The commentary is based mostly on the LXX, with frequent reference to the MT.

Ex 29

This chapter is not typologically as important and merely points to the incomplete nature of the sacrificial system before Christ. It’s inadequacy points to the necessity of Christ.

Ex 30

1 And thou shalt make the altar of incense of incorruptible wood. 2 And thou shalt make it a cubit in length, and a cubit in breadth: it shall be square; and the height of it shall be of two cubits, its horns shall be of the same piece. 3 And thou shalt gild its grate with pure gold, and its sides round about, and its horns; and thou shalt make for it a wreathen border of gold round-about. 4 And thou shalt make under its wreathen border two rings of pure gold; thou shalt make it to the two corners on the two sides, and they shall be bearings for the staves, so as to bear it with them. 5 And thou shalt make the staves of incorruptible wood, and shalt gild them with gold. 6 And thou shalt set it before the veil that is over the ark of the testimonies, wherein I will make myself known to thee from thence.

Here the incense altar is described. It obviously represents the prayers given to God by the saints through angels as per Rev 8:3. The altar’s incorruptible wood speaks to the righteousness of the saints. It’s imperfect dimensions point to the imperfection of the type. It being surrounded with gold speaks of the divinization of the saints by God’s grace. The “wreathen border” is a further identification of the type, beautifications pointing to the Beauty.

It is interesting that the altar is handled in a careful way like the ark, the staves identical in construction. Perhaps this points out to the holiness that one’s prayers to the saints must have. Or, here the staves represent righteous, divinized angels who can transport the prayers directly to God. It’s location before the veil connotes the distance between what is created and in the world with what is uncreated.

7 And Aaron shall burn upon it fine compound incense every morning; whensoever he trims the lamps he shall burn incense upon it. 8 And when Aaron lights the lamps in the evening, he shall burn incense upon it; a constant incense-offering always before the Lord for their generations. 9 And thou shalt not offer strange incense upon it, [nor] an offering made by fire, [nor] a sacrifice; and thou shalt not pour a drink-offering upon it.

These somewhat trivial details underscore the point that prayer is a specific part of Christian devotion and is not conflated with other acts of veneration and worship. It is an ongoing act as well as one is to “pray without ceasing.” (1 Thes 5:17)

10 And once in the year Aaron shall make atonement on its horns, he shall purge it with the blood of purification for their generations: it is most holy to the Lord.

Prayer, though separate from worship, requires a connection to ongoing worship—the Eucharistic sacrifice atoning for sins as it is the one sacrifice that has atoned for all sins. Hence, praying alone at home can never suffice.

Ex 30:11-16 include details not relevant to this study, so we continue on.

17 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 18 Make a brazen laver, and a brazen base for it, for washing; and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of witness [i.e. the ark with the commandments] and the altar, and thou shalt pour forth water into it. 19 And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet with water from it. 20 Whensoever they shall go into the tabernacle of witness, they shall wash themselves with water, so they shall not die, whensoever they advance to the altar to do service and to offer the whole burnt-offerings to the Lord. 21 They shall wash their hands and feet with water, whensoever they shall go into the tabernacle of witness; they shall wash themselves with water, that they die not; and it shall be for them a perpetual statute, for him and his posterity after him.

The bronze bath obviously prefigures baptism and its purifying grace. It also prefigures the ceremonial handwashing that the priest performs during the liturgy, but this is not the main emphasis. Christians are a priesthood of all believers, such a priesthood purified from a formerly unworthy state. The grace of God makes Christians worthy, despite their imperfect participation in grace. This is why just hands and feet are washed. Christians reach out with their hands and approach God with their feet, but the whole of them is not purified (generally) in this life. Apart from this, the sacrament actually kills those who commune it. (1 Cor 11:29-30) This explains the significance that “the shall wash themselves…that they die not.”

22 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23 Do thou also take sweet herbs, the flower of choice myrrh five hundred shekels, and the half of this two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet-smelling cinnamon, and two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet-smelling calamus, 24 and of cassia five hundred shekels of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil. 25 And thou shalt make it a holy anointing oil, a perfumed ointment [tempered] by the art of the perfumer: it shall be a holy anointing oil.

The making of anointing oil typologically is about the Holy Spirit. The significance of 500 shekels for myrrh is difficult to determine. Noah was 500 years old when he begat sons and daughters, (Gen 5:32 MT) so perhaps the shekels represent years preceding the Spirit adopting sons of God into the priesthood of all believers. In other words, it prophesies about the end of the Levitical Priesthood in favor of its fulfillment. The oil is made of myrrh as well as 250 shekels of calamus, and the same amount of shekels worth of cinnamon. The three spices represent the hypostases of the divine essence which indwells all Christians by virtue of the Spirit being imparted to them in baptism. Perhaps the 250+250=500 speak of those hypostases (the Son and Spirit) being of the same divine essence of the Father, but hypostatically caused by Him, hence His larger number. Apart from the Sacred Tradition of the Church, this text can easily be interpreted in a subordinationist sense. Other interpretations, such as the myrrh being God, and the other spices being the angels and the saints are possible if we decouple oil from being the Spirit, which is unwise. In any event, God, the angels, and the saints are with all believers at all times, the latter specifically in their prayers and reflecting of divine energies onto humanity and creation as a whole. Perhaps their spirits and in rare cases (for assumed saints) physical bodies geographically are with Christians as well in select moments.

26 And thou shalt anoint with it the tabernacle of witness, and the ark of the tabernacle of witness, 27 and all its furniture, and the candlestick and all its furniture, and the altar of incense, 28 and the altar of whole burnt-offerings and all its furniture, and the table and all its furniture, and the laver. 29 And thou shalt sanctify them, and they shall be most holy: every one that touches them shall be hallowed.

Through the Holy Spirit the divine energies of God indwell all the objects of worship. In ancient culture, the pagans anointed their idols so that their “gods” (i.e. demons) would indwell the objects. The anointing here cannot be anything other in intent than to have God literally indwell these objects typologically (not literally, which is why Sacred Tradition disallows for the anointing of icons). The lesson one should draw is that according to the typological meanings of the preceding (the ark being an icon of God, the candlestick for the Spirit, the altar of incense for the prayers of the saints and angels, etcetera) that God is present either entirely, or in His energies, in all of these. In other words, He really is present in the Church. For this reason, the Orthodox Catholic Church chrismates the walls of Church buildings—because the Holy Spirit is present within the entirety of the sacred space of worship where Christians dwell.

30 And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them that they may minister to me as priests. 31 And thou shalt speak to the children of Israel, saying, This shall be to you a holy anointing oil throughout your generations. 32 On man’s flesh it shall not be poured, and ye shall not make [any] for yourselves according to this composition: it is holy, and shall be holiness to you. 33 Whosoever shall make it in like manner, and whosoever shall give of it to a stranger, shall be destroyed from among his people.

Perhaps, the priesthood of all believers is indwelt by the Spirit, typologically represented here by Aaron and his sons. A more typologically consistent interpretation is that Christ’s anointing by the Spirit in the Jordan is foretold here. The prohibition against alien oil is a condemnation of pagan and heterodox anointings. There is one baptism and chrismation, and it is in the Church.

34 And the Lord said to Moses, Take for thyself sweet herbs, stacte, onycha, sweet galbanum, and transparent frankincense; there shall be and equal weight of each. 35 And they shall make with it perfumed incense, tempered with the art of a perfumer, a pure holy work. 36 And of these thou shalt beat some small, and thou shalt put it before the testimonies in the tabernacle of testimony, whence I will make myself known to thee: it shall be to you a most holy incense. 37 Ye shall not make any for yourselves according to this composition; it shall be to you a holy thing for the Lord. 38 Whosoever shall make any in like manner, so as to smell it, shall perish from his people.

The prohibition against foreign incense is similar in meaning. Liturgical prayers are for those in the Church and one is not to seek any sort of liturgical function or their prayers outside the Church. This is not meant to define that one cannot ever pray with an unbelieving family member. The point is to establish canonical boundaries to the Church.

The four herbs that make up the incense may typologically represent the four Gospels. They may also connect to the four rivers in Eden. (Gen 2:10 MT) It may also be a reference to perfect, a sort of “square” number (four corners, four sides). Most likely, it’s a reference to the four rows of stones on the priest’s breastplate in Ex 28. In short, they represent the prayers of all Christian people.

The rest of Exodus

Much of the rest of Exodus is not about the tabernacle itself and so the import of any typology is different. Beginning in Ex 36:8 LXX, the book returns to the topic of the same articles previously discussed.

Of particular note is that Ex 36:9-12 LXX speaks of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet being interweaved, indicating that the Church contains the typological elements of each. Imperfect dimensions of such items (Ex 36:16 LXX) speaks of the imperfect nature of the type. The additions of wreaths made of pure gold speak of the presence of God in the Church. (Ex 36:22 LXX) Golden rings used to hold straps to the clothing articles (Ex 36:28-29 LXX) speak of God’s grace being the operative power holding everything together.

The detail of the sign “Holiness of the Lord” being surrounded by a blue border is difficult to understand. (Ex 36:39-40 LXX) Perhaps, this speaks of the history of mankind being providentially directed by God, history itself being sanctified.

The proportions of gold, silver, and brass are difficult to interpret in Ex 39 LXX. I venture this guess:

29 talents, 720 shekels of gold + 70 talents, 1,500 shekels of brass almost equals 100 talents, 1,775 shekels of silver. There are 3,000 shekels in a talent. Therefore, there was 301,775 shekels of silver versus 299,220 shekels of gold and brass. Gold pertains to grace and brass to purification. There is more brass because generally grace is turning Christians from sin instead of merely increasing sanctification, which grace often does. For silver to out number gold and brass by about 1 percent appears to indicate that the anthropological is decisive for salvation. Man decides to respond positively or negatively to grace. All the grace in the world cannot make the decision for man. Hence, the slight difference in proportion puts the onus on man for his repentance and faith.

Ex 40:29 LXX contains God’s overshadowing of the tabernacle. This same Greek word is used for Luke 1:35 pertaining to the incarnation. Clearly, God’s actual presence is being connoted in both. The incarnational reality pertains to purification for the Theotokos as the consensus of the fathers on the question indicates, though the text itself typologically does not carry this emphasis apart from importing this meaning from Sacred Tradition. Simply, the presence of God is connoted—but given the imperfection of the types, this presence implicitly was a purification and sanctification of what was present.

With these last observations, this commentary is concluded.