ly Kobe, Ephod, and
or, rather, cords of twisted gold threads, which were fastened at one end to two other larger rin^s tixed in the upper corners of (lie pectoral, and by the other end going round the onyx stones on the shoulders, and re- turning and being tixed in the larger ring. The breast- plate was further kepi in its place by a girdle, made of the same stuff, which Josephus says was sewed to the breastplate, and which, when it had gone once round, was tied again upon the seam and bung down. Here is another adaptation and correction of the costume of the higher Egyptian priests, who wore a large, splendid ornament upon the breast, often a winged scarabffius, the emblem of the sun, as in the cut. Fig. 5, which ex-
in Priestly Breastplate.
hibits the connecting ring and chain to fasten it to the girdle. (4.) The remaining portion of dress peculiar to the high-priest was the mitre, 113238, mitmt /» th (Sept.
KiSapiQ', Vulg. cidaris, Exod. xxviii. 4). The Bible
says nothing of the difference between this and the tur- ban of the common priests. It is. however, called by a different name. It was to be of fine linen (ver.89). Josephus Says it wa8 the same in construction and fig- ure with that of the common priest, but thai above it there was another, with BWathes Of blue, embroidered: and round it was a golden crown, polished, of three rows, one above another, out of which rose a cup of gold, which resembled the calyx of the herb called by Greek botanists hyoscyamus. He cuds a most labored description by comparing the shape of it to a poppy (Ant. iii. 7, in. Upon comparing his account of the bonnet of the priests with the mitre of the bigh-priest, it would appear that the latter w as conical. The cut. Fig. 6, presents the principal forms of the mitre- worn by the ancient priests of Egypt, and affords a substan- tia] resemblance of that prescribed to the .lews, divested
of idolatrous symbols, but which were displaced to make
PRIEST
573
PRIEST
way for a simple plate of gold, bearing the inscription, "Holiness to Jehovah." This plate ("pS, tsits; Sept. tt'stuXov ; Vulg. lamina) extended from one ear to the other, being bound to the forehead by strings tied be- hind, and further secured in its position by a blue rib- bon attached to the mitre (Exod. xxviii, 304)9; xxxix, 30; Lev. viii, 9). Josephus says this plate was pre- served to his own day {A nt. viii, 3, 8; see Keland, De Spol. Templi, p. 132). " Such was the dress of the high- priest: see a description of its magnificence in corre- sponding terms in Ecclus. 1, 5-1G.
Fig. 0. Ancient Egyptian Priestly Mitres.
Josephus had an idea of the symbolical import of the several parts of the pontifical dress. He says that be- ing made of linen signified the earth ; the blue denoted the sky, being like lightning in its pomegranates, and in the noise of its bells resembling thunder. The ephod showed that God had made the universe of four ele- ments, the gold relating to the splendor by which all things are enlightened. The breastplate in the middle of the ephod resembled the earth, which has the middle place of the world. The girdle signified the sea, which goes round the world. The sardonyxes declare the sun and moon. The twelve stones are the twelve months or signs of the zodiac. The mitre is heaven, because blue {Ant. iii, 7, 7). He appears, however, to have had two explanations of some things, o.ie for the Gentiles, and another for the Jews. Thus in this section he tells his Gentile readers that the seven lamps upon the gold- en candlesticks referred to the seven planets ; but to the Jews he represents them as an emblem of the seven days of the week {War, vii, 5, 5; Whiston's notes ad loc). It was not always worn by the high-priest. It was exchanged for one wholly of linen, and therefore white, though of similar construction, when on the day of expiation he entered into the holy of holies (Lev. xvi, 4, 23); and neither he nor the common priests wore their appropriate dress, except when officiating. It was for this reason, according to some, that Paul, who had been long absent from Jerusalem, did not know that Ananias was the high -priest (Acts xxiii, 5). Bahr (Symbolik, vol. ii, ch. iii, § 1,2) finds a mystic meaning in the number, material, color, and shape of the priestly vestments, discusses each point, elaborately, and dwells in § 3 on the differences between them and those of the Egyptian priesthood. According to Fairbairn {Typol. of Script.), the garments represent the office, and the person who was officially invested was to have them sprinkled with a mixture of oil and sacrificial blood (Kurtz, Opfercultus, p. 292). These garments, which were first worn at the consecration, and which were pre- served in the Temple when not actually required, were not allowed except to such as were legally consecrated for service, though they belonged to the house of Aaron. These garments were "holy garments" (Exod. xxviii, 4). made '■ for glory and for beauty ;" but they were not only for a glorious ornament, for the whole of the vest- ments bore a symbolical meaning, and the inscription on the golden plate which adorned the brow of the high-priest, "Holiness to Jehovah," might be properly