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Bible - NT - Matthew: Aaron and new Aaron

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After the soldiers mock, they strip off the scarlet robe from Jesus (ekduo) and put His own garments back on Him (enduo). That’s a Day of Atonement link, but in the LXX the combination of these two verbs occurs also in Numbers 20:26, where the high priestly robes are stripped from dead Aaron and placed on Eleazar his son, the successor as High Priest. Jesus is both: He is stripped as the first Aaron, and then re-invested as the High Priest according to the order of Melchiezedek. A change of priesthood and a change in law.

The combination of verbs also occurs in Ezekiel 44:19, which describes the putting off/putting on of garments by Levitical priests following the exile. The message appears to be that all the Levitical priests who remain – the sons of Zadok – and who approach the Lord’s table to offer Yahweh’s fat and blood will perform their work as a kind of “Day of Atonement.” Every time they enter the inner court, they will put on linen garments without wool, and every time they go out to the people they put off the linen garments “that they may not transmit holiness to the people with their garments.” Every sacrifice, it appears, is conformed to the Day of Atonement; every approach to the altar is an approach to the “sanctuary” and the “inner court” (vv. 16-17).

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, March 5, 2010 at 4:28 am

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Bible - NT - Matthew: Aaron and new Aaron

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