The Tabernacle and Its Furniture by John Kitto
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It is evident from this description, and from the enumeration which the sacred text supplies of the quantities of precious materials employed in its construction, that the Tabernacle far exceeded in costliness and splendor, in proportion to the slender means of a pastoral people, the magnificence of any temple or cathedral of the present day, compared with the wealth of the surrounding population. It has been calculated that the value of the metals alone, gold, silver, and brass, was equal to £213,320,1 to which, if we add a very low estimate of the value of the wood, the curtains, the priestly vestures, (including the jeweled breastplate of the high-priest,) and the value of the workmanship, we cannot set down the whole cost of the fabric at less than £250,000.2 All the valuable materials were provided by the people. Every man brought his oblation according to his means. Those of the first quality offered the gold; those of the middle condition brought silver and brass, and shittim wood; and those in humbler circumstances provided yarn, fine linen, goat’s hair, and skins. Even the women contributed largely to this great work; for they willingly parted with their bracelets, earrings, and other ornaments, and such of them as were skilful in spinning made yarn and thread. In fact, so far from there being any difficulty in finding sufficient means for this costly undertaking, much more than was actually needed might have been obtained; for Moses was constrained to forbid by proclamation any more offerings, and thereby put some restraint upon the zeal of the people. If it be asked how they became possessed of all this wealth, it may be answered, first, that the precious metals appear in those remote ages to have been generally very plentiful in proportion to the population; and, next, that the property which the patriarchal family took down into Egypt must have been very considerable, and had doubtless received large increase during their stay in that land; besides this, there were the valuable articles which they obtained from the Egyptians at their departure, and the rich spoils of the illustrious host drowned in the Red Sea.
The Priestly Raiment
The account which we have given of the Tabernacle and its sacred furniture would be incomplete without some notice of the dress of the officiating ministers, which formed no insignificant part of the appointments of that splendid ritual service, which appeared to the Divine wisdom suited to the liberated Israelites, and to the honor of his own Great Name among them.
A Priest in the Dress of the Temple Service,
Exodus 28:39
(Click on the picture to enlarge it)
In the designation and call of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood, it was commanded that holy garments should be made for Aaron, as high priest (“for glory and for beauty”), and for his sons, by persons originally skilled in such works, and now also specially illuminated for this service. The chief of these were Bezaleel and Aholiab. As some of the garments thus made were common to both the priest and the high priest, we may begin with those of the former, taking them in the order in which they would be put on.
Breeches
The Linen Breeches, or Drawers—these first require notice. They were to be of fine twined linen; and being fastened around the loins, descended so as to cover the thighs, reaching to the knees, as the Jewish writers commonly understand, though Josephus makes them reach only to the middle of the thighs. Josephus, a priest himself, is an excellent authority respecting the dress as worn in his own time, and to that, strictly, his testimony must be regarded as limited. But it has no indirect or unimportant bearing upon the original dress, as worn in the wilderness; for although some trifling changes may in the course of ages have occurred, the dress was a matter of imperative law, and such laws are, far more than any others, observed to the very letter; and the manner in which the knowledge of this dress would, through long ages, be transmitted from one generation of priests to another, must alone have been a sufficient security against any material alteration. We may therefore take Josephus’s description of the dress, as worn by the priesthood in his time, as, upon the
1$26,572,255 in 2004 U.S. dollars taking the pound in 1845 and converting it to the pound in 2004 based on the retail index and then converting it to U.S. dollars using the average exchange rate in June of 2004—PCAM.
2$31,642,374 in 2004 U.S. dollars using the above exchange rate system—PCAM.
