A Holy Fulfillment: The Old Testament and the Adornment of the Church
Any discussion
of the theological importance of liturgical vesture within the Church is not
complete without considering the place of the Old Testament Scriptures that
specifically refer to garments used in Levitical worship. The primary
scriptural references to the priestly garments of the old covenant are found in
Exodus 25-36, in which God gives explicit instructions to the Prophet Moses for
the outfitting of the Tabernacle as well as the garments to be worn by the
priests. Indeed, these instructions read like technical notes, with emphasis
given to how things are to be made: "The hem shall be interwoven with the
rest, to prevent ripping" (Ex 28.27); what they are to be made from:
"Gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet cloth; fine spun linen,
and female goats' hair, ram skins dyed red and skins dyed blue, and
incorruptible wood; oil for the light, and incense for anointing oil and for
composition of incense; sardius stones, and stones for the carved work of the
breastplate and the full-length robe" (Ex 25.3-7); and who is to make
them: "Now Bezalel and Aholiab, and every gifted artisan in whom the Lord
put wisdom and knowledge to know how to do all manner of work for the service
of the holy place, did according to all the Lord commanded" (Ex 36.1).
It is
interesting to note that over one quarter of the book of Exodus is devoted to
these detailed instructions for the outfitting of the Tabernacle and the garments
of the priests of God... The decorations of the tabernacle, ephod, and breastplate
are no mere afterthought; indeed, thirty-eight verses are devoted solely to the
curtains and the garments of the priests and are quite specific in the colors
and symbols that are to be used (gold, blue, purple, and scarlet fabric and
pomegranates and bells, respectively). There is a careful and methodical
approach to these adornments and in this it is demonstrated that the worship of
God must be attended to with order and reverence. Through this meticulous
precision we see God teaching mankind that things used for His glory are to be
"built by God."
On account of
these detailed passages, some authors have argued that Christian vestments have
their origin in Levitical dress, but even the most desultory comparison of the
garments clearly illustrate that this could not be so. But just as the study of
Orthodox Christian theology reveals much about the qualities of beauty within
the Church, so it is through a reading of these chapters in Exodus that yet
another quality of beauty within the Church is revealed: the fulfillment of
types. This fulfillment is found in the progression from the Levitical
understanding of worship, as outlined in the Old Testament, to the Christ
centered understanding of liturgy as found in the New Testament and the
unwritten tradition handed down by the early Church a rapidly coalescing
tradition which led to the standardization of vestments and other adornments of
the Church in the first few centuries following Christ's earthly life.
St. John of
Damascus, writing in response to the iconoclasts who were arguing for a
rejection of images based on Old Testament passages such as "You shall not
make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath" (Ex 20-4), states:
It is not I who am speaking, but the Holy
Spirit who declares plainly through the holy apostle Paul, "God spoke of
old in many various ways to our fathers by the prophets." Note that God
spoke in many and various ways. A skillful doctor does not prescribe the same
for all alike, but each according to his need... In the same way the most
excellent physician of souls prescribed correctly for those who were still
children and susceptible to the sickness of idolatry, holding idols to be gods,
and worshipping them as such, abandoning the worship of God, offering to the
creature the glory due the Creator.
He goes on to
further explain this fulfillment of types by quoting from a sermon of St. John
Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews: How can what comes first be the image
of what is to follow, as Melchizedek is of Christ?
Melchizedek is used as an image in the
Scriptures in the same way as a silhouette is an outline for a portrait.
Because of this, the law is called a shadow, and grace and truth are what is
foreshadowed. Consequently, the law personified by Melchizedek is a silhouette
of Him whose portrait, when it appears, is grace and truth inscribed in the
body. So the Old Testament is a silhouette of things to come in a future age,
while the New Testament is the portrait of those things.
St. John
recognized that just as a tiny seed looks nothing like the blooming,
flourishing plant, so it is necessary to be mindful that Orthodox Christian
worship is not designed to look like Old Testament worship. The fulfillment of
the beauty and liturgy of the Church, like the fulfillment of the salvation of
mankind, comes in no less a person than Christ Himself through His Incarnation,
Crucifixion, and Resurrection.
The
instructions in Exodus lay the groundwork, teaching that adornment of the holy
things of God is integral to our worship of Him. But just as Christ took the
place of rams sacrificed on stone altars, the adornment of our churches took a
new and holy form through Christ's Resurrection, molded by the time and place
in history in which the Resurrection took place and by the subsequent establishment
of a Christian nation in the Byzantine Empire.
We know that
the Fathers of the Church had a deep and thorough knowledge of the Scriptures
(after all, St. John Chrysostom spent two years memorizing the Scriptures in
their entirety) and such an education could not have left them puzzling over
how to outfit the churches of their day. Add to this the unwritten tradition
which they had inherited and it would be completely illogical to suppose that
men so formed by these Scriptures and providentially shaped by a world in which
honor and majesty were the cornerstone of political and social hierarchy would have
been able to construct liturgies to the Creator of All without glory and
beauty. "Bring to the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in His
holy court" (Ps 28.2). They knew that "holiness is proper to Your
house, 0 Lord" (Ps 92.5) and that "they shall speak of the
magnificence of the glory of Your holiness, and they shall describe Your
wonders" (Ps 144.5).
While Exodus
teaches that order and reverence are necessary components to the worship of
God, the Church Fathers knew that any reading of the Old Testament Scriptures
must be undertaken with an understanding that such Scriptures have their
fulfillment in the coming of Christ and the traditions of the Church. Majestic
and holy worship began with the Old Testament Levitical patterns but did not
find its culmination until the Resurrection of Christ and the subsequent
redemption of the world. With Christ's coming everything is raised to a higher
order, so the Church's worship follows the same essential patterns, yet looks
different. As adopted sons of God, we are the inheritors of this holy
fulfillment. As the Psalmist prophesies: They shall be intoxicated with the
fatness of Your house, and You will give them drink from the abundant water of Your
delight. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light shall we see
light. (Ps 35.9-10) In the beauty of the Church's worship we find the
fulfillment of the prophetic words and foreshadowing of all the Old Testament
Scriptures.
From
"The History of Vestments"
By
Subdeacon Zoran Bobic
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/zjbobic/history-of-vestments
CONVERSATION