And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and its height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference.
All Commentaries on 1 Kings 7:23 Go To 1 Kings 7
Bede
AD 735
“He also made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, completely round.” This molten sea was made as a figure of the laver of salvation in which we are cleansed for the remission of our sins. For priests were washed in it, as the Chronicles assure us; but it is agreed that all the elect are called priests in a typological sense in the Scriptures since they are members of the high priest Jesus Christ. And rightly has Scripture given the name of sea to this vessel, in memory, that is, of the Red Sea in which once, through the destruction of the Egyptians and the deliverance of the people of God, the form of baptism was anticipated, as the apostle explains when he says, “that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all in Moses were baptized in the cloud and in the sea.” Now the sacrament of baptism both requires of us purity of life and promises us the glory of eternal life in the world to come, both of which things are denoted in this bronze sea in one sentence where it is said to be ten cubits from brim to brim. For by the Ten Commandments in the law the Lord expressed all that we must do. Likewise by the denarius he indicated the reward of good deeds when he foretold that it was to be given to those working in the vineyard. The reason why the sea was ten cubits from brim to brim was that the whole choir of the faithful from the first one baptized in the name of Jesus Christ to the last to believe and be baptized at the end of the world must enter on one and the same way of truth and hope for a common crown of righteousness from the Lord. It was completely circular in order to signify that the whole universe all the way around was to be cleansed in the laver of life from the filth of its sins.
In this regard the remark is well made that “its height was five cubits,” because, of course, whatever fault we have committed with the sense of sight or hearing or smell or taste or touch, all this the grace of God washes away from us through the ablution of the life-giving font. But the remission of past sins is not enough if one does not thereafter devote oneself to good works; otherwise, if the devil, after leaving a person, sees such a one to be lacking in good actions, he comes back in greater numbers and makes “the last state of that person worse than the first.”
Hence it is fittingly added, “And a line of thirty cubits compassed it all the way around.” For by the line can fittingly be meant the discipline of the heavenly precepts with which we are restrained from the indulgence of our passions since Scripture says that “a threefold cord is not easily broken.” [This is] because, of course, the observance of the commandments of God, which is established in the hearts of the elect by faith, hope and the love of an eternal reward, cannot be frustrated by any obstacle of temporal things. And the line encircles the sea when by works of piety we strive to enhance the sacrament of baptism that we have received. Now this line is aptly said to be three cubits long. For five times six make thirty. By the number six in which the Lord both made humankind when it did not exist and remade it when it had perished, our good actions are also rightly represented, and six is multiplied by five to make thirty, when we humbly subject all our bodily senses to divine things. However, there is also another sense in which we can quite appropriately take this number thirty as applying mystically to the sea. For three tens make thirty. And after the flood, from the issue of Noah’s three sons, the human race filled the whole expanse of the universe; for the tribe of Shem occupied Asia, Ham’s descendants occupied Africa, and the progeny of Japheth occupied Europe and the islands of the sea. And because, together with the performance of good works and the hope of heavenly rewards, the sacrament of baptism was to be administered to all the nations, it was fitting that a line of thirty cubits should encircle the sea, in which the water of baptism was prefigured. But it must also be said that the Lord at the age of thirty years came to the Jordan to be baptized by John. For since by his baptism that he received at the age of thirty he consecrated for us the water of the laver of salvation, it is right that a line should encircle the sea, which is a figure of our baptism, so that, by the gift of him who underwent baptism without sin, it might be signified that baptism was specifically given to all of us who believe in him for the remission of our sins.
