Exodus 28:40-43

GARMENTS OF THE PRIESTS

"And for Aaron's sons thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles, and head-tires shalt thou make for them, for glory and for beauty. And thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother, and upon his sons with him, and shalt anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they minister unto me in the priest's office. And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover the flesh of their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach: and they shall be upon Aaron, and upon his sons, when they go in unto the tent of meeting, or when they come near to the altar to minister in the holy place; that they bear not iniquity, and die: it shall be a statute forever unto him and unto his seed after him."

This is a very brief mention of the holy garments that distinguished the lesser priests, leaving other details to be added later. The purpose of the breeches was to "prevent the exposure of their private parts,"[35] which, to us, might seem an unnecessary precaution; "But ritual nakedness, especially for priests, was a feature of some ancient pagan religions; it was to be quite otherwise in Israel."[36]

The religion authorized by God was designed in such a manner that no essential element of it in any way manifested any similarity to the pagan religions of antiquity. And another distinguishing feature of the priesthood here initiated by Almighty God was the clothing of its priests in white, contrasting magnificently with the black-robed priests of paganism. This is not always apparent in the Scriptures, because the word "linen" as used here actually means white linen. This may be seen in kinds of cloth designated as acceptable gifts for the building of the tabernacle: blue, and purple, and scarlet, and linen. "The Hebrew word for linen in this passage is a name applied to it from its whiteness."[37] As F. C. Cook noted:

"The dress of white linen was the strictly sacerdotal dress common to the whole body of priests (Ezekiel 44:17-18). The linen suit which the High Priest put on when he went into the Holy of Holies was wholly of white linen, even including the girdle."[38]

Not even the high priest could wear the beautifully colored and decorated garments of his full dress regalia when he went into the Holy of Holies, but he was instructed to wear the white linen coat and white linen breeches and the white linen sash (Leviticus 16:4,23). As Esses expressed it, "When the high priest went into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, he had to wear a simple linen garment without seams, a garment of the type Jesus wore when he went to the cross as our sacrifice."[39] White was therefore the requirement for the entire priesthood. In this connection, Zephaniah prophesied that Jehovah would "cut off the name of the Chemarin with the priests" (Zephaniah 1:4); and "[~Chemarin] is the usual Aramaic word for priest, which comes from a root whose meaning is `to be black.'"[40] "[~Chemarin] means black-robed and is applied to idolatrous priests in 2 Kings 23:5 and Hosea 10:5."[41] In view of this, what a stupendous blunder is that of the historic church which, when reverting to the Mosaic conception of a separation between clergy and laity, dressed their priests in the black robes of the ancient paganism!

"A statute forever ..." This is a record of the divine establishment of the Aaronic priesthood, later expanded somewhat to include the Levites generally.