Letter 29. To Marcella.

An explanation of the Hebrew words Ephod bad (1 Sam. 2:18) and Teraphim (Judges 17:5). Written at Rome to Marcella, also at Rome a.d. 384.

The below translation made by ChatGPT 3.5 from this Latin text.

1. The office of letter writing is to write about family matters or daily conversations, and in a way become present to each other while announcing what they want or what has been done: although sometimes such a conversation is seasoned with the salt of learning. But while you are entirely occupied with treatises, you write nothing to me except what torments me and compels me to read the Scriptures. Finally, yesterday you proposed a very famous question and demanded that I immediately write back what I thought. As if I hold the chair of the Pharisees, so that every time there is a dispute about Hebrew words, I am appointed as an arbiter and the sequestrator of the dispute. These are not pleasant letters which do not smell of cake, which Apicius does not preserve, in which there is nothing about the law of the masters of this time. But because our messenger and intermediary of our conversation is hurrying to return, I will say a great thing more quickly than I have it: When disputing about the Holy Scriptures, words are not as necessary as meaning. But if you seek (or we seek) eloquence, Demosthenes must be read, or Tully; if divine Sacraments, our codices are to be looked at, which do not resonate well from Hebrew into Latin.

2. In front of your letter you had placed 'What does it mean?' which is written in the first book of Kings. 'And Samuel was serving before the face of the Lord, girt with a linen ephod, and he had a little coat: and his mother made him a doublet, which she brought to him on the days of her going up with her husband to offer the solemn sacrifice.' And if a garment, how is it to be fastened? And why is a clasp added to the ephod itself? You also write that you have read in the following passages: 'A man of God came to Eli and said to him, "This is what the Lord says: I revealed myself to your father's family when they were in Egypt, subject to Pharaoh's house. I chose your father's family out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priests, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod."' (Ibid. 27-28). And following the order of the entire book, you have also taken an example from that place where Doeg the Edomite killed the priests at the command of the king. And turning, the Scripture says, Doec the Syrian himself killed the priests of the Lord: and he killed three hundred and five men on that day (ibid. c. 22. v. 18 and 19), or (as it is read in Hebrew) eighty-five, all who carried the ephod. And he killed the city of the priests of Nob with the edge of the sword, from man to woman, from infant to nursing child, and also the ox, and the donkey, and the sheep, all with the edge of the sword. And one son of Abimelech son of Achitob was saved; and his name was Abiathar, and he fled after David.

I do not hold myself back from expecting to anticipate the order of the problem in my response, where we read now, 'And all the bearers of the Ephod' (1 Kings 22): in Hebrew, it has 'bearers of the bad Ephod.' You will learn why I say this in what follows. You also added what follows: 'And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Abimelech fled to David, he went down with David to Keilah, having the Ephod in his hand: and it was told to Saul, that David came to Keilah' (Ibid. c. 23.6. and following): where when they feared the arrival of the king and the siege of the city, David said to Abiathar: 'Bring the Ephod of the Lord.' These are the things which, presenting the excerpts from the book of Kingdoms, you have surpassed into the volume of Judges, where it is written that Micha of Mount Ephraim returned one thousand, one hundred silver shekels to his mother, which she had vowed; and she made a sculpture and a cast from it. "And you add to this, after a short time, that it was called the Ephod and Teraphim—though, of course, if it were a girdle or a type of garment, it could not have been sculpted or molded. I recognize the error of nearly all Latins who believe that the Ephod and Teraphim, which are mentioned afterwards, were made of the silver that Micah had given to his mother; whereas Scripture records, ‘And his mother took the money,’ and it is clear that Micha gave the money to the skillful worker and had a graven and a molten image made, and it was in the house of Micah, and Micah and his house served God, and he made an Ephod and Teraphim, and filled the hand of one of his sons and made him a priest.'" (Judges 17:4-5) But if you think that the things which were previously called a carved and cast image, Ephod, and Teraphim are thereafter named, know that they are not the same. For after the idol of his mother, which is called a carved and cast image, Micha made the Ephod and Teraphim, as is proved by the following. "And the five men who went to explore the land answered and said to their brothers." "Behold, you know that there is an ephod and theraphim and an idol and a molten image in these houses" (Ibid. c. 18. 14. et seqq.). And after many things which thou hast passed over, "And five men went up," said he, "and rushed in thither, and took the idol and the molten image, the ephod and the theraphim. And six hundred men, all girt with weapons of war, entered into the house of Michas, and took away the idol and the molten image, the ephod also and the theraphim." Therefore he convicts the opinion of those who thought that the ephod was silver, by briefly observing that it is never mentioned except in connection with the priesthood. For Samuel who is referred to as girded with it, was a Levite, and the priests of Nob carried this distinctive badge of their office. And (which is not in Latin codices) when David, fleeing from Saul, came to Abimelech, and asked for a sword, saying: ‘See if there is a spear or sword at hand, for I did not bring my sword or my other weapons with me’, the priest replied, ‘Here is the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you slew in the valley of Terebinth, and it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you will take that, take it, for there is no other here’. (1 Samuel 21:8–9). Evidently the ephod was kept hidden. This also, which we have now set forth, where "graven" and "molten" is read, although it be an idol, yet because it was supposed, through error of religion, to be for veneration, an ornament is made of it, as it were for the service (or mystery) of God, Ephod and Theraphim.

4. We will now proceed to explain what Theraphim is, if there is time for dictation. Meanwhile, we must explain about the Ephod, as we have begun. In Exodus, where Moses is commanded to make priestly garments, it is written: "And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle" (Exod. 28: 4). But where we have put "epohod," the Septuagint interpreters translated "ἐπωμιδα" in Greek, meaning that such a garment would come over the shoulders. Then it is added: "And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen. And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work." To put it briefly, the entire book of Exodus is filled with this kind of garment. For at the end of the same volume it is written: 'And every wise man made in the works the tunics of the saints, which are those of Aaron the priest, as the Lord commanded Moses. And they made a shoulder-piece of gold, and hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twisted linen.' (Exodus 39:1-2). But because in Exodus this type of garment is only commanded to be made, and later it is reported as being made, however Aaron is not dressed in it, in Leviticus how he was dressed in priestly vestments is explained: 'And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water, and he put on him the tunic, and girded him with a girdle, and clothed him with a robe', which we can interpret as the undershirt, or tunic, with which he was dressed underneath. "And he put upon him the tunick, and girded him with the girdle, and put on him the robe, and also the rational, and put the mitre upon his head: and fastened the ephod upon him" (Lev. 8:6-7). You see, therefore, Aaron is girded with an ephod, just as for some reason Samuel was girded with a bad ephod. But lest I take you further, have this understanding. Wherever in the Seventy Interpreters, that is, in our books the ‘epomis,’ that is, the ephod, is read, in the Hebrew it is written ephod. Why they wanted to interpret this elsewhere and leave it uninterpreted elsewhere is not my judgement, since they have done this in several places: as they had expressed differently elsewhere, they exhausted the variety of translation by finally placing the very Hebrew words. But Aquila has said that which those others said as "subligaculum" and "superhumeralis," that is, vestment and garment. That the "vestment," which in Hebrew is called “mail,” means the under-tunic; but the "garment," that is, ephod, which is called in Hebrew Ephod, indicates the superior cloak, by which the whole priestly ambit is covered.

5. You may ask, perhaps, if the priestly Ephod is a "pallium", why is it sometimes called "bar"? When I hear the word "bar", I cannot help laughing. For when it is said among the Hebrews "bad", it is also clear that the Seventy Interpreters have so translated it that instead of "bad" it was written "bar", an error having arisen. But "bad" in the Hebrew language means linen, although "phesta" more significantly expresses linen. Finally, where we read, "And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness from the loins even unto the thighs" (Exodus 28:42): in the Hebrew the word for linen is "bad". In what appearance that man who is shown to Daniel was dressed. "And I lifted up my eyes, and saw: and behold a man clothed in linen" (Dan. 10.5), for which plural number, linen garments are now called. Therefore, Samuel and eighty-five priestly men are said to have carried a linen Ephod, because the high priest alone had the right to dress in an Ephod that was not made of linen; but (as Scripture recalls) it was woven with gold, hyacinth, purple, scarlet, and fine linen. The others had an Ephod, not distinguished by that variety, and not decorated by twelve stones, which resided on each shoulder, but linen and simple, and pure with all whiteness.

6. However, because I promised earlier that if there was time for dictate, I would also briefly discuss the Theraphim: and no one interrupted in the meantime: know that Theraphim is interpreted as "shapes" or "figurations" by Aquila. For in that place, when Saul sent messengers to take David, and they responded that he was severely troubled, he sent again saying: "Bring him to me in bed, so that I may kill him." And the messengers came, and behold, the Theraphim were on the bed (1 Kings 19:15). Instead of cenotaphs, Theraphim is used in Hebrew, that is, "shapes" or "figurations". And they were not goat's livers as our codices have it, but a small pillow made from goat's skin, which, with shaved hairs and a head covered, deceived one into thinking it was a person in the bed. But, in order to equally explain the truth of each way of speaking, God threatens in Hosea to take away all grace from the fornicating people, saying that 'for many days the children of Israel will sit without a king, and prince, without sacrifice, without altar, and without priesthood, and revelations' (Hosea 3:4). Regarding priesthood and revelations, in Hebrew it is 'without ephod and without household gods,' as Theodotion and Symmachus translated. From this we understand that in the Ephod, according to the Septuagint as well, priestly offices are interpreted as meaning senses rather than words, but in the Theraphim, that is, in various works called Theraphim, they are understood as figures or images. For in Exodus and other places where feathered garments are described, Cherubim work, that is, varied and depicted, is described: yet with the letter Vau not having Cherubims, because wherever it is written with this letter, it signifies animals rather than works. Therefore, according to this interpretation, it is shown that Micha made the rest of the priestly ornaments through the Theraphim with the priestly robe.

7. I wish I could now explain to you the entire priestly habit, and through each type of clothing, reveal divine mysteries. But because we have exceeded the brevity of this letter itself, and Josephus and Philo, most learned men of the Jews, and many of our own have widely discussed this matter, whose voice, as they say, you will hear me: whatever else you want, ask now as an inquirer present, so that if we happen not to know something, without a witness, without a judge, we may die believing it in the hearing of a faithful ear. If the common mother is well, I am glad, and I pray the Lord that she may be well. We, as you know, detained by the reading of the Hebrews, have covered ourselves in the rust of the Latin language, to such an extent that even a certain non-Latin creaking occurs to us when we speak. Therefore, forgive our dryness: and if I am unskilled in speech, says the Apostle, but not in knowledge. Both were not lacking to him, and he humbly refused one. We lack both, since we have lost what we had as children, and we have not obtained the knowledge we wanted, according to Aesop's fable of the dog, while pursuing great things, losing even the smaller ones.