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).
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
