Commentaria in Exodum
17. IN THE SIDES OF THE BOARDS THERE SHALL BE TWO NOTCHES, BY WHICH ONE BOARD MAY BE JOINED TO ANOTHER.—As if to say: Each board shall be hollowed out in two of its parts, that the neighbouring board may enter into them by a projecting part of itself, as it were by a hand, as the Hebrew has, and so be joined to it. These notches, or joints of the boards, signify the humble charity by which the Apostles and the Saints their followers are united and bound to one another. So Bede.
22 and 23. AND TOWARD THE WEST OF THE TABERNACLE THOU SHALT MAKE SIX BOARDS, AND AGAIN OTHER TWO, WHICH SHALL BE SET UP IN THE CORNERS BEHIND THE BACK OF THE TABERNACLE, eight boards, as is said in verse 25, yet so that six are whole, that is, of a cubit and a half, but the two remaining are only half a cubit wide: for since the breadth of the tabernacle was to be 10 cubits, and six boards would give only 9 cubits, there were added to those six two other smaller ones, one on each side, having half a cubit, that the tenth cubit of the breadth of the tabernacle might thus be completed by them; these are therefore said to be set up in the corners, because one touched the south side, the other the north: finally, they with the six others are said to have been behind the back of the tabernacle, that is, at the western side of the tabernacle, which covered the Holy of Holies: for the front and eastern part of the tabernacle had no boards, but lay open, because there was the entrance into the tabernacle.
Anagogically, these eight boards behind the Holy of Holies signify the eight beatitudes, which after this life will follow and fall to those who deserve them and pursue them here. So Rupert.
Mystically, the five bars are the five books of Moses.
24. AND THEY SHALL BE JOINED TOGETHER,—namely the six equal boards, and as it were twin sisters: for of the other two, smaller ones, he speaks a little later.
AND ONE JOINT SHALL HOLD THEM.—In Hebrew: and they shall all be perfect, that is, joined altogether equally at the head, that is, above, to one ring, that is, as though they were held by one ring; for they were not joined by a ring in truth, but by the notches, as I said in verse 17, as by rings, which our Interpreter clearly renders, “one joint shall hold them all.”
26. THOU SHALT MAKE ALSO BARS OF SETTIM WOOD, FIVE, TO HOLD TOGETHER THE BOARDS.—Here he treats of the bars, which on every side, that is on the triple side, were five each, to bind and hold the boards together; hence it follows that the bars were in all 15: for three times five make 15: fifteen, I say, whole and measured to the length or breadth of the boards; but each whole bar consisted of several parts, especially on both sides of the length of the tabernacle: for since the length was 30 cubits, a bar would have had to be of one piece of wood and likewise thirty cubits long, and bars or beams of so great a length can scarcely be found. One bar here, then, consisted of many parts, namely those which were on either side of the length, which was 30 cubits; these were each made up of six parts: for each part was 5 cubits, says Josephus. These parts, therefore, were joined to one another and inserted, the head of one into the hollow of another, as the bones in the human body are fastened to one another in the manner of a box, says Josephus.
28. WHICH SHALL BE PUT THROUGH THE MIDST OF THE BOARDS (not through the thickness itself of the boards, but across their backs; for on their backs were rings, through which these bars were put) FROM ONE END TO THE OTHER,—that is, from extremity to extremity. So the Hebrew, which has it thus: And each middle bar, supply shall go or pass, in the midst of the boards, passing from end to end; which our Interpreter clearly renders, “which shall be put through the midst of the boards from one end to the other.” The Septuagint, the Chaldee, Vatablus and others take this of another bar, a middle one, passing through the very thickness of the boards: so also our Interpreter understands it, chap. xxxvi, verse 33, where in the Hebrew are almost the same words as here, of which I shall speak there.
Allegorically, these five bars, made not for carrying but for holding the boards together and binding them, signified the Pentateuch, or the five books of Moses, by which both the Jews of old and Christians now in the present life are kindled to faith and virtue, and to the hope of the future reward. So Bede, book II, chap. vii.
31. THOU SHALT MAKE ALSO A VEIL.—Here is described the veil dividing the Sanctuary from the Holy of Holies, that is, dividing the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies; this veil was spread before the Holy of Holies, made of fine linen, scarlet, purple and hyacinth, and was hung upon four pillars made of gilded settim wood, which pillars had golden capitals and silver bases. Secondly, at what distance this veil was placed Scripture here passes over in silence; but if we may conjecture from the veil of the temple, which was built after the pattern of the tabernacle, the Holy of Holies occupied a third part of the tabernacle, so that this veil separated that third part from the rest; the Holy of Holies, therefore, was square on every side: for in length as in breadth it had ten cubits. Alluding to this, St. John, Apocalypse xxi, 16, speaking of the empyrean heaven signified by the Holy of Holies: “The city,” he says, “lieth in a foursquare.”
Mystically, this veil signified that we, who are here in the court and the Holy Place, that is in the Church militant, behold by faith and by enigmatic knowledge God and the good things to come, which are in the Holy of Holies, that is in heaven. Hence at the passion of Christ this veil was rent: because Christ by His death opened to us the entrance to heaven, and the clear vision of God.
St. Augustine, sermon 18 on John: “Walk,” he says, “by faith, that thou mayest come to hope; hope will not build up in the fatherland him whom faith does not console on the way.” The same again: “What is faith, but to believe what thou seest not? Whence and how is the Trinity grasped? Rightly, O man, dost thou ask; therefore it is well believed, because it is not quickly grasped: for if it were quickly grasped, there would be no need that it be believed, because it would be seen.” This is what the Apostle says, Hebrews xi, 1: “Now faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not.” Hence again St. Augustine, in the book De Trinit.: “Take away arguments,” he says, “where faith is sought; in its own schools let Dialectic now be silent: they believe fishermen, not Dialecticians.” And St. Bernard on the Canticle: “What,” he says, “would not faith find? It reaches the inaccessible, discovers the unknown, comprehends the immeasurable, apprehends the last things, and finally, in a manner, encloses eternity itself in its most vast bosom.”
Hence again the Apostle, Hebrews x, 20, understands by the veil the flesh of Christ, which veiled His divinity, and which, like a veil rent in the passion, laid open the way into heaven.
This veil was made of hyacinth, purple, fine linen and twice-dyed scarlet, in plumarium work, because the flesh of Christ was composed from the purple blood of the Virgin Mother of God, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, with a most beautiful variety of members. Hence Psalm cxxxviii, 15, where we have: “My substance in the lower parts of the earth,” the Hebrew is, I was painted with the needle, that is, as Pagninus explains, I was formed with various members, namely after the manner of a Phrygian garment; “in the lower parts of the earth,” that is, in the womb of the mother, as in a hidden and subterranean place. Campensis explains, “as a tapestry I was woven of sinews and veins in my mother’s womb.” The Psalmist speaks of the formation of any man, or of the embryo in the mother’s womb. If the body of any man is painted with the needle like a Phrygian garment, what shall we say of the body of Christ, whose embroiderer was the Holy Spirit? And what of the soul? What of the whole humanity? How beautiful in its variety of heavenly gifts does it shine, like a garment of silk or of gold! For the supreme Artificer painted in it, first, all sciences and truths: for the soul of Christ had a threefold knowledge, namely beatific, infused and acquired; secondly, all prudence and wisdom; thirdly, all virtues, natural, supernatural and theological; fourthly, all graces freely given; fifthly, every variety of glory, and all the endowments of glorious beatitude.