Commentaria in Exodum
7. PRECIOUS STONES FOR THE ORNAMENT OF THE EPHOD.—In the Hebrew, stones of fillings, that is, of fullnesses, which, as the Chaldee says, fill up the engravings of the ephod and the rational, as a gem is wont to fill the bezel of a ring.
8. AND THEY SHALL MAKE ME A SANCTUARY,—namely the tabernacle, which is to be as a holy temple, in which sacred rites and sacrifices are performed to me; which is to be as my house, in which with the solemn and public worship of all I may be worshipped, sought and found.
9. ACCORDING TO ALL THE LIKENESS OF THE TABERNACLE WHICH I WILL SHEW THEE.—Hence and from the last verse it appears that God showed Moses on Mount Sinai the idea of the tabernacle, that he might build the tabernacle according to it.
Learn here how great reverence is due to temples and places dedicated to God. First, because God commanded Moses and Solomon to build and dedicate a temple to Him; and when it was burnt by the Babylonians, He ordered Aggeus and others to rebuild it: just as the Blessed Virgin willed that John the Patrician, in the time of Pope Liberius, should be made her heir, and a temple built on the place which she, on the fifth of August, when the heats at Rome are great, had covered with snow by a miracle, which is now called the church of St. Mary Major.
Secondly, because the temple is the house of God dwelling among men, as heaven is the house of God dwelling among the Angels and the Blessed. As we ought, then, to reverence God, so also His temple, and say: “I will sing praise to thee in the sight of the angels.” Whence the Psalmist says, Psalm 64:5: “Holy is thy temple, wonderful in justice.” And in this place God says: “They shall make me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in the midst of them.” In the temple, then, let us be as angels before God. Thirdly, because the temple is a house of prayer, and there God hears prayers. For this He promised to Solomon praying and dedicating the temple, 3 Kings 9.
Fourthly, because in temples an asylum is established for the guilty and the culprits. Hence Joiada the Pontiff forbade Athalia to be slain in the temple; but ordered her to be led out, 4 Kings 11:15. So also Banaias, about to slay Joab, bade him come forth from the tabernacle of the Lord, 3 Kings 2:30. So too St. Chrysostom defended Eutropius, who fled to the temple, from death.
Fifthly, because the temple is called a sanctuary: “Reverence my sanctuary, I am the Lord,” Lev. 19:30. Again, in Hebrew it is called heechal, that is, a basilica, an august palace, mighty and splendid, in which the Almighty dwells.
Sixthly, because God is the avenger of a polluted and violated temple. Hence He Himself says, Isaias 31:9: “The Lord said, whose fire is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem,” and Ezechiel and others say that against those who violate it His wrath leaps forth like fire, and burns them. So Christ drove out of the temple with a scourge them that sold and bought doves, and overthrew the tables, nor did He at other times show such zeal, saying: “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves,” Matt. 21:13; and Paul: “If any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy,” 1 Cor. 3:17.
Seventhly, because in the temple He set an oracle, and by the Pontiff gave responses, as appears here, verse 22. Whence Solomon, wondering, said: “Is it credible then that God should dwell with men upon earth? If heaven and the heavens of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built?”
Eighthly, because the Gentiles with great religion honoured their shrines and temples. For a temple to them was a place marked out by the augur either in heaven or on earth. Hence templum is said from tueri, that is, to behold, because from every side, or because from it every part can be beheld, as Donatus says. At first, however, they called heaven itself a temple, because we first behold it at the first glance. On earth any place consecrated for the sake of religious worship was called a temple. Again they called a temple a fanum, from fari (to speak), because in it Apollo, or another of their gods, when consulted, spoke and gave responses.
Ninthly, this appears from the examples of Saints and Kings. First, David says: “I will come into thy house, I will worship towards thy holy temple in thy fear,” and “we will adore in the place where his feet stood,” Psalm 131:7. Secondly, Jacob says of Bethel, Genesis 28:17: “How terrible is this place! this is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven.” Thirdly, Isaias chap. 2, verse 3, says:
“Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” Fourthly, Constantine the Great and St. Helena built very many most magnificent temples, at Rome as well as at Jerusalem and elsewhere: and Constantine himself, laying aside his diadem, and lying on the ground, pouring forth a flood of tears, took a spade and dug up the earth, and from it carried away twelve baskets of earth in honour of the twelve Apostles, and, the site of the basilica of the Prince of the Apostles being marked out, built a church of marvellous work, which St. Sylvester dedicated, the memory of which is now kept in the Church on the 18th of November. Fifthly, Theodosius, Charlemagne, Pulcheria, and other most Christian Emperors and Princes imitated Constantine in this. To omit others, hear Krantz, book 3 of the Metropolis, chap. 7: There was, he says, in the diocese of Minden a noble matron named Hilburgis, who, when her husband, who had gone to Palestine in fulfilment of a vow, she despaired would return from there, spent all her substance on building one monastery and nine churches. Not long after her husband returned, and she went to meet him to appease him, and after greeting him, said: “I have borne thee, in thy absence, nine daughters; but they are not yet born again in Christ.” The pious man understood that nine churches had been built, but not yet consecrated, and he held his wife’s deed as welcome and ratified.
Sixthly, St. Ambrose stood up for the temple of God even to death and martyrdom. For when the Arians, through the Arian Empress Justina, demanded that a church be given to them, and Justina had persuaded the Emperor Valentinian her son, Ambrose resisted him to his face, saying that the churches belong to the bishop. See him writing at length on this matter to his sister Marcellina.
So St. Chrysostom, when the Emperor demanded that he should grant to Gainas, the Arian general, one of the Catholic temples, he answered: “Promise not this to him, O Emperor, nor command that what is holy be given to dogs. For I will never suffer those who praise God with hymns by night and day to be driven out of the temple, and that given to those who utter blasphemies against Him” (1).
10. FRAME AN ARK OF SETIM WOOD.—Note, first: The ark was like a small chest, square, or rather rectangular. For the ark was a cubit and a half high, and a cubit and a half wide, and two cubits and a half long. Secondly, the ark was made of setim wood covered with gold, to the end that in it should be laid the tables of the Decalogue given by God to Moses. That these alone were laid in the ark appears from 3 Kings 8:9, and therefore the greatest religion and veneration was paid to the ark, and thence it is called the ark of the covenant, or testament, as I shall say on verse 16. And therefore the ark was placed in the Holy of Holies. For the ark was the glory of Israel: whence the wife of Phinees says, 1 Kings 4:21: “The glory is departed from Israel, because the ark of God is taken.” Again the ark is called the strength and beauty of Israel, Psalm 77:61: “And he delivered their strength into captivity, and their beauty into the hands of the enemy,” namely the ark into the hands of the Philistines. Thirdly, the ark lay open above; but above it had the propitiatory, as a cover, made not of setim wood but of solid gold. Fourthly, two Cherubim were above the propitiatory, so that by their wings spread out and joined, the ark was as it were the footstool of Him who sat there.
Fifthly, the ark was encircled above by a crown round about, of which I shall speak at verse 11; and on the sides on each hand it had two golden rings, through which were inserted two golden staves, by which the ark was carried by the priests on their shoulders when the camp was to be moved. Sixthly, the ark was set on the pavement of the Holy of Holies; yet it is likely that this pavement was spread with some covering; or rather this ark had its own feet, namely four little globes, or balls, at the four corners, on which it rested as on four wheels. For so it can be rendered from the Hebrew of verse 12. Whence the ark was as it were God’s two-horse car, or royal and triumphal chariot in heaven; so also Cyril, book 4 on John, chap. 28.