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stars which Greeks call the Zodiac, we shall not go far from the meaning which they convey. The mitre again seems to me to be emblematic of heaven, since it is made of blue, for otherwise the name of God would not have been placed upon it, set conspicuously upon the fillet, and that a fillet of gold, for the sake of its splendour in which the Divinity especially delights.’

Philo's earlier exposition is much more elaborate. He supposes that the Court represented the objects of sense ( ta; aijsqhtav ), the Sanctuary, the objects of thought ( ta; nohtav ). On this view the five pillars of the porch indicate the senses, which have relations both outwards and inwards. The fourfold fabric of the veil he interprets exactly as Josephus of the four elements, and so also the seven lamps of the Candlestick, of the planets, with the Sun in the midst. He sees in the High-priest's robes a clear image of the world, but he differs in many parts from Josephus in his explanation of the parts. The words with which he closes his account of the dress exhibit favourably his general method: ‘Thus is the High-priest arrayed when he undertakes his sacred service, in order that when he enters the Sanctuary, to make the prayers and sacrifices of our fathers, all the world may enter with him, through the symbols which he wears; for the long robe is a symbol of the air, the pomegranate, of water, the flower-border, of earth, the scarlet, of fire, the Ephod, of heaven; and, more particularly, the round emeralds on his shoulders, on which severally are six carvings representing six signs of the Zodiac, are symbols of the two hemispheres; and the twelve stones upon his breast in four rows of three, the ‘Rational’ (Logeion), as it is called ( to; lovgeion ), is the symbol of the Logos who holds together and administers the whole. For it was necessary that he who performs priestly service to the Father of the world should use as Advocate ( paravklhton ) a Son most perfect in virtue, both to secure oblivion of sins and a supply of most bounteous blessings.’

If now we turn from these material and intellectual analogies to the teaching of the Epistle, it will be evident that we have passed into another region. The Tabernacle is indeed regarded by the writer as formed after a heavenly pattern (Heb. 8:5; comp. Wisd. 9:8): it has its divine correlative (Heb. 8:2, 5; 9:11): it served as a figure (Heb. 9:9) up to the time when Christ's apostles were able to declare the fulfilment of its signs; and its furniture was charged with a meaning which he could not discuss from due regard to proportion (9:2-5). But it was not simply an epitome of that which is presented on a larger scale in the world of finite being: the archetype to which it answered belonged to another order: the lessons which it conveyed were given in the fulness of time (Heb. 1:1) in a form which is final for man.

The Tabernacle, as we have seen, presented three main ideas, the ideas of the dwelling of God among men, of His holiness, of His ‘conversableness.’ It was that through which He was pleased to make His Presence and His Nature known under the conditions of earth to His people Israel. The antitype of the Tabernacle, whether on earth or in heaven, must fulfil the same office, and fulfil it perfectly. Such an antitype we find in the humanity of Christ, realised in different modes and degrees during His life on earth, in His Body, the Church, and in the consummation in ‘heaven.’ In each stage, if we may so speak, of the ‘fulfilment’ (Eph. 1:23), Christ satisfies in actual life more and more completely, according to our apprehension, that which the Tabernacle suggested by figures. His earthly Body was a Sanctuary


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