In Notes on the Sedra or daily readings of the Jews from the Scriptures the compiler of these notes in the Jewish Chronicle combats the late Prof. Driver’s absurd contention that the Tabernacle had no historical reality. The notes writer directs attention to one detail which may well, he says, be regarded as decisive. This detail is the wood of which the Tabernacle was made. “The only wood which is mentioned in connection with the Tabernacle is the acacia. Thus the ark and its staves were to be made of Shittim wood; so also the table and its staves. This wood is referred to nowhere else in the Bible with the exception of a prophetic vision described in Isaiah 41:19. The inference seems to be that the wood was either unknown or uncommon in Palestine. The name of the wood is probably borrowed from the Egyptian, and Egypt was certainly the home of the tree. The Egyptians used it for their furniture, boats, coffins and temples. Professor Naville informs us, ‘Outside of Egypt the acacia seyal is found in the Sinaitic Peninsula, and near the Dead Sea, but not further north… Acacia is a tree of the Sinaitic desert; but it is not a Palestinian tree. Except for a few bushes, no acacia trees are found in Palestine, especially not in the north’ (‘Archæology of the Old Testament,’ p. 120).
In striking contrast to the acacia which was used in the Mosaic Tabernacle is the wood used in the later Temple, viz., the cedar (compare 1 Kings 5:10, 6:9, 15). Especially significant is the form of the Divine message in which David is forbidden to erect a Sanctuary: ‘Shalt thou build Me a house for Me to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. In all places wherein I have walked among all the children of Israel, spoke I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, saying: Why have ye not built Me a house of cedar?’ We notice here not only an explicit reference to the structure described in Exodus, but more important still is the fact that the only wood that could be thought suitable for a Sanctuary was the cedar. How, on the critical theory, are we to account for the mention of acacia wood?
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Author: C. C. Walker
Keywords: Acacia, acacia wood, acacia tree, wood, trees, cedar, cedar wood, cedar tree, cedar trees, staves, wooden staves, tabernacle, tabernacle construction, construction of the tabernacle, shittim, shittim wood, shittim tree
Bible reference(s): Exodus 25:5, Exodus 25:10, Exodus 25:13, Exodus 25:23, Exodus 25:28, Exodus 26:15, Exodus 26:26, Exodus 26:32, Exodus 26:37, Exodus 27:1, Exodus 27:6, Exodus 30:1, Exodus 30:5, Exodus 35:7, Exodus 35:24, Exodus 36:20, Exodus 36:31, Exodus 36:36, Exodus 37:1, Exodus 37:4, Exodus 37:10, Exodus 37:15, Exodus 37:25, Exodus 37:28, Exodus 38:1, Exodus 38:6, Deuteronomy 10:3, Isaiah 41:19, 1Ki 5:10, 1Ki 6:9, 1Ki 6:15
Source: “Acacia and Cedar,” The Christadelphian, Vol. 67, No. 794, 1930.
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