The portable tent-like structure that served the Israelites as a sanctuary during their wanderings in the wilderness and in the early period of their life in Palestine. It is chiefly in Exodus 26 and its parallel, ib. 36:8-38, that the oldest sanctuary of YHWH is mentioned. Its fundamental part consisted of a framework of acacia-wood. Each board was 10 cubits long and 1½ cubits broad (an old Hebraic cubit measured probably, like the Babylonian, 55.5 cm.). The north and south sides each contained twenty such boards (ib. 26:18, 20). The western side consisted of six similar boards (ib. verse 22), with the addition of two more which were to join the western with the northern and southern sides, respectively, in a manner rather obscurely described (ib. verses 23-25). These forty-eight boards were fixed in silver sockets, two to each board, bymeans of “hands” (“yadot”), i.e., tenons, and they were kept from falling apart by five cross-bars on a side (ib. verses 26-28). The eastern side remained open.
Since this framework was of course the first part to be set up (ib. 40:18), it has been mentioned first here; but what really constituted the dwelling of the Lord, according to the express words of the Old Testament (ib. 26:1, 6; 36:8, 13), were the inner curtains, which gave the structure its characteristic form. The quality and colors of these curtains were chosen accordingly; they were woven from the finest threads, some white, some bluish and reddish purple, and some scarlet. Pictures of cherubim were also woven in them (ib. 26:1-6). A second set of curtains was made of goat-hair, which was the usual material for tents (ib. verses 7-13); these, by synecdoche (comp. König, “Stilistik,” etc., p. 64), were called the “tent” (ib. 26:7; 38:14, 18; 40:19), inasmuch as they formed the chief part thereof; and upon them were placed two coverings, one of ramskin dyed red, and one of skins of the “taḥash.” This latter was probably a seal; in any case it was a less common animal than the sheep, which Friedrich Delitzsch in his “Prolegomena zu einem Neuen Hebräisch-Aramäischen Wörterbuch” (p. 79) understands by “taḥash.” With regard to the first-mentioned curtains, some scholars, as Winer(“B. R.” s.v.) and Holzinger (on Exodus 26:15, in “K. H. C.” 1900), have declared that they formed not the walls of the Tabernacle, but merely an inner covering of those walls; but the contrary view is much more probable, and is the one adopted by De Wette, for instance (“Hebräische Archäologie,” § 194), by Riehm (“Handwörterbuch des Biblischen Altertums,” p. 1559), and by Baentsch (“Handkommentar zum Exodus,” 1900, p. 228); indeed, the circumstance that these curtains are called “the dwelling” and that the tent-covering is placed upon them (Exodus 40:19) is convincing evidence for the opinion that they enveloped the boards almost completely lest they might become soiled; they were not to touch the floor, and so were made only 28 cubits long. This fact would not be so comprehensible had the curtains been merely interior hangings. The objection has been raised, it is true, that cherubim were woven into them, and that in Solomon’s Temple cherubim were carved on the inner walls; but the latter case presents a necessary modification which resulted naturally when the dwelling of the Lord no longer consisted chiefly of curtains. Moreover, the text contains no suggestion of hooks or any other appliances by means of which the curtains might have been suspended had they been intended merely to cover the inner surface of the walls.
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Author: Jewish Encyclopedia
Keywords: Tabernacle, Tent of meeting, Sanctuary
Source: Isidore Singer (editor), The Jewish Encyclopedia (12 Volumes), (1906).
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.