Exodus 28:3 - Exposition

Wise-hearted . In modern parlance the heart is made the seat of the affections and emotions, the brain of the intellect. But the Hebrew idiom was different. There the heart was constantly spoken of as the seat of wisdom. (See below, Exodus 31:6 ; Exodus 35:10 , Exodus 35:25 ; Exodus 36:1 , Exodus 36:2 ; Job 9:4 ; Proverbs 11:29 , etc.) The spirit of wisdom might seem to be scarcely necessary for the work of constructing a set of priestly garments; but where "glory and beauty" are required, high artistic power is needed; and this power is regarded by the sacred writers, as indeed it is by most of those who have written on the human understanding—notably Plato and Aristotle—as a very important part of the intellect. Techne , says Aristotle, involves theoria , as well as aesthesis and genesis , requires, i.e; a knowledge of high abstract truths, as well as the perceptive faculty which we commonly call "taste," and the constructive one known as "power of execution.'' (See Eth. Nic . 6.4, § 4.) It is, with him, one of the five chief intellectual excellences. To consecrate him . Investiture in the holy garments was made a part of the ceremony of consecration ( Exodus 29:5-9 ; Le Exodus 8:7-9 , Exodus 8:13 ), as it is in the English Ordinal in the consecration of a bishop.