Commentaria in Exodum
1. And take unto thee also Aaron thy brother, with his sons, from among the children of Israel, that they may minister to me in the priest’s office: Aaron, Nadab and Abiu, Eleazar and Ithamar. 2. And thou shalt make a holy vestment for Aaron thy brother, for glory and beauty. 3. And thou shalt speak to all the wise of heart, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s vestments, in which he being consecrated may minister to me. 4. And these shall be the garments that they shall make: A rational and an ephod, a tunic and a linen strait coat, a mitre and a girdle. They shall make the holy garments for thy brother Aaron, and for his sons, that they may do the office of priests unto me. 5. And they shall take gold, and violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine linen. 6. And they shall make the ephod of gold and violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen, by embroiderer’s work. 7. The two edges shall be joined one to the other at the top, that they may become one. 8. The very work also, and all the variety of the work shall be of gold, and violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen. 9. And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and shalt grave on them the names of the children of Israel: 10. Six names on one stone, and the other six on the other, according to the order of their nativity. 11. With the work of an engraver and the graving of a jeweller, thou shalt engrave them with the names of the children of Israel, set in gold, and compassed about. 12. And thou shalt put them in both sides of the ephod, a memorial for the children of Israel. And Aaron shall carry their names before the Lord upon both shoulders, for a remembrance. 13. Thou shalt make also hooks of gold, 14. And two little chains of the purest gold linked one to another, which thou shalt put into the hooks. 15. The rational also of judgment thou shalt make with embroidered work, according to the work of the ephod, of gold, violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen. 16. It shall be foursquare and doubled: it shall be the measure of a span, both in length and in breadth. 17. And thou shalt set in it four rows of stones: in the first row shall be a sardius, and a topaz, and an emerald: 18. In the second a carbuncle, a sapphire, and a jasper: 19. In the third a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst: 20. In the fourth a chrysolite, an onyx, and a beryl. They shall be set in gold, in their rows. 21. And they shall have the names of the children of Israel: twelve names shall they be engraved, each stone with the name of one according to the twelve tribes. 22. And thou shalt make on the rational chains linked one to another of the purest gold: 23. And two rings of gold, which thou shalt put on the two edges of the rational at the top: 24. And the golden chains thou shalt join to the rings that are in the edges thereof: 25. And the ends of the chains themselves thou shalt couple to two hooks on each side of the ephod which looketh towards the rational. 26. Thou shalt make also two golden rings, which thou shalt put on the tops of the rational, on the edges that are over against the ephod, and look backwards. 27. Moreover also two other golden rings, which are to be set on both sides of the ephod below, that look toward the face of the lower joining, that it may be fitted with the ephod, 28. And that the rational may be bound by its rings with the rings of the ephod, with a violet fillet, that the joining may be wrought artificially, and the rational and the ephod may not be loosed one from the other. 29. And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel upon his breast in the rational of judgment, when he shall go into the sanctuary, a memorial before the Lord for ever. 30. And thou shalt put in the rational of judgment, Doctrine and Truth, which shall be on Aaron’s breast, when he shall go in before the Lord: and he shall always bear the judgment of the children of Israel on his breast in the sight of the Lord. 31. And thou shalt make the tunic of the ephod all of violet: 32. In the midst above shall be a hole for the head, and a border woven round about it, as it is wont to be made in the outmost parts of garments, that it may not be easily broken. 33. And beneath at the feet of the same tunic, round about, thou shalt make as it were pomegranates, of violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, with little bells set between: 34. So that there shall be a golden bell and a pomegranate, and again another golden bell and a pomegranate. 35. And Aaron shall be vested with it in the office of the ministry, that the sound may be heard when he goeth in and cometh out of the sanctuary in the sight of the Lord, and that he may not die. 36. Thou shalt make also a plate of the purest gold: wherein thou shalt grave with engraver’s work, Holy to the Lord. 37. And thou shalt tie it with a violet fillet, and it shall be upon the mitre, 38. Over the forehead of the high priest: and Aaron shall bear the iniquities of those things which the children of Israel have offered and sanctified in all their gifts and offerings. And the plate shall be always on his forehead, that the Lord may be well pleased with them. 39. And thou shalt strait the tunic with fine linen, and thou shalt make a mitre of fine linen, and a girdle of embroiderer’s work. 40. And for Aaron’s sons thou shalt prepare linen tunics, and girdles, and tires for glory and beauty: 41. And thou shalt clothe with all these Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him. And thou shalt consecrate the hands of them all, and shalt sanctify them, that they may minister to me in the priest’s office. 42. Thou shalt make also linen breeches, to cover the flesh of their nakedness from the reins to the thighs: 43. And Aaron and his sons shall use them when they shall go into the tabernacle of the testimony, or when they approach to the altar to minister in the sanctuary: lest being guilty of iniquity they die. It shall be a law for ever to Aaron, and to his seed after him.
1. AND TAKE UNTO THEE ALSO AARON THY BROTHER, WITH HIS SONS.—In Hebrew: make thy brother approach to thee with his sons, namely that thou mayest consecrate them priests and clothe them with the priestly vestments. See here the divine calling of the Levitical priests to the ministries of God; and that none ought to presume such an office unless he is called by God, as Aaron was. The Innovators, stirred by a spirit of giddiness, thrust themselves into sacred things not at God’s call but of their own accord.
And that Moses ordains his brother priest, what else does it commend mystically, but that all who wish to be Aarons, that is, priests and doctors, ought to cleave to the meditation of the divine law (for this Moses the lawgiver represents) with such zeal and love that they may seem bound to it as by a kind of brotherly union?
Allegorically, Aaron was a type of Christ, who is the brother of Moses, because Christ and Moses, that is, the Old and New Testament, are likened to one another as brothers, agree and correspond.
2. AND THOU SHALT MAKE A HOLY VESTMENT.—Holy vestments, namely priestly ones; it is an enallage of number. Note: The vesture of the priests is called holy, because it was to be consecrated with oil, dedicated to the worship of God, removed from profane uses, and used only by the holy, that is, by priests sanctified, that is, consecrated, to God, in a holy place.
Moreover, the priestly vestments are here enumerated and described in inverse order: for the high priest was vested thus, as is plain from Levit. chap. 8. First he put on the breeches: over these he cast the linen tunic, and bound it with a girdle: over this he put the blue tunic, over which he girded the ephod with the rational by a second girdle: on his head he placed the tiara, to which was fastened the golden plate with this inscription: Holiness to the Lord.
FOR GLORY AND BEAUTY—of the priests and of the priestly offices, as in the New Testament priestly ornaments (let heretics murmur as they will) are rightly used in divine worship for the same reason. For, as Blessed Ivo of Chartres rightly argues, epist. 195, if in the old law the priest was so adorned, much more in the new law it behoved the priest to use sacred vestments for divine worship, and above all for consecrating the body and blood of the Lord: for this decency, fitness and natural reverence demand; and to do otherwise would be unseemly, profane, rustic and barbarous. There was, and is, another use also of these vestments, namely: First, that the priest might always bear the memory of the people, as though inscribed on his garments, and instantly pray the Lord for them. Secondly, that by them the priest might be admonished of justice and holiness, as well as of the doctrine and study of the law, and of his whole office. See Bede.
3. AND THOU SHALT SPEAK TO ALL THE WISE OF HEART, WHOM I HAVE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM, THAT THEY MAY MAKE AARON’S VESTMENTS.—The wise of heart are here called skilled craftsmen, namely tailors, embroiderers, jewellers, etc., as is plain chap. 36, verse 1. For wisdom and prudence are confounded among the Hebrews, and taken very widely, so as to signify even art and mechanical skill. These craftsmen were Beseleel and Ooliab, and their assistants, of whom chap. 35, verse 30.
For spirit in Hebrew is by metaphor attributed to any habit, action and vital thing, and almost connotes that the thing is received from elsewhere and inspired. So the spirit of meekness is meekness itself inspired by God, Galat. chap. 6, verse 1; the spirit of wisdom and understanding is wisdom and understanding itself, Ecclus. 15:5. So in Isaias chap. 11 the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost are called the spirit of counsel, of fortitude, of fear, of godliness, etc., that is, counsel, fortitude, fear, godliness given and inspired by the Holy Ghost. So St. Cyprian, book 1 Against the Jews, chap. 20; Hilary on Matth. chap. 15; Nazianzen, oration on Pentecost; Basil, Against Eunomius, serm. 5, chap. 14; Augustine, Against Faustus, book 12, chap. 15.
Moreover, “prudence” here signifies art. “By the spirit of prudence,” therefore, means by the art of making or fashioning these sacred vestments; which art is a natural gift of God, as are other arts; sometimes, however, it is a supernatural gift infused by God, as is sufficiently intimated to have happened here in chap. 35, verse 30, where it is said of Beseleel: “And (God) hath filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom and understanding, and knowledge in all manner of work, to devise whatsoever may be made of gold, and silver, and brass, and in cutting stones, and in carpentry, whatever can be skilfully invented, He hath given in his heart. Ooliab also,” etc.
4. A TUNIC,—namely the blue one, which in Hebrew is called meil, and in Latin absolutely “the tunic”; but another tunic was called ketonet tasbets, that is, a strait linen coat. So the Hebrews, the Chaldee and the Septuagint; for the Hebrew root sabats signifies to bind close: for this tunic, like an undergarment, fitted close to the body. Other Hebrews render tasbets a tunic of enclosure, in which, namely, the 12 gems were enclosed. Others, as St. Augustine testifies, render it a tunic with horns, that is, with curls. Others, an eyed tunic, that is, one adorned with embroidered eyes in Phrygian work. All these understand by this tunic the blue one, not the linen one: but while they depart from the ancients, they fall into many uncertainties.