At the same time came to them Tattenai, governor on this side of the river, and Shethar-bozenai, and their companions, and said thus unto them, Who has commanded you to build this house, and to restore this wall?
All Commentaries on Ezra 5:3 Go To Ezra 5
Bede
AD 735
And after these a continual holocaust on the Kalends and on all the feasts of the Lord that were consecrated, and on all in which a voluntary offering was made to God. He calls a holocaust 'continual' that was offered morning and evening. By 'Kalends' he means the beginnings of the months, that is the appearance of the new moon from which the Hebrews always began the months inasmuch as they had no months except lunar ones. Hence instead of 'Kalends' the Greeks use the better word neomeniae, that is, new moons. Now if the months, by reason of the thirty days by which they are fulfilled, stand for the fullness of works of light whenever, in the faith of the Holy Trinity, we carry out the precepts of the Decalogue, what else do the beginnings of the months designate, in which the moon, in order that it might give light to us anew, is said to be newly kindled by the sun, except the start of each good work, a start that we perceive by the grace of our Creator as though by the presence of the sun of righteousness! To signify this divine illumination, without which we can neither begin nor complete any good thing, the Lord ordered that all the Kalends (that is, the beginnings of the months) be observed by carrying out ceremonies of animal sacrifices. Hence there is that saying of the psalmist: Blow on your trumpet at the beginning of the month, on the special day of your feast, which is to say openly: 'Rejoice in the Lord4 you who are righteous, and proclaim the word of instruction to your neighbors as soon as you consider that you have been thought worthy by him to do good work in the special light of his internal inspiration through which it is proper that you be called away from the lust of this world and devote your time to divine matters in a higher way'.
