Colors of Holiness: Clothing the High Priest to Match the Tabernacle

In recent years, the themes of clothes, jewelry, and adornment have occupied several biblical scholars. See, Christoph Berner, Manuel Schäfer, Martin Schott, Sarah Schulz, and Martina Weingärtner, eds., Clothing and Nudity in the Hebrew Bible (London: Bloomsbury, 2019); Antonios Finitsis, ed., Dress and Clothing in the Hebrew Bible: “Let Your Garments Always Be Bright” (London: T&T Clark, 2019); Antonios Finitsis, ed., Dress Hermeneutics and the Hebrew Bible: “For All Her Household Are Clothed in Crimson” (London: T&T Clark, 2022); Laura Quick, Dress, Adornment, and the Body in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021).

Other nuances of the priestly garments that have been studied are their symbolism, divinatory functions, and similarities to the vestments of other priests in the Ancient Near East. See, Philippe Guillaume, “Aaron and the Amazing Mantic Coat,” in Studies on Magic and Divination in the Biblical World, ed. Helen R. Jacobus, Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme, and Philippe Guillaume, Biblical Intersections 11. (Piscataway: Gorgias, 2013), 101–118. In just the last four years, several articles on high priestly the vestments have appeared. E.g., Carmen J. Imes, “Between Two Worlds: The Functional and Symbolic Significance of The High Priestly Regalia,” in Dress and Clothing in the Hebrew Bible: “For All Her Household Are Clothed in Crimson”, ed. Antonios Finitsis (London: T&T Clark, 2019), 29–62; Nathan MacDonald, “The Priestly Vestments,” ed. Christoph Berner, Manuel Schäfer, Martin Schott, Sarah Schulz and Martina Weingärtner, (London: Bloomsbury, 2019); Alice Mandell, “Aaron’s Body as a Ritual Vessel in the Exodus Tabernacle Building Narrative,” in New Perspectives on Ritual in the Biblical World, ed. Laura Quick and Melissa Ramos (London: T&T Clark, 2022), 159–181; Christine Palmer, “Israelite High Priestly Apparel: Embodying an Identity Between Human and Divine,” in Fashioned Selves: Dress and Identity in Antiquity, ed. Megan Cifarelli (Oxbow Books: Oxford, 2019), 117–127; Wolfgang Zwickel, “Fabrications, Functions, and Uses of Textiles in the Hebrew Bible,” in Clothing and Nudity in the Hebrew Bible, ed. Christoph Berner, Manuel Schäfer, Martin Schott, Sarah Schulz, and Martina Weingärtner, (London: Bloomsbury, 2019), 187–215.

E.g., green is always tied to something, such as plants, shrubbery, or the pale green face of someone who is afraid. For a recent clarification on embodied colors, see Lourdes García Ureña, Emanuela Valeriani, Anna Angelini et al. The Language of Colour in the Bible: Embodied Colour Terms Related to Green (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2022).

Tekhelet is often translated as blue, but the color is more of a blue-purple. (“Indigo” was used for the translation, but there are other colors that mix the two, such as violet or lavender.) The Bible has no word for “blue.” Instead, the color blue is implied through comparisons with something else that is blue:

^{שמות כד:י} וַיִּרְאוּ אֵת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְתַחַת רַגְלָיו כְּמַעֲשֵׂה לִבְנַת הַסַּפִּיר וּכְעֶצֶם הַשָּׁמַיִם לָטֹהַר.

^{Exod 24:10} and they saw the God of Israel—under whose feet was the likeness of a pavement of sapphire, like the very sky for purity.

See also Ezekiel 1:26.

For the colorants and textiles mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, see Zwickel, “Fabrications, Functions, and Uses of Textiles in the Hebrew Bible.”

Cf. Laura Quick and Elena Lyell, “Clothing, Conformity, and Power: Garment Imagery in the Book of Esther,” Vetus Testamentum (2021): 14.

See Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses, The Schocken Bible, vol. 1 (New York: Schocken, 1995), 397.

Whether the tunic would have been visible or not below the robe is uncertain. Josephus (Jud. Ant. 3.153), who served as a priest in the Second Temple period, claims that it had long sleeves, which might make it visible (depending on the style of the robe). But usually, ancient tunics were sleeveless because it made it easier to use your hands.

For discussion of this, see Sarah Schultz, “Priestly Underpants,” TheTorah (2022).

For a tour through some of the interpretations of the ephod, see Marty Lockshin, “The Obscure Ephod of the High Priest,” TheTorah (2016).

For the ephod as an object related to cult statues, see Quick, Dress, Adornment, and the Body in the Hebrew Bible, 104–105.

This is how the Priestly text describes the Tabernacle (Exod 25:8, 29:45, 40:34).

Cf. Zwickel, “Fabrications, Functions, and Uses of Textiles in the Hebrew Bible,” 199.

Upon this covering is another covering made of tanned ram-skins, and then another made of beaded leather (Exod 26:14).

The entrance into the court that frames the Tabernacle is similarly designed (Exod 27:16).

For more on this representative function, see Palmer, “Israelite High Priestly Apparel: Embodying an Identity Between Human and Divine.”

Translations of the HB Text are from The Contemporary Bible (JPS 2006)—a revision of the NJPS Torah translation—for Torah texts, or NJPS for other texts, but with small adjustments.

While it is hardly surprising that more time is spent describing Aaron’s outfit, the sharp contrast—1 verse for the sons’ clothing, and 33 for Aaron’s—highlights the significance the Torah is placing in the high priest’s outfit.

David Batchelor, Chromophobia (London: Reaktion Books, 2000). The book mainly concerns Western prejudice toward color and specifies various historical intellectuals’ hesitant engagement with hues. Batchelor exemplifies this prejudice by referring to the enlightened idea that Greek statues made of pure marble were the pinnacle of artistry. It was thus quite a shock in Victorian circles when archaeologists found that these statues were originally multicolored (cf. John Gage, Colour and Culture: Practice Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction [London: Thames and Hudson, 1999], 16).

Of course, colors do not always imply danger in the Hebrew Bible. However, in certain contexts, such as the context of the Tabernacle, the color is associated with a dangerous environment.

The NJPS has lapis lazuli, but I think that is unlikely.

For an analysis of the different gemstones mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and an attempt to identify them, see James E. Harrell, James K. Hoffmeier, and Kenton F. Williams, “Hebrew Gemstones in the Old Testament: A Lexical, Geological, and Archeological Analysis,” Bulletin for Biblical Research 27.1 (2017): 1–52.

The breastpiece also held the Urim and Thummim, a specific set of tools that possibly served a divinatory function. For more on the Urim and Thummim, see Jonathan Stökl, “Ancient Israelite Divination: Urim ve-Tummim, Ephod, and Prophecy,” TheTorah (2018).

The English is from the NETS translation of the Septuagint. The Greek original reads:

^{Wisdom 18:24} ἐπὶ γὰρ ποδήρους ἐνδύματος ἦν ὅλος ὁ κόσμος, καὶ πατέρων δόξαι ἐπὶ τετραστίχου λίθων γλυφῆς, καὶ μεγαλωςύνη σου ἐπὶ διαδήματος κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ. ^18:25 Τούτοις εἶξεν ὁ ὀλεθρεύων, ταῦτα δὲ ἐφοβήθη· ἦν γὰρ μόνη ἡ πεῖρα τῆς ὀργῆς ἱκανή.

Editor’s note: For a discussion of how this text connects to the Priestly conception, see Israel Knohl, “The Concept of Kedusha (Sanctity),” TheTorah (2014). For other interpretations of this law, see Marty Lockshin, “What Do Tzitzit Represent?” TheTorah (2017).