8. THE CURTAIN AND ITS PILLARS, AND THE: Propitiatory On The Ark
BEDE: ON THE TABERNACLE
as our example we might devote ourselves to mutual love in God, to divine praise, to peace in one accord, to genuine chastity, and to other such virtues on earth, and might deserve to be their comrades also in heaven according to the promise of the Lord, who says: 'But those who shall be considered worthy of that world, and of the resurrection from the dead, shall neither marry, nor take wives, neither can they die any more; for they are equal to the angels, andare the children of God, being children of the resurrection. I'
In the precepts of the law, then, Moses shows us the pattern of the angelic way of life which he saw on the mountain of contemplation; through the observance of these precepts we ourselves also can be raised up from the earth and enabled to attain to the fellowship of the angels in heaven. In the figure of the tabernacle and the priestly and levitical ministry which he describes, [Moses] exhibits for us this same pattern of a more perfect life and a blessed reward. And the tabernacle is erected according to the pattern that was shown to him on the mountain when all of the elect bring intention and deed together, in imitation of the angelic purity which he deserved to contemplate in secret.
Up to this point there has been set forth as much [information] as the Lord imparted concerning the southern, northern, and western parls of the temple; now, in what follows, it is shown how the eastern side also was to be constructed. But first Scripture decreed what was to be made known concerning the middle part, which divided the holy of holies from the first tabernacle.
THE CURTAIN AND ITS PILLARS, AND THE
PROPITIATORY ON THE ARK
There follows:
26:3 1-2 You shall also make a curtain of blue and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen, woven with embroidery work in beautiful variegation, and you shall hang it from four pillars of acacia wood. Josephus relates that this curtain with which the tabernacle was divided was placed in the middle in such a way that the first building was twenty cubits long, and the second ten.' This appears to be consistent in every respect with the measurements of the temple thit was later made by Solomon, which since it was sixty cubits long and twenty wide, had a third part of its length (that is, twenty cubits) set apart for the interior building
(that is, the holy of holies), so that the length and the widtliof that same (711 1 Luke 20:35-6 2 Josephus, Ant. Jud. 3,6,4 (ed. Blatt, 234, 5-9)
BOOK TWO
interior building might be equal.' In the same way, then, the interior part of the tabernacle also had a similar length and width (that is, ten cubits).
Figuratively, this represents the same curtain that the Apostle declares openly to the Hebrews, in the place where he also explains properly, according to the allegorical sense, the reason that the priests indeed continually entered into the first tabernacle to carry out [their] sacrificial duties, but into the second, the high priest alone, once a year, not without the blood which he offered for his own and the people's ignorance.' This curtain is interpreted as heaven. And the priests entered into the first tabernacle with sacrifices daily throughout the year, which further illustlates the circumstances of this life, in which the saints who serve the Lord as true priests of God and of his Christ ceaselessly atone for the daily errors of their frailty (without which they are by no means able to exist in this life) through the daily sacrifices of good works and the daily libations of their own tears. But [the Apostle] understands the high priest who went into the holy of holies with the blood of victims once a year to be the great High
Priest himself, of whom it was said: 'You are apriest forever according to the order ofMelchizedek.
He who as both priest and victim had offered himself through his own blood once for our sins entered into heaven itselJ; that he might now appear in the presence of God on our beha(f4
Now the same curtain was woven from blue, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen with embroidery work. Who does not see that the literal meaning of this also corresponds with the beauty of the heavenly vision? For if you consider the blazing splendour of the stars, or the manifold beauties of the clouds, or the rainbow which trails a thousand different colours before the sun, will you not see for yourself that they delineate pictures set in a heavenly [tapestry] of colours, which are more numerous by far and more beautiful than those which are. woven into the curtain of the tabernacle?
Now the four pillars before which this curtain was hung are the powers of the heavenly hosts, resplendent with the four most excellent vifiues of which we have also spoken a b ~ v e , ~ that is: justice, prudence, fortitude, and temperance. Surely these virtues are exercised in one way by us who are among the labours and tribulations of this life, and in another way by the angels and holy souls who are in heaven. For here, justice (and ths a wholly
1 1 Kgs. 6 2 , 20 2 Heb. 96-7 3 Ps. 110:4 (103:4) 4 Heb. 9 2 4 5 Bede, De tab. 2,2 (CCSL 119A: 46, 185-90)
BEDE: ON THE TABERNACLE
immortal justice) pertains to those who are seen to be subject to God who reigns, prudence to those who set no blessing above or equal to God, fortitude to those who hold most firmly to God, temperance to those who take no delight in disgraceful failure; but there, where there is nothing evil at all, justice does not come to the aid of the unfortunate, as it does here, nor prudence guard against snares, nor fortitude endure discomfort, nor temperance curb perverse pleasures.
[72] Now it is appropriate that these pillars were made of acacia wood, either because the angelic spirits were created incormptible and immortal in nature, or because being created free from sin they always preserve the undefiled purity of their creation. Concerning this it is aptly added:
26:32 These [pillars] shall also be overlaid with gold, and they shall have heads of gold but bases of silver. Surely the pillars from which the curtain was hung were overlaid withgold because the angelic virtues, which are situated within the curtain of heaven, are clothed with the grace of utmost brilliance. They have heads of gold because they are ruled by a mind illuminated by the presence of divine knowledge and vision, and they have bases of silver because the very foundation, as it were, upon which their whole nature stands is that they may sing hymns of praise to their Creator and convey the will of that same Creator to us who are still sojourning upon earth, as if to their fellow citizens who are situated outside the curtain. For the same reason, we on earth who rejoice in company with their praises are accustomed to call unceasingly as if with a cry of exhortation: 'Bless the Lord, all his angels, you who are mighty in strength and do his will. For in the Scriptures the splendour of wisdom is often indxated by gold, and the brightness of words by silver.
26:33 Now thecurtain shall be attached with rings; within it you shall put the ark of the covenant, and by it the sanctuary and the holy of holies shall be divided. In Holy Scripture it is often customary to use rings to express eternity, because they appear to have neither beginning nor end.
And aptly is the curtain by wtuch heaven is figured said to have been hung up with rings, either because it was in the eternal counsel of the Divinity at the creation of the world, in which the nature of heaven has the first and most distinguished place, or else because the firmament of heaven was made in such a way that its fashioning could never be undone. For when the Lord says, 'Heaven andenrth shallpass away, '2 this is to be understood as referring to that atmospheric heaven concerning which Jeremiah says,
1 Ps. 103:20 (102:20) 2 Man. 2435
BOOKTWO
The kite in heaven has known its time. For that heaven which is to perish by fire at the [last] judgement is that whch is known to have been destroyed by the waters of the flood, as Peter bears witness when he says: By the word of God heavens existed in former times, and the earth was formed out of water and by means of water, through which the world of that time was deluged with water andperished, but by the same word the heavens which now exist have been resewedfor$re, being kept until the dayofjudgement.2
(731 Now the ark of the covenant was placed within this curtain of the temple because after his passion and resurrection from the dead, the Mediator between God and humankind, the man Christ Jesus,3 who alone is privy to the secrets of the Father, has ascended above the highest heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. The sanctuary and the holy of holies are divided by this curtain because the Church, which consists of the holy angels as well as human beings, partly still sojourns below and partly reigns in the eternal homeland above, as its citizens are still separated from another by the dividing curtain of heaven.
26:34 And you shall put the propitiatory on the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies. Aptly is the propitiatory said to have been put on the ark, because it was given in particular to the Mediator between God and humankind himselfby God the Father that he should be thepropitiation for our sins.4 For this reason Paul also says: Jesus Christ who died, yes, who rose again, and who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedesfor
us.
26:35 And the table outside the curtain and the lampstand on the south side of the tabernacle, opposite the table; for the table shall stand on the north side. The table and the lampstand of the tabernacle designate the temporal benefits of God, with which we are refreshed and illumined in the present time, that the grace of our merits might increase as a result of being strengthened and sustained by these things for a while, so that we may be enabled to come to eat the bread of angels in heaven and to see the true Light of the world. Both of these are outside the curtain, for only in this life do we have need of the Holy Scriptures, or teachers, or the other sacraments of our redemption, but in the world to come, where the Lord will tell us plainly of the Father6 (that is, he will show us the Fatheropenly),
1 Jer. 8:7
2 2 Pet. 35-7 3 1 Tim. 2:5
4 1 John 2:2
5 Rom. 8:34
6 John 16:25