these golden bells at the bottom of the high priest's
long garment, seems to me to have been this: That by shaking his garment
at the time of his offering incense in the temple, on the great day of
expiation, or at other proper periods of his sacred ministrations there,
on the great festivals, the people might have notice of it, and might
fall to their own prayers at the time of incense, or other proper
periods; and so the whole congregation might at once offer those common
prayers jointly with the high priest himself to the Almighty See
Luke 1:10; Revelation 8:3, 4. Nor probably is the son of Sirach to be
otherwise understood, when he says of Aaron, the first high priest,
Ecelus. 45:9, "And God encompassed Aaron with pomegranates, and with
many golden bells round about, that as he went there might be a sound,
and a noise made that might be heard in the temple, for a memorial to
the children of his people."

[14] The reader ought to take notice here, that the very Mosaic Petalon,
or golden plate, for the forehead of the Jewish high priest, was itself
preserved, not only till the days of Josephus, but of Origen; and that
its inscription, Holiness to the Lord, was in the Samaritan characters.
See Antiq. B. VIII. ch. 3. sect. 8, Essay on the Old Test. p. 154, and
Reland, De pol. Templi, p. 132.

[15] When Josephus, both here and ch. 6. sect. 4, supposes the
tabernacle to have been parted into three parts, he seems to esteem the
bare entrance to be a third division, distinct from the holy and the
most holy places; and this the rather, because in the temple afterward
there was a real distinct third part, which was called the Porch:
otherwise Josephus would contradict his own description of the
tabernacle, which gives as a particular account of no more than two
parts.

[16] This explication of the mystical meaning of the Jewish tabernacle
and its vessels, with the garments of the high priest, is taken out of
Philo, and fitted to Gentile philosophical notions. This may possibly be
forgiven in Jews, greatly versed in heathen learning and philosophy, as
Philo had ever been, and as Josephus had long been when he wrote these
Antiquities. In the mean time, it is not to be doubted, but in their
education they must have both learned more Jewish interpretations, such
as we meet with in the Epistle of Barnabas, in that to the Hebrews, and
elsewhere among the old Jews. Accordingly when Josephus wrote his
books of the Jewish War, for