Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'm reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. But first, let us pray:
I praise you, my God, with all people.
May they thank and adore you!
You have written your greatness in creation,
your Law in consciences,
your eternal promises in the Bible.
You are eternally faithful and always lovable!
As I read Sacred Scripture today, open my mind to hear your voice and understand your loving message.
Amen.
Today's three chapters are Exodus 24-26.
Today we read the instructions for the building of the Ark of the Covenant and for the creation of a portable shrine which will be called the "Tabernacle" or "Meeting Tent" (translations vary). The meticulous detail itself is significant: This tent represents the cosmos and is a kind of proto-Temple; the Holy of Holies will be a tiny (but very real) Heaven. When we reach the Letter to the Hebrews, we will find a beautiful first-century commentary on these chapters of Exodus.
The colors stipulated for the tapestry are meaningful, and will be repeated when the time comes for building the Temple. According to Margaret Barker, who references Josephus (a mid-first century priest who saw the Temple shortly before the Romans destroyed it) and Philo (a Jewish philosopher in Egypt at about the time of Jesus),
"the four different colours from which [the veil was] woven represented the four elements from which the world was created: earth, air, fire and water. The scarlet thread represented fire, the blue was the air, the purple was the sea, that is, water, and the white linen represented the earth in which the flax had grown (War 5.212-213). In other words, the veil represented matter. The high priest wore a vestment woven from the same four colours and this is why the Book of Wisdom says that Aaron's robe represented the whole world (Wisd.18.24; also Philo Laws 1.84; Flight 110)."
We can also think of the veil itself as the presence of the women in the Tabernacle and Temple, since spinning and weaving was "women's work." In classic depictions of the Annunciation, Mary is often shown with a basket of yarn, or actively spinning scarlet thread destined for the Temple veil. Visit ChristianIconography.info for an example right in the header image. The work basket set in Mary's lap is a hint of the way the flesh of Christ will be "knit together" in her womb.
If you are looking for a solid but approachable companion to the Bible, I can wholeheartedly recommend A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament by Brant Pitre and John Bergsma. Although the authors are top-level Scripture scholars, they write for "real" readers. Notes include recent findings from archaeology and ancient manuscripts.
1 comment:
I just made a new connection, thanks to the section quoted here about the high priest's vestments. Hebrews calls Jesus "our High Priest," who entered the true Holy of Holies (not an earthly replica.
If "Aaron's robe represented the whole world," Hebrews shows us Jesus, bringing the entire material creation into God's presence, into God's own throne-room, in himself.
All of these details we are reading about reveal their fullest meaning in Jesus. The Christmas feast we are about to celebrate highlights this one magnificently.
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