Author: admin_yrtx

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SYMBOLS OF ROYAL ARCH MASONS

Dress & Breastplate of the High Priest

Masonry teaches its truths and lessons by means of symbols. Throughout the ages this has proved a most effective means for teaching of all kinds, probably because the mystery connected with the symbol arouses a keen interest. This interest leads to study and research of the symbol for itself alone, but finally from behind the mystery of the symbol out comes the truth for which it stands, bold and clear, and impressed upon the mind of the student of the symbol forever. The Royal Arch Chapter is replete with symbolism. The dress and breast plate of the High Priest are particularly striking. Rare indeed is the candidate who knows anything about the dress of the High Priest, and usually his information about the breastplate is that he understands that the twelve stones set therein stand for the twelve tribes of Israel.

HISTORICAL SKETCH

In order to understand the symbolism of the dress and breastplate of the High Priest it is necessary to study briefly the manner in which the Israelites lived previous to and at the time of the establishment of the Priesthood by Divine command. Jacob was the second son of Isaac and Rebekah. He was born with Esau, when Isaac was fifty-nine and Abraham one hundred fifty-nine years old. He bought the birthright from his brother Esau and afterwards, at his mother’s instigation, acquired the blessing intended for Esau, by practicing a well-known deceit on Isaac. Up until this time the two sons shared the wanderings of Isaac in the South Country but now Jacob in his seventy-eighth year was sent from the family home, to avoid his brother, and to seek a wife among his kindred in Padan-aram. After a lapse of twenty-one years, he returned. He had escaped from the angry pursuit of Laban, his father-law, from a meeting with Esau, and from the vengeance of the Canaanites provoked by the murder of Shechem; and in each of these three emergencies he was aided and strengthened by the interposition of God, and in sign of the grace won by a night of wrestling with God his name was changed at Jabbok into Israel. (1779 B.C.)

“And God said unto him, I am God almighty; be fruitful and multiply: A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins and the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.” (Genesis xxxv. 11, 12).

The twelve sons of Jacob whose names appear on the breastplate will be discussed in connection with it. His favorite son, Joseph, incurred the envy of his brothers and as a result was sold by them to a company of Ishmaelites who took him to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. After numerous trials, Joseph prospered in Egypt and was appointed governor (1715 B.C.), a position second only to that of Pharaoh. As a result of the famines which he had predicted and provided for, the whole family was removed to Egypt (1706 B.C.). Here they were fruitful and multiplied and became very mighty. They lived among the Egyptians for 215 years and must have acquired many of the customs and much of the manner of living and culture of the Egyptians. Moses, by Divine command, Led them from Egypt and the marvelous miracles described in Exodus took place during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness. The miracle of the appearance of God at Mount Sinai, where he gave to Moses the Tables of the Law and directed the building and furnishing of the Tabernacle, will persist so long as time shall last. The separation of Aaron to the office of the priesthood is set forth in Exodus xxviii. 1-3. These duties had previously belonged to the first born. “(1) And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the Priest’s office. (2) And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty, (3) And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office.”

DRESS OF THE HIGH PRIEST

The High Priest had a peculiar dress which passed to his successor at his death. This consisted of eight parts, as the Rabbins, constantly note. (1) the breastplate, (2) the ephod with its curious girdle, (3) the robe of the ephod, (4) the mitre, (5) the broidered coat or diaper tunic, (6) the girdle, (7) the breeches or drawers of linen. To make the number eight, some reckon the high priest’s mitre, or the plate separately from the bonnet; while others reckon the curious girdle of the ephod separately from the ephod. Four of these eight articles of attire, the coat or tunic, the girdle, the breeches, and the bonnet or turban instead of the mitre belonged to the common priests.

MATERIAL OF THS BREASTPLATE

The breastplate, or, as it is further named, the breastplate of judgment was, like the inner curtains of the tabernacle, the veil, and the ephod, of “cunning work,” which means that it was the work of a skilled weaver. The material with which it was woven consisted of threads of gold and blue, purple and scarlet linen threads. The number of the threads and the order of the colors were, according to the “Targums.’ one of gold, six of blue, six of purple, and six of scarlet.

IMPORTANCE OF THE BREASTPLATE

The breastplate was of great importance because by means of it, in days of old, God revealed his Divine will to His chosen people. It was designed by God Himself and the directions as to how it was to be made were given to Moses. (Exodus xxviii. 15, 20). The breastplate was clearly designed with the idea that the names of the twelve tribes engraved on the stones should be brought before God “as a continual memorial,” and that Aaron should “bear them upon his heart, when he went into the most holy place.’ (Exodus xxviii. 12, 29).

URIM AND THUMMIM

The breastplate was doubtless a pouch or bag. It was used specially for the purpose of keeping therein the Urim and the Thummim, which were some divinely appointed instruments by which the High Priest inquired of God concerning the welfare of the children of Israel. This pouch or bag was to be four-square, being doubled, “a span shall be the length thereof, and a span shall be the breadth thereof,” (Exodus xxviii, 16) and “in” it was kept the Urim and Thummim (v. 30). In our measurements this means a square nine inches on each side.

SPEAKING-PLACE

The rendering of the Hebrew word ‘chosen” as breastplate by the translators of the Authorized Version of the Bible obscures some of its meaning. In the Septuagint it is rendered by the Greek word “logeion,” which means a speaking-place. This describes exactly what the breastplate really was—the oracle or means by which God spoke to, i.e., answered the inquires of the high-priest.

HOW THE BREASTPLATE WAS WORN

When in use the breastplate was suspended from the shoulders by means of two gold chains, hung from gold rings fastened on the shoulder straps, the lower ends being fastened to the two gold rings on the uppermost corners of the breastplate. On the two lower corners were also gold rings, through which ‘a lace of blue’ was passed to fasten it securely to the ephod.

HOW THE STONES WERE SET

Upon the breastplate were set four rows of precious stones, three in each row, and upon them were engraved the names of the twelve tribes. Josephus adds, “in the order of their birth”.

The stones were fixed to the breastplate by being “set in gold in their inclosings” which is described in Exodus xxxix. 16 as “ouches of gold,” These ouches were probably a kind of gold filigree work formed into gold rosettes, made or woven with gold wire, such as may be seen among the ancient Egyptian ornaments in the British Museum. The shape of the stones is not mentioned in Scripture, but C. W. King, an eminent authority on ancient gems, concludes that they were probably ovals or ellipses, bearing some relation to the rosette shape of the ouches. According to Josephus, ‘they were extraordinary in largeness and beauty, and were an ornament not to be purchased by men, because of their immense value.” (Antiquities, Book 1ll, Chap. vii. 5). If we may count the breastplate as nine inches square, and divide the width into three, allowing a moderate margin between the stones, it seems quite probable that they may have been as large as one and one-half or possibly two inches wide.

MIRACULOUS QUALITY OF THE STONES

Of the miraculous quality of the stones, the Jewish historian Josephus says “From the stones which the high-priest wore (these were sardonyxes, and I hold it superfluous to describe their nature, since it is known to all), there emanated a light, as often as God was present at the sacrifices that which was worn on the right shoulder instead of a clasp emitting a radiance sufficient to give light even to those far away, although the stone previously lacked this splendor. And certainly, this in itself merits the wonder of all those who do not, out of contempt for religion, allow themselves to be led away by a pretense of wisdom. However, I am about to relate something still more wonderful, namely, that God announced victory by means of the twelve stones worn by the high priest on his breast, set in the pectoral. For such splendor shone from them when the army was not yet in motion, that all the people knew that God himself was present to aid them. For this reason, the Greeks who reverence our solemnities, since they could not deny this called the pectoral “logeion” or oracle. However, the pectoral and the onyxes ceased to emit this radiance 200 years before the time when I write this, because God was displeased at the transgressions of the law.”

ENGRAVING THE STONES

When Moses wished to engrave the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on the stones of the breastplate, he is said to have had recourse to the miraculous shamir. The names were first traced in ink on the stones, and the shamir was then passed over them, the result being that the traced inscriptions became graven on the stones. In proof of the magical character of this operation, no particles of the gems were removed by the process. The name really designates “emery” or corundum. Te study of the word indicates a pointed object, similar to our diamond point, but in legend it is almost invariably described as a small worm, probably because of a fancied connection between this word and another designating a species of worm. Many have associated the Hebrew shamirwith the Creek ‘smiris’ or emery.

THE DIFFICULTY IN TRANSLATION

Many attempts have been made to translate the original Hebrew words for the twelve stones in the breastplate and the various translators have been unable to agree on the translation. G. W. Kunz in “The Curious Lore of Precious Stones” says: ‘In the Midrash Bemidbar, the Rabbinical commentary on numbers, the tribes are given in their order, with the stones appropriate to each and the color of the tribal standard pitched in the desert camp, this color corresponding in each case with that of the tribal stone.

TWO BREASTPLATES

In the attempt to determine the identity of the stones enumerated in Exodus xxviii and xxxix, as adorning the breastplate of the high priest, we must bear in mind that this “Breastplate of Aaron” and the one described by Josephus and brought by Titus to Rose after the capture of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., are in all probability entirely distinct objects. The former must have been composed of the stones known to and used by the Egyptians of the 17th. and 14th. centuries B.C., some of them being, perhaps, set in the “jewels of gold and jewels of silver” borrowed by the Israelites from the Egyptians just before the Exodus on the other hand, the most trustworthy indications regarding the atones of the breastplate of the Second Temple, made perhaps in the fifth century B.C., should be sought in the early Greek and Latin versions of the Old Testament, and in the treatise on precious stones by Theophrastus, who wrote about 300 B.C. The Natural History of Pling, that great stone house of ancient knowledge, and other writers may be used with profit. Kunz concludes: “In the following lists of the precious and semiprecious stones contained in the earlier and later breastplates, the writer does not claim to have finally solved the problem presented by the Hebrew accounts of the high-priest’s adornment, but he hopes that the distinction here between the mosaic breastplate and that of the Second Temple, separated from each ether by an interval of eight centuries, may serve to clear up some of the difficulties encountered in the treatment of this subject.

	The Breastplate of Aaron	The Breastplate of the Second Temple
I	Red Jasper	Carnelian
II	Light Green Serentine	Peridot
III	Green Feldspar	Emerald
IV	Almandine Garnet	Ruby
V	Lapis Lazuli	Lapis Lazuli
VI	Onyx	Onyx
VII	Brown Agate	Sapphire (or Jacinth)
VIII	Banded Agate	Banded Agate
IX	Amethyst	Amethyst
X	Yellow Jasper	Topaz
XI	Malachite	Beryl
XII	Green Jasper (or Jade)	Green Jasper (or Jade)

The attempt to determine exactly what the stones in the breastplate were, in modern terms, has been going on for over two-thousand years. There is no doubt about the Hebrew words used in the original text but the many scholars who have translated it have failed to agree in their translations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Proceedings of the Chapter of Research of The Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of The State of Ohio, Vol. 111, 1950.