The Priest · The Symbolism of Scripture
The Priest
A priest is the man who stands between — and Scripture says so in its own words, in a sentence about a man running into a plague with a censer. Exodus states the purpose of nearly every piece of his clothing, and the verb it keeps reaching for is bear.
What It Stands For
a man in the middle, carrying
The Hebrew kohen (H3548) is glossed in the lexicon as one officiating— a functional word, not a moral one. The Bible’s priests are not described as the best men in Israel and several of them are plainly not; they are described as men in a position. Everything the symbol carries comes from that position: between.
He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague was halted.Aaron runs INTO a plague with a censer, and stops where the dying stops. This is what the office is.
he stood between the living and the dead--The plague seems to have begun in the extremities of the camp. Aaron, in this remarkable act, was a type of Christ.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Numbers 16:48
He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague, etc. - What the plague was we know not, but it seems to have begun at one part of the camp, and to have proceeded regularly onward; and Aaron went to the quarter where it was then prevailing
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
Numbers 16:48
Clarke notices the direction of travel, and it is the thing worth seeing: Aaron went towards the plague.The chapter is about men who wanted the priesthood and died reaching for it; the man who actually held it spent it running at the thing that was killing people. John Wesley puts the word on it plainly — “which gave Aaron occasion and direction so to place himself, as a mediator to God on their behalf.”
The Clothes Are the Job Description
Exodus 28, and the reason it gives for each piece
| What he wore | Why, in the chapter’s own words | Stated at |
|---|---|---|
| Two onyx stones on the shoulderssix tribal names engraved on each | “Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD upon his two shoulders for a memorial.” | Exodus 28:12 |
| The breastplate, twelve stonesone stone per tribe, worn over the heart | “Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel … upon his heart … for a memorial before the LORD continually.” | Exodus 28:29 |
| The Urim and the Thummimset inside the breastplate | “Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the LORD continually.” | Exodus 28:30 |
| Bells of gold on the hemalternating with pomegranates | “His sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place … that he die not.” | Exodus 28:35 |
| A gold plate on the foreheadengraved HOLINESS TO THE LORD | “That Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things … that they may be accepted before the LORD.” | Exodus 28:38 |
| Linen breechesfrom the loins to the thighs | “To cover their nakedness … that they bear not iniquity, and die.” | Exodus 28:42-43 |
Fasten both stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. Aaron is to bear their names on his two shoulders as a memorial before the LORD.On the shoulders: the part of a man built for load.
Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he shall bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of judgment, as a continual reminder before the LORD.And on the heart, continually. The same twelve names, carried in two places at once.
How near should Christ's name be to our hearts, since he is pleased to lay our names so near his! and what a comfort it is to us, in all our addresses to God, that the great high priest of our profession has the names of all his Israel upon his breast before the Lord for a memorial, presenting them to God as the people of his choice, who were to be made accepted in the beloved!
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Nonconformist
Exodus 28:29
The physical detail is worth keeping. JFB describe the breastplate as doubled fabric, made that way to bear the weight of the stones, which is a tailoring note and also, accidentally, the whole symbol: the garment was reinforced because carrying people is heavy.
thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work--a very splendid and richly embroidered piece of brocade, a span square, and doubled, to enable it the better to bear the weight of the precious stones in it.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Exodus 28:15-29
No one may be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he leaves, after he has made atonement for himself, his household, and the whole assembly of Israel.On the Day of Atonement the tent is cleared. Nobody watches, and nobody helps.
The Qualification Is Kinship
Hebrews 5:1-2, and what it asks for
Every high priest is appointed from among men to represent them in matters relating to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and misguided, since he himself is beset by weakness.Taken FROM among men, FOR men, and the required quality is the capacity to bear gently.
Even under the law it was not an angel that was appointed to act as priest for human beings but a human being for human beings, with the same nature, affected by the same passions, understanding the weakness of nature, assigning pardon to the recalcitrant
Theodoret of Cyrus· Interpretation of Hebrews 5, 458Antiochene
Hebrews 5:1-3
Being "from men," He can be "for (that is, in behalf of, for the good of) men."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Hebrews 5:1
Theodoret sees the design decision: an angel would have been an obvious choice for a go-between and was never used. The Greek word Hebrews chooses for the priest’s temper is unusual, and Adam Clarke gives it the space it needs:
Who can have compassion on the ignorant - The word μετριοπαθειν, signifies, not merely to have compassion, but to act with moderation, and to bear with each in proportion to his ignorance, weakness, and untoward circumstances, all taken into consideration with the offenses he has committed
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
Hebrews 5:2
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.The claim is not that He knows about weakness. It is that He can be touched with the feeling of it.
Exhorting them with all persuasiveness, he says in confirmation of his speech that this High Priest knows our condition, not like the majority of high priests, who do not even know what suffering is
Theophylact of Ohrid· Commentary on Hebrews, 1107Byzantine
Hebrews 4:15
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched - Our High Priest is not cold and unfeeling. That is, we have one who is abundantly qualified to sympathize with us in our afflictions, and to whom, therefore, we may look for aid and support in trials.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1847Presbyterian
Hebrews 4:15
Wesley’s note on the same word is the shortest and the most practical: “Who can have compassion - In proportion to the offense: so the Greek word signifies. On the ignorant - Them that are in error. And the wandering - Them that are in sin.”
The Half That Is Forgotten
Malachi 2:7: a priest is also a place to ask
For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.'They should seek the law at his mouth.' The office faces both ways, sacrifice towards God and teaching towards people.
It is easy to reduce the priest to the altar, and Scripture will not let it happen. The law puts teaching in the job (Leviticus 10:11), the history blames priests when the people do not know God’s word (2 Chronicles 15:3), and Malachi, writing to priests who are being rebuked, states the standard as though it were obvious.
Should keep knowledge - It is this that their office binds them to; it is the duty of all God's people to know his law, but the priest's duty to know it more than others.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Wesleyan
Malachi 2:7
Where It Points
a sworn priesthood, and a title handed to everybody
The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”Sworn, and not of Aaron's family: a second priesthood named centuries before it is used.
Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.The argument of Hebrews 7 is that priests keep dying. This is the answer to it.
Hebrews makes its case out of ordinary facts: Israel’s priests were many because they died, they stood at their work because it was never finished, and they offered for their own sins first. Each of those is answered by one man who does not die, sat down when He had finished, and had none. Where that leaves the reader is not a spectator’s seat, the title itself gets handed over.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.Written to scattered ordinary believers, not to an order of clergy.
What the royal priesthood does and does not meanthe honest limit, stated
Peter is quoting Exodus 19:6, where the same words are said to the whole nation at Sinai, before Aaron’s family is set apart. So the phrase is not an innovation of the church age; it is a promise made to a people and repeated to another.
What it plainly carries: access, and the two priestly functions named in the same letter, offering (1 Peter 2:5) and declaring (1 Peter 2:9). What it does not settle, and what Christians have read differently for centuries, is church order: whether and how a set-apart ministry stands inside a priesthood of all believers. This page does not adjudicate that; the study of the church does.
What Scripture says outright
- Numbers 16:48
“He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed.” The office defined by the text.
- Exodus 28:29
The chapter gives its own reason for the breastplate: the names, on the heart, for a memorial before the LORD continually.
- Hebrews 5:1
“Taken from among men … ordained for men.” The qualification is kinship, said outright.
What readers have heard in it
Readings and typology, named as such.
- Numbers 16:48
That Aaron with the censer is a type of Christ. JFB say so in a line, and it is a reading of long standing, Numbers reports the act and draws no line itself.
- Exodus 28:12
That the shoulders mean strength and the breastplate means love. A useful and old distinction, and the text says only memorial in both places.
- Exodus 28:35
That a rope was tied to the high priest so a body could be pulled out of the Holy of Holies. It is not in Scripture, not in the Mishnah, and not in Josephus; it appears only in much later writing and should not be repeated as fact.
The Voices
with the work named
Theodoret is the sharpest here: an angel was available and a man was chosen. Theophylact draws the contrast Hebrews is actually making, not between a good high priest and a bad one, but between one who knows what suffering is and the many who do not. Clarke does the Greek work on metriopathein, which is not simply “pity” but bearing with someone in proportion to what they are up against; Wesley says the same thing in a sentence a reader can carry. Matthew Henry sees what the names on the breastplate are doing, and JFB supply the tailoring detail that the garment had to be doubled to hold the weight.
Where to Go Next
Where the priesthood is the whole scene
Where he does his work
Where the picture goes on
Its neighbours in the index
The Symbolism of Scripture gathers every picture the Bible thinks in. This one sits with: