P. Pravda.

K. Thus the human Godhead cannot be equal to the prerogatives of the Godhead; and he lacks much for this. For this reason He (Christ) said, as having been made and thought to be like us: "My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28), although by the nature of the Godhead He is equal to Him and not lower than the superiority of the Parent. The length of the pillar is ten cubits: for Christ is all-perfect, as it were, according to the height of the Godhead; and a number reaching ten is accepted in the Divine Scriptures as a sign of perfection. The pillar has a golden top, as well as a golden body: so the temple received from the Virgin abounds in the dwelling of the highest nature; and gold is a symbol of the Godhead, having an advantage in everything in comparison with substances of this kind. The footstool is made of silver and double: so Christ is bright and glorious on earth, according to what is written: "God the Lord hath appeared unto us" (Psalm 117:27), and as it were, it requires a double understanding, for in Him God and man are conceived: for this, I think, means a double and silver footstool.

P. You assimilate correctly.

K. But pay attention to this, my friend.

P. What is it?

K. Having commanded the whole tabernacle to be covered with ten veils, he adds, among other things: "And make coverings on the goat's [hair] to cover the tabernacle; eleven curtains thou shalt make; the length of the veil is thirty cubits, and the breadth is four cubits; [this] is one veil: to the eleven veils one measure. And thou shalt put together five curtains apart, and six curtains apart; And thou shalt make a double veil on the front side of the tabernacle. Thou shalt make fifty loops on the edge of the outermost veil to join it [with another], and fifty loops on the edge of the other covering, to join it to it" (Exodus 26:7-10). What does this mean, Palladium? If He hangs ten coverings (linen), then why are not the covers of wool (leather) equal to them, but one is placed in superfluous, that is, the eleventh? For "one," he says, "five veils separately, and six veils separately" (26:9).

P. I can't say.

K. But their very position will make clear what they are looking for.

P. In what way?

K. He says that the five veils should be mutually united, as well as the other five of the same kind, and equally opposed. Wherefore, while they were erected on both sides, and one against the other, as it were, from the north and the south, or from the east and west, the eleventh side of the middle side was already neglected, dividing into parts those ten which had been cut in two, on which side was stretched the eleventh leather covering, which restrained both sides with hooks and loops. And in the likeness of the others were the pillars of this side, only smaller in number: for the ten coverings, as I have said beforehand, extended twenty-eight cubits in length, and the eleventh and middlest among the others, being five cubits wide (and those curtains were four cubits each), extended only to twenty cubits in length. For this reason He says: "Make a double veil for the sixth curtain on the front side of the tabernacle," so that the excessively spread veil does not harm the beauty of the tabernacle. And so, in this eleventh side, located among the others, and as it were, the sacred and divine vessels were placed, in themselves in different ways prefiguring Immanuel. But perhaps this number also means that in the last times of the age, and as it were at the hour of the one-tenth hour, Christ appeared and the tabernacle containing Christ, that is, the Church.

P. There is nothing unreasonable, as it seems, and this sense is considered to be applicable.

K. After the discourse on the tabernacle and its images, he says: "Make the court of the tabernacle: on the noonday side to the south, the curtains for the court shall be of fine linen, a hundred cubits long on one side; Their pillars are twenty, and their sockets are twenty of brass; the hooks at the pillars and the ties on them are made of silver. And along the north side are curtains a hundred cubits long; Their pillars are twenty, and their sockets are twenty of brass; the hooks at the pillars and the ties on them are made of silver. And in the breadth of the court on the west side are the curtains of fifty cubits; there are ten pillars for them, and ten sockets for them" (Exodus 27:9-12). Consider, therefore, that the first curtains were narrow, and reached (only) thirty cubits, for their breadth is four, and their length is twenty-eight; and those who follow them are so wide and long: for they had a hundred by a hundred, and fifty by fifty, stretching out to the east, and to the west, and to the south.

P. But what is the meaning of this veiled speech?

K. Is this not what was clearly promised of old by the mouth of Isaiah, who appeared in the last times of the Church: "Enlarge the place of thy tent, enlarge the veils of thy gates; Do not be ashamed, let your ropes run longer, and strengthen your stakes; for thou shalt spread to the right and to the left" (Isaiah 54:2 and 3): for the Church of Christ, which was at first constrained, then expands to the east and west, north and south, and reaches every place.