8.
And there I saw a thing again even as the former, after we had passed seventy days. And I saw seven men in white raiment saying to me, Arise, put on the robe of the priesthood, and the crown of righteousness, and the breastplate of understanding, and the garment of truth, and the diadem of faith, and the tiara of miracle, and the ephod of prophecy. 1 And each one of them bearing each of these things put them on me, and said, From henceforth become a priest of the Lord, thou and thy seed for ever. And the first anointed me with holy oil, and gave to me the rod of judgment. The second washed me with pure water, and fed me with bread and wine, the most holy things, 2 and clad me with a holy and glorious robe. The third clothed me with a linen vestment like to an ephod. The fourth put round me a girdle like unto purple. The fifth gave to me a branch of rich olive. The sixth placed a crown on my head. The seventh placed on my head a diadem of priesthood, and filled my hands with incense, so that I served as a priest to the Lord. And they said to me, Levi, thy seed shall be divided into three branches, 3 for a sign of the glory of the Lord who is to come; and first shall he be that hath been faithful; no portion shall be greater than his. The second shall be in the priesthood. The third--a new name shall be called over Him, because He shall arise as King from Judah, and shall establish a new priesthood, after the fashion of the Gentiles, to all the Gentiles. 4 And His appearing shall be unutterable, as of an exalted 5 prophet of the seed of Abraham our father. Every desirable thing in Israel shall be for thee and for thy seed, and everything fair to look upon shall ye eat, and the table of the Lord shall thy seed apportion, and some of them shall be high priests, and judges, and scribes; for by their mouth shall the holy place be guarded. And when I awoke, I understood that this thing was like unto the former. And I hid this also in my heart, and told it not to any man upon the earth.
With the whole of this passage we may compare the description of the vestments of Aaron. See especially Ex. xxix. 5, 6 (LXX.). The petalon is the translation of tsyts, the plate of gold on the forehead of the high priest over the mitre. The logion, or logeion, is the breastplate, with the Urim and Thummim. For the poderes, see Ex. xxviii. 27 (LXX.). ↩
On the possible reference here to the elements of the Eucharist, see Grabe's note, Spicilegium, in loc. ↩
Nitzsch (p. 19, n. 37) explains this division into three archai, as referring to the three orders of the Christian priesthood. This, however, seems improbable. Cf. Kayser, p. 119; Vorstman, p. 41. It is far more probable that the reference is to Moses, Aaron, and Christ. Thus with pisteusas we may compare Num. xii. 7. For this use of arche, cf. Gen. ii. 10. [Isa. lxvi. 21.] ↩
[Rom. xvi. 15, 16, 17, Greek. Compare Heb. v. 1.] ↩
Or, if we follow the reading of Cd. Oxon., "Prophet of the Most High." ↩
