Commentaria in Exodum
AND A LILY.—Philo, in the book Who is the Heir of Divine Things, after the middle, relates that these lilies were at the top of the branches, and that the lamp was set on these lilies. See the appearance of these in the pattern and picture of the candlestick skilfully executed in Villalpando, p. 388. Finally, as is said in verse 34, all these were “proceeding from it;” for from the trunk or shaft of the candlestick all things were drawn and fashioned with the hammer; and no parts made elsewhere were encrusted on it. The order was this: on the branches first was an almond-shaped cup; second, a ball or little globe; last, a lily, after which followed a continuous part of the branch; after this again a cup, then a ball, thirdly a lily, and consequently again a continuous part of the branch; after it a third time returned a cup, ball and lily; and finally at the top was the lamp or vessel to receive the oil. See Abulensis, Quest. 29. But Villalpando, book 4 On the Temple, chap. 60, sets down another order: for he thinks that the lily was inserted everywhere between the cup and the ball. This would be neater and more convenient for the disposition of the cups, lilies and balls in the shaft itself, so that it would be uniform and equal with the branches, were it not that this order inverts the order which Holy Scripture gives; for it puts first the cup, second the ball, third the lily.
34. AND IN THE CANDLESTICK ITSELF,—in the shaft itself or trunk of the candlestick, from which the branches proceed, there shall be four orders of cups, balls and lilies.
35. AND BOWLS UNDER TWO BRANCHES IN THREE PLACES, WHICH (the branches) TOGETHER MAKE SIX, PROCEEDING FROM ONE SHAFT,—as if to say: In the shaft there shall be three places, from which three orders of two branches shall spring, and under each place and order of two branches there shall be a ball, so that after each ball one order of branches follows. That thou mayest see this clearly, behold this was the order of the four cups, balls and lilies in the shaft itself: below and at the foot of the shaft was the first cup, and then the first ball; after this two very long branches ascended on either side, that they might be equalled to the others, which, being higher up, were therefore shorter, and this that the work might be equal, as is said chap. 37, verse 19. After these first two lowest branches, ascending in the shaft, followed the first lily, after this the second cup, and the second ball; after this ball followed the two middle branches, one on one side, the other on the other. After these was the second lily, after this the third cup with the third ball, after which the two last and shortest branches. After these the third lily, and finally the fourth cup, the fourth ball, and the fourth lily, with the lamp at the top.
Tropologically, after the balls follows a branch, because the holy teacher is a ball, that is, round and of equal state and countenance always in joy and sorrow; whence like a branch he is lifted on high, to shine before others.
37. TO GIVE LIGHT OVER AGAINST,—toward the table of the loaves of proposition, which was on the opposite side, namely the northern, of the tabernacle: for this table was the table of God, at which God as it were supped; at a supper by night a candle or lamp is set to light the table, that those who eat may see what they eat.
38. WHERE THE THINGS THAT ARE SNUFFED OUT MAY BE EXTINGUISHED,—namely vessels which receive the sparks of the snuffed wicks, that they may be extinguished there, lest scattered through that tabernacle they soil it and taint it with a bad smell. The Chaldee calls these vessels censers.
39. THE WHOLE WEIGHT OF THE CANDLESTICK, etc., SHALL HAVE A TALENT OF GOLD.—The talent, says Josephus, book 3, chap. 7, was of the weight of 100 minas; which Ribera understands of the Hebrew mina, which contained sixty shekels, Ezech. 45:12, that is 240 drachmas, whereas the Attic talent of 60 minas contained only a hundred drachmas. The Hebrew talent by this reckoning would have contained six thousand shekels, that is, twenty-four thousand aurei. But on chap. 38, verse 25, I shall show that the Hebrew talent contained only three thousand shekels; and since the shekel, as I shall say on chap. 30, verse 13, contained 4 Attic drachmas, that is, 4 aurei, it follows that the Hebrew talent, containing three thousand shekels, weighed and was worth twelve thousand aurei: I speak of the talent of gold; for the talent of silver was of equal weight, but of unequal price, as is plain. A candlestick could be made of a talent, because it was small and hollow, to signify the inner Spirit of God, who insinuates Himself most intimately to the Church and her Doctors.
40. LOOK, AND MAKE IT ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN THAT WAS SHEWN THEE ON THE MOUNT.—“Make it according to the pattern,” the Hebrew adds of them, namely of the candlestick and tabernacle with its vessels, which is described to thee in these 40 days on Mount Sinai by the living voice of God, and at the same time set before thee to be looked at in some sensible idea. That these words are to be taken literally of that type of the old tabernacle, St. Stephen teaches, Acts 7:44; and it is plain from the promise which God here made to Moses, verse 9. Secondly, from the Apostle, Hebr. 8:5, it seems clear that here also an anagogical pattern was shown by God, namely heavenly things and the spiritual tabernacle, which was signified by this material one, as though Moses is here commanded to make his material tabernacle according to this, namely that it may correspond to that spiritual one as its antitype, and aptly signify and represent it; although Scripture does not here explain those heavenly and spiritual things. So Bede thinks here. Hence St. Justin, Exhortation to the Gentiles, before the end, thinks that Plato took from this place of Moses his opinion of the ideas.
Tropologically, St. Gregory in book 1 on Kings chap. 10: This is, he says, the form of chosen obedience, that in all we do outwardly, we look to the power of the Creator and His wisdom, as to an idea everywhere present. Again, look at the pattern of obedience, patience, fortitude, charity, humility, contempt of the world, and of all the virtues, which was shown thee by Christ on the mount of Calvary, and which Moses foreshadowed by his altar of holocausts and of incense, and by the tabernacle, sacred vestments and victims, and express and imitate it; so shalt thou build to God in thy soul a tabernacle adorned and perfected with all virtues. For, as St. Augustine says, book On True Religion, chap. 16: “The whole life of Christ was a discipline of morals. The followers of pleasures eagerly sought ruinous riches: He willed to be poor. They gaped after honours and empires: He would not be made king. They thought their carnal children a great good: He despised such marriage and offspring. They most proudly shrank from insults: He endured every kind of insult. They thought injuries intolerable: what greater injury than that the just and innocent should be condemned? They loathed bodily pains: He was scourged and tortured. They feared to die: He was punished with death. They thought the cross the most ignominious kind of death: He was crucified. All the things which we, desiring to have, did not live aright, He made cheap by lacking them; all the things which, desiring to avoid, we turned aside from the pursuit of truth, He cast down by suffering them.”
This pattern of Christ crucified St. Francis assiduously looked upon not only in mind, but in body received His sacred stigmata divinely impressed. Hear St. Bonaventure in his Life, book 1, chap. 13: “There had grown up in him,” he says, “an insuperable fire of love for the good Jesus, into lamps of fire and flames. While then his desire was borne upward to God with seraphic ardours, and by compassionate sweetness he was transformed into Him who out of exceeding charity willed to be crucified, one morning about the feast of the Exaltation of the holy Cross, as he prayed on the side of the mountain, he saw a Seraph having six wings, as fiery as they were shining, descending from heaven. And when he had come in swiftest flight to a place in the air near the man of God, there appeared between the wings the figure of a man crucified, having his hands and feet stretched out after the manner of a cross and fastened to the cross. Two wings were raised above his head, two were extended for flying, and two covered the whole body. Seeing this he was exceedingly astonished, and joy mingled with sorrow ran through his heart.” And a little after: “He understood at length from this, the Lord revealing it, that he was to be wholly transformed into the likeness of Christ crucified, not by the martyrdom of the flesh, but by the burning of the mind. The vision, therefore, disappearing, left in his heart a wonderful ardour; but in his flesh also it impressed no less wonderful an image of the signs. For at once there began to appear in his hands and feet the marks of nails, as he had a little before beheld in that figure of the crucified man: for the hands and feet seemed pierced through the middle by nails; and the right side, as if transfixed by a lance, was covered with a red scar, which often poured out sacred blood, and sprinkled his tunic and breeches.”
Finally St. Bernard, tract On the Solitary Life: The house of the beauty of God, he says, is to be built by each one, which is shown to him in the height of the mind and in pious meditation, as in an idea, that he may build according to the form of poverty, not houses to dwell in but tabernacles to be left, that so he may excite in himself contempt of all exterior things, and love of the interior and heavenly.