I’m regularly astonished at the commitment of my local supermarket – a branch of Lidl just off Maryhill Road.
Today for example, I was offered pheasant, quail, goose, venison and horse tidbits.
I toyed with the idea of the bath salts flavoured with honey and milk which sounded vaguely Biblical but in the end opted for a pomegranate instead. If I’m known to consume pomegranates, do you think that someone will take the hint and donate some new vestments after the fashion of Exodus 29:24?
It turned out that the horse tidbits were for feeding to horses, not bits of horse that you eat.
(I had to check to make sure though).
Pomegranates are in certain circles a sign of what might be decribed as a debauched nature! I’m not sure what colour of vestments you might get donated or by whom!
We clearly move in different circles, John.
“On the lower hem of the robe they made pomegranates of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen. They also made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates on the lower hem of the robe all round, between the pomegranates; a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate all round on the lower hem of the robe for ministering; as the Lord had commanded Moses. ”
Tricky to try to work out what season these ephods were for, isn’t it?
The reading points to the idea that this was the vestment of the High Priest for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The one time during the year that he went before the MErcy Seat of the Lord on behalf of all Israel. He did this by entering the Holy of Holies (El Lugar Santisimo), off limits to everyone else and even him, except this one annual day.
The pomegranates were a symbol of fertility and abundance, being a fruit of mostly seeds, and are mentioned as one of the plentiful fruits of the Promised Land. They also appeared on columns of the Temple when it was later built. The bells on his hem were so that the folks could hear him move around in the Holy of Holies and thus know that he was still alive. He also entered with a long cord tied around his waist. This was so they could safely pull his body out later should he gain the Lord’s disfavor and be smote dead.
You might want to find another vestment to incorporate into your liturgical wardrobe.
Hi David |Dah • veed
Thanks for your comment.
I went on a fascinating retreat in Spain earlier this year which was led by James Allison who in his addresses was looking at just this kind of allusion. His argument was the the gospels were written in the light of the liturgies of the Temple and we need to understand the latter better in order to understand the former.
This kind of thing, for example:
http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng11.html