ART AND THE TABERNACLE (page 14)

(Ex 28:33) In nature, pomegranates are red, but these pomegranates were to be blue, purple and scarlet. purple and scarlet could be natural changes in the growth of a pomegranate. But blue isn't. The implication is that there is freedom to make something which gets its impetus from nature but can be different from it and it too can be brought into the presence of God.

THE TEMPLE (page 15)

The temple, like the tabernacle, was not planned by man (I Chron 28: 11-12) . . . the temple was to be filled with art work. "And he [Solomon] garnished [covered] the house with precious stones for beauty" ( 2 Chron 3:6). Notice this carefully: The temple was covered with precious stones for beauty. There was no pragmatic reason for the precious stones. They had no utilitarian purpose.

(page 16)
(2 Chron 3:7-17) "And he made chains in the oracle, and put them on the tops of the pillars; and he made a hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains. And he set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand and the other on the left." Here are two free-standing columns. They supported no architectural weight and had no utilitarian engineering significance.

(page 17)
(2 Chron 4, the molten sea or bath, supported by the likeness of oxen) Representational art of non-religious subjects was thus brought into the central place of worship. To some extent, it could be said that the oxen were functional since they did hold up the "sea." But what function would the following have? "And it [the molten sea] was a handbreadth thick; and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily " (verse 5).

See the entire synopsis at The Aesthetic Elevator.