Commentaria in Exodum
29. AND AARON SHALL BEAR THE NAMES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL IN THE RATIONAL OF JUDGMENT UPON HIS BREAST.—In the Hebrew, upon his heart, but heart in Hebrew also signifies breast. The high priest is commanded, then, as before, verse 12, to bear on his shoulders, so now on his breast the names of the tribes of Israel engraved in the rational, that he may be admonished of the salvation of the souls committed to him, and may bear them not only on his shoulders, but cherish them in the inmost bosom of his heart by his care and prayer. See the writer who teaches that the office of a Bishop consists in two things, namely that in all his acts he seek nothing else but, first, the glory of God; secondly, the salvation of his people: “Doing this,” he says, “the pontiff will fulfil not only the office of pontiff but the etymology of the name, making himself a bridge between God and neighbour. This bridge reaches to God with that confidence by which he seeks not his own glory but God’s; it reaches to the neighbour with that piety by which he desires to profit him, not himself.” Whence it is added: “A memorial before the Lord,” that is, for a remembrance or monument, that he may bear the twelve tribes on his breast before the Lord, and that “for ever,” that is, always, namely when and as often as he is about to enter the Sanctuary.
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.—For doctrine and truth the Hebrew is urim and thummim. Some (whom Cardinal Bellarmine favours, book 4, chap. 3 On the Pontiff) derive urim from the root sara, that is, to teach, because our version renders urim doctrine; and thummim they derive from aman, that is, he believed, because our version renders thummim truth; for truth is the object of faith and of our assent; others derive urim from the root or, that is, light, so that urim is the same as lights or illuminations; and thummim from the root tamam, that is, he perfected, completed, so that thummim is the same as integrities or perfections; urim and thummim, then, are the same as illumination and integrity; or, as our version renders, regarding the sense rather than the words, doctrine and truth: for by enallage in the Hebrew urim is put in the plural for the singular, for emphasis.
The question here is a very grave one, what urim and thummim, that is, doctrine and truth, were in the rational. First, Rabbi Solomon and the Jews answer that it was the four-lettered name; for this includes the mystery of the Trinity and of the Incarnation of the Word, as I said chap. 6, verse 3, by which the mind is illuminated and perfected.
Secondly, Cyril, in Collect. chap. 24, thinks that this was not anything made by art: otherwise Scripture would say how they were constructed; but that it was a spiritual knowledge, which entered the heart of the priest when he put the rational on his breast. So also Origen: “How,” he says, “could a woman or a weaver weave doctrine and truth? It is wisdom, therefore, that makes both.”
Thirdly, Hugo thinks that these were characters inscribed on the rational by various letters, which letters, when the high priest had cast or mingled them, were so combined by the will of God as to signify that about which the priest was consulting God, namely what was to be done or avoided in war or any other matter.
Fourthly, Arias Montanus thinks that these were two most bright stones, immediately produced by God and given by Him to Moses. So nearly also Procopius on Deuteron. 31: “Among the twelve stones placed in the pectoral,” he says, “were clearness and truth, represented by two other stones.” To this may be referred the opinion of Anastasius of Nicaea, Question 38 on Holy Scripture, who thinks that urim and thummim were a diamond, which, when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies, if the people were defiled by sin, turned black; if God had decreed to punish them, became blood-coloured; if they had not sinned, grew white as snow, and in the time of Zachary the father of St. John the Baptist shone remarkably.
Fifthly, Oleaster thinks that the twelve gems of the rational are called urim and thummim, that is, illuminations and perfections, because they were most lucid and most perfect; for the Hebrews often put abstract for concrete terms. Christopher a Castro, in the place to be cited presently, adds that on these stones God wrote His response and oracle in express letters, or painted it on them by figure and image, as in the town of Santarem in Portugal Christ is seen in transparent crystal by a continual miracle, according to the devotion of each, now a tender child, now twelve years old, now thirty, now crucified, now a stern judge.
Sixthly, Christopher a Castro, Comment. on the Minor Prophets, book 3, chap. 3, Prolegom., holds that urim and thummim were teraphim. For in Osee 3:4 the Septuagint render teraphim by the same words by which they render urim and thummim in Exod. 28:30; and teraphim were little images, or idols, which when questioned gave responses, with a clearly spoken voice. Urim and thummim, therefore, he says, were two little figures skilfully made, either by the hand of God or of artificers, which the priest carried within the folds of the rational; and as often as anything was to be asked, he brought them forth, and through them God, or an angel in God’s name, clearly and plainly answered what was to be done or not done; and on account of the clearness of speech by which the responses were made manifest, one was called urim, that is, illuminations, perspicuities; and on account of the truth of what was said or promised, certain to be fulfilled, the other was called thummim, that is, consummations, completions, truths. While the priest showed these little idols, it is likely that they were wont to glitter, to catch the attention and admiration of the people. But who would believe that God, the enemy of idols, put idols into the rational among a people at that time most inclined to idols?
Seventhly, and more probably than the rest, Lyranus, Abulensis, Lipomanus and Ribera hold that urim and thummim were nothing else than the twelve stones of the rational, which are called urim and thummim, that is, illumination and perfection, or truth: because by these stones God most perfectly illumined the high priest, and through him the people, and answered those who consulted Him about what was to be done, what was needful to be done: for if these gems sent forth splendour, they signified that God was appeased toward the Hebrews, and would be with them, and would grant a happy outcome of war and other matters; if they did not shine, but were darkened, they signified that God was angry with the Hebrews, and the outcome of the affair would be unfavourable.
Eighthly, Michaelis, in the Mosaic Law, thinks it may be gathered from the fact that Urim and Thummim are not described, that the thing was already known to the Israelites, and that Urim and Thummim were three lots kept from ancient times, of which one had the mark of affirming, the second of denying, and the third of deciding neither way; the pectoral therefore was made like a purse, that those lots might be cast into it. Gesenius in the Thesaurus does not depart much from this opinion, whose words are not unworthy to be recited here: “What these (sacred lots) were, however, and how by their help the High Priest consulted the oracle of God, was already uncertain in the time of Philo and Josephus, since the oracle had ceased two hundred years before Josephus, book 3 of the Antiquities, chap. 8, §9. Perhaps also these lots had belonged from every age to the discipline of the secret. Josephus, loc. cit., thinks that Urim and Thummim were in the 12 gems themselves, which adorned the outer part of the pectoral, and in their splendour.... But that the gems of the pectoral were different from these lots is plainly shown by the place Exod. 28:30, compared with verse 17.... More probable things are given by Philo in the Life of Moses, whose authority we follow in holding that Urim and Thummim were two little images (eidola), inserted between the double cloth of the pectoral, of which one represented doctrine divinely revealed, or revelation (urim), the other truth (thummim). The Hebrews, however, seem in this symbolic custom to have imitated the Egyptians, among whom the supreme Judge wore, hanging from his neck, a sapphire image of truth (Aelian is witness, book 14 of the Various History, chap. 34: The judges among the Egyptians were formerly the same as the priests. Among them the chief was the eldest, and had the right of giving sentence upon all. He had to be the most just of all men, and wore round his neck an image made of sapphire, which was called Truth; and Diodorus Siculus, book 1, chap. 2, where he treats of the priests of the Egyptians: The president of the judges wore about his neck, hanging from a golden chain, a sign of precious stones, which they called Truth. They began their hearings when the president of the judges had put on himself the image of Truth). And that the ancient Hebrews by no means shrank from exhibiting virtues and powers symbolically and by image, besides the Cherubim the Teraphim teach.”
Ninthly, Bahr has treated this place excellently in the work entitled Symbolik des Mosaischen Cultus, vol. 2, p. 108 and pp. 134 ff. It will be worth while to set forth briefly here his opinion, which pleases me much more than the others.