MOSAICS
5S1
MOSAICS
The Tabernacle was the centre of public worship.
This was a portable tent moasurin;; fifty-two by seven-
teen feet, and divided by a veil into two unequal
parts, the Holy Place and the smaller Holy of Holies.
The latter contained only the Ark of the Covenant,
and might be entered by no one but Moses and the
high priests. Any priest might enter the Holy Phice.
This was furnished with a table for the Loaves of
Proposition, a seven-branched golden candlestick, and
the Altar of Incense. Outside, in the surrounding
court, were the Altar of Holocausts and the brazen
laver for priestly ablutions. The tribe of Levi fur-
York, 1S97). Invaluable (■)r thoroughness and concenlrnted
form are tables XXIX-XXXIX and XLII-LVI in Concor-
danliarum U. S. S. Thesaurus. Auctoribus P. P., S. J. (Paris. 1897),
sect. I.
Thos. .( K. Reilly.
Mosaics, as a term, according to the usual author- ities is deri\'ed through generations of gradual change from the Creek nova-tiof, "appertaining to the Muses." In the hiter Latin there are the terms o/ik.s- jiiiisimmi, "mosaic work," mtisivariu^i. "mosaic worker"; but probably the English word "mosaic" is derived immediately from the French }nosaique, which with
nished the ministers, the descendants of Aaron being its earlier form mousnique can only be borrowed
priests, and the remaining ma-
jority, Levites properly so-
called. The priests were con-
secrated, wore special vest-
ments, offered sacrifice, at-
tended to the Holy Place, and
acted as judges and teachers.
For the peculiar distinction of
highpriesthood, see the article
Aahon (section II). The Le-
vites were the priests' assist-
ants. They carried the Tab-
ernacle whenever it was moved .
Bloody and unbloody sacrifice s
were prescribed. The former
class embraced the Holocaust ,
in which the entire victim was
consumed on the altar by fire
and the Expiatory and Pacific
sacrifices, when only the fat was
burned on the altar. The rest
was either burned elsewhere or
given to the priest as in the
first instance, but divided be-
tween priest and offerer as in
the second, and followed by a
sacrificial meal. The Unbloody
sacrifices included first-fruits,
tithes, meat and drink offerings,
and incense. Both oblations
and sacrifices were seasoned
with salt.
The most striking feature of the ceremonial legislation is the distinction between legal clean- ness and uncleanness, with its concomitant provision for nu- merous external purifications. The faithful Hebrew had al- ways to abstain from blood. He might not use for food any quadruped that did not divide the hoof and chew the cud, nor
from the Italian or Provencal,
and cannot be the descendant
of the earlier French form
inusikc. It is, however, ques-
tionable if these terms were
applied to all the different spe-
cies of work which may now be
classed as "mosaic", and it is
probable that they were only
properly applied to the prod-
ucts of the worker in opus
tessellalum or verniiculatum,
formed of small cubes of glass,
marble or other material. If
we define mosaic as a col-
location of pieces of marble,
glass, ceramic material, or
jjrccious stone embedded in
some species of cement so as
to form an ornamental entity,
we should have to include the
opns Alexnmlrinum, and other
ordinary pavings such as were
used for the less dignified por-
tions of Roman houses. The
term mosaic would also be
made to apply to the opus sec-
lile (Vitruvius, \'II, i) made of
pieces of marble anrl glass form-
ing geometrical or foliated pat-
terns, each piece being ground
exactly to fit into the design,
or in the case of pictures, ground
to make the shapes necessary
for the completion of the sub-
ject. We also apply the term
to the pavement work of later
date, like that in St. Mary
Major's in Rome, and that in
Canterbury Cathedral and in
the sanctuary of Westminster
Abbey in England, as well as to
mosaics of a miniature species
Fig. 2 — Columns decorated with glass mosaic
From Pompeii, now in National Museum. Naples
any fish that did not have both fins and scales, nor used for jewellery and small pictures — suchastheHead
birds of prey, nor water fowl, nor reptiles, nor insects, of Our Lord which was presented by Pope Sixtus IV to
the locust excepted. To do so would make him un- Philip de Croy in 147.5 and is now in the Treasury of
clean. The use of marriage, childbirth, and leprosy Sts. Peter and Paul's, Chimay. This latter tradition of
also induced uncleanness. It is true that this legis- work still exists, and every visitor to Rome or south-
lation is largely hygienic, but the Hebrews did not ern Italy is acquainted with the cheap but wonder-
commonly conceive it in that light. As diseases were fully executed mosaic jewellery which is sold in most
regarded as direct from Jahweh, precautions against of the shops, and even in the streets of Rome. There
them were designed primarily to avert them by appeas- is little doubt but that mosaic in jewellery is of con-
ing the sender. Those, therefore, who failed to take siderable antiquity.
such precautions, either necessarily or otherwise, were
displciising to Jahweh, and legal defilement was the re-
sult. How efTectually the Torah prepared the Hebrews
for the acceptance of the Xew Law is attested by the
work of Christ, who came not to destroy but to perfect
History. — In passing these various species in his-
torical review, the earliest to be mentioned is that
in Exodus, a pavement (xxiv, 10), "a work of sap-
phire stones", and the pavement of Ahasuerus at
Su.sa "paved with porphyry and white marble, and
it. It was only those who, while sitting in the chair of embellished with painting of wonderful variety",
Moses, preferred for their personal guidance the tradi- which here, probably, means varied inlaid colour,
tions of men, who proved inimical to our Saviour's work, since surface painting would be out of place on a
GiooT, Outlinen of Jewish Hisinry (Xew York. 1897): Hot- pavement. And we may well believe that the Per-
»^',°frFr»nWnrt"i7Vfi?"' Fl.1n°3' ,Z^,?fln? rL^'fr'^Z",'^ slaus kncw of tessellatcd' work when we consider the
Kiius (rrankiort, 171n); ji,wald, Antiqmttes of Israel, tr. oOllt h i i • i i • i i n i i i ■ j
(London, 1876); Sayce, Eariu Huiory of the Hebrews (New enamelled bricks, wjjich may be called a large kma
