Commentaria in Exodum
24. AND SHALT MAKE TO IT A GOLDEN LEDGE:—“ledge,” that is, a border round about.
25. AND TO THE LEDGE ITSELF A POLISHED CROWN, FOUR FINGERS BROAD.—In the Hebrew: To the lip itself, or border, thou shalt make a fence, that is, another border which may close the limits of the table, that the loaves fall not off from it, and one part of which may close the other; which our Interpreter expresses by polished: for in polished work some parts are plain, others are carved with lathe-work, so that those which are plain surround them. This polished work, and this threefold border, or crown, Villalpando describes thus: If thou place, he says, a board four fingers thick, of which the two middle are drawn back toward the inside and made rougher by various engravings, it is polished work; but the other two fingers, namely one below, the other above, will be a cymatium to the board itself, which Vitruvius calls Lesbian work, when the polished border is girt on both sides, namely below and above, with a cymatium as with a crown.
AND OVER THAT ANOTHER LITTLE GOLDEN CROWN.—This was the third border of the table, set on the second, as the second was set on the first and lowest, and this for ornament rather than necessity. Our Interpreter calls this crown a little golden one, not as though it were not of pure gold (for the Hebrew calls it a golden crown), but because it was small, and therefore contained less gold than the others, as if to say, a little crown. Hence Ribera and others think the Scholastics took the name aureola, to signify by it certain accidental dowries of beatitude, which will be proper to Virgins, Martyrs and Doctors.
27. THAT THE STAVES MAY BE PUT THROUGH THEM.—It is likely that these staves were inserted in the rings and extended not along the length but along the breadth of the table, that the heavy table might be carried by four men on their shoulders; for otherwise, if these staves had extended along the length of the table, since the table was only one cubit wide, it could not conveniently have been put on the shoulders of two bearers on that side, whereas in the ark it was otherwise; for that was a cubit and a half wide. So Abulensis.
29. THOU SHALT PREPARE ALSO DISHES, AND BOWLS, CENSERS, AND CUPS, WHEREIN THE LIBATIONS ARE TO BE OFFERED, OF PURE GOLD.— saucers; the Septuagint, trublia, that is, paropsides, platters, or bowls, namely to receive and contain the fine flour, when it had to be offered; likewise to receive the sacrifices of the frying-pan and the oven, of which Levit. chap. 2.
BOWLS.—These are small and hollow vessels, known at the more noble banquets; in Hebrew they are called cappoth, from the curve of the hollow hand, which they imitate. The Septuagint render them mortaria; whence St. Jerome often calls them little mortars. These bowls were prepared to pour wine and other libations in the sacrifices; the cups were prepared for the same. These vessels allegorically signify the measure of preaching, that it be tempered and bestowed on each according to the capacity of his disposition and wit. Again St. Gregory, hom. 6 on the Gospels, by the bowls understands the more learned, by the cups the less learned and wise. “In the tabernacle,” he says, “not only bowls were made at the Lord’s command, but also cups. By the bowls, doubtless, abundant doctrine is signified, by the cups small and narrow knowledge. In the tabernacle of God, then, that is, in the Church, if you cannot minister bowls through the doctrine of wisdom, so far as you are able through the divine bounty, give to your neighbours cups of a good word. Draw others with you also, desire to have companions in the way of the Lord: if you are making for God, take care not to come to Him alone.” That is, he who cannot preach, let him catechize, hear confessions: if he cannot do this, let him console his neighbour, warn him, exhort him to confession, to alms, to virtue.
CENSERS,—namely to keep both the incense that was to be burnt, and the frankincense that was to be laid on the loaves of proposition, as is said Levit. chap. 24, verse 7. Our version elsewhere renders them bowls, the Septuagint libation-vessels, because, as it seems, by their hollowness they could serve both, namely to receive both incense and libation.
Note: These vessels were made to serve partly the altar of holocausts (in which these vessels could not conveniently or cleanly have been put away; whence they were laid up on this table), partly the altar of incense, namely that from these censers the priest might take incense into another censer, which he had filled with fire from the altar of holocausts, to burn incense in it on the altar of incense.
Thou wilt say: Exodus 37:16 says these vessels were made for the uses of the table.
I answer that there was a twofold use of the table, first, to contain the loaves of proposition; second, to be as a repository of clean vessels, and so to serve both altars, and for this use of the table these vessels are said to have been made, Exodus 37; not as though libation were made with them, or incense burnt, on the table. So Abulensis. These vessels in the tabernacle were few, whence all could be held on one table. But Solomon increased their number:
Mystically, the bowls are preachers, the cups catechists.
for he made a hundred bowls alone, and these of gold; and therefore as he made ten candlesticks, so also he made ten tables, five on the right, five on the left. Josephus, book 8 Antiq. chap. 3, says that these tables had golden bowls and cups to the number of twenty thousand, of silver forty thousand.
Villalpando answers otherwise, book 4 On the Temple, chap. 58, that these vessels served the table only; for by dishes are to be understood the golden bowls on which each loaf was laid; by censers, their covers, that the loaves might not be fouled by dust or flies. So also Vatablus by bowls understands the vessels in which frankincense was laid upon the loaves themselves; by cups the vessels in which wine was poured out for the loaves, of which Levit. 24:9. And so these vessels and this libation of the loaves were a type of the chalice and the libation of the blood of Christ with His body, under the appearance of bread, in the Eucharist: of which again I shall speak a little after. This answer is very probable, both because it better satisfies the words of Holy Scripture; and because the table was small and the loaves large, so that they seem to have covered it plainly; and because the other vessels could be laid up at the altar of holocausts, and elsewhere.
30. AND THOU SHALT SET UPON THE TABLE LOAVES OF PROPOSITION IN MY SIGHT ALWAYS.—Note “loaves of proposition,” namely those which are set forth, or placed, before the Lord, or before the ark and propitiatory, in which God shows Himself present: hence in Hebrew they are called lechem panim, that is, bread of the face, and the Septuagint call them in Greek artous enopious, that is, loaves of the face, which were placed before the face and sight of God, or, as the Septuagint have it, enopion tou Theou, that is, before God. The Jews wrongly think, therefore, that these loaves are called of faces because they had two faces, that is, surfaces, alike, namely an upper and a lower, as in our cakes and hosts; or because they had four corners, which they call faces. Of these loaves I shall say more on Levit. 24:5.
Note: As to the Mosaic candlestick there correspond in Christian temples candlesticks and lights, and especially the lamp lit before the Blessed Sacrament (for this is our Holy of Holies); and as to the altar of incense there correspond our censers, and the incensing in the sacrifice of the Mass: so to the table of the loaves of proposition there corresponds the table of the Holy Ghost, as they call it, which in churches on Sundays, in many places, is set forth full of loaves, to be distributed among the poor, and this from the ancient rite of the Church. For St. Paul, 1 Corinth. chap. 16, verse 2, commands that on the Lord’s day a collection of alms be made in the church, to be given to the poor.
31. THOU SHALT MAKE ALSO A CANDLESTICK OF BEATEN WORK OF THE PUREST GOLD.—Note first: This candlestick was one of the three which were in the Holy Place, and was at the right of the altar of incense. This candlestick was of beaten work, that is, produced and formed by hammering out of one talent of gold: for it was hollow and small, as were the table and the altar.
Secondly, the middle shaft of the candlestick had on each side three reeds, or branches, that is, six in all, which all with the shaft rose equally on high: hence the candlestick was seven-branched; and on the top both of the shaft and of each branch it had a lamp; it had, therefore, seven lamps. But all these were not inserted or attached, but of beaten work, that is, produced by hammering from one mass of gold and one talent.
Thirdly, the branches were adorned with a threefold, but the shaft with a fourfold, order of cups, bowls or balls, and lilies, succeeding each other alternately, three times in the branches, but four times in the shaft. For the shaft below the branches had one order of cups and bowls and lilies, as I shall say on verse 33.
Fourthly, these lamps lit the tabernacle or Holy Place, the altar of incense and the table of the loaves of proposition, but only by night, as I shall say more fully chap. 27, verse 21.
Fifthly, the candlestick had its snuffers, and also censers or vessels, in which what was snuffed off was extinguished.