THE PONTIFICAL VESTMENTS OF EGYPT AND ISRAEL.
Much discussion has arisen among commentators and archæologists with regard to the sacred vestments of the Jewish high-priest and the Levites; and yet it does not appear to have hitherto occurred to them to refer to the only sources whence additional and authentic information respecting these vestments can be obtained—namely, the monuments of ancient Egypt.
Age after age have repeated attempts been made to remake the vestments of the Hebrew priesthood solely from the descriptions given in the Pentateuch; but hitherto the words of Moses have been subjected to the most discordant interpretations. In a book by the Abbé Ancessi, entitled Egypt and Moses,[46] the first part only of which has as yet appeared, we at last obtain a lucid idea of the Mosaical directions, the very vagueness of which testifies that the great Lawgiver is speaking of things already familiar to those whom he addresses. So much in this work is new, and so much is suggestive of what farther discoveries may bring to light, that we shall, with the kind permission of the learned author, make free use of it in the present notice.
At the very epoch to which chronologists are wont to refer the origin of the human race we find on the borders of the Nile an already powerful nation. Most of the peoples whose names were in after-times to be renowned in history were then tribes of mere barbarians, dwelling in the depths of forests, in caverns, or on the islets of the lakes, their weapons rude flint-headed axes and arrows, and their ornaments the teeth of the wild beasts they had slain in the chase, a few amber beads or rings
of cardium, threaded on tendons dried in the sun.
At this time the nobles of Egypt inhabited sumptuous palaces, wore necklaces of gold adorned with brilliant enamels, and hung from their girdles laminæ of bronze, damascened in gold with marvellous delicacy.[47] Already during a long period had the Egyptians depicted their annals, their symbolism, and their daily life and surroundings on the massive pages of stone which fill the museums of two of the greatest capitals of modern Europe, and on the rolls of linen and papyrus which enfold their mummies in the depth of those Eternal Abodes[48] whose sleep of ages has been disturbed by our unsparing hands. The bold chisel of the Egyptian sculptors carved from the hardest rock these statues of strange aspect, these grave and tranquil countenances of the sovereigns contemporary with Abraham or Moses, which, after long centuries, passed in their own unchanging and conservative clime, we find amongst us, under our own changeful skies, and amid the noise and unrepose of our modern existence.
The deciphering of inscriptions has given an insight into the history of Egypt, and “there are,” as M. Ancessi observes, “kings of the middle ages who are less known to us than these Pharaos of every dynasty,” who, by way of relaxation from the long, funereal labors in the building of the Pyramids imposed upon each prince by the belief and traditions of his ancestors, would ravage Africa or Asia; then, returning from these
expeditions, exchange the fatigues of arms for the pleasures of the chase. In the desert or on Mount Sinai we find them hunting the lion and the gazelle, after having carried their thank-offerings to the temples of Memphis or of Thebes.
Thus we find in remote ages the fame of Egypt reaching to distant regions, besides exercising an immense influence on neighboring nations. It was what, later on, Athens became, and after Athens Rome—an object of wonder, interest, and envy for its power, its wealth, and splendor.
Such were the position and influence of Egypt when the family of shepherds which was one day to become the Hebrew nation wandered in the valley of the Jordan and on the plains of Palestine—that family to whom those pastures, streams, and mountain gorges were already peopled with precious memories, and who were farther bound to the land by the promises of God and their own most cherished hopes. Too feeble then to overcome the races of Amalec and Chanaan, it was needful that this tribe should be for a time withdrawn into a country in which they would forget their nomadic habits and become habituated to the settled life of civilized nations; in which, moreover, they would be disciplined and strengthened, and where their numbers would increase, until the time appointed should arrive when God would deliver into their hands the country so repeatedly promised to their race. This time being come, he had recourse, if one may say so, to a touching stratagem, and drew the sons of Jacob into the land of the Pharaos by placing Joseph on the steps of the throne.
During the gradual transformation of a wandering tribe into a
settled people, another process, no less slow and difficult, was also preparing them for the future to which they were destined.
On the arrival of the patriarch Jacob in the fertile plains of the Delta the great and powerful of that day hastened to meet him with royal magnificence. These shepherds, accustomed only to the shelter of the tents which they carried away at will on their beasts of burden, found themselves face to face with palaces and temples of which the very ruins strike us with amazement.
And farther, what marvels were in store for the strangers in the various arts of civilization carried on in the cities of Mizraim, where painting and music flourished, where gravers and goldsmiths produced their excellent works, where unceasingly resounded the hammers of those who wrought in wood and stone, and the hum of a thousand looms, weaving those wondrous tissues[49] famous alike in the time of Solomon, of Ezechiel, and of Pliny—the “fine linen of Egypt.”
The sight of all this must have vividly struck the imagination of the strangers; nevertheless, the prejudices and antipathies of race which speedily declared themselves, doubtless on the occasion of changes on the throne, would have kept them aloof from sharing in the pursuits by which they were surrounded, had not their new masters forced them away from tending their flocks and herds in the land of Goshen, and scattered them in the cities, mingling them with the Egyptian people.
They now found themselves compelled
to make brick, hew stone, and handle the workman’s hammer; to build, to cultivate the ground, and, in spite of any hereditary repugnance which might exist, to suffer themselves to be initiated into the arts and manufactures of ancient Egypt.
That which at first was only submitted to under coercion soon grew into the habits, tastes, and customs of the Israelites. They had entered upon a new phase of their existence, thence to issue, after a period of four hundred years, transformed into a people ripe for a constitution, laws, government, and national worship. A man alone was wanting to them, and this man God provided. When Moses arose amongst them, they were familiar with all the secrets of Egyptian art and manufacture. But it was not only by the formation of skilful craftsmen that the influence of this mighty nation made itself felt. It penetrated the whole of their daily life; and this indelible impression was not effaced when Israel had traversed a career of well-nigh twenty centuries. After the fall of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jewish people, it still attracted the attention of historians and thoughtful men.
It did not even occur to those not well acquainted with the customs of the Hebrews and of ancient Egypt, such as Tacitus, to separate the names of the two peoples, which were included by them in one and the same judgment, meriting in their eyes the same reproaches and together sharing the scanty praise which their new masters allowed at times to fall from their disdainful lips.
But there were others, more attentive and better informed, who
entered more deeply into the study and comparison of the two races—to name only Tertullian, Origen, St. Jerome, and St. Augustine. Eusebius had been attracted by the problem, as is proved by the few almost parenthetical lines in his great work, The Preparation of the Gospel, where he says: “During their sojourn in Egypt the Israelites adopted so completely the habits and customs of the Egyptians that there was no longer any apparent difference in the manner of life of the two peoples.”[50]
Nearer to our own time the learned Kircher devoted long years to searching out those points of resemblance which could not at that time be studied by the light of original documents. The severest censors would be disarmed by the telling, though somewhat barbaric, form in which he has presented the true relationship existing between the Mosaic and Egyptian constitutions: “Hebræi tantam habent ad ritus, sacrificia, cæremonias, sacrasque disciplinas Ægyptiorum affinitatem, ut vel Ægyptios hebraïzantes, vel Hebræos ægyptizantes fuisse, mihi plane persuadeam.”[51]
Kircher is right. These men of Asiatic race, born at Memphis, Tanis, or Ramses, were practically Egyptians, and had forgotten their ancient habits, their pastoral life, and the land where the ashes of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were awaiting them. They had grown up and lived amongst a people whose tongue they had learned,[52] whose toils they shared, and whose
gods they worshipped.[53] The children of Jacob could only be distinguished by the aquiline nose and slight beard from the brickmakers and masons of the country, as we see them frequently represented in the monuments of this epoch.
Moses, who was to become their lawgiver, was a learned and accomplished Egyptian in everything but the fact of race. Early separated from his family and countrymen, he had grown up at the court of Pharao, among the near attendants and favorites of the king, and was “instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.”[54] He had beheld the statues of the gods borne in the long processions, and had entered the now silent temples of Memphis; he had looked upon the arks whereon were portrayed the divine symbols, hidden under the guarding wings of mysterious genii;[55] and he had been present when the king, who was also sovereign pontiff, removed on solemn occasions the seals of clay from this sombre abode where, veiled in mystery, dwelt the name and the glory of God.
Into this inner sanctuary, the Egyptian Holy of Holies, the pontiff alone entered, but Moses could behold him from afar, when he burnt the incense before the veiled ark, where, concealing itself from mortal sight, dwelt the invisible majesty of Ra, “Creator and lord of the world.”
Many a time must Moses have been present when the Pharao arrayed himself in the sacerdotal vestments—the long linen tunic and the bright, engirdling ephod. With his own hands he may have tied the cords of the sacred tiara upon the monarch’s head, and clasped on his shoulders the golden chains of the pectoral. With the colleges of the priests he had chanted the hymns and litanies it was customary to sing in procession around the sanctuaries during the octaves and on the vigils of great solemnities. He was familiar with the legislative and moral code of the Egyptians, and all the ancient traditions of their race. And after he had crossed the frontier and the Red Sea, all these things could not disappear from his remembrance; in fact, they were intended to live in the constitution, laws, and religious ceremonial of the Israelites, but purified and freed from the corrupt elements of Egyptian mythology.
To show this in detail is the object of M. Ancessi’s interesting work, in which, with minute care and research, he proceeds, in the first place, to consider the material portion of the worship—the sacerdotal garments, the ark, the altars, and the sacrifices—with the intention later of approaching the moral code, and, lastly, the literature of the two peoples.
The first of the sacerdotal garments described by Moses is the ephod. This vestment, conspicuous for its richness, was woven of threads of brilliant colors and adorned with precious stones set in gold. But it owed its peculiar excellence to the pectoral with the Urim and Thummim, that mysterious organ of the divine oracles which manifested God’s care over
his people by a perpetual miracle.[56]
Tradition makes frequent mention of this marvellous vestment. After the ruin of the Temple, Oriental writers gave free scope to their imagination and to the influence of family reminiscences in their descriptions of the ephod. We must not, however, take these as guides by any means trustworthy, but endeavor to arrive at the exact meaning of the Mosaic description,[57] as this, though brief and obscure, suffices to enable us to recognize the representations of the vestment which come to us from those remote ages.
Referring to the Vulgate, we find as follows: “Facient autem superhumerale [ephod] de auro et hyacintho et purpura, coccoque bis tincto, et bysso retorta, opere polymito.”[58] And farther on: “Inciditque bracteas aureas, et extenuavit in fila, ut possint torqueri
cum priorum colorum subtegmine.”[59]
This gives us the tissue of which the ephod was made—namely, a rich stuff of fine linen, composed of threads of blue, purple, and scarlet worked in with filaments of gold. So far there is no difficulty.[60] In the following verses Moses describes its form, and his words are: “Duo humeralia juncta erunt ei ad ejus duas extremitates et jungetur”—that is to say, literally: “Two joined shoulder-bands shall be fixed to the ephod at its two extremities, and thus it shall be fastened.”
Now, if we compare with this the drawings representing the gods or kings of Egypt in their richest apparel, our attention is at once attracted by a broad belt of precious material and brilliant colors which encircles the body from the waist upwards to a little below the arms, and is upheld by two narrow bands, one passing over each shoulder, and joined together at the top, their lower extremities being sewn to the vestment before and behind. These are clearly the two humeralia spoken of by Moses.
In the Egyptian paintings we notice that the buttons by which the bands are fastened together on the shoulders are precious stones in a gold setting, and fixed, not on the top, but a little lower down towards the front, and at the exact place where Moses directs two gems to be placed, each on a disc of gold.
We know from Josephus that in the vesture of the high-priest these two uncut stones joined the shoulder-bands
of the ephod together;[61] the parallel is therefore complete. Indeed, if we may believe Dom Calmet, a reminiscence of ancient Egypt is to be found even in the form of the hooks affixed to the two precious stones. These hooks, he tells us, had the form of an asp biting into the loop or eye of the opposite shoulder-band: “Dicunt Græci uncum illum exhibuisse formam aspidis admordentis oram hujus hiatus.”[62] The head of the asp is a favorite object in Egyptian decoration.[63] This detail, however, is not insisted on, but merely mentioned in passing, as we find no allusion to it in the Pentateuch, nor is it based upon a tradition of ascertained authority.
We read further: “And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and shalt grave on them the names of the children of Israel: six names on one stone, and the other six on the other, according to the order of their birth. With the work of an engraver and a jeweller thou shalt engrave them with the names of the children of Israel, set in gold and compassed about: and thou shalt put them on both sides of the ephod, a memorial of the children of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon both shoulders, for a remembrance.”[64]
Our European museums, and more so still that of Boulaq, near Cairo, possess a large number of
gems of every form, engraven with mystic inscriptions or the names of the members of a noble family. The exact destination of many of these stones is often unknown, and it is probable that some of them have belonged to sacerdotal garments, or may have adorned the shoulder-bands we are considering. In any case, we know not only that the Egyptians engraved precious stones with marvellous skill, but also that they were in the habit of dedicating, as ex voto, gems bearing the names of a whole family, to render each of its members always present to the remembrance of the gods. Thus many of the stones now in the Louvre were offered by princely houses to the gods whose protection they sought to secure.[65]
Moses, by the command of God, adopted this idea in composing the vestments of Aaron, placing on the shoulders of the high-priest two precious stones, upon which were engraven the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; expressing under this graceful symbolism the office and character of the priesthood. He thus reminded his people that the priest is a mediator between God and men, and that he presents himself before JEHOVAH in the name and on behalf of this people, whose whole weight, so to speak, he seems to bear upon his shoulders.
“The ephod,” says Josephus, “is a cubit in width, and leaves the middle of the chest open.”[66] These words have been a great perplexity to the learned, but are easily explained when we look at the Egyptian vestment, which is not
more than a cubit in width, and leaves open the middle of the chest in the space between the two shoulder-bands and the upper edge of the corselet. “It is there,” adds Josephus, “that the pectoral is placed.” This was a span square, of the same fabric as the ephod, enriched with precious stones, and called εσσήνης, (essenes), which signifies also λόγιον, oracle. This exactly filled up the space left bare by the ephod. It would be difficult to give a more accurate description of the Egyptian vestment. In the eighth verse of the twenty-eighth chapter of Exodus we read: “And the belt of the ephod, which passes over it, shall be of the same stuff.”
In the Egyptian paintings the lower edge of the ephod is encircled by a girdle usually made of the same material as the corselet itself. The resemblance in every particular between the Hebrew and the Egyptian ephod is, in fact, perfect.
We must now proceed more fully to consider the pectoral, the importance of which renders it worthy of very careful study.
“And thou shalt make the rational of judgment,”[67] the Lord God commands Moses, “with embroidered work of divers colors, according to the workmanship of the ephod, of gold, violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen. It shall be four-square and doubled: it shall be the measure of a span both in length and breadth. And thou shalt set in it four rows of stones: in the first row shall be a sardius stone, a topaz, and an emerald; in the second a carbuncle, a sapphire, and a jasper; in the third a ligurius, an agate, and an amethyst; in the fourth a chrysolite, an onyx, and a beryl. They shall be set in gold by their rows. And they shall have the names of the children of Israel: with twelve names shall they be engraved, each stone with the name of one according to the twelve
tribes.… And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the rational of judgment upon his breast, when he shall enter into the sanctuary, a memorial before the Lord for ever.”
This passage has been compared by commentators with the following from Elian: “Among the Egyptians, from the remotest ages, the priests were also the judges; the senior being chief, and judge over all the rest. It was required of him that he should be the most just and upright of men. He wore suspended from his neck an image made of sapphire, and which was called TRUTH.”[68]
And Diodorus Siculus, respecting the same symbol, writes as follows: “The chief of the judges of Egypt wore round his neck, suspended from a chain of gold, a symbol made of precious stones, and called Truth. Until the judge had put on this image no discussion began.”[69]
In examining the Egyptian monuments we find that the personages who are represented wearing the vestment corresponding to that which, by Moses, is designated the ephod, usually also wear upon the breast a square ornament adorned with precious stones. It is placed between the shoulder-bands, and rests, as it were, on the upper edge of the ephod, its position exactly corresponding to that of the pectoral of Aaron.
The museums of Boulaq and the Louvre possess pectorals of rare beauty. That of Boulaq was sent to Paris, with the other jewels of Queen Aa Hotep, to the Exhibition of 1867. It is a chef-d’œuvre of ancient jewelry. The frame, which is almost square, encloses a mythological scene much in favor
with the Egyptians. King Amosis is standing in a bark of lapis lazuli and enamel, while two divinities pour upon his head the waters of purification.[70]
This pectoral, which belonged to the mother of Amosis, is worthy of particular notice, not only because of its admirable workmanship, but also because its date is known to us as being to a certainty anterior to Moses.
In the pectoral of Aaron the precious stones were attached to the rich stuff which formed the foundation by little rings of fine gold, instead of being held in place by small plates of gold, as they usually are in the Egyptian pectorals. There is, however, in the museum at Boulaq, a splendid necklace, the arrangement of which proves that if the idea of the pectoral is Egyptian, so also is the manner of its workmanship. This necklace is composed of a multiplicity of tiny objects, garlands, twisted knots, four-petalled flowers, lions, antelopes, hawks, vultures, and winged vipers, etc., all of which are arranged so as to lie in parallel curves on the breast of the wearer. Now, each one of these objects forms a piece apart, quite separate from the others, and is sewn to the stuff serving for a foundation by minute rings fastened behind each. It seems to have been by a similar arrangement that the precious stones were attached
to, or, to speak in more exact accordance with the meaning of the Hebrew, embedded in, the pectoral of Aaron.
With regard to the word caphul—duplicatum: “it shall be square and doubled [or double]”—it is, with our present knowledge, impossible to say whether Moses intended to direct that the ornamentation of the back of the pectoral was not to be neglected, or that the stuff was to be doubled, so as the better to support the weight of the precious stones.
Some of these stones it is now difficult to identify; but we cannot leave this part of the subject without giving an abridged quotation from the ingenious work of M. de Charancey, Actes de la Société philologique, v. iii. No. 5: “De quelques Idées symboliques,” etc.
According to M. de Charancey, the twelve stones of the pectoral ought to be divided into two series,[71] the first of seven stones, answering, in accordance with Judaic symbolism, to the celestial spheres and the seven planets; while the second, of five stones, related to the terrestrial sphere, to the five regions of space, including the central point; the whole creation being gathered up, as it were, into this microcosm, resplendent with the wisdom and goodness of God in the oracles of the urim and thummim.
It is in any case certain that the church, in her liturgy, makes occasional allusion to this symbolism;
as, for instance, in the second response for the Tuesday following the third Sunday after Easter we find: “In diademate capitis Aaron magnificentia Domini sculpta erat.… In veste poderis quam habebat totus erat orbis terrarum et parentum magnalia in quatuor ordinibus lapidum sculpta erant” (Brev. Romanum).
The Egyptian pectorals, being usually made with a ground-work of metal, were simply suspended from a gold chain which passed round the neck; but the foundation of the Aaronic pectoral, being of woven material, needed a different kind of support to keep it stretched out and in place. We accordingly find exact directions given that to each of the two upper corners should be fastened a ring of pure gold, and to each ring a chain, the other end of which should be fixed to one of the gems on the shoulders. These gems are also directed to be placed, not on the top of the shoulders, but a little lower and towards the front, exactly as we see them in the sculptures and paintings of Egypt. To the lower corners of the pectoral rings were also attached, and again at the joining, in front, of the bands with the ephod, while a violet-colored fillet passed through the two on the right, and tied, and another similarly through the two on the left. The directions (Exod. xxviii. 13, 14, 23, 25) are so explicit as to give evidence that we have here some departure from the well-known arrangements with which the Israelites were familiar.
We must now consider the question of the urim and thummim, celebrated for its inextricable difficulties; but as no authoritative document has as yet given the solution of this problem, it is impossible
to explain it with certainty. It would be useless to take up the reader’s time with all the opinions of the learned upon this subject, especially as they are for the most part as unsatisfactory as they are diverse. The hypothesis advanced by the Abbé Ancessi appears to rest upon the most reasonable foundation. We give it in his own words:
“Without entering into lengthy philological discussions, it is easy to show that the word urim must have originally signified light. This is the sense of aor, to sparkle, to shine; it is the sense of iara, which has a relationship with iara to see, and with the analogous root of the Indo-Germanic languages from which come ordo, orior, Iris, Jour, Giorno, etc., etc. In Egyptian we also find this radical in the name of Horus, the Shining One, the Morning Sun. With this root again is connected iara, the river, the sparkling, and in Hebrew nahar,[72] which has the same sense.
“Besides, the meaning of the word urim is scarcely contested, and it is generally admitted that its original signification is lights, or beams.
“The word thummim has been less easy to interpret.
“The Egyptian radical tum signifies to be shut up, veiled, hidden, dark, obscure. This meaning reappears in the triliterate form of the Semitic Tamam.[73]
“As from the radical aor the Egyptians had made the god of light, so from the radical tum they made the name of the hidden god, the god veiled in darkness and obscurity, who had not manifested himself in the bright vesture of creation—the god Tum, hidden in the silence and darkness of eternity, in opposition or contrast to Horus, the god of the morning of creation, shining in the sunbeams, and glittering in the bright gems of the midnight skies.
“Thus, according to the etymology of these words, we have in the urim the
lights, beams, or rays, and in the thummim the obscurities and shadows, which doubtless passed over the face of the pectoral.… The high-priest grouped the luminous signs according to a system which remained one of the mysteries of the tabernacle. This key alone could give the interpretation of the will of Jehovah, and this may explain the curious episode in the time of the Judges to which allusion has already been made, when we find one of the tribes of Israel hire a Levite to place the ephod and interpret its oracles.”
What rule was followed in interpreting the answers—whether it was formed by grouping all the luminous letters, or only that one which was brightest in the name of each tribe—we know not. We do not even know whether the foregoing explanation is the true one, although we may safely allow that it answers to all the requirements of the Scriptural texts, as well as to the indications of tradition. It is thus that Josephus explains the manner in which the oracles were given by the “rational of judgment,” and well-nigh the whole of Jewish and Christian tradition follows in his steps.
Some have found a difficulty in the thirtieth verse of Exodus xxviii.: “Thou shalt place on the pectoral of judgment the urim and the thummim,[74] which shall be upon the heart of Aaron when he shall come before the Eternal.” But this text opposes no serious difficulty, as it is evident that Moses here speaks of the twelve stones. Besides, he is merely returning upon his subject at the end of a description (as is so frequently the case in the Pentateuch), as if to give a short summary of what he had previously been saying.
We have now, as briefly as may be, to consider the remaining “ornaments
of glory” exclusively appropriated to the high-priest. The tiara, which Moses calls Menizophet, is evidently too well known to those whom he is addressing to need description. We, however, have unfortunately no means of forming from this word any precise idea of its form, and are able only to indicate some of its adjuncts.
The Israelites were familiar with the symbols and rich ornaments which in Egypt characterized the head-dress of the deities and kings; each god and goddess wearing on the head a particular sign indicative of his or her attributes or functions, and consecrated by a long tradition. Among these symbols that of most frequent occurrence is the serpent Uræus, which encircles with its coils the heads of kings, raising broad, inflated chest over the middle of the forehead. The Uræus, by some capricious association, signified the only true and eternal king, of whom all earthly monarchs are but the image and representative incarnation. At the time the Hebrews were in Egypt the form of this serpent had been gradually modified into that of the fleur-de-lys, which we so often find carved on the brow of kings and sphinxes, springing from a fillet at the border of the head-attire. Instead of passing round the head, this fillet is only visible on the forehead, disappearing over the ears in the folds of a kind of veil.
Now, Moses is directed to place upon the forehead of Aaron a band of gold engraven with the name of the Most Holy.
He gives to the high-priest not only an ornament analogous to that worn by the Egyptian kings—that is to say, the chiefs of the priesthood and the representatives of the Deity—but he preserves also the same
symbolical idea which it had for the people of Egypt.
No created thing could either represent or even symbolize JEHOVAH; nothing but the most holy name itself could remind them of the uncreated Essence, who, being pure spirit, has no form. Hence the great importance of the name of Jehovah—or, more exactly, YAHVEH—in the history of Israel. The name of Him who dwelt in the most holy place, whose glory shone above the mercy-seat—this name alone, with the ascription of sanctity, was engraven on the golden fillet on the brow of his high-priest.[75]
“And the band shall be always upon his forehead, that the Lord may be well pleased with him.”
This idea of the abiding of God on the head of the pontiff-kings was one very familiar to the Egyptians, and has been expressed by them in a variety of ways. For example, we find the “divine Horus” forming with his wings a graceful ornament on the head-attire of some of the statues of the Pharaos, or again spreading his wings upon them to communicate the divine life.
The sign of the God of Israel was placed on the forehead of the high-priest, as if to overshadow him with his majesty, and to give
merit and value to his offerings; supplying what was lacking to the perfection of the sacrifice by enveloping him who offered it with his own glory.
Under the ephod was worn the long tunic, called in Hebrew Mehil, the most noticeable part of which is its fringe, composed of little bells of gold alternating with colored pomegranates. The description given by Moses (Exod. xxviii. 31, 34) is very simple: “And thou shalt make the tunic of the ephod all of violet; in the midst whereof above shall be a hole for the head, and a border round about it woven, as is wont to be made in the outmost part of garments, that it may not easily be broken. 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 between: so that there shall be a golden bell and a pomegranate, and again a golden bell and a pomegranate.”
The Mehil was not only the counterpart of an Egyptian vestment worn by the Pharaos, and which we see represented with a broad hem round the neck, but we find upon it the same ornaments as those mentioned in Exodus—namely, acorns or tassels of colored threads alternating with pendants of gold.[76] There are in the Louvre some pomegranates of enamelled porcelain, furnished with a ring by which to hang, and which have evidently formed part of the border of a garment or a very large necklace. We find there blue, yellow, red, and white ones, of a shape that might have been run in the very mould of those which adorned the vestments of Aaron. Others, again, are made
in the form of an olive, encased in a sort of network of colored threads. Nor are the little golden bells wanting. Some of those which have come down to us are of very pleasing and varied design.
It must not be forgotten that there was, in the ornamentation of the period we are considering, a singular admixture of Assyrian with Egyptian forms. Assyrian garments were also bordered with heavy fringes, the tassels of which sometimes take the form of pomegranates. Moses must have seen at the palace of the Pharaos, as ambassadors, as tributaries, or as captives, some of those Eastern princes whose majestic countenances and kingly garments long ages have preserved to us on the sculptured blocks of the palaces of Babylon and Ninive.
In a fragment of a Coptic translation of the Acts of the Council of Nicæa, which has lately been discovered by M. Revillout among the Oriental MSS. of the Museum of Turin, the fathers of the holy council give the following advice to a young man just entering into life: “My son, avoid a woman who loves gay clothing; for displays of rings and little bells[77] are but her signals of wantonness.”[78] The piety of the middle ages brought back these ornaments to their ancient and sacred uses. The memory of Aaron’s vestments gave the idea of fastening long borders of little bells to the edges of sacerdotal garments.[79]
Claude Quitton, librarian of Clairvaux, passing by the Château de Larrey in Burgundy, the 5th and 6th of September, 1744, saw there certain rich vestments, among others a chasuble, closed everywhere, save at the top to pass the head through, and having little bells (grelots) hanging all round its lower edge or border.
Thus through a long series of ages this custom of adorning vestments with bells has come, almost without a break, down to these latter centuries.
The other vestments of the high-priest were common also to the Levites, and, as well as the striking analogies between the Egyptian and Mosaic manner of offering sacrifice, may furnish matter for consideration at some future time. Meanwhile, we will close the present notice with the appropriate words of St. John Chrysostom: “Deus ad errantium salutem his se coli passus est quibus dœmonas gentiles colebant aliquantulum ilia in melius inflectens”—“God, for the salvation of the erring, suffered himself to be honored in those
things which had served in the worship of idols, modifying them in some measure for the better.” And, continues this great doctor, God, by thus introducing into his temple all that was richest in the vestments of the Egyptians, all that was most solemn in their sanctuaries, most elevated in their symbolism, and most impressive in their ceremonies, willed that his people should feel no regret, and experience no want or void, in their worship of him, when, amid the new ceremonial, they should call to mind that which they had seen in Egypt: “Ne unquam postea Ægyptiorum aut eorum quæ apud Ægyptios fuerant experti cupiditate tangerentur.” It was not only fitting but also necessary that the worship of the Lord JEHOVAH should not in any point appear inferior to that of idols; for the unspiritually-minded nation of whom Moses was the leader was incapable of appreciating the greatness and majesty of God, except in some proportion to the splendor of his worship.
[46] L’Egypte et Moïse. Première Partie. Par l’Abbé Victor Ancessi. Paris: Leroux, Editeur, 28 Rue Bonaparte.
[47] The secret of this art was only recovered by the engravers of Damascus in the time of the caliphs.
[48] The name given by the Egyptians to their tombs.
[49] See Prov. vii. 16: “Intexui funibus lectulum meum, stravi tapetibus pictis ex Ægypto”; Ezech. xxvii. 7; Pliny, Nat. Hist., xix. 2.
[50] Euseb., Evang. Prep., 1. vii. c. viii.; Pat. Grec., 1. xxi. p. 530.
[51] “The Hebrews have so much affinity with the rites, sacrifices, ceremonies, and sacred customs of the Egyptians that I am fully persuaded we have before us either Hebraizing Egyptians or Egyptizing Hebrews.”
[52] Exod. xii.
[53] The Apis of gold, worshipped by the Israelites in the desert.
[54] Acts vii. 22.
[55] See in Sir J. G. Wilkinson’s work, A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians, vol. i. pp. 267 and 270, two arks, covered with the symbols of divinity. The long wings of the genii are there represented as veiling the face of Ammon Ra and Ra Keper—the Creator-God and the Hidden God. The two genii are face to face, and veil the divine mystery with their wings, like the cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant.
[56] The following episode in the life of David shows the importance and purpose of the ephod in Israel: “Now when David understood that Saul secretly prepared evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest: Bring hither the ephod. And David said: O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath heard a report that Saul designeth to come to Ceila, to destroy the city for my sake: will the men of Ceila deliver me into his hands? and will Saul come down as thy servant hath heard? O Lord God of Israel, tell thy servant. And the Lord said: He will come down. And David said: Will the men of Ceila deliver me, and my men, into the hands of Saul? And the Lord said: They will deliver thee up.”—1 Kings xxiii. 9. See also 1 Kings xxx. 7, 8. Thus God answered by the ephod.
[57] We find the following, for example, in Suidas, under the word ephod: “Ephod signifies in Hebrew science and redemption. In the middle of this vestment there was, as it were, a star of gold, and on its sides two emeralds; between the two emeralds a diamond. The priest consulted God by these stones. If Jehovah were favorable to the projects of Israel, the diamond flashed forth light; if they were displeasing to him, it remained in its natural state; and if he were about to strike his people by war, it became the color of blood; or by pestilence, it turned black.” (Suidas is here commenting upon Josephus.) Ant. Jud. i. iii. c. 8, n. 9.
[58] Exod. xxviii. 6: “And they shall make the ephod of gold, and violet, and purple, and scarlet twice-dyed, and fine twisted linen, embroidered with divers colors.”
[59] Exod. xxxix. 3: “And he cut thin plates of gold, and drew them small into threads, that they might be twisted with the woof of the aforesaid color.” (Douai).
[60] Neither St. Jerome nor the LXX. are successful in conveying any clear idea of the vestment.
[61] “In utroque humero, singuli sardonyches, auro inclusi, fibularum vice epomidem adnectunt”—Antiq., lib. iii. c. vii.
[62] Calmet, Commentary upon Exodus, chap. xxviii. v. 11, Edit. of Mansi.
[63] The exquisite chain of gold found in the tomb of Queen Aa Hotep is terminated by two hooks shaped like the head of the asp. Many very similar ones are to be seen among the Egyptian antiquities in the Louvre and in the British Museum. The eyes of the serpent, enamelled in blue and black, have a striking effect.
[64] Exod. xxviii. 9-12.
[65] Glass case No. 4, in the Salle Historique du Musée Egyptien at the Louvre, contains jewels found in the tomb of an Apis, and dedicated by a powerful prince. Some of the most beautiful objects in the collection are contemporary with Moses. See Notice du Musée Egyptien, by M. Rougé, p. 64.
[66] Ant. Jud., lib. iii. c. 7, n. 5.
[67] Exod. xxviii. 15-22, 29.
[68] Elian. Hist. Div., lib. xiv. c. 34.
[69] Diod. Sic., lib. i. c. 75.
[70] “The workmanship of this little gem,” says M. Mariette, “is exceptionally admirable. The ground of the figures is cut in open-work. The figures themselves are designed in gold outlines, into which are introduced small cuttings of precious stones; carnelian, turquois, lapis lazuli, something resembling green feldspar, are introduced so as to form a sort of mosaic, in which each color is separated from its surrounding ones by a bright thread of gold; the effect of the whole being exceedingly rich and harmonious.” The fineness and precision of the work on the back of this pectoral is as remarkable as that on the front.—Notice sur les principaux monuments du Musée de Boulaq, par M. Mariette, p. 262.
[71] A traditional symbolism attached the greatest importance to this division of the twelve tribes and the twelve stones into two unequal numbers. The prophecy of Jacob is divided into two parts by the exclamation into which he breaks forth after the name of the seventh patriarch: “I will look for thy salvation, O LORD” (Gen. xlix. 14). Ezechiel also, in the last chapter of his prophecy, interrupts his narrative after the mention of the seventh tribe by the description of the temple, and then resumes his enumeration of the territories.
[72] With regard to the N pre-formative, see M. Ancessi’s Etudes sur la Grammaire comparée des Langues de Sem et de Cham—the S causative, and the subject N. Paris: Maisonneuve.
[73] On the formation of trihterate radicals see, in the above Etudes, “the fundamental law of the triliterate formation.”
[74] In the Douai version translated “doctrine and truth.”
[75] “Thou shalt make a plate of purest gold, wherein thou shalt grave with engraver’s work, Holiness to the Lord. Thou shalt tie it with a violet fillet, and it shall be upon the borders of the mitre, over the forehead of the high-priest.”—Exod. xxviii. 36-38. The description given by Josephus of the crown of the high priest would lead to the supposition that the fillet of Aaron did not always preserve its primitive simplicity. Speaking of a section of a diadem ornamented with the cups of flowers, which passed round the back of the head and reached to the temples, he adds, however, that in front there was only the golden band engraven with the name of Jehovah. The course of ages, broken by captivity and troubles, as well as successive influences, first Assyrian and afterwards Greek, may have occasioned some modification in the form of the sacred vestments of the Temple; and thus it is not surprising that the descriptions of Josephus sometimes vary from the Mosaic texts.
[76] See Wilkinson, vol. ii. ch. ix. p. 32.
[77] Holk et Schiikil.
[78] Concile de Nicée d’après les textes Coptes. Par E. Revillout. Journal Asiatique, Fev.-Mars, 1873.
[79] In a valuable MS. preserved in the library of Tournus we read: “In aurifedo sancti Filiberti sunt xlix. tintinnabula: inter stolam nigram et manipulum, xxi.; inter stolam rubram et manipulum, xx.; in candida vero cum manipulo, xxviii.; manipulus unus restat, ubi sunt tredecim baltei cum quinquaginta tintinnabulis.”