Commentaria in Exodum
Chapter the Twenty-seventh
The altar of holocausts is described, with its vessels, grate and bars. Secondly, verse 9, the court of the tabernacle is described, with its pillars and the hangings by which it was enclosed round about. Thirdly, verse 20, the oil of the lamps and their lighting are described.
1. And thou shalt make also an altar of shittim wood, which shall be five cubits long, and as many broad, that is, foursquare, and three cubits high. 2. And the horns thereof shall come out of the corners: and thou shalt cover it with brass. 3. Thou shalt make also in its uses caldrons to receive the ashes, and tongs, and fleshhooks, and firepans: all the vessels thou shalt make of brass. 4. And a grate like a net of brass: and at the four corners of the net four rings of brass, 5. Which thou shalt put under the hearth of the altar: and the net shall be even to the midst of the altar. 6. Thou shalt make also for the altar two bars of shittim wood, which thou shalt cover with plates of brass: 7. And thou shalt draw them through the rings: and they shall be on both sides of the altar to carry it. 8. Thou shalt not make it solid, but hollow within, and empty, as it was shewn thee in the mount. 9. Thou shalt make also the court of the tabernacle, on the south side whereof towards the south there shall be hangings of twisted fine linen: a hundred cubits shall be the length of one side. 10. And twenty pillars with as many bases of brass, which shall have the heads with their engravings of silver. 11. In like manner on the north side in length there shall be hangings of a hundred cubits, twenty pillars, and as many bases of brass, and the heads of the pillars with their engravings of silver. 12. But in the breadth of the court, which looketh towards the west, there shall be hangings of fifty cubits, and ten pillars, and as many bases. 13. In that breadth also of the court, which looketh towards the east, there shall be fifty cubits. 14. In which fifteen cubits of hangings shall be appointed for one side, and three pillars, and as many bases. 15. And on the other side shall be hangings containing fifteen cubits, three pillars, and as many bases. 16. And in the entrance of the court shall be made a hanging of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen, in embroidered work: it shall have four pillars, with as many bases. 17. All the pillars of the court round about shall be plated with silver, with heads of silver, and bases of brass. 18. In length the court shall take a hundred cubits, in breadth fifty, the height shall be five cubits: and it shall be made of fine twisted linen, and shall have bases of brass. 19. All the vessels of the tabernacle for all uses and ceremonies, and the pins of it and of the court thou shalt make of brass. 20. Command the children of Israel that they bring thee the purest oil of the olives, and beaten with a pestle: that a lamp may burn always, 21. In the tabernacle of the testimony, without the veil that hangs before the testimony. And Aaron and his sons shall order it, that it may give light before the Lord until morning. It shall be a perpetual observance in their generations among the children of Israel.
1. THOU SHALT MAKE ALSO AN ALTAR OF SHITTIM WOOD.—Note:
Secondly, this altar was made of shittim wood, There was a twofold altar: one of incense, which was in the Holy Place, for burning incense to God upon it morning and evening; the other of holocausts, on which holocausts and all sacrifices were immolated and burned to God. Hence this altar was not in the tabernacle, but before it, placed in the court under the open sky, on account of the fire, the smoke and the odour of the victims.
and was covered with plates of brass within and without, that it might not be injured by the fire.
Thirdly, this altar was five cubits long, as many broad, and three high, that the priests might easily reach to the top of it. Solomon, however, made a greater altar in the temple; for, as is said in 2 Paralipomenon chap. iv: “He made also an altar of brass of twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and ten cubits in height.” Again, from the four corners of this brazen altar four brazen horns came forth, and stood out like an obelisk.
Fourthly, this altar was hollow within, but was filled up to its middle either with earth, as Abulensis and Richard will have it, or rather with rough and unhewn stone, as Ribera will have it: for so the Lord had commanded, Exodus chap. xx, verse 24; and that Moses and Solomon did so is plain from 1 Machabees chap. iv, verse 56. In this altar, therefore, three cubits high, the structure of stones rose to half, that is to a cubit and a half; then upon it was set the hearth of the grate, of which I shall presently speak; but round about it was enclosed with boards of settim covered with brass.
Fifthly, this altar had above a brazen grate, like a net, full of holes; This grating occupied the whole breadth and length of the altar at the top; it was therefore almost five cubits long and as many broad, for such was the length and breadth of the altar. On this grating the victims were laid, that they might be burned by the fire beneath in the altar (for it was hollow, as I have said), and their ashes fell through the openings beneath the altar. From this grating hung a little brazen hearth, or brazen brazier, inside, in the middle of the altar, that is, above the structure of stones of which I spoke a little before. In this little hearth, hung by small chains from the four horns of the altar, wood and fire were placed for burning the flesh that was laid upon the upper grating. Sixthly, it is likely that this altar had on its eastern side a window, through which the ashes were carried out and the wood was put upon the hearth or brazier; and for this and other uses it had tongs, flesh-hooks, caldrons, and receptacles for fire. So Bede, of whom more in his place, at verse 4. Seventhly, this altar had four brazen rings, through which two bars of setim wood, covered with brass, were inserted for carrying the altar. The grating of the altar itself also had as many rings and bars, distinct from the other rings and bars; for the grating was taken out and separated from the altar, that it might be carried apart. Eighthly, on this altar every day, morning and evening, a lamb was first sacrificed as a perpetual sacrifice, and then other victims, whether votive, or freely offered, or falling due by the law on account of a feast. Hence God sent fire from heaven, which He willed to be continually fed and kept alive on this altar by the priests with wood laid upon it, that it should never be extinguished, so that it might always be ready for burning the victims, Levit. chap. 6. Finally, see the figure of this altar set out in Villalpandus, book 4 on the Temple, chap. 75. Allegorically, this wooden altar signified the cross of Christ, on which, as on an altar, Christ was immolated; whence this altar was outside the tabernacle, in the court, because Christ suffered outside the camp, as the Apostle says, Heb. chap. 13, that is, outside Jerusalem.
Secondly, it was made of setim wood, because the cross, like the flesh of Christ, saw no corruption. Again, it is covered with brass, because the sounding brass signifies the preaching of the cross of Christ; it is also a symbol of the strength of the cross of Christ, which crushed all the powers of the devil, the world and sin.
Thirdly, it has four horns, because the cross of Christ was preached and spread abroad by the Apostles through the four quarters of the whole world: “Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth.”
Fourthly, this altar was hollow within, but set upon the earth or upon stone, because the cross of Christ was fixed and set upon the mount of Calvary.
Fifthly, the grating, upon which the flesh of the victim was burned with fire placed beneath, signifies the most bitter sorrows of Christ, by which on the cross for us Christ was scorched both with grief and with love, according to that of Psalm 101: “My bones are grown dry like fuel for the fire.” Which St. Jerome renders, my bones have wasted away like things fried; St. Augustine, my bones are fried as in a frying-pan; others, my bones are burnt up like a hearth or a firebrand.
Sixthly, on the eastern side of the altar there was a window through which wood and fuel for the fire were put into the little hearth, because from the eastern part, in which the earthly Paradise was situated, the sin of Adam came, which supplied matter and fuel to the sorrows and torments of Christ.
Seventhly, what the rings and bars are, I shall say in the tropological sense.
Eighthly, on this altar a lamb was sacrificed daily, because on the cross Christ was sacrificed, who is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world. On this altar a divine fire burns continually, because the charity of Christ on the cross was not extinguished, but rather, increased, blazed forth, and kindled all the Martyrs and the faithful to undergo the cross and death with Christ and for Christ.
Tropologically, the altar of holocaust is the heart of man, which by penance wears itself down, mortifies its vices, and sacrifices itself to God. This altar is in the court, because mortification must first be practised, and the restraint of the passions, before you can approach the altar of incense, which is in the Holy Place, that is, the love and union of God. Again, the fire with which the incense was kindled on the golden altar in the Holy Place was brought from the altar of holocaust, because the fervour and ardour of prayer flows from the continual mortification of the flesh and the passions. Wherefore he who gives himself to prayer and neglects mortification does the same as one who would burn spices without fire.