Chapter 8.
OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF AARON.FJAJ 3.49
1. WHEN what has been described was brought to a conclusion, gifts not
being yet presented, God appeared to Moses, and enjoined him to bestow
the high priesthood upon Aaron his brother, as upon him that best of them
all deserved to obtain that honor, on account of his virtue
And when he
had gathered the multitude together, he gave them an account of Aaron's
virtue, and of his good-will to them, and of the dangers he had undergone
for their sakes
Upon which, when they had given testimony to him in all
respects, and showed their readiness to receive him, Moses said to them,
"O you Israelites, this work is already brought to a conclusion, in
a manner most acceptable to God, and according to our abilities
And now
since you see that he is received into this tabernacle, we shall first
of all stand in need of one that may officiate for us, and may minister
to the sacrifices, and to the prayers that are to be put up for us
And
indeed had the inquiry after such a person been left to me, I should have
thought myself worthy of this honor, both because all men are naturally
fond of themselves, and because I am conscious to myself that I have taken
a great deal of pains for your deliverance; but now God himself has determined
that Aaron is worthy of this honor, and has chosen him for his priest,
as knowing him to be the most righteous person among you
So that he is
to put on the vestments which are consecrated to God; he is to have the
care of the altars, and to make provision for the sacrifices; and he it
is that must put up prayers for you to God, who will readily hear them,
not only because he is himself solicitous for your nation, but also because
he will receive them as offered by one that he hath himself chosen to this
office.FJAJ 3.50
(17)
It is well worth our observation, that the two principal qualifications
required in this section for the constitution of the first high priest,
(viz. that he should have an excellent character for virtuous and good
actions; as also that he should have the approbation of the people,) are
here noted by Josephus, even where the nomination belonged to God himself;
which are the very same qualifications which the Christian religion requires
in the choice of Christian bishops, priests, and deacons; as the Apostolical
Constitutions inform us, B. II. ch. 3.
The Hebrews were pleased with what was said, and they gave their approbation
to him whom God had ordained; for Aaron was of them all the most deserving
of this honor, on account of his own stock and gift of prophecy, and his
brother's virtue
He had at that time four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar,
and Ithamar.FJAJ 3.51
2. Now Moses commanded them to make use of all the utensils which were
more than were necessary to the structure of the tabernacle, for covering
the tabernacle itself, the candlestick, and altar of incense, and the other
vessels, that they might not be at all hurt when they journeyed, either
by the rain, or by the rising of the dust
And when he had gathered the
multitude together again, he ordained that they should offer half a shekel
for every man, as an oblation to God; which shekel is a piece among the
Hebrews, and is equal to four Athenian drachmae.FJAJ 3.52
(18)
This weight and value of the Jewish shekel, in the days of Josephus, equal
to about 2s. 10d. sterling, is, by the learned Jews, owned to be one-fifth
larger than were their old shekels; which determination agrees perfectly
with the remaining shekels that have Samaritan inscriptions, coined generally
by Simon the Maccabee, about 230 years before Josephus published his Antiquities,
which never weigh more than 2s. 4d., and commonly but 2s. 4d. See Reland
De Nummis Samaritanorum, p. 138.
Whereupon they readily obeyed what Moses had commanded; and the number
of the offerers was six hundred and five thousand five hundred and fifty.
Now this money that was brought by the men that were free, was given by
such as were about twenty years old, but under fifty; and what was collected
was spent in the uses of the tabernacle.FJAJ 3.53
3. Moses now purified the tabernacle and the priests; which purification
was performed after the following manner: - He commanded them to take five
hundred shekels of choice myrrh, an equal quantity of cassia, and half
the foregoing weight of cinnamon and calamus (this last is a sort of sweet
spice); to beat them small, and wet them with an bin of oil of olives (an
hin is our own country measure, and contains two Athenian choas,
or congiuses); then mix them together, and boil them, and prepare
them after the art of the apothecary, and make them into a very sweet ointment;
and afterward to take it to anoint and to purify the priests themselves,
and all the tabernacle, as also the sacrifices
There were also many, and
those of various kinds, of sweet spices, that belonged to the tabernacle,
and such as were of very great price, and were brought to the golden altar
of incense; the nature of which I do not now describe, lest it should be
troublesome to my readers; but incense (19)
The incense was here offered, according to Josephus's opinion, before sun-rising,
and at sun-setting; but in the days of Pompey, according to the same Josephus,
the sacrifices were offered in the morning, and at the ninth hour. Antiq.
B. XIV. ch. 4. sect. 3.
was to be offered twice a-day, both before sun-rising and at sun-setting.
They were also to keep oil already purified for the lamps; three of which
were to give light all day long, (20)
Hence we may correct the opinions of the modern Rabbins, who say that only
one of the seven lamps burned in the day-time; whereas our Josephus, an
eyewitness, says there were three.
upon the sacred candlestick, before God, and the rest were to be lighted
at the evening.FJAJ 3.54
4. Now all was finished
Besaleel and Aholiab appeared to be the most
skillful of the workmen; for they invented finer works than what others
had done before them, and were of great abilities to gain notions of what
they were formerly ignorant of; and of these, Besaleel was judged to be
the best
Now the whole time they were about this work was the interval
of seven months; and after this it was that was ended the first year since
their departure out of Egypt
But at the beginning of the second year,
on the month Xanthicus, as the Macedonians call it, but on the month
Nisan, as the Hebrews call it, on the new moon, they consecrated
the tabernacle, and all its vessels, which I have already described.FJAJ 3.55
5. Now God showed himself pleased with the work of the Hebrews, and
did not permit their labors to be in vain; nor did he disdain to make use
of what they had made, but he came and sojourned with them, and pitched
his tabernacle in the holy house
And in the following manner did he come
to it: - The sky was clear, but there was a mist over the tabernacle only,
encompassing it, but not with such a very deep and thick cloud as is seen
in the winter season, nor yet in so thin a one as men might be able to
discern any thing through it, but from it there dropped a sweet dew, and
such a one as showed the presence of God to those that desired and believed
it.FJAJ 3.56
6. Now when Moses had bestowed such honorary presents on the workmen,
as it was fit they should receive, who had wrought so well, he offered
sacrifices in the open court of the tabernacle, as God commanded him; a
bull, a ram, and a kid of the goats, for a sin-offering
Now I shall speak
of what we do in our sacred offices in my discourse about sacrifices; and
therein shall inform men in what cases Moses bid us offer a whole burnt-offering,
and in what cases the law permits us to partake of them as of food
And
when Moses had sprinkled Aaron's vestments, himself, and his sons, with
the blood of the beasts that were slain, and had purified them with spring
waters and ointment, they became God's priests
After this manner did he
consecrate them and their garments for seven days together
The same he
did to the tabernacle, and the vessels thereto belonging, both with oil
first incensed, as I said, and with the blood of bulls and of rams, slain
day by day one, according to its kind
But on the eighth day he appointed
a feast for the people, and commanded them to offer sacrifice according
to their ability
Accordingly they contended one with another, and were
ambitious to exceed each other in the sacrifices which they brought, and
so fulfilled Moses's injunctions
But as the sacrifices lay upon the altar,
a sudden fire was kindled from among them of its own accord, and appeared
to the sight like fire from a flash of lightning, and consumed whatsoever
was upon the altar.FJAJ 3.57
7. Hereupon an affliction befell Aaron, considered as a man and a father,
but was undergone by him with true fortitude; for he had indeed a firmness
of soul in such accidents, and he thought this calamity came upon him according
to God's will: for whereas he had four sons, as I said before, the two
elder of them, Nadab and Abihu, did not bring those sacrifices which Moses
bade them bring, but which they used to offer formerly, and were burnt
to death
Now when the fire rushed upon them, and began to burn them, nobody
could quench it
Accordingly they died in this manner
And Moses bid their
father and their brethren to take up their bodies, to carry them out of
the camp, and to bury them magnificently
Now the multitude lamented them,
and were deeply affected at this their death, which so unexpectedly befell
them
But Moses entreated their brethren and their father not to be troubled
for them, and to prefer the honor of God before their grief about them;
for Aaron had already put on his sacred garments.FJAJ 3.58
8. But Moses refused all that honor which he saw the multitude ready
to bestow upon him, and attended to nothing else but the service of God.
He went no more up to Mount Sinai; but he went into the tabernacle, and
brought back answers from God for what he prayed for
His habit was also
that of a private man, and in all other circumstances he behaved himself
like one of the common people, and was desirous to appear without distinguishing
himself from the multitude, but would have it known that he did nothing
else but take care of them
He also set down in writing the form of their
government, and those laws by obedience whereto they would lead their lives
so as to please God, and so as to have no quarrels one among another
However,
the laws he ordained were such as God suggested to him; so I shall now
discourse concerning that form of government, and those laws.FJAJ 3.59
9. I will now treat of what I before omitted, the garment of the high
priest: for he [Moses] left no room for the evil practices of [false] prophets;
but if some of that sort should attempt to abuse the Divine authority,
he left it to God to be present at his sacrifices when he pleased, and
when he pleased to be absent.FJAJ 3.60
(21)
Of this strange expression, that Moses "left it to God to be present
at his sacrifices when he pleased, and when he pleased to be absent,"
see the note on B. II. against Apion, sect. 16.
And he was willing this should be known, not to the Hebrews only, but to
those foreigners also who were there
For as to those stones, (22)These
answers by the oracle of Urim and Thummim, which words signify, light and
perfection, or, as the Septuagint render them, revelation and truth, and
denote nothing further, that I see, but the shining stones themselves,
which were used, in this method of illumination, in revealing the will
of God, after a perfect and true manner, to his people Israel: I say, these
answers were not made by the shining of the precious stones, after an awkward
manner, in the high priest's breastplate, as the modern Rabbins vainly
suppose; for certainly the shining of the stones might precede or accompany
the oracle, without itself delivering that oracle, see Antiq. B. VI. ch.
6. sect. 4; but rather by an audible voice from the mercy-seat between
the cherubims. See Prideaux's Connect. at the year 534. This oracle had
been silent, as Josephus here informs us, two hundred years before he wrote
his Antiquities, or ever since the days of the last good high priest of
the family of the Maccabees, John Hyrcanus. Now it is here very well worth
our observation, that the oracle before us was that by which God appeared
to he present with, and gave directions to, his people Israel as their
King, all the while they submitted to him in that capacity; and did not
set over them such independent kings as governed according to their own
wills and political maxims, instead of Divine directions. Accordingly we
meet with this oracle (besides angelic and prophetic admonitions) all along
from the days of Moses and Joshua to the anointing of Saul, the first of
the succession of the kings, Numbers 27:21; Joshua 6:6, etc.; 19:50; Judges
1:1; 18:4-6, 30, 31; 20:18, 23, 26-28; 21:1, etc.; 1 Samuel 1:17, 18; 3.
per tot.; 4. per tot.; nay, till Saul's rejection of the Divine commands
in the war with Amalek, when he took upon him to act as he thought fit,
1 Samuel 14:3, 18, 19, 36, 37, then this oracle left Saul entirely, (which
indeed he had seldom consulted before, 1 Samuel 14:35; 1 Chronicles 10:14;
13:3; Antiq. B. 7 ch. 4 sect 2.) and accompanied David, who was anointed
to succeed him, and who consulted God by it frequently, and complied with
its directions constantly (1 Samuel 14:37, 41; 15:26; 22:13, 15; 23:9,
10; 30:7, 8, 18; 2 Samuel 2:1; 5:19, 23; 21:1; 23 :14; 1 Chronicles 14:10,
14; Antiq. B IV ch. 12 sect. 5). Saul, indeed, long after his rejection
by God, and when God had given him up to destruction for his disobedience,
did once afterwards endeavor to consult God when it was too late; but God
would not then answer him, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets,
1 Samuel 28:6. Nor did any of David's successors, the kings of Judah, that
we know of, consult God by this oracle, till the very Babylonish captivity
itself, when those kings were at an end; they taking upon them, I suppose,
too much of despotic power and royalty, and too little owning the God of
Israel for the supreme King of Israel, though a few of them consulted the
prophets sometimes, and were answered by them. At the return of the two
tribes, without the return of the kingly government, the restoration of
this oracle was expected, Nehemiah 7;63; 1 Esd. 5:40; 1 Macc. 4:46; 14:41.
And indeed it may seem to have been restored for some time after the Babylonish
captivity, at least in the days of that excellent high priest, John Hyrcanus,
whom Josephus esteemed as a king, a priest, and a prophet; and who, he
says, foretold several things that came to pass accordingly; but about
the time of his death, he here implies, that this oracle quite ceased,
and not before. The following high priests now putting diadems on their
heads, and ruling according to their own will, and by their own authority,
like the other kings of the pagan countries about them; so that while the
God of Israel was allowed to be the supreme King of Israel, and his directions
to be their authentic guides, God gave them such directions as their supreme
King and Governor, and they were properly under a theocracy, by this oracle
of Urim, but no longer (see Dr. Bernard's notes here); though I confess
I cannot but esteem the high priest Jaddus's divine dream, Antiq. B. XI.
ch. 8. sect. 4, and the high priest Caiaphas's most remarkable prophecy,
John 11:47-52, as two small remains or specimens of this ancient oracle,
which properly belonged to the Jewish high priests: nor perhaps ought we
entirely to forget that eminent prophetic dream of our Josephus himself,
(one next to a high priest, as of the family of the Asamoneans or Maccabees,)
as to the succession of Vespasian and Titus to the Roman empire, and that
in the days of Nero, and before either Galba, Otho, or Vitellius were thought
of to succeed him. Of the War, B. III. ch. 8. sect. 9. This, I think, may
well be looked on as the very last instance of any thing like the prophetic
Urim among the Jewish nation, and just preceded their fatal desolation:
but how it could possibly come to pass that such great men as Sir John
Marsham and Dr. Spenser, should imagine that this oracle of Urim and Thummim
with other practices as old or older than the law of Moses, should have
been ordained in imitation of somewhat like them among the Egyptians, which
we never hear of till the days of Diodorus Siculus, Aelian, and Maimonides,
or little earlier than the Christian era at the highest, is almost unaccountable;
while the main business of the law of Moses was evidently to preserve the
Israelites from the idolatrous and superstitious practices of the neighboring
pagan nations; and while it is so undeniable, that the evidence for the
great antiquity of Moses's law is incomparably beyond that for the like
or greater antiquity of such customs in Egypt or other nations, which indeed
is generally none at all, it is most absurd to derive any of Moses's laws
from the imitation of those heathen practices, Such hypotheses demonstrate
to us how far inclination can prevail over evidence, in even some of the
most learned part of mankind.
which we told you before, the high priest bare on his shoulders, which
were sardonyxes, (and I think it needless to describe their nature, they
being known to every body,) the one of them shined out when God was present
at their sacrifices; I mean that which was in the nature of a button on
his right shoulder, bright rays darting out thence, and being seen even
by those that were most remote; which splendor yet was not before natural
to the stone
This has appeared a wonderful thing to such as have not so
far indulged themselves in philosophy, as to despise Divine revelation.
Yet will I mention what is still more wonderful than this: for God declared
beforehand, by those twelve stones which the high priest bare on his breast,
and which were inserted into his breastplate, when they should be victorious
in battle; for so great a splendor shone forth from them before the army
began to march, that all the people were sensible of God's being present
for their assistance
Whence it came to pass that those Greeks, who had
a veneration for our laws, because they could not possibly contradict this,
called that breastplate the Oracle.Now this breastplate, and this
sardonyx, left off shining two hundred years before I composed this book,
God having been displeased at the transgressions of his laws
Of which
things we shall further discourse on a fitter opportunity; but I will now
go on with my proposed narration.FJAJ 3.61
10. The tabernacle being now consecrated, and a regular order being
settled for the priests, the multitude judged that God now dwelt among
them, and betook themselves to sacrifices and praises to God as being now
delivered from all expectation of evils and as entertaining a hopeful prospect
of better times hereafter
They offered also gifts to God some as common
to the whole nation, and others as peculiar to themselves, and these tribe
by tribe; for the heads of the tribes combined together, two by two, and
brought a waggon and a yoke of oxen
These amounted to six, and they carried
the tabernacle when they journeyed
Besides which, each head of a tribe
brought a bowl, and a charger, and a spoon, of ten darics, full of incense.
Now the charger and the bowl were of silver, and together they weighed
two hundred shekels, but the bowl cost no more than seventy shekels; and
these were full of fine flour mingled with oil, such as they used on the
altar about the sacrifices
They brought also a young bullock, and a ram,
with a lamb of a year old, for a whole burnt-offering, as also a goat for
the forgiveness of sins
Every one of the heads of the tribes brought also
other sacrifices, called peace-offerings, for every day two bulls,
and five rams, with lambs of a year old, and kids of the goats
These heads
of tribes were twelve days in sacrificing, one sacrificing every day
Now
Moses went no longer up to Mount Sinai, but went into the tabernacle, and
learned of God what they were to do, and what laws should be made; which
laws were preferable to what have been devised by human understanding,
and proved to be firmly observed for all time to come, as being believed
to be the gift of God, insomuch that the Hebrews did not transgress any
of those laws, either as tempted in times of peace by luxury, or in times
of war by distress of affairs
But I say no more here concerning them,
because I have resolved to compose another work concerning our laws.FJAJ 3.62