And you shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes of it: two- tenth of an ephah shall be in one cake.
Read Chapter 24
Bede
AD 735
In the first place, the figure of the twelve apostles is clearly foretold here in the very number of the loaves, for when the Lord appeared in flesh he chose them to be the first of those by whose ministry he gave the food of life to all nations. And then to these same disciples of his (that is, to our apostles), he says in reference to the multitudes hungering in the wilderness, “You give them something to eat.” And when five thousand men had been satisfied from the five loaves, they “gathered twelve baskets of fragments,” doubtless because those sacraments of the Scriptures which the multitudes are not able to receive belong to the apostles and the apostolic men.
The twelve loaves on the table of the tabernacle then are the twelve apostles and all those in the church who follow their teaching. Since until the end of time they do not cease to renew the people of God with the nourishment of the word, they are the twelve loaves of proposition which never depart from the table of the Lord. And those same loaves are properly ordered to be made not from just any flour but from the finest wheat, doubtless because all those who minister the word of life to others must first devote themselves to the fruits of virtue. [Thus] they may commend by their actions those things that they counsel in their preaching, being conformed to the example of him who says concerning himself, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone.” Those same loaves are also properly commanded to be set on the table in two rows of six for the sake of concord (that is to say, charity and fellowship), for the Lord is also said to have sent his disciples ou...
The Old Covenant had its loaves of proposition, but they, as belonging to that covenant, have come to an end. The New Covenant has its heavenly bread and cup of salvation to sanctify both body and soul. For as the bread is for the body, the Word suits the soul.
Bake. The family of Caath had to perform this office, 1 Paralipomenon ix. 32, and xxiii. 29. (Menochius)
Incense. Septuagint add, "salt. "Villalpend also places wine on the table. (B. iv. 57.)
Memorial for the Lord to bless his people, and for them to make their oblations to him as to the living God, from whom all blessings are derived. (Haydock)
The incense was burnt instead of the bread, when fresh loaves were placed there. (Calmet)
