6. The Tunic Of The Superhumerale
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28:30 And in the rational of judgement you shall put Doctrine and Truth, which shall be on Aaron's breast when he goes in before the Lord. Whether engraved on it in writing or put into it as a sacrament, by name only, the reason that Doctrine and Truth were in the rational of judgement was so that when the high priest was clothed with that same vestment he might remcmber that by receiving the priesthood he had been consecrated for investigating the study of doctrine and truth, and not for conducting and examining secular busincss. As a result, he would take care that the external type shining forth on his vestment should be expressed interiorly in his heart. Moreover, Doctrine and Truth were put in the rational so that it might be clearly figured that this vestment not only clothed the high priest of the law but also foretold the high priest of the gospel, which could be the Lord himself of whom it is written, For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, or perhaps his apostles, or maybe even all the heralds of that same grace and truth.
(1091 28:30 And he shall wear the judgement of the children of Israel on his breast in the sight of the Lord always. The priest wears the judgement of the children of Israel on his breast in the sight of the Lord when he examines his subjects' cases in accordance with the mindof the inner Judge alone, so that he allows nothing ofhis own lowliness to be mixed with that which he dispenses as a result of his being set in a divine ofice.2
THE TUNIC OF THE SUPERHUMERALE
28:3 1 And you shall make the tunic of the superhumerale all of blue.
It speaks of the tunic of the superhumerale, much of which was covered by the superhumerale, in distinction from the inner tunic, which was linen.
In like manner, it makes mention of these [tunics] above, when it says,And these will be the veshnents that they shall make: a rational and a superhumerale, a tunic and a close-fitting linen garment. Thus the inner
tunic was linen (or fine twisted linen, whch is generally acknowledged to be the noblest kind of linen), but the outer tunic was all of blue, with nothmg of any other colour being allowed at all. The uniformity of its appearance clearly teaches what sort of life ought to be characteristic of a priest: that is, he should be unceasingly intent upon heavenly desires alone, and (in the 1 John 1:17
2 GregorytheC~eaSReg.pasf.
2,2(SC381: 178,38-41); Bede hashumilirafis('lowliness') 3 Exod. 28.4 where Gregory had humanitatis ('humanity').
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words of the Apostle) he should have his conversation in heaven,' eagerly expecting from there the coming of his Saviour.
Surely t h ~ s tunic reached to the feet, as did the fine twisted linen one also; for this reason both of them were called poderis2 in Greek. In this way it was shown that nothing low or sordid should remain in the life of a priest, but in everything that he does all his members should be covered from head to foot with the grace of virtues, as though they were most resplendent with the colour of the sky.
Moreover, the priest is vested in a tunic all of blue and reaching to the ankles as a reminder that all those who wish to be saved must not only make a beginning of heavenly work but must also persevere in it unto the end.
For surely to be vested with a blue tunic unto the feet is to devote oneself to good works until the end of t h ~ s life, as the Lord commands and promises,
'Be faithful until death, and I willgive you the crown of I@.
And because the only way that we can attain the perfection of good action through untiring resolution is if we have our intention fixed on a heavcnly reward from the beginning, rightly is it added concerning the same tunic:
28:32 In the middle of it there shall be an opening on top for the head, with a border woven all around it, as is customarily made on the outer edges of garments, so that it may not be easily tom. The opening for the head in the blue tunic has a border that is very strong and woven out of itself so that it may not be easily torn4 when it is proved that the beginning of our good action is based on the strong foundation of godly fear and well-protected against all assaults of the ancient enemy. For surely a border of this sort clothes and adorns the neck of the priest all around when it gives the ruler a very great confidence in speaking and preaching heavenly things to his subjects, inasmuch as he has not only lived rightly throughout the course of his life, but has also begun with rectitude from the very start, in accordance with the examples of the blessed prophets Samuel, Jeremiah, and John [the Baptist], who from their very infancy werc filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit and set apart for the order of teacher^.^ And since the voice is indeed [located] in the neck, it is quite appropriate for the neck to depict the ability to speak.
[ I 1 OJ Now when the border of the opening for the head was being commanded to be made woven all around, aptly was it immediately added, as is
1 Phil. 3:20
2 The Greek word KOo6fipr)C literally means 'reaching to the feet'.
3 Rev. 2: 10
4 Jerome, Ep. 64, 14, 1 (CSEL 54: 600, 10-12) 5 1 Sam. 1 : 1 1 , 27-8; Jer. 1:4-5; Luke 1:13-17
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customarily made on the outer edges of garments. For just as works are figured by the vestments, it is not unsuitable for the completion of works to be figured by the outer edges of the vestments. Or perhaps the outer edges of the vestments are those final acts of solicitude with which all the faithfd, when we are being constrained to finish this life, strive more intently than usual to cleanse ourselves of the stain of every evil, making expiation' with fear and trembling. As a result, when we are led before the strict Judge we shall not be cast out on account of the unclean garment of our vices and be thrown into eternal darkness,2 but shall instead appear clothed as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, with mercy, kindness, humility, modesty, andpatience in the inmost parts, . . . and above all these. . . char@, which is the bond ~Jper@ction.~ For h s is truly the wedding garment that our King and Judge is pleased to find on his spouse, that is, on the Holy Church.
But the blue tunic of the priest has a woven border on the opening for the head, as is customarily made on the outer edges of garments, when there is one illustrious teacher who begins the work of virtue with a high degree of perfection, although another one hardy ever attains to it, though he labours for a very long time; or when there is one who serves at every hour with great fear while walking humbly with the Lord his God in accordance with the word of the prophet? while another is hardly capable of having that much fear even when he is about to die and enter into the last judgement before his Lord. But since the complete perfection of the priest is comprised of works and the teaching of truth, in accordance with blessed Luke's comment that in writing his gospel he had com osed a treatise concerning the things that Jesus began to do and to teach, nghtly is there added:
(1111 P.
28:33 And all around the lower hem of the sametunic you shall make pomegranates, as it were, of blue, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, with bells mixed in between. Surely there are pomegranates, as it were, and bells made all around the lower hem of the tunic when the priest attains to a way of life that is devoted to God with so much excellence that nothing else is seen in him but the splendour and the grace and the manifold flowering (if I may put it that way) of good works, and nothing other than their sweetest sound is heard from him when he opens his mouth. For since in a pomegranate there are many seeds on the inside covered by one rind on the outside, rightly does the pomegranate designate the multifarious
1 'making expiation' = procurantes 2 Man. 22:2-13 3 Col. 3:12, 14 4 Mic. 6 3 5 Acts 1:1
BEDE: ON THE TABERNACLE
exercise of virtues, which is protected on every side by the single rampart of chanty.
Now it happens that the image of these pomegranates was imprinted with blue and pulple and scarlet twice dyed, and (as we find out later on') with fine twisted linen also; the variety of virtues is quite often suggested by these four colours. And bells are mixed in between these [pomegranates] when the priest's work is never inconsistent with the sound of the word that he speaks and the sound of his tongue never disagrees with the rectitude of his work, even when he is plagued by adversities. Here there is pleasingly added:
28:34 In such a way that there shall be a golden bell and a pomegranate, and another golden bell again and a pomegranate. Golden bells are surely inserted into the blue tunic of the high priest and placed around on every side when his every word resounds with the clarity of heavenly light and when that same sound is also conunended to the minds of his hearers by its sublimiity, just as though it were firmly fixed in the blue tunic of works. And there are two pomegranates around every bell and two bells around every pomegranate when everything that he says is confirmed by his good actions and thereby fixed the more firmly in the hearts of his hearers,andwheneverythingthat hedoes, inso farasitaccords withreason, is proclaimed in the distinct sound of a word. There properly follows:
28:35 And Aaron shall bevested with it in the exercise of his ministry, so that the sound may be heard when he goes into the sanctuary in the sight of the Lord, and when he comes out, so that he may not die. Surely the priest dies if no sound is heard from him when he goes in or comes out of the sanctuary, because he arouses the wrath of the hidden Judge against himselfghe approaches without the sound ofpreaching. If we are willing to pay attention to those words of Josephus in which he says that there were seventy-two pomegranates on the tunic of the high priest and the same number of bells,3 [we shall find that] this is consistent with the figures of the mysteries. In the same way that [the high priest] was ordered to bear the apostolic number on the shoulder and the breast, he also had the number of the seventy-two disciples distributed around his feet4 For just as the
(1121 1 Exod. 3922
2 Gregory the Great, Reg. pasf. 2,4 (SC 381: 190, 52-4) 3 Bede has in fact derived the information that follows not from Josephus' description of the tunic inAnf. Jud. 3, 7, 4 (ed. Blaa, 238, 19-21), but from Jerome, Ep. 64, 14, 2 (CSEL. 54:
600, 12-1 3). This is a rare instance in which Bede derived an allegorical meaning from a nonbiblical source, contrary to a principle he was to express several years later in De femplo 2
(CCSL 119A: 193, 73-6). See IIolder(l989a). 129-31.
4 Luke 1O:l
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number of the twelve apostles marked the beginning of the episcopal rank, it is apparent that the seventy-two disciples, who were also sent out by the Lord to preach the word, sigrufy in their selection the lesser rank of priesthood which is now called the presbyterate. For the same reason, it is appropriate that these [seventy-two] were figured in the last part of the priestly vesture, as those [twelve] had been in the first. For it was fitting that the type of those who were to occupy a hgher rank in the body of the High Priest (that is, in the Church of Christ) should have a higher place in the typic clothing of the high priest.
But if anyone also wishes to interpret the numbers in these same two orders mystically, [then we might say that] Aaron bore twelve precious stones on his breast in order to signify that there would come a time in which the faithof the Holy Trinity would be preached to the human race in all four parts of the world. Or perhaps, as we have also explained above,' he canied twelve precious stones (that is, three groups of four) in order to advise all teachers that they should always possess both the works of righteousness which are chiefly comprehended in the four virtues along with faith in the truth of the Trinity, and that they should also urge their disciples to possess the same.
He also bore seventy-two golden bells with the same number of pomegranates, that he might mystically show that the same faith and the same working of righteousness were going to lead the whole world from the darkness of error into the true light. For three days and nights contain seventy-two hours, and during the course of seventy-two hours this visible sun of ours circles every part of the world three times in succession as it sheds its light up above and down below. Aptly, then, was this the number of bells and pomegranates of diverse colours placed on the high priest's tunic, teaching figuratively that Christ the Sun of righteousness* was going to illuminate the entire world and bestow upon it the gift of true faith, which lies in the acknowledgement and confession of the Holy Trinity, and also the gift of good works, which are found in the flowering and the splendour of the various virtues.
Of course we can also understand that in the number of the twelve precious stones of the rational there is being figuratively expressed that the same Sun of righteousness is going to fill all our times and all regions of our world with his light, after the pattern of the mundane sun which is accustomed to traverse the circuit of the zodiac and to go around the entire world during the course of twelve months. For the fact that each of the four
( I 131 1 Bede, De tab. 3.5 (CCSL 119A: 104,443-52) 2 Mal. 4:2