Aaron Made High Priest

When the work described was finished, though the offerings had not yet been consecrated, God appeared to Moses and told him to give the high priesthood to his brother Aaron, as the one who, because of his virtue, best deserved that honor of them all. Moses gathered the people together and told them of Aaron’s virtue, of his goodwill toward them, and of the dangers he had faced for their sakes. When they had borne witness to him on every count and shown that they were ready to receive him, Moses said to them: “Israelites, this work is now finished, in a way most pleasing to God and as well as we were able. And since we must now receive God into this tabernacle, we need first of all someone to serve for us, to minister at the sacrifices and at the prayers that are to be offered for us. If the search for such a man had been left to me, I would have thought myself worthy of this honor, both because all people are naturally fond of themselves and because I know that I have taken a great deal of trouble for your deliverance. But now God himself has judged Aaron worthy of this honor and has chosen him as his priest, knowing him to be more righteous than any of us. So he is to put on the garments consecrated to God; he is to take charge of the altars and provide for the sacrifices; and he is the one who must offer prayers to God for you. And God will gladly hear them, not only because he himself cares for our nation, but also because he will receive them as offered by one whom he himself has chosen for this office.” The Hebrews were pleased with what was said and approved the man God had appointed; for Aaron was the most deserving of them all of this honor, because of his family, his gift of prophecy, and his brother’s virtue. At that time he had four sons: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. [a]

Moses ordered them to use all the materials left over from building the tabernacle to cover the tabernacle itself, the lampstand, the altar of incense, and the other vessels, so that nothing would be damaged on the march, either by rain or by blowing dust. Then he gathered the people again and ordered every man to give half a shekel as an offering to God. The shekel is a Hebrew coin, equal to four Athenian drachmae. They readily obeyed Moses’ command, and the number of those who gave was 605,550. This money, given by free men from twenty years old up to fifty, was collected and spent on the needs of the tabernacle. [b]

Moses now purified the tabernacle and the priests, and the purification was done this way. He ordered them to take about twelve and a half pounds of choice myrrh, the same amount of iris, and half that weight of cinnamon and of calamus, which is a kind of sweet spice. They were to pound these fine and moisten them with about a gallon of olive oil — the measure is a hin, our own country’s measure, which holds two Athenian choes. Then they were to mix and boil them, prepare them by the perfumer’s art, and make a very sweet ointment; Afterward he took it and anointed and purified the priests themselves and the whole tabernacle. There were also many sweet spices of various kinds belonging to the tabernacle, of very great price, which were brought to the golden altar of incense. I will not describe their nature now, so as not to weary my readers. Incense was to be offered twice a day, before sunrise and at sunset. They were also to keep oil, already purified, for the lamps: three of the lamps were to give light all day long on the sacred lampstand before God, and the rest were to be lit in the evening. [d]

Now everything was finished. Bezalel and Oholiab proved the most skilled of the workmen, for they devised finer work than anyone before them, and they had great ability to grasp what they had not known before; and of the two, Bezalel was judged the best. The whole time they spent on this work was seven months, and with it the first year since their departure from Egypt came to an end. At the beginning of the second year, in the month the Macedonians call Xanthicus and the Hebrews call Nisan, at the new moon, they consecrated the tabernacle and all its vessels, which I have already described. [i]

God showed that he was pleased with the work of the Hebrews. He did not let their labors go for nothing, nor did he disdain to use what they had made; he came and lived among them and pitched his tent in the holy house. And this is how he came to it. The sky was clear, but a mist lay over the tabernacle alone, surrounding it. It was not so deep and thick a cloud as is seen in winter, nor so thin that anyone could see anything through it; and from it dropped a sweet dew, of a kind that showed the presence of God to those who desired it and believed it.

Moses gave the workmen such rewards as were fitting for men who had worked so well. Then he offered sacrifices in the open court of the tabernacle, as God had commanded him: a bull, a ram, and a young goat for a sin offering. I will speak of what we do in our sacred services in my account of the sacrifices, and there I will explain in which cases Moses told us to offer a whole burnt offering, and in which the law lets us share in the sacrifices as food. When Moses had sprinkled Aaron’s garments, Aaron himself, and his sons with the blood of the slaughtered animals, and had purified them with spring water and ointment, they became God’s priests. In this way he consecrated them and their garments for seven days together. He did the same to the tabernacle and the vessels belonging to it, both with the oil, applied as I said, and with the blood of bulls and of rams, one of each kind slaughtered day by day. On the eighth day he appointed a feast for the people and told them to offer sacrifice each according to his means. So they competed with one another, each eager to outdo the others in the sacrifices they brought, and in this way they carried out Moses’ instructions. And as the sacrifices lay on the altar, a fire suddenly blazed up from among them of its own accord. It looked like the fire of a lightning flash, and it consumed everything on the altar. [k]

Then a sorrow struck Aaron, as a man and a father; but he bore it with true courage, for he had real firmness of soul in such misfortunes, and he believed that this calamity had come on him by God’s will. Of his four sons, as I said before, the two elder, Nadab and Abihu, did not bring the sacrifices Moses had told them to bring, but those they had been used to offering before; and they were burned to death. The fire rushed on them and began to burn their chests and faces, and no one could put it out, and so they died. Moses told their father and their brothers to take up their bodies, carry them out of the camp, and bury them with great honor. The people mourned them and were deeply moved by their death, which had come on them so unexpectedly. But Moses asked their brothers and their father alone not to be troubled for them, and to put the honor of God before their grief; for Aaron had already put on his sacred garments. [l]

Moses refused all the honor he saw the people ready to give him and gave his attention to nothing but the service of God. He no longer went up Mount Sinai, but went into the tabernacle and brought back answers from God to what he asked. He dressed like a private man, and in everything else he behaved like one of the common people. He wished to appear no different from the crowd, and wanted it known only that he did nothing but care for them. He also set down in writing the form of their government and the laws by which, if they obeyed them, they would live so as to please God and have no quarrels among themselves. The laws, however, were drawn up as God dictated them. So I will now speak about that form of government and those laws. [n]

But first I will deal with something I left out before, concerning the high priest’s garment. Moses left no room for the wicked practices of prophets. If any of that kind should try to abuse God’s authority, he left it to God to be present at his sacrifices when he pleased and to be absent when he pleased. And he wanted this known not only to the Hebrews but also to the foreigners who were there. Of the stones that, as we told you before, the high priest wore on his shoulders — they were sardonyxes, and I think it needless to describe their nature, since everyone knows them — one shone out whenever God was present at their sacrifices. I mean the one that served as a button on his right shoulder: bright rays darted out from it and were seen even by those farthest off, though this brightness was not natural to the stone before. This has seemed a wonder to those who have not indulged so far in philosophy as to despise divine things. But I will mention something more wonderful still. By the twelve stones the high priest wore on his chest, set into his breastplate, God declared beforehand when they would be victorious in battle; for before the army began to march such brightness shone out of them that all the people knew God was present to help them. That is why those Greeks who revered our laws, since they could not possibly deny this, called that breastplate the Oracle. This breastplate and this sardonyx stopped shining two hundred years before I wrote this book, because God was displeased at the breaking of his laws. I will say more of these things at a better time; now I will go on with the history I set out to tell. [o]

Now that the tabernacle was consecrated and a regular order had been settled for the priests, the people judged that God now lived among them. They turned to sacrifices and festivities, as people now set free from all fear of evil and full of hope for better times to come. They also offered gifts to God, some in common for the whole nation and others of their own, tribe by tribe. The heads of the tribes joined together two by two and brought a wagon and a yoke of oxen; these came to six, and they carried the tabernacle on the march. Besides this, each head of a tribe brought a bowl, a platter, and an incense cup worth ten darics, full of incense. The platter and the bowl were silver, and together they weighed about five pounds, though the bowl came to no more than about 1¾ pounds; and these were full of fine flour mixed with oil, such as they used at the altar for the sacrifices. They also brought a young bull, a ram, and a year-old lamb for a whole burnt offering, and a goat for the forgiveness of sins. Each of the heads of the tribes also brought other sacrifices, called peace offerings: for each day two bulls and five rams, with year-old lambs and young goats. These heads of tribes spent twelve days sacrificing, one each day. Moses no longer went up Mount Sinai, but went into the tabernacle and learned from God what they were to do and what laws should be made. These laws were better than anything human understanding has devised, and they have proved to be firmly kept for all time since, because they are believed to be the gift of God; so much so that the Hebrews have not broken any of them, whether tempted by luxury in times of peace or by hardship in times of war. But I say no more about them here, because I have resolved to write another work about our laws. [r]