Which, understood spiritually, is a great mystery. But these things were said concerning the shadows of the significations. When He had given a command concerning the Sabbath, what is it that He added: 'In sowing and in harvest thou shalt rest'? For He seems to say, 'in the time of sowing and of harvest.' Or perhaps He commanded the rest of the Sabbath to be so observed that not even those seasons should have excuse, which are very necessary to farmers for the sake of food and livelihood? It was therefore commanded that even in the time of sowing and harvest, when work presses hard, one should rest on the Sabbath. And thus, through these seasons which demand the most work, it was signified that at all times one ought to cease unto the Sabbath. As to what He says:
'No one shall covet from thy land when thou goest up to appear in the sight of the Lord thy God three seasons in the year'—this He wishes to be understood thus: that each one might go up secure, and not be anxious about his land, since God promises protection, that no one should covet anything from it, on account of Him who goes up, so that he should not fear being absent from it. And here He sufficiently shows what He said above, 'Thou shalt not appear in the sight of the Lord thy God empty,' because He said it in that place where God was to have His tabernacle or temple. What is it He says: 'Thou shalt not slay upon leaven the blood of my sacrifices'?
Does He here call 'His sacrifices' those which are slain at the Passover, and does He command that there be then no leaven in the house, since they are the days of unleavened bread? What is it He says: 'And the sacrifice of the solemnity of the Passover shall not sleep until morning,' except what He above openly commanded, that nothing of the flesh of the beast which is sacrificed should be left until morning? But the manner of speech made the obscurity; for He said 'shall sleep' for 'shall remain.' 'Thou shalt not boil a lamb in its mother's milk.' Behold, He has said again a thing which I know not how it can be understood. Yet it is a great prophecy concerning Christ, even if it could be done literally—how much more if it cannot!
For in the discourses of God, not all things are to be recalled to the literalness of deeds, just as neither that concerning the rock and its cleft and the placing of the hand upon it. But clearly this is to be demanded of the fidelity of the narrator: that the things he says were done were truly done, and the things he says were said were truly said. This is demanded also of the narrators of the Gospel; for when they relate that Christ said certain things which He said in parables, nevertheless the fact that He said these is not a parable but a historical narration. 'And Moses was there in the sight of the Lord forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water.'
This He had also said before, when he received the tablets which he broke; and He repeats it in this manner also, not by recapitulating what was done, but by commending that it was done again. For we have already said what the repetition of the law signifies. But as to what He says, 'he ate no bread and drank no water,' it is understood 'he fasted'—the whole from a part, that is, Scripture signifying by the name of bread all food, and by the name of water all drink. 'And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.' It was said of Moses that he himself wrote, to whom also God had said a little before, 'Write thou these words.' But when he first received the law, whose tablets he cast away and broke, neither was he himself said to have hewn the stone tablets, and now it is said:
'Hew thee two tablets of stone'; nor was he told to write, as he is now told; nor is he narrated to have written them himself, as Scripture now narrates. And it says: 'He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.' But then it was said: 'And He gave to Moses, as soon as He had ceased speaking to him on Mount Sinai, two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone written by the finger of God'; then a little after: 'And Moses,' it says, 'turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hands, tablets of stone written on both sides of them, on this side and on that they were written; and the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.'
Accordingly a great question arises: how those tablets, which Moses—God of course foreknowing it—was going to break, are said to be not the work of man but of God, and not written by man but the writing of God, by the finger of God; whereas the later tablets, destined to remain so long and to be in the tabernacle and temple of God, though indeed at God's command, were nevertheless hewn by man, written by man. Or was it perhaps that in those first tablets was signified the grace of God, not the work of man—that grace of which they were made unworthy by returning in heart into Egypt and by making an idol (whence they were deprived of that benefit, and therefore Moses broke the tablets)—while by these later tablets were signified those who glory in their own works, whence the Apostle says:
'being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wishing to establish their own, they were not subject to the righteousness of God'—and therefore the tablets, hewn by human work and inscribed by human work, were given, which should remain with those very people, to signify those who would glory in their own works, not in the finger of God, that is, in the Spirit of God? Certainly, then, the repetition of the law signifies the New Testament—but that first one signified the Old, whence it was broken and abolished—especially since, when the law is given the second time, it is given with no terror such as that first one amid so great a din of fires, clouds, and trumpets, whereby the people, made to tremble, said: 'Let not God speak to us, lest we die.' Whence it is signified that in the Old Testament there is fear, in the New love.
How, then, is this question resolved: why those were the work of God, these the work of man, and those inscribed by the finger of God, these written by man? Or was it perhaps rather that in those first the Old Testament was signified, because God there commanded, but man did not do it? For the law was set down in the Old Testament, which would convict transgressors, which entered in that the offense might abound. For it was not fulfilled by fear, which is not fulfilled except by charity. And therefore it is called the work of God, because God established the law, God inscribed it—no work of man, because man did not obey God, and the law rather made him guilty.
But in the second tablets man, through the help of God, makes and inscribes the tablets, because the charity of the New Testament fulfills the law. Whence the Lord says: 'I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it'; and the Apostle says: 'The fullness of the law is charity,' and: 'faith which works through love.' It became easy, therefore, for man in the New Testament, what in the Old was difficult, when he has faith which works through love, and that finger of God, that is, the Spirit of God, writing it within in the heart, not without on stone. Whence the Apostle says:
'not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart,' since the charity of God, whereby the precept is truly fulfilled, 'is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us.' This, then, is the meaning: first the law was given—where the Old Testament is signified, which is the work of God alone and the inscription of the finger of God—of which the Apostle says: 'And so the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.' The law, therefore, holy and good, is the work of God, where man does nothing, because he does not obey, but is rather pressed down by guilt under the law that threatens and condemns; 'for sin,' he says, 'that it might appear sin, wrought death in me through that which is good.'
But blessed is the man when this commandment, holy and just and good, is also his work—yet through the grace of God. Moses, when he had come down from the mountain to the children of Israel, having the other tablets of the law, with a veil placed around him because of the glory of his countenance, which the children of Israel could not gaze upon, said: 'These are the words which the Lord said, to do them.' It is ambiguously put whether 'to do them' refers to the Lord Himself or to them; but it is certainly manifest that it refers to them: for He commanded the things that should be done. But perhaps it was so put that it may be taken from both, because the Lord also does them, when He helps those who do them, according to that saying of the Apostle: 'With fear and trembling work out your own salvation';
For it is God who works in you both to will and to work according to good will. 'Everyone bringing an offering brought silver and bronze, offerings to the Lord' — as though he were saying, among the other things he was saying, 'everyone who brought, brought this thing and that thing, mentioning both the silver and the bronze.' The Latins have rendered as 'offering' (demtio) what the Greek calls aphairema. Now it was called demtio ('a taking-away') for this reason, that whoever brought something to the Lord took it away from himself. When Moses relates it, mention is made of what God had said to him concerning Bezalel, in these very same words and just as many, namely that he had filled him with the divine spirit of wisdom and understanding and knowledge for carrying out the works of the tabernacle which pertain to the arts of craftsmen; whence we have already stated what our view is.
But I have thought it fit to recall this same thing now, precisely because it is not without purpose that it is repeated in exactly the same words with which it had earlier been made known to Moses by the Lord. Indeed, here in a novel manner the art of the craftsmen who work in gold and silver and every kind of metal is called 'architectonic,' whereas that art is customarily called architectonic which pertains to the constructing of buildings. 'And all who were willing of their own accord to go to the works, that they might complete them; and they received from Moses all the offerings.' Moses brought only to their notice what works the Lord had commanded to be made, namely the tabernacle with all that was to be in it and the priestly vestments. He also mentioned certain men to whom, he said, a spirit had been given from God whereby they could accomplish those things.
And yet it is understood that many came of their own accord to those same works, to whom nothing was commanded, nor were their names mentioned as spoken by the Lord to Moses. Therefore not only those who are named by name possessed this gift from God, but perhaps these had it in a special and more excellent degree. Yet in all these men it is not a spirit dragged to the work in servile fashion that is to be praised, but one freely and of its own accord devoted. It is to be noted that those who are called wise, the makers of the sacred works, were also such in their character that, although they themselves received everything the people offered, thinking it necessary for the completing of all those works, when they saw that more was being offered than was needed, they spoke to Moses.
And he, through a herald, forbade the people to offer any more. Now they could, had they wished, have taken away much; but modesty forbade it, or religious awe deterred them. After Moses had come down from the mountain, the works of constructing the tabernacle and of the priestly vestment are commended; and before he commanded anything about the making of these, he spoke to the people concerning the observance of the sabbath. And here it is not without cause that one is moved to ask: since he had received the ten words of the law on tablets of stone a second time — which he himself hewed out and himself inscribed — why, after he came down, did he admonish the people about the sabbath alone.
For if the ten precepts of the law were superfluous for the people to hear again on that account, why was it not superfluous for them to hear about the sabbath, since this too is read among those same ten precepts? Or is this too like the veil with which he covered his face, because the children of Israel could not gaze upon the splendor of his countenance? For out of the ten precepts he enjoined upon the people this one alone, which was there spoken figuratively; whereas we by no means doubt that the other nine there, being precepts, are to be observed in the New Testament as well.
But that one precept about the sabbath was so far veiled among the Israelites by the figurative observance of the seventh day, and was enjoined as a mystery and figured under a certain sacrament, that today it is not observed by us literally, but we contemplate only what it signified. Now in that rest, wherein servile works are commanded to cease, there is a great depth of the grace of God. For good works are then done together with rest, when faith works through love; but fear has torment, and in torment what rest is there? Wherefore fear is not in charity; and charity is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us. Therefore the sabbath is a holy rest unto the Lord, to be attributed, that is, to the grace of God, not to ourselves as though from ourselves.
Otherwise our works will be such as to be either merely human, or sins; or else done with fear, not with love, and therefore servile, without rest. But the fullness of the sabbath will be in the everlasting rest. For not without purpose was there instituted also a sabbath of sabbaths. Above, when God had earlier spoken about anointing the tabernacle, he said that by the same anointing all those things were sanctified and became a holy of holies. But the altar of burnt offerings he had said became, by the same anointing, a holy of the holy (sanctum sancti). And this difference seemed to exist, that he had called none of them a holy of holies except that alone which was separated from the holy place only by a veil, that is, where the ark of the covenant and the altar of incense were.
But now, when he repeated the same things, he said concerning the anointed tabernacle and the things that were in it, that by the same anointing they were sanctified and became holy; yet that altar of burnt offerings, of which he had earlier said that it became a holy of the holy (sanctum sancti), he now said, by the same anointing, became a holy of holies (sanctum sanctorum).
Whence we are given to understand that what had been called 'a holy of the holy' (sanctum sancti) is worth just as much as what is called 'a holy of holies' (sanctum sanctorum); and through this, that all those anointed things also — that is, the whole tabernacle and whatever was in it, which he had earlier called 'holy of holies' — are worth just as much as what he now calls 'holy'; and that none of them is called, after that anointing, merely 'a holy of the holy,' but even 'a holy of holies,' just like the altar of burnt offerings.
So that now there is no difference, as far as this appellation is concerned, between those things which had been inside within the veil — that is, where the ark of the testimony was — and the rest outside, except that those inner things were called 'holy of holies' or 'holy of the holy' in such a way that even before the anointing they were so called, whereas the rest were sanctified by the anointing so as to receive this name. What these things signify must be examined at leisure. When Scripture was recounting how Moses set up the tabernacle, 'and he stretched out,' it says, 'the curtains over the tabernacle' — not indeed over it from above as a roof, but girding the columns, since it had said concerning the columns that he had set up the tabernacle. When he said:
'and around the court about the tabernacle and the altar,' he makes it clear that the altar of burnt offerings was outside at the door of the tabernacle, so that it was entirely surrounded by the court, and the altar was within the court, between the gate of the court and the door of the tabernacle. A very marvelous thing is to be noted: that when the cloud descended and filled the tabernacle — which cloud is nevertheless called the glory of the Lord — Moses could not enter the tabernacle, though on Mount Sinai, when he first received the law, he entered into the cloud where God was. Without doubt, then, he figured one person at that time, another now:
and then he figured those who are made partakers of the inmost truth of God, but now he figures the Jews, to whom the glory of the Lord which is in the tabernacle — which is the grace of Christ — is set as it were like a cloud, since they do not understand it. And therefore he does not enter into the tabernacle of testimony. And this is to be believed to have happened once, as soon as the tabernacle was set up, for the sake of this signification or of some other. For the cloud was not always so upon the tabernacle that Moses could not enter there, since indeed the cloud was not removed except when this sign of decamping was given to them — that is, of moving the camp from the place where they were, and of advancing whither the cloud led by day, and the flame by night.
These two things by turns remained also upon the tabernacle, wherever they pitched their camp: the cloud by day, the flame by night. QUESTION 177. An exposition of the tabernacle. Since the book called Exodus takes its conclusion in the construction of the tabernacle — concerning which tabernacle many things are also said throughout the earlier parts of the same book, things that create difficulty of understanding, as every topographia (that is, the description of some place) tends to do in every narrative — it has seemed good to me to speak separately about the whole tabernacle itself, in order that it may be understood, if it can be done, of what sort it was and what it was, taking the figurative signification for the moment according to the propriety of the narration and deferring it to another time;
for it must not be thought that anything was there which was set up at God's command without the sacrament of some great thing, the knowledge of which builds up faith and the form of piety. God therefore commands Moses to make a tabernacle of ten curtains of twisted fine linen and hyacinth and purple and twisted scarlet, with cherubim by the weaver's work. What the Greeks call aulaias, the Latins call aulaea, which are commonly called cortinae (curtains). He did not, then, order ten courts to be made, as some have carelessly interpreted; for he did not say aulas, but aulaias. He therefore ordered cherubim to be made in the curtains by weaving work; and he enjoined that the length of these curtains be twenty-eight cubits and the breadth four cubits;
and that the curtains should cohere with one another and be joined together, five on this side and five on that, so that the space which was enclosed by them should be the space of the tabernacle. And in what manner these five and five curtains should be connected together, he thus commanded: 'and you shall make for them,' he says, 'hyacinthine loops upon the edge of one curtain on the one side at the joining; and so you shall make upon the edge at the second joining' — that is, where curtain is joined to curtain, namely the third to the second, which second has already been joined to the first, that is, connected and linked together, the single ones standing face to face over against each other, since he ordered five to be joined among themselves so that they might be set opposite one another.
But whether the space enclosed by these was square or round does not yet appear; but it will appear when he begins to speak of the columns by which the curtains are extended. He therefore wished to say no more than concerning the connection of three, which is made at two joinings, of the second to the first and of the third to the second, so that from this as it were a rule the rest might be joined. He ordered, then, fifty loops to be made for the first curtain, on the one side by which the second was to be joined to it, and fifty loops for the third curtain on that side by which it was joined to the second; and the second one itself — that is, the middle one between both sets of fifty loops — he wished to have fifty rings, of gold to be sure, on the one side, through which it might be joined to the fifty loops of the first curtain.
And through this it followed that on the other side too it should have just as many rings, through which it might be joined to the loops of the third curtain. This Scripture briefly stated thus: 'and you shall make fifty golden rings, and you shall join curtain to curtain by the rings; and there shall be one tabernacle.' The fifty golden rings, then, of the second curtain were inserted into the fifty hyacinthine loops of the first curtain; fifty rings were inserted also into the fifty loops of the third curtain; and thereafter the rest were connected in this way, so that five were completed, and on the opposite side likewise another five. Then he says: 'and you shall make hair curtains to cover over the tabernacle' — that is, ones which should come over it not from the side of the roof, but by over-girding.
For we say that something is placed over in this way too, not as the roof of a house, but as the plastering of a wall, like a band over a course. 'Eleven,' he says, 'you shall make these veils. The length of one veil shall be thirty cubits, and four cubits the breadth of one veil; the same measure shall be for the eleven veils. And you shall join five veils together and six veils together.' Just as he wished those curtains to be joined five by five, so he wished these veils to be five and six, because they were eleven, not ten. 'And you shall double,' he says, 'the sixth veil at the front of the tabernacle,' lest it should shift, because the six and the five met each other unequally. Then he says also how these hair veils should be joined to one another. And he says the same, but perhaps more plainly.
'And you shall make,' he says, 'fifty loops on the edge of one veil which is over against the middle' — that is, over against the second, because it will be the middle between the first and the third — 'according to the joining,' that is, the juncture. 'And fifty loops you shall make upon the edge of the veil which is joined to the second veil' — that is, upon the edge of the third veil, because it is joined to the second. 'And you shall make fifty bronze rings, and you shall join the rings from the loops; and you shall join the veils, and it shall be one.' He wished the rings, then, to be added to the middle veil, that is, the second, by whose fifty loops it might be joined to the first and the third. There is nothing else here except that he now ordered the rings to be made not of gold, but of bronze. But he had said that the loops in the curtains were hyacinthine.
But in the hair veils, since he was silent as to what kind the loops should be, what more credibly are we to take them to be than hair loops? What follows next is so difficult to understand that I fear lest by expounding it should become more obscure. For he says: 'and you shall place under what is over in the veils of the tabernacle; the half of the veil that is over you shall spread beneath; what abounds of the veils of the tabernacle you shall spread beneath, behind the tabernacle. A cubit on this side and a cubit on that side, of that which is over in the veils, of the length of the veils of the tabernacle, shall be covering over the sides of the tabernacle, on this side and on that, that it may cover it.' Since he had ordered the sixth veil to be doubled at the front of the tabernacle, what does he mean by saying that half a veil is over in the veils, and what does he mean by saying:
'a cubit on this side and a cubit on that side' — since half a veil is fifteen cubits, seeing that he ordered one veil to be thirty cubits — who could easily understand? Or if for this reason something is over of the length of the veils, because he ordered the first curtains of fine linen and scarlet and purple and hyacinth to be twenty-eight cubits long, but these hair veils he wished to be thirty cubits, then each single curtain is exceeded by each single hair veil by two cubits; which, brought into a sum, excepting the eleventh — which he ordered to be doubled — amount to twenty cubits by which the circuit of the curtains is exceeded by the circuit of the hair veils. For twice ten cubits, by which the ten veils were longer, make twenty:
of which, from either side, ten on this side and ten on that could be over — not a cubit on this side and a cubit on that side, as Scripture says. Wherefore the exposition of this passage seems to me to be deferred, until the tabernacle stands complete on every side with all its columns together with the court which is placed around it. For perhaps by anticipation he says something about these hair veils which pertains to those things of which he has not yet spoken. For what he says, 'and you shall make hair veils to cover over the tabernacle,' whether he wishes the whole tabernacle to be covered by these veils, together with the court, that is, of which he speaks later as to be placed around, or this inner tabernacle which he ordered to be made of ten curtains, is uncertain. He continues, then, and says:
'and you shall make a covering for the tabernacle of rams' skins dyed red.' This covering too, whether he ordered it to be made for the whole tabernacle round about, or for the inner one only, is likewise held to be uncertain. But what he adds, 'and coverings of hyacinthine skins above,' this is to be taken not as round about, but from the roof as a vault. 'And you shall make,' he says, 'columns for the tabernacle of incorruptible woods: one column ten cubits, and the breadth of one column one cubit and a half; two little props for one column, standing over against each other. So shall you make for all the columns of the tabernacle.' Why he ordered these little props to be made — concerning which I earlier said what they were — is not sufficiently clear to me.
For if they were made for carrying the columns, at least four would be made; but if for where the bars should rest, even more would be made — for he distributed five bars to each single column. Unless perhaps in these little props there is no practical use, but a signification alone, as in the eleventh hair veil. For a column, extending two little props like arms on this side and that, presents the figure of a cross. Now let us consider the number of the columns, in which the form of the tabernacle also can be discerned — whether it is square or round, or has an oblong quadrangle with longer sides and shorter fronts, as most basilicas are constructed; for this rather is here evidently expressed. For he thus says:
'and you shall make columns for the tabernacle, twenty columns on that side which looks toward the north. And forty silver bases you shall make for the twenty columns, two bases for one column on both its parts. And the second side toward the south, twenty columns and forty silver bases for them: two bases for one column on both its parts, and two bases for one column on both its parts.' Let the repetition not disturb you, for it is a manner of speech, so that all may be understood in the same way, even those of which he does not speak. Concerning the bases we have already said before why one column has two, because in this passage he calls the capitals also 'bases.' We see, therefore, two sides of the tabernacle, the north and the south, extended by twenty columns each.
Two remain, the eastern and the western, which, if they had had just as many columns, would without doubt be square. But how many they have — concerning the western it is not passed over in silence, concerning the eastern it is passed over: whether because it had none, and there alone the curtains were stretched without columns from the outermost column of one side to the other outermost of the other, or whether for some reason they are passed over in silence, so that even when unmentioned they might be understood, I do not know. For afterwards indeed ten columns are mentioned on that same eastern part, but of the court, of which he speaks later, which he orders to be placed around this tabernacle. Having mentioned, then, the northern and southern sides of the tabernacle, each with twenty columns, he then continues and adds, saying: