Exodus 25

Exodus 25:2

Richard Challoner: Firstfruits: Offerings of some of the best and choicest of their goods.

Exodus 25:4

Gregory the Dialogist: It is very necessary that when we are moved by compunction concerning ourselves, we also be zealous for the life of those entrusted to us. Therefore, let the bitterness of compunction affect us in such a way that it does not turn us away from the care of our neighbors. For what does it profit if, loving ourselves, we abandon our neighbors? Or again, what does it profit if, loving or being zealous for our neighbors, we abandon ourselves? Indeed, in the adornment of the tabernacle, twice-dyed scarlet is commanded to be offered, so that before the eyes of God our charity may be colored with love of God and neighbor. But he truly loves himself who purely loves his Creator. Therefore, the scarlet is dyed twice when the soul is inflamed with love of truth toward both itself and its neighbor. — Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 17

Exodus 25:5

Richard Challoner: Setim wood: The wood of a tree that grows in the wilderness, which is said to be incorruptible.

Exodus 25:7

Richard Challoner: The ephod and the rational: The ephod was the high priest’s upper vestment; and the rational his breastplate, in which were twelve gems, etc.

Exodus 25:9

Ephrem the Syrian: By saying [to him], “You shall make everything according to the model of the tabernacle that I will show you,” he first called it a model and a temporal tabernacle to indicate that it was transitory and that it would be replaced by the church, the perfect prototype which lasts forever. And so … they would esteem it because of its likeness to the heavenly tabernacle. — COMMENTARY ON Exodus 25:1

Exodus 25:10

Origen of Alexandria: But when the passage about the equipment of the tabernacle is read, believing that the things described therein are types, some seek for ideas which they can attach to each detail that is mentioned in connection with the tabernacle. Now so far as concerns their belief that the tabernacle is a type of something they are not wrong. But in rightly attaching the word of Scripture to the particular idea of which the tabernacle is a type, here they sometimes fall into error. — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.2.2

Exodus 25:12

Gregory the Dialogist: What but the holy Church is figured by the ark? To which four rings of gold in the four corners are ordered to be adjoined, because, in that it is thus extended towards the four quarters of the globe, it is declared undoubtedly to be equipped for journeying with the four books of the holy Gospel. And staves of shittim-wood are made, and are put through the same rings for carrying, because strong and persevering teachers, as incorruptible pieces of timber, are to be sought for, who by cleaving ever to instruction out of the sacred volumes may declare the unity of the holy Church, and, as it were, carry the ark by being let into its rings. For indeed to carry the ark by means of staves is through preaching to bring the holy Church before the rude minds of unbelievers by means of good teachers. And these are also ordered to be overlaid with gold, that, while they are resonant to others in discourse, they may also themselves glitter in the splendour of their lives. Of whom it is further filly added, “They shall always be in the rings, nor shall they ever be drawn out from them;” because it is surely necessary that those who attend upon the office of preaching should not recede from the study of sacred lore. — The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 2, Chapter 11

Exodus 25:17

Richard Challoner: A propitiatory: a covering for the ark: called a propitiatory, or mercy seat, because the Lord, who was supposed to sit there upon the wings of the cherubims, with the ark for his footstool, from thence showed mercy. It is also called the oracle, ver. 18 and 20; because from thence God gave his orders and his answers.

Exodus 25:18

Gregory the Dialogist: We can also understand the two Testaments by the two angels. Hence also the two cherubim that cover the mercy seat look upon one another with their faces turned toward the mercy seat. For cherubim means fullness of knowledge. And what is signified by the two cherubim except both Testaments? And what is figured by the mercy seat except the incarnate Lord? Of whom John says: For he is the propitiation for our sins. And while the Old Testament proclaims that this was to be done which the New Testament declares was done concerning the Lord, it is as if both cherubim look upon one another, while they turn their faces toward the mercy seat, because while they see the incarnate Lord placed between them, they do not disagree in their view, for they narrate the mystery of his dispensation in harmony. — 40 Homilies on the Gospels, Homily 25

Origen of Alexandria: We are told too that “the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the fire”; again, in another place “the tongue of the just” is said to be “as silver tried by fire.” And the cherubim are described as golden, because they are by interpretation the plentitude of knowledge. And it is commanded also that a candlestick of solid gold should be put in the tabernacle of the testimony; and that, it seems to us, is a type of the natural law in which the light of knowledge is contained. But what need is there to multiply proof texts when those who will can easily see for themselves from many Scripture passages that gold is applied to the intellect and mind, whereas silver is referred only to language and the power of speech? — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2:8

Exodus 25:21

Isaac of Nineveh: The same applied to the plate placed on top of the ark, from which the priest learned from God whatever was necessary by revelation once a year, when the high priest entered, at the solemn moment of prayer, while all the tribes of Israel were gathered and standing in awe and trembling in the outer tent in prayer. The high priest entered the inner sanctuary, and while he lay prostrate on his face, the utterances of God were audible from within that plate which was over the ark, by means of an awesome and ineffable revelation. How fearful was that mystery which was carried out on that occasion. It is the same with all the revelations and visions which have come to the saints: they have all occurred at the time of prayer. — DISCOURSE 22

Exodus 25:23

Bede: A dividing wall of cedar planks, twenty cubits high, was built in the temple to separate the inner sanctuary, that is, the Holy of Holies, from the forepart of the temple. The innersanctuary was twenty cubits deep, twenty cubits wide and twenty cubits high. The [part of the temple] in front of the inner sanctuary was forty cubits long, and in it were tables and the golden candelabrum, as well as the golden altar near the door of the inner sanctuary. This was done so that when incense was offered upon it, the cloud of smoke might rise up and cover the inner sanctuary, where the ark of the covenant was, “and above it the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.” — Homilies on the Gospels 25

Richard Challoner: A table: On which were to be placed the twelve loaves of proposition: or, as they are called in the Hebrew, the face bread, because they were always to stand before the face of the Lord in his temple: as a figure of the eucharistic sacrifice and sacrament, in the church of Christ.

Exodus 25:29

Richard Challoner: Libations: That is, drink offerings.

Exodus 25:31

Richard Challoner: A candlestick: This candlestick, with its seven lamps, which was always to give light in the house of God, was a figure of the light of the Holy Ghost, and his sevenfold grace, in the sanctuary of the church of Christ.

Exodus 25:40

Hebrews (8:1-7): Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount. [Exodus 25:40] But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

John Damascene: Behold, the glorification of matter, which you despise! What is more insignificant than colored goatskins? Are not blue and purple and scarlet merely colors? Behold the handiwork of men becoming the likeness of the cherubim! Was not the meeting tent an image in every way? “And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.” Yet all the people stood around it and worshiped! Were not the cherubim kept where all the people could see them? Did not the people gaze upon the ark, and the lampstand, and the table, the golden urn and Aaron’s rod, and fall down in worship? I do not worship matter. I worship the Creator of matter, who became matter for me, taking up his abode in matter and accomplishing my salvation through matter. — ON DIVINE IMAGES 14

Methodius of Olympus: If, according to the apostle, “the law is spiritual” and contains within itself the images “of the good things to come,” then let us remove “the veil” of the letter which is spread over it and contemplate its true meaning stripped bare. The Jews were commanded to adorn their tabernacle as a proleptic imitation of the church, that through the things of sense they might be able to prefigure the image of things divine. For the exemplar which was shown forth on the mountain and on which Moses gazed when he constructed the tabernacle was in a way an accurate picture of the dwelling in heaven, to which indeed we pay homage insofar as it far surpasses the types in clarity and yet is far fainter than the reality. The fact is that the unmingled truth has not yet come to humanity as it is in itself, for here we would be unable to contemplate its pure incorruptibility, just as we cannot endure the rays of the sun with unshielded eyes. The Jews announced what was a shadow of an image, at a third remove from reality, whereas we ourselves clearly behold the image of the heavenly dispensation. But the reality itself will be accurately revealed after the resurrection when we shall see the holy tabernacle, the heavenly city, “whose builder and maker is God,” face to face, and not “in a dark manner” and only “in part.” — BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS 5.7

Origen of Alexandria: Moreover it was said to Moses himself, “See that you make all things according to the form and likeness which was shown to you in the mount.” It seems to me, therefore, that … in this earth the law was a kind of schoolmaster to those who by it were appointed to be led to Christ and to be instructed and trained in order that after their training in the law they might be able with greater facility to receive the more perfect precepts of Christ. So also that other earth, when it receives all the saints, first imbues and educates them in the precepts of the true and eternal law in order that they may with greater facility accept the precepts of heaven which are perfect and to which nothing can ever be added. And in heaven will truly exist what is called the “eternal gospel” and the Testament that is always new, which can never grow old. — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.8