Note 75 — Chapter VI · (continued 2)

“Thou shalt make a plate of purest gold, wherein thou shalt grave with engraver’s work, Holiness to the Lord. Thou shalt tie it with a violet fillet, and it shall be upon the borders of the mitre, over the forehead of the high-priest.”—Exod. xxviii. 36-38. The description given by Josephus of the crown of the high priest would lead to the supposition that the fillet of Aaron did not always preserve its primitive simplicity. Speaking of a section of a diadem ornamented with the cups of flowers, which passed round the back of the head and reached to the temples, he adds, however, that in front there was only the golden band engraven with the name of Jehovah. The course of ages, broken by captivity and troubles, as well as successive influences, first Assyrian and afterwards Greek, may have occasioned some modification in the form of the sacred vestments of the Temple; and thus it is not surprising that the descriptions of Josephus sometimes vary from the Mosaic texts.