Commentaria in Exodum
In a like manner Solomon afterwards divided his temple into three parts: for the first part, corresponding to this court, was under the open sky, and was called the ulam, that is, the porch of Solomon, and was the place and temple of the people; the second part was properly called the temple, in Hebrew hechal, corresponding to the Holy Place, in which were the altar of incense, with the table and the candlestick; the third part, the innermost of all, was the debir, that is, the oracle, or the Holy of Holies. For a description of the whole tabernacle see Josephus, book III, chap. v, and Abulensis on chap. xxvii of this book, and Ribera, book I De Templo, the last chapter.
Receive now the tropology, appended and connected, of the whole tabernacle and of its several parts and vessels. This tabernacle with its court signified the Church and the faithful of Christ, 1 Timothy chap. III, verse 15, who through the veil of faith contemplate God on earth; in it Aaron, that is Christ the Lord, is the high priest. Thus, first, the court signified the rudiments of beginners, and the common life of Christians: hence in it was the altar of holocausts, which signified the slaying of the vices and mortification in the service of God; likewise the bronze laver, that is, the Sacrament of penance, of which ordinary Christians have the greatest need.
Secondly, the Holy Place signified the more perfect Christians; hence in it was the altar of incense, signifying continual prayer, the praise and contemplation of God; and the candlestick, signifying the teachers, who shine forth in the Church by their holy life and doctrine; and the table of the loaves of proposition, signifying those who are devoted to works of mercy. And for this reason the candlestick was on the right, the table on the left, because doctrine surpasses almsgiving, and teachers the almsgivers. Wisdom, therefore, as being spiritual, belongs to the right hand; temporal sustenance, however, to the table, on the left, according to that saying of Proverbs iii, verse 16: “In her left hand are riches and glory.” But the altar was in the middle, both because contemplation directs doctrine and almsgiving; and because the priest, to whom the altar belongs, is the mediator between God and the people; and because the priestly power is midway between temporal and spiritual wisdom, since through it both spiritual wisdom and temporal things are dispensed, says St. Thomas, I-II, Question CII, article 4, reply to 6. Where he adds also a physical, or rather mathematical, reason: that the candlestick, having seven branches, represented the seven planets, by which the whole world is illuminated, and therefore was placed on the southern side, because on that side lies for us the course of the planets; for the south is the right side of the world, the north the left, as is said in book II De Cælo, text 15. Again, others understand by the Holy Place the state of perfection and the religious life, and the three vows of religion, namely obedience by the altar, poverty by the table, chastity by the candlestick.
Thirdly, the Holy of Holies signifies heaven, that is, the Church triumphant: hence in it was the ark of the testament, that is, the company of the Blessed; and the golden propitiatory, that is, the glorified humanity of Christ; and finally the Cherubim, that is, the holy angels, among whom God in glory stands pre-eminent, sits enthroned and presides, and shows Himself to be clearly seen by all the Blessed, angels as well as men, in heaven, and so makes them blessed. Moreover, in the Holy of Holies is the urn with the manna, because in heaven is an abundance of divine sweetness, satiety and consolation. Finally, there is the rod of Aaron, which, dry, budded again and put forth leaves, flowers and fruits, because in the resurrection and heavenly glory the body shall rise again and shall be endowed with glory together with the soul, and shall bring forth four dowries, namely agility, subtlety, clarity and impassibility. So Bede on this chapter and others.
All these things can be applied in due proportion to any Christian and holy soul, which through penance, charity and other virtues becomes both the tabernacle and the temple of God. 1 Corinthians iii, verse 16: “Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” The like is in Ephesians chap. ii, verse 17; Romans viii, verse 9; on which see Origen, homily 9.
To this belongs what Philo says in his book De Cherubim:
“Even if,” he says, “the whole earth were suddenly to become gold, or something more precious than gold, and were then by the arts of craftsmen laid out in porticoes, vestibules, halls, courts and sacred buildings, it could not become so much as a footstool for the feet of God; yet the soul is a dwelling worthy of Him, provided it be fit.”
Wherefore St. Bernard praises Count Theobald, because he built for his religious monasteries and churches, in which the living and immortal temples of God, namely religious men, might dwell and serve God. The author of his Life is witness, book II. Isidore the monk, moreover, says: “It is better to restore with fitting care the bodies of sick believers, which we can more truly regard as temples of God, and for which money is sought, than to build temples of stone.” So Sozomen. Moved by a like reasoning, Acacius, Bishop of Amida, sold the gold and silver vessels of the Church, that he might redeem and feed the poor captives. So Socrates, book VII, chap. XXI.
So also St. Augustine, following St. Ambrose, “ordered the vessels of the Lord to be broken up and melted down for the sake of captives and a great many of the needy, and distributed to the needy,” says Possidius in the Life of St. Augustine, chap. XXIV.
This tabernacle of the soul, therefore, has at its entrance the laver of penance and the altar of mortification. In the Holy Place it has three precious vessels: the candlestick, the table, the altar of incense. For there are three evils in our desire that need these vessels: the darkness of ignorance, the hunger and want of saving food, and the pestilential fumes of foul thought and covetousness. The candlestick, that is wisdom, dispels this darkness; the table of loaves, namely the table of the Eucharist, of grace and of the influence of God, satisfies this hunger; the altar of incense, namely pious thought and prayer, consumes these pestilential fumes: and so from the Holy Place, that is from the Church, we pass into the Holy of Holies, that is, into heaven.
And for this reason, namely on account of the tropology given a little above, the churches of the Christians were in olden times so built in likeness to it that they bore the greatest resemblance to the tabernacle of Moses and the temple of Solomon: for they contained a porch, a court, the Holy Places, and finally the Holy of Holies; in the porch were those cast out of the church, and unbelievers; in the court were the penitents; in the Holy Place the people; in the Holy of Holies the priests, and there they offered sacrifices to God. Again, as in the temple of Solomon, so also in the churches of old there was a place for the women separate from the place of the men, and a deaconess presided over it. Finally, as there was a laver in the tabernacle and the temple, so also in the churches there was before the doors a laver, in which all the people about to enter the church washed their hands.
Secondly, this tabernacle can signify allegorically the body of Christ. For Christ and the Church are as one, because Christ is as the head and the soul of the Church. So Nyssen and Hugh, and it is gathered from John chap. I, verses 49 and 51, which St. Cyril beautifully pursues, book IV on John, chap. XXVIII, where he adapts to Christ both the tabernacle and all that was in the tabernacle. For although Christ is one, He nevertheless works and is conceived in many ways. Christ, says Cyril, is the tabernacle, by reason of the covering of flesh: Christ is the ark, having the law of God hidden within, inasmuch as He is the Word of the Father: Christ is the table, because He is to us food and life in the Eucharist: Christ is the candlestick, because He is the spiritual light of the soul: Christ is the altar of incense, because He is the odour of sweetness in sanctification: Christ is the altar of holocaust, because He is the victim immolated on the cross for the life of the whole world: and again He is the altar, because upon Christ and the merits of Christ we offer to God our prayers, vows and victims. The tabernacle, therefore, represented the body of Christ, both the natural, namely the humanity of Christ, and the mystical, which is the Church. Let us now run through the text and explain it.
4. AND THOU SHALT MAKE THE TABERNACLE THUS.—The tabernacle was made for this purpose, says Josephus, that it might be, as it were, a movable and portable temple, travelling with the Hebrews through the desert; and it was like a military tent, which could be taken apart and packed up when the camp had to be moved. The tabernacle, therefore, was as it were the house of God, in which the Hebrews worshipped God, and by it God in turn signified that He was to them a shelter and protector, Psalm XXVI, verse 5.
twisted double: that is, its threads are twisted two together, and so doubled; and that for this end, that it may be stronger: for this fine linen was the warp of the whole fabric, into which the scarlet, purple and hyacinth were to be woven as the woof.