Now summon Aaron your brother, and his sons with him . . . that he may serve me as a priest (Exodus 28:1)
The role of a priest was well-known in ancient Egypt, from which the Israelites had recently come. One of the standard signifiers of an Egyptian priest was a leopard skin, as seen on the priest on the right in this painting. This tomb painting, which is roughly contemporary with the time of Moses, was photographed at the Israel Museum.
You shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, both for glory and for beauty (Exodus 28:2).
The phrase “for glory and for beauty” appears again toward the end of the chapter, in verse 40. Exodus 28 provides extensive detail for creating the priestly apparel. This model of the high priest was photographed in a full-size replica of the tabernacle in the Timna Valley in southern Israel.
They shall take the gold, and the blue, purple, and scarlet cloth, and the fine twisted linen (Exodus 28:5).
This piece of linen cloth demonstrates the extraordinary skills of the best Egyptian weavers. The techniques and skills to weave virtually any cloth of linen, from coarse to fine, was known already by this time. It would be a mistake to believe that the garments woven in the wilderness were necessarily coarse. This image comes from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is in the public domain.
As a gem cutter engraves a seal, you shall engrave the two stones (Exodus 28:11).
This engraved seal comes from the reign of Thutmose II (r. 1482–1480 BC). It illustrates that carving semi-precious gemstones was a well-known and highly developed art form in Egypt before the Israelites left the region. This seal was photographed at the Ashmolean Museum of the University of Oxford.
You shall make them to be enclosed in settings of gold (Exodus 28:11).
The Egyptians were experts at cutting gemstones precisely and inlaying in gold settings. This photo shows a detail view of the back of the throne of Tutankhamun. The base shape was carved of wood, into which finely carved stone (lapis lazuli, carnelian) and glass pieces were inlaid, with the remaining exposed wood covered by sheets of gold. Some of the techniques used in creating this throne would have been very similar to the techniques used by the craftsmen creating the shoulder pieces and breastplate of the high priest.
