Commentaria in Exodum
OF DIVERSE WORK, WITH EMBROIDERY.—In Hebrew: “cherubim, the work of a skilful contriver shalt thou make them”; “cherubim,” that is, figured, and variegated with manifold thread and image.
Hence the Rabbis, and from them Pagninus, Ribera and others, think that cherubim in Hebrew is the same as painted, figured, just as the Cherubim above the ark were painted and fashioned. Hence St. Jerome, or whoever is the author, in the book De Nomin. Hebr., says that cherubim sometimes signifies nothing else than worked or embroidered painting. But in the preceding chapter, verse 18, Question V, I showed from the common consent of the Doctors that cherubim signifies a multitude of knowledge, art and skill: the work of cherubim, therefore, is a work of great art, genius and skill, such as are the works of embroiderers, painters, sculptors, etc.
Note: “The work of a skilful contriver” in Hebrew is that which in Greek is called ingenious, of much thought, skill and care: such as the Hebrews call the work of cherubim, and the Greeks polymiton, that is, many-threaded, from the many and various threads and colours; and by its inventors it is called Phrygian; and such it is, whether it be painted with the needle or woven with various insertions, as is done in our tapestries: for the Phrygians among the Gentiles invented this mode of weaving and variegation, and were the first to paint with the needle and to interweave garments with gold. Thus in these curtains of the tabernacle they wove into the fine linen, as into a warp, various threads, namely hyacinth, purple and scarlet. The same work is called plumarium, as though painted with feathers, or because it was varied and of many colours, as are the feathers of birds: although St. Augustine thinks plumarium is so called from pluma, that is, the needle, he says, with which golden threads are inserted into the cloth. These six, then, are the same, namely the work choseb, that is, of the contriver, polymiton, cherubim, polyphyton, Phrygian or Phrygionic, plumarium, which is called in Hebrew rekem, whence also the Italians call it recamato. Thus the plumarium work is not topiary work, as some have thought, but is a work variously painted or woven with the needle, which imitates pictures made of the feathers of birds of divers colours. For so the Mexicans most elegantly weave garments, caps, shields, images, etc., from the little feathers of parrots, flamingoes, and other birds of divers colours.
Sometimes, however, our Interpreter distinguishes the polymitarium from the plumarium or Phrygian work, and calls polymitarium that which is made by weaving, but plumarium or Phrygian that which paints and fashions with the needle in various ways, as is plain from chap. xxxvi, verse 23, and chap. XXXV. Prado and Alcazar add, on Apocalypse chap. IV, page 318, at the beginning (where they admit no other meaning of the word cherubim), that this work is called cherubim because images of Cherubim were truly depicted and woven in various colours on these curtains, as it is clear from 2 Paralipomenon chap. III, verses 7 and 14, that they were likewise depicted on the veil and the walls of the temple; and this to signify the trophies of victory which God the Bridegroom had brought back from the Egyptian war, when Pharaoh was drowned, for the sake of delivering His spouse, namely the Synagogue; that the spouse might bear them both on the variously embroidered mantle of the priests and in the tabernacle, as the insignia of her kingdom and priesthood, so that, beholding her robe and her tabernacle, she might be kindled to admiration and love of so valiant a leader and so loving a husband, namely God, most good and great. Josephus, however, says that in these curtains were woven not images of men or animals, but of plants, trees and other things.
9. TENTS.—that is, curtains stretched after the manner of a tent.
3. FIVE CURTAINS SHALL BE JOINED ONE TO ANOTHER.—As if to say: Of the ten curtains thou shalt join five and five, whether by sewing or in some other way, so that they may be like two great curtains, which again shall be coupled into one very great curtain by 50 loops; whence it comes about that, while the length of all the curtains remains the same, namely 28 cubits, the breadth along which they are fastened together is 40 cubits: for four times ten make 40: for each curtain of the ten was 4 cubits wide and 28 long. Hence it is easy to see how these 10 curtains were fitted to the tabernacle, and covered it all, except the eastern part where the entrance lay open, both above and on the three remaining sides. To make this clear, note first, that the tabernacle (that is, the boards of the tabernacle) was 30 cubits long from east to west, and ten cubits wide from south to north; secondly, that the boards of the tabernacle were ten cubits high on every side; thirdly, that these curtains joined together had 28 cubits of length and 40 of breadth, as I have said; now I say first: This veil of 10 curtains was disposed crosswise along its length, that is, it was stretched from the north side to the south side, so that it covered and overspread, like a roof, both of these sides and also the upper part, or opening, where these boards were separated from each other above in breadth. That it was so is plain: for these two sides, namely the north and the south, had each ten cubits of height, which together made 20 cubits, while the breadth above, as below, was 10 cubits. Therefore the whole space of these three sides, namely the height of the boards on either side and the breadth above, was 30 cubits, which the curtains, 28 cubits long, so covered that on either side, on this hand and on that, they were a cubit short of the ground, a cubit which they would have filled up to the ground if they had been not 28 but 30 cubits, as was the very space of the tabernacle.
I say secondly: This veil of ten curtains was spread out along the breadth from the east to the west. This is plain: for the length of the tabernacle, which was taken from east to west, was thirty cubits; and the height of the western side, as of the others, was 10 cubits, which, joined to the 30 cubits of length just mentioned, make 40 cubits, which is the number of the breadth of this veil: for this veil of 10 curtains joined together was 40 cubits wide, as I have said. Thus, therefore, all the sides of the tabernacle were covered by this veil, except the eastern side, where the entrance lay open. So Abulensis, Question IV.
The covering of goats’ hair, of which verse 7, was arranged in like manner; but because it consisted not of 10 but of 11 curtains, each of which had not 28 cubits of length, like the former, but 30, it came about that this covering, because of those 30 cubits, reached to the ground on either side; and on account of the eleventh curtain, the breadth of one curtain in front, and the breadth of another behind, had to be folded back, half of it each.
Tropologically: in the tabernacle, that is the Church, the ten curtains are the 10 precepts of charity, or of the Decalogue: they are five and five, because they suit equally the New and the Old Testament; in breadth they are 4 cubits, for charity extends itself to the 4 cardinal virtues; in length they are 28 cubits, a number which arises from four multiplied by seven (which is the number of the sabbath), and is a perfect composite number: for it alone is made up and completed by all its own aliquot parts; the charity of the divine law begets for us the longest and most perfect eternity. Hence also the 50 loops, hyacinth in colour, that is, of heavenly hue, signify the hope of heavenly things and of the heavenly jubilee, in which we shall have the fullest freedom and joy; the golden rings signify perpetual brightness and the bright charity, or mutual love, of the Saints. See Bede, book II De Tabern., chap. ii.
St. Gregory takes it otherwise, homily 19 on Ezekiel: “The curtains of the tabernacle,” he says, “are all the Saints, who by the diverse colours of the virtues advance in the adornment of holy Church. They both veil the inner things and in every way adorn the outer; because their life, so far as it is seen, is an adornment, and their understanding, hidden within, while they cannot utter the heavenly things which they keep in the mind, is in some manner veiled in them. Rightly are there ten curtains, because by zeal for the Decalogue the hearts of the Saints themselves have advanced. The hyacinth loops that were to be made on the curtains are the fifty precepts. Hyacinth has the aspect of heaven. The loops of the curtains, therefore, are the heavenly precepts, in which souls are bound, that, lifted up from lower things, they may hang on high. These loops have also golden rings, that is, an understanding shining with true wisdom. And because this understanding ought to be circumspect in all things, and fortified by the watchfulness of so great a solicitude, it is rightly designated by rings. And it is to be noted that the loops, or rings, are commanded to be made on the curtains at the side and at the top, because the heavenly precepts and spiritual understanding ought not only to suspend us on high in the love of God, but also to join us to our neighbour in charity. For in that we love our Maker, we hang in the air, as it were, by the upper loops; but in that we love our neighbours as ourselves, we have loops and rings at the side, that the curtains of the tabernacle, that is, the souls of the faithful, may be joined together by charity and not divided by discord.”