Shoulder-Piece
Shoulder piece
(, kathe’ph, from an unused root meaning [according to Furst ] to bend or protect; often rendered side, sometimes arm), a term specially used (in the plur. fem. kethephoth) of the side pieces on the upper part of the high priest’s ephod (q.v.), which came up over the shoulder, where the front and back flaps were fastened by a golden stud (Exo 28:7; Exo 28:25; Exo 39:4; simply shoulders, Exo 28:12; Exo 39:7; or sides, Exo 28:27; Exo 39:20); also of the arms of an axle (undersetters, 1Ki 7:30; 1Ki 7:34), and the wings or side spaces of a porch or gate (sides, Eze 41:2; Eze 41:26). The term is frequently applied to that part of the body called the shoulder, but only of persons, either literally or figuratively; or metaphorically to places or inanimate objects. According to Gesenius it differs from , shekem, in specifically meaning the upper part of the side or arm, the shoulder proper; whereas the latter term denotes originally the shoulder blade, and hence that part of the back where these bones approach each other. But Furst thinks the two words are altogether synonymous. Milhlau (new ed. of Gesenius’s Handworterbuch, s.v.) remarks that signifies only the rear part of the shoulder where the neck joins the back, and hence occurs only in the sing. SEE SHECHEM.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Shoulder-Piece
sholder-pes (, katheph): The word designates the two straps or pieces of cloth which passed from the back of the ephod (see EPHOD) of the high priest over the shoulder and were fastened at the front. These shoulder-pieces seem to have been made of a precious texture of linen (or byssos) with threads of gold, blue, purple and scarlet, to which two onyx (or beryl) stones were attached bearing the names of six tribes of Israel each. These are called the stones of memorial (Exo 39:18). On these straps there were also fastened the plaited or woven bands (wreathed chains) from which, by means of two golden rings, the breastplate was suspended. It is by no means clear from the descriptions (Exo 28:7, Exo 28:12, Exo 28:25; Exo 39:4, Exo 39:7, Exo 39:18, Exo 39:20) how we have to imagine the form and attachment of these shoulder-pieces. It has been thought that the ephod might be of Egyptian origin, which is not very probable, though V. Ancessi, Annales de philosophie chretienne, 1872, 45 ff, reproduces some representations from the great work of Lepsius, Denkmaler, where costly royal garments have two shoulder straps, like the ephod. Usually Egyptian garments have no shoulder strap, or at most one.