After Moses has been taught these and similar things through the vision of the tabernacle, the purified eye of his soul is lifted by what he has seen to another summit of understanding. There he is taught about the priestly vestments: the undergarment and outer robe; the breastpiece shining with the varied brilliance of its stones; the band around the head and the plate upon it; the trousers, small pomegranates, and bells. Above all come the “oracle,” the “manifestation,” and the “truth” associated with them, together with the shoulder pieces that join them on either side and bear the engraved names of the patriarchs.
The very names of these garments spare us from a long, detailed interpretation of each item. What piece of bodily clothing could possibly be called “manifestation,” “oracle,” or “truth”? The names themselves show that the story is not describing ordinary clothing for the body, but an adornment of the soul woven from virtuous practices.
The full-length robe is dyed hyacinth-blue. Some earlier interpreters of the passage say that this color signifies the air. I cannot say with certainty whether the hue really resembles the color of the air, but I do not reject the interpretation, because it contributes to the moral meaning of the passage. The person who is going to serve God as a priest and offer his own body in sacred service must become a victim without being killed—a living sacrifice in rational worship. He must not weigh down his soul with a thick, flesh-heavy way of life. Through purity, he must instead make every practice of life as fine as a spider’s thread and make this bodily nature light, airy, and inclined upward. Then, when the last trumpet sounds, we may be found light and unburdened at the commanding voice, carried through the air together with the Lord, with no weight dragging us down to earth. So whoever, following the Psalmist’s counsel, has made his soul as thin as a spider’s web wears that airy tunic from head to foot. For the law does not want virtue to be cut short.
The shining beauty of good works is represented by the golden bells that swing around the pomegranate-shaped ornaments. These point to two practices by which virtue is formed: faith in God and a good conscience in one’s way of life. The great Paul adds these pomegranates and bells to Timothy’s garment when he says that Timothy must have faith and a good conscience. Let faith, then, ring out clearly and strongly in the proclamation of the Holy Trinity, while our way of life imitates the nature of the pomegranate fruit—
—for the pomegranate’s outside is not edible, enclosed in a hard and shriveled rind. But what lies within is pleasant to see because of the varied and orderly arrangement of the fruit, and sweeter still to taste. In the same way, a disciplined life devoted to wisdom is difficult and unappealing to the senses, yet it is full of good hope and bears its own ripened fruit. When the one who cultivates us opens the pomegranate of our life at the proper time and reveals the beauty hidden within, sharing in its fruits becomes sweet to those who enjoy them. The divine Apostle says that all discipline seems for the present not joyful but painful. This is the outer rind of the pomegranate that first meets those who touch it. Later, however, discipline yields the peaceful fruit. This is the sweetness of what can be eaten inside.
The passage also commands that this tunic have decorative pendants. These are round ornaments hung on for beauty beyond what is actually needed. Through them we learn that virtue should not be measured only by what the commandment requires. We should also find something to add from ourselves beyond what is strictly required, as an added ornament to the garment. Paul was like this, weaving beautiful pendants of his own into the commandments. The law allowed those who served at the altar to share in what came from the altar; it did not forbid taking along a believing wife; and it allowed those who proclaim the Gospel to live from the Gospel. Yet Paul made the Gospel free of charge, while enduring hunger, thirst, and nakedness. These are the beautiful pendants that adorn the tunic of the commandments by adding something of our own.
Then two woven panels are laid over the full-length robe, extending from the shoulders down over the chest and back and joined at the shoulders by two clasps. The clasps are stones engraved with the names of the patriarchs, six names on each. The panels themselves are richly colored: hyacinth-blue is interwoven with purple, scarlet is mixed with fine linen, and gold thread is woven through them all, so that the many colors blend into a single beauty shining from the fabric.
What we learn from these details is this: the upper part of the clothing, which especially adorns the heart, is made from many different virtues blended together. The blue is interwoven with purple because kingship is joined to purity of life. Scarlet is woven with fine linen because the brightness and purity of life are naturally joined to the blush of modesty. The gold shining among these colors points to the treasure laid up for such a life. The names of the patriarchs engraved on the shoulder pieces also contribute greatly to this adornment, for human life is made more beautiful by the examples of those who were good before us.
Over the woven shoulder pieces comes another ornament. Shield-shaped pieces of gold hang from each shoulder and support between them a square piece of gold work shining with twelve stones. The stones are arranged in four rows, three in each row. No two are alike; each is adorned with its own distinctive radiance.
That is the form of the ornament. Its meaning is this: the shield-shaped pieces hanging from the shoulders signify the protection afforded by our armor against the adversary, as we have already seen. As was said a little earlier, virtue is brought to completion through faith and a good conscience in this life. Protected on both sides by these shields, a person remains unwounded by the enemy’s arrows, armed with the weapons of righteousness on the right and on the left.
The square ornament hanging between the two shields, with the patriarchs who gave their names to the tribes inscribed on its stones, becomes a covering for the heart. The passage teaches us that the person who has driven back the evil archer with these two shields will adorn his soul with all the virtues of the patriarchs. Each patriarch shines in a different way upon the garment of virtue. Let the square shape itself show you stability in what is good. Such a shape is hard to dislodge because its straight sides and equal angles give it a firm and stable form.
The straps that fasten these ornaments to the arms seem to me to offer a lesson for the higher life: the active practice of virtue must be joined to contemplation. In this way the heart becomes a symbol of contemplation and the arms a symbol of works.
The headband worn on the priest’s head points to the crown reserved for those who have lived well. A gold plate engraved with a mysterious inscription completes its decoration. But the person wearing this clothing is given no sandals. In the race, he must not be weighed down or hindered by coverings made from dead skins, as we understood earlier in the vision on the mountain. How could sandals now count as an ornament for the feet when, in the first initiation, they had to be removed because they hindered the ascent?