Tabernacle (Judaism)
The Tabernacle was a portable central place of worship for the Israelites from the time they left ancient Egypt following the Exodus, until the time its core elements were made part of the final Temple in Jerusalem about the 10th century B.C.E.. It is known in Hebrew as the Mishkan ( משכן "Place of [Divine] dwelling").
The English word "tabernacle" is derived from the Latin word tabernaculum meaning "tent, hut, booth." The word Sanctuary is also used as its name, as well as the phrase "the tent of meeting."
Etymology
The Hebrew word mishkan is related to the word to "dwell," "rest," or "to live in." The Bible often describe God as physically descending in a cloud over the Tabernacle to speak with Moses or otherwise be present among the Israelites. The word mishkan is also relates to the word presence of Shekhina, which rested within this divinely ordained mysterious structure and is also present to pious individual Jews wherever they may be.
The commandments for the Tabernacle's construction are taken from the words in the Book of Exodus when God says to Moses: "They shall make me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them. You must make the Tabernacle (mishkan) and all its furnishings following the plan that I am showing you." (Exodus 25:8-9) Thus the idea is that God wants this structure built so that it may be a "dwelling," for His presence within the Children of Israel following the Exodus.
Description and function
Commentators differ on the exact appearance of the Tabernacle but its general description is as follows: Its courtyard was enclosed by an external perimeter. This was comprised of a rectangular fabric fence, poles, and staked cords. Its dimensions were 100 cubits long by 50 cubits wide, a cubit being approximately 20 inches. In the center of its enclosure was a rectangular sanctuary, also called the Tent of Meeting, which was draped with goats'-hair curtains and had a roof made from rams' skins. Outside the Tent of Meeting stood an altar for burnt offerings and grain offerings, at which the Aaronic priests ministered. This altar served a central function in Israelite sacrificial tradition as outlined in detail in the Torah. Only Aaronic priests, assisted by their Levite cousins, were allowed to attend the altar. Israelite were forbidden to enter inside the Tabernacle perimeter, on pain of death (Numbers 1:51).
The inner sanctuary was divided into two areas, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, or "Holy of Holies." These two compartments were separated by a curtain or veil. Entering the first space, one would see three pieces of sacred furniture: a seven-branched oil lampstand on the left (south), a table for 12 loaves of show bread on the right (north), and straight ahead before the dividing curtain (west) was a golden altar for incense-burning. Twice a day a priest would stand in front of this altar and offer fragrant incense. Beyond this curtain was the cube-shaped inner room, the Holy of Holies (kodesh hakodashim). This sacred space originally contained a single article, the Ark of the covenant. However, other items were added later, including a vessel containing manna and Aaron's rod, which had miraculously budded as a sign of his divine priesthood.
The entire Tabernacle complex was carried by the Levites and erected whenever the Israelites camped, oriented to the east.
History
According to the Book of Exodus, God gives detailed instructions to Moses concerning the construction and contents of the Tabernacle while Moses is on Mount Sinai for 40 days, during which time he also receives the Ten Commandments. Specifications are give for:
- Chapter 25: materials needed, the Ark, the table for showbread, the menorah.
- Chapter 26: the Tabernacle, its beams, and partitions.
- Chapter 27: the bronze altar for burnt offerings, the Tabernacle enclosure, and holy oil.
- Chapter 28: vestments for the priests, the ephod garment, ring settings, Aaron's breastplate, robe, head-plate, tunic, turban, sashes, pants.
- Chapter 29: the procedure for the consecration of priests and the altar.
- Chapter 30: the incense altar, washstand, anointing oil, incense.
After the incident of the Golden Calf, however, the Tabernacle remained unbuilt. Instead, Moses erected a simple "tent of meeting" in which he speaks "face to face" with God (Ex. 33:7-11). Moses then interceded for the people and spent and additional 40 days fasting on the mountain. Moses then collected the congregation, impresseed upon them the crucial importance of keeping the commandments, and requested gifts for the Tabernacle sanctuary. The people respond willingly, and the master craftsmen Bezaleel and Aholiab completed the instructions for making the Tabernacle and its contents, including the sacred Ark of the Covenant. Far from being a mere tent which housed the Ark, the Tabernacle is described as a richly ornate structure with secure but portable foundations of pure silver, collected from the required half-shekel offerings of 603,000 Israelite men.
Aaron and his sons are solemnly consecrated as priests and clothed in their sacred garments. Then, "the glory of the Lord" fills the Tabernacle. During the Israelites's travels, whenever the cloud of God's presence lifted from above the Tabernacle, they pack up camp and leave. However:
"If the cloud did not lift, they did not set out until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the Tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel during all their travels."
After the Israelites entered Canaan, the Tabernacle was established semi-permanently at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1). There, the Israelites cast lots to determine the distribution of land among the tribes (Joshua 19:51). Soon a dispute about centrality of the Tabernacle arose between the Israelites who had settled in Canaan proper and those—the people of Gilead, Reuben, Gad, part of the tribe of Manasseh—who had settled east of the Jordan River. Aaron's grandson Phinehas and elders of the western tribes confronted these eastern settlers, demanding: "How could you turn away from the Lord and build yourselves an altar in rebellion against him now?" (Josh 22:17) A compromise was reportedly reached in which the eastern tribes agreed not to use the altar for sacrifices, and the western delegrates allowed the altar to stand as a "a witness between us and you and the generations that follow, that we will worship the Lord."
Shiloh became a place of pilgrimage for Israelites who wished to offer their tithes and sacrifices there. However, local altars were also allowed at such sacred sites such as the high places of Gilgal, Bethel, Ramtha, Mizpah, and—according to Samaritan tradition—Gerizim. It was Eli the priest of Shiloh's Tabernacle Eli that Hanna, the prophet Samuel's mother, came to pray for the birth of a son. However, the Tabernacle soon became a place of infamy when Eli's sons abused their positions to commit fornication with women who served at the Tabernacle's entrance (1 Samuel 2:22). The Ark itself would soon be captured by the Philistines (1 Samuel 4).
Later, when King David conquered Jerusalem, he transfered the recaptured Ark of the Covenant to a tent-shrine in his new capital, (2 Samuel 6). When Solomon built the Temple of Jerusalem the other main elements of the Tabernacle were incorporated into the newly built permanent temple. In the biblical narrative, the Temple of Jerusalem replaces the Tabernacle as the central dwelling place of God from this pint.
Nevertheless, the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh would soon appoint Jeroboam I to oppose Solomon's son Rehoboam as king of the northern Kingdom of Israel. Ahijah would soon turn against Jeroboam, however, when he bypassed Shiloh to establish nearby Bethel as a national shrine for his new administration.
The Tabernacle as a blueprint
The Temple of Jerusalem
The Tabernacle served as the pattern, or blueprint, for several later traditions. The Temple of Jerusalem itself is the clearest of these. Like the Tabernacle, it consisted of a large outer courtyard in which priests offered sacrifices and a sacred inner building in which God Himself was thought to dwell. The inner temple too was patterned after the Tabernacle's pattern, with its Holy Place, where incense was offered, and its Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant and other sacred articles were kept. There, Yahweh was enthroned on the mercy seat formed by two golden cherubim atop the Ark.
Synagogues
The tabernacle also formed the pattern for synagogue construction over the last two thousand years. Synagogues typically at its front an ark containing the Torah scrolls, comparable to the Ark of the Covenant which contained the tablets with Ten Commandments. This is the holiest spot in a synagogue equivalent to the Holy of Holies. There is also usually a constantly lighted lamp, or a candelabrum lighted during services, near this spot similar to the original Menorah. At the center of the synagogue is a large elevated area, known as the bimah where the Torah is read. This high place is equivalent to the Tabernacle's altars upon which incense and animal sacrifices were offered. In some Orthodox synagogues, on the main holidays the priests, kohanim, gather at the front of the synagogue to bless the congregation as did their priestly ancestors in the Tabernacle from Aaron onwards.
In Christian tradition
In Christianity, the Tabernacle and its sacrifices are seen as prototypes of Jesus and his own sacrifice on the Cross.
Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year... But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:24-26)
Within Catholicism, a tabernacle is a cupboard or boxlike receptical for the exclusive reservation of the blessed Sacrament - the bread and wine used during the rite of Holy Communion. In the Early Christian times such tabernacles containing the sacred species were kept within private houses where Christians met for church, for fear of possible persecution. The Tabernacle is also seen in some Christian circles as representing Jesus Christ.
External links
- [An exact, full-scale replica of the Tabernacle is under construction!
- An excellent study of the Tabernacle in everyday English
- The offerings of the Tabernacle
- The Tabernacle and its contents, in Hebrew, with many diagrams
- Jewish Encyclopedia article
- Tabernacle model Christian Perspective
- Tabernacle Model and Free Tabernacle Lessons
- Tabernacle from a Christian Perspective - Thomas Newberry editor of the Newberry Reference Bible
- The Tabernacle model at Glencaírn museum
- "Tabernacle Shadows"
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