Bede
PL 91, col. 16C
English
It befits the works of God that he should begin the adorning of the world from light: he who, being himself the true light and dwelling in light inaccessible, in the beholding of which the angels, newly created in the heaven of heavens, had already begun to rejoice, fittingly gave to this world too, for its adorning, the first grace of material light, so that there might be something from which the rest that he would create could appear.
Fresh draft (Claude), approved by Wilson Pruitt · cc-by
Latin
Congruit operibus Dei, ut mundi ornatum a luce incipiat: qui cum ipse sit lux vera, lucemque habitet inaccessibilem, cujus beatissima visione mox creati in coelis coelorum angeli jam perfrui coeperant, apte huic quoque saeculo ornando primam materialis gratiam lucis donavit, ut esset unde caetera quae crearet apparerent.
PL 91, col. 16C · pd
Notes
Bede does the thing that decides the crux for the whole Carolingian line, and does it in one sentence without argument: he distinguishes three lights — God who is the true light, the inaccessible light the angels were already enjoying in the heaven of heavens, and 'the first grace of material light' given to this world. The angels are on the page and are not the light; they were made earlier and elsewhere. Augustine's identification is not refuted here, it is quietly stepped around, and Alcuin, Rabanus and the Glossa all inherit the step.
A bodily light
Threads
- → contests · Augustine
Bede does not refute the angelic light; he steps round it, and the step is in one sentence. He names three lights — God who is the true light, the inaccessible light the angels already enjoyed in the heaven of heavens, and 'the first grace of material light' given to this world — so that the angels are on the page, already made, and are not the light. Alcuin, Rabanus and the Glossa's Bede gloss all inherit the step. - ← parallel · Bede
The same exposition a page later, asking the question a material light forces: where was it, since the abyss covered everything? Bede's answer, the upper parts of the earth, only makes sense because he has already declined to make the light angelic. - ← cites · Alcuin
'Congruit operibus Dei … ut esset unde caetera quae crearet apparerent' is Bede word for word, compressed into a schoolroom answer, with a luce aeterna added and the angels of the heaven of heavens dropped. - ← cites · Rabanus Maurus
Bede reproduced verbatim and unattributed, as at K1, K7 and K10; the only visible editorial act is the chapter heading Rabanus sets over it, 'Ubi lux primum fieri jubetur', which turns a continuous exposition into a lemma.