Chapter 42. The bells on the priest's robe were a figure of the apostles

Chapter 42

1Justin: Moreover, the prescription that twelve bells be attached to the [robe] of the high priest , which hung down to the feet, was a symbol of the twelve apostles , who depend on the power of Christ , the eternal Priest; and through their voice it is that all the earth has been filled with the glory and grace of God and of His Christ. Wherefore David also says: 'Their sound has gone forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.' And Isaiah speaks as if he were personating the apostles , when they say to Christ that they believe not in their own report, but in the power of Him who sent them. And so he says: 'Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? We have preached before Him as if [He were] a child, as if a root in a dry ground.' Isaiah 53:1-2 (And what follows in order of the prophecy already quoted. ) But when the passage speaks as from the lips of many, 'We have preached before Him,' and adds, 'as if a child,' it signifies that the wicked shall become subject to Him, and shall obey His command, and that all shall become as one child. Such a thing as you may witness in the body: although the members are enumerated as many, all are called one , and are a body . For, indeed, a commonwealth and a church, though many individuals in number, are in fact as one, called and addressed by one appellation. And in short, sirs, by enumerating all the other appointments of Moses I can demonstrate that they were types, and symbols , and declarations of those things which would happen to Christ , of those who it was foreknown were to believe in Him, and of those things which would also be done by Christ Himself. But since what I have now enumerated appears to me to be sufficient, I revert again to the order of the discourse.