: “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel” (1 Cor. 17). In turn, in the Letter to the Romans, the Apostle reflected on the sources of dynamism of his evangelizing ministry and provided a vivid description of this ministry. The above outlined subject matter of the article is expanded upon based on: 1) a review of the terminology used by the Apostle in his letters with reference to the proclamation of the Gospel; 2) an analysis of the reflection contained in the Letter to the Romans on the dynamism of God’s action through the Gospel; 3) a scrutiny of selected images used by St. Paul in the Letter to the Romans to describe the proclamation of the truth of the Gospel.
Although, among the works of St. Bede the Venerable there is none that would deal with the theory of evangelization in a systematic way, one has to admit that as a monk and a priest, St. Bede was deeply involved in the service of preaching the Word, and as a vir eruditissimus he left a literary legacy that could be helpful to all those who preach the Good News, both with respect to rhetoric and exegesis of the Holy Scripture. On the basis of St. Bede’s writings one can infer that he was concerned with propagation of the Gospel, with the lives of preachers and the effects of their activity. The present paper aims at a presentation of St. Bede’s thought concerning the principles of evangelization in the works which par excellence refer to the Divine Word and describe the word of life. The author draws from the exegetical works of St. Bede the Venerable a theological reflection on: 1) the attitudes and attributes of preachers; 2) the motivation for the service of preaching; 3) the goals of preaching the word.
In reflection dedicated to the relations between theological arguments and parenesis in St. Paul’s epistolarium, there is a general agreement as to the fact that ethical exhortations are usually motivated by the doctrinal passages of the letters of the Apostle Paul, or, that they are woven into the argumentative substance of a given letter. Without denying this fact, it seems that the relationship between the two parts of the letters can be described in a different way. Namely, due to the fact that their doctrinal part presents the image of Christ and His work of salvation, we can characterize soteriology as iconic. This is possible because its agens is itself an icon. In other words, Paul’s Christology is iconic because Christ is the ‘image of God’ and, consequently, His work present in the cross, the sign of salvation, is also iconic. Soteriology remains related to the ethical part of the letters and, because St. Paul in different ways encourages his recipients to follow and to be like Christ, it will be justified to define his parenesis as mimetic.
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