The sanctuary or tent of meeting

Preface

The incentive to this study was the desirability of having a series of illustrations of the tabernacle and its furniture, to accompany a new Sunday School map showing the route of the Israelites in their journey from Egypt to Canaan. Failure on a former occasion to obtain a satisfactory result from commentators, led now to a careful examination of the Bible record, and new things were seen almost from the commencement, every one of which carried with it changes in other parts of the structure, so that, in the end, a scheme was developed differing essentially from anything before published.

To prove the accuracy of the conclusions reached, models on accurate scales were made of boards, curtains, etc. The views presented iv THE SANCTUARY OR TENT OF MEETING

here are, therefore, practical and not simply theories which may fail when put to actual tests. The story has been taken literally. Nothing has been intentionally added to the plain record, and everything mentioned there is believed to be present. The forms are simple, and harmonize with our knowledge of those still prevailing in that land of unchanging customs, and thus, presumably, with those of the distant day when Moses saw in vision the models he was to follow.

The author, though thinking the views presented to be a distinct advance on those generally held, makes no claim to having finally settled any controverted point. He has made too many changes in his own work as his study has progressed, and has been too often obliged to choose between conflicting presentations, to allow him to think that the view finally adopted is certainly the true one. The things now seen are thus presented, in the hope that students of the Sacred volume may be helped thereby to form correct mental pictures of this wonderful struc-

PREFACE ture, and of its contents, and thus to create natural vessels that may be filled with spiritual truth.

One important object, kept constantly in mind, has been to present the subject, both as to parts and as a whole, in a manner which would enable teachers in our Sunday Schools to become so familiar with the details involved, that they could impart them pleasantly and instructively to their pupils, thus helping them to change otherwise dry details into things of life and beauty. It is also thought that with the objects plainly described and pictured, it may be possible for a class of ordinarily ingenious boys and girls to make a model of the building for themselves. Such an attempt, even if it should not prove eminently successful, could not fail to fix details in their minds which would be most useful to them.

The text used is the Authorized version, because that is in the hands of all our Sunday- School teachers and scholars, although another translation might, in some cases, have given a clearer expression to the original.

v i THE SANCTUARY OR TENT OF MEETING

Acknowledgement is gratefully made of the help which has been cheerfully given by all of whom it has been asked, as to the subtle meanings of Hebrew words and their application to this narrative ; but especially is this due to the painstaking labor of a lifetime given to the investigation of this subject by Rev. T. O. Paine, LL. D., and published by him in his great work on the "Holy Houses. " Widely differing from his conclusions on the form of the building, the arrangement of the curtains, and on other points, his philological researches and the mass of facts he has drawn from very many sources, has opened the door for truer conceptions of the tabernacle than would otherwise have been possible.

G. W. C.

Contents

PAGE

Preface iii.

I. The Tabernacle 3

I. The Tabernacle

V

According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount. (Exod. xxv. 9, 40.)

The form of the tabernacle and of its furniture, even to the minutest detail, was shown to Moses in vision. They are therefore heavenly forms and, as such, they are worthy of our closest and most careful study ; not as beautiful artistic creations as compared with aesthetic standards of today, but as containants or embodiments of spiritual truth beyond our power to exhaust, and the more we examine them, the more we will see in every feature.

In the Mosaic record the furniture — the ark with its mercy-seat, the table, and the lamp-stand — is first described ; then the curtains, followed by the wooden walls and the socket-blocks for their foundation and support ; then the veil, the door curtain, the great altar, and the court hangings. The altar of incense, one of the sacred articles in the outer room of the tabernacle, is not spoken of until after descriptions of the official clothing of Aaron and his sons, and directions for the sacrifices and ceremonials connected with their induction into their high offices.

The meaning of this order it is not the province of this study to explain. It is enough, here, to acknowledge that every item follows the order of the development of the spiritual dwelling-place of the Divine in man. Here it is proposed to consider briefly the things seen in the natural

MISHKAN AND OHEL descriptions of the several parts — things which, pointed out, seem in the main so evident that it is not a little remarkable that so varying and conflicting views have prevailed and are found in our commentaries.

Instead of following the order given in the Word, it seems better for our present end to consider the frame-work and its accessories first, then the curtains to complete the structure, and lastly the articles the tabernacle is to contain, and which make it the sanctuary — the dwelling-place of the Divine Presence ; after which we will consider the Court and its curtains, and some features presented in the High Priest's dress.

In the descriptions of the tabernacle two Hebrew words are used — Mishkdn and Ohel — both meaning in general a tent used as a dwelling-place. In King James's version both are rendered sometimes " tent," and in other places " tabernacle." In the Revised Version a distinction is made, Mishkan being uniformly translated " tabernacle," and Ohel "tent." Consider- d as to their primary meaning Mishkdn has the se - se of a dwelling-piace from Shakan, " to lie down, to dwell," and Ohel means the ordinary tent, and is so used from the time of Abram onward. But besides these restricted meanings of tent and dwelling-place, both words are evidently used in a broader sense ; Ohel to include the spaces beneath the canopy within and without the walls, and Mishkdn, the whole building in all its parts and appointments.

The tabernacle, then, as a whole, was a tent, in its essential features like the tents of the nomads of the desert of that day and this, but glorified in its materials and workmanship ; the nearly flat tent-roof enlarged and multiplied, its walls made higher and more solid, and its partition richer in fabric, in colors, and embroidery.

The illustration at the head of this chapter is a true picture of a small Bedouin tent, remarkable in showing simplicity of construction and, very closely, the proportions of the tabernacle ; for if the length between the end roof-supports be taken as a scale of thirty, the width and height of sides is ten, and the height of centre the same as de-

BEDOUIN TENT manded by the curtains of the tabernacle. Excepting the central one, all the tent-poles are for the support of the outer edge or eaves of the tent, and if in their stead we should build a solid wall of wood we would have a miniature tabernacle (viewed from the north), with the tent roof called for, the overhanging surplusage at the back, and an approach to the spaces surrounding the sacred building.

II. The Planks And Associated Members

TJHE PL'Aii-KS. BARS. AND PILLARS

And thou shalt make boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood standing up. Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one board. Two tenons shall there be in one board, set in order one against another ; thus shalt thou make for all the boards for the tabernacle. And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side southward. . . . And for the second side of the tabernacle on the north side there shall be twenty boards. (Exod. xxvi. 15-18, 20.)

This description seems to admit of but one in-

THE PLAXKS terpretation, but still there are points to be considered which the making of a model has brought into view. Nothing is said here of the thickness of these planks, nor, clearly, of the relation of the tenons each to the other, though it is evident that there is a uniform rule for these, and that all the planks are alike in these respects.

Josephus says that the planks were one handbreadth in thickness, and in this nearly all commentators and illustrators have followed him. Still there are indications that these planks were two hand-breadths thick, one of these being the necessity of extending the middle bar of the sides to the extreme west end of the building, as spoken of later ; and another is derived from a study of Solomon's temple, which in so many ways bears direct help in solving tabernacle questions. The serious objection to this plan is the doubling of bulk and weight in transportation — certainly a thing to be considered. Our present illustrations show the planks as of the greater thickness — two hand-breadths.

A point that has given occasion for much criti-

IO THE SANCTUARY OR TENT OF MEETING

cism, even of profane ridicule of the sacred narrative, is that of the possibility of procuring pieces of timber of the dimensions named. Shittim wood is mentioned as one of the things to be brought as offerings of materials needed for the building ; and in Exod. xxxv. 24, we are told that every man with whom was found shittim wood for any work of the service brought it ; and, later, that all the materials needed were superabundant.

Shittim wood was, therefore, something which in suitable form for the proposed work was with many families, and in greater than the required quantity. Planks of the size named — fifteen feet long, twenty-seven inches wide, and six inches thick after being worked down — would, indeed, be difficult to procure in our best present markets ; but nothing in the account makes it improbable that these were manufactured — were the result of man's labor in joining smaller pieces of wood such as tent poles ; and a plank so made would keep its integrity of shape much better than would one of natural growth. In fact this seems the

THE CORNER PLANKS AND RINGS i i

only way such massive planks could have been procured. The skill to make them was certainly present, and under Divine Providence the materials, as we have seen above, were also there. And here the thought or question comes whether, if the planks were made as we think they were, they were necessarily solid and of greater weight than if of the smaller dimensions, when they must have been solid. The element of weight seems to be quite as important in settling the question of transportation as is that of bulk.

And for the sides of the tabernacle westward thou shalt make six boards. And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides. And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto- one ring : thus shall it be for them both ; they shall be for the two corners. (Exod, xxvi. 22-24.)

Many have been the attempts to make a satisfactory explanation of this very simple account — simple when it is once seen. Six boards are first described, all alike, and in every respect, as to size, tenons, and socket-blocks, like the forty on the north and south sides ; but the two subsequently pictured are different, or they would not have been so particularly noticed. These two corner planks were, as a whole, exactly like the others ; the difference is that they are each cut into two nearly equal parts. A cubit and a half is nine hand-breadths and the nearest we can come to an unfractional equal division of these is four and five, and, so divided, each of the pieces has a tenon and a socket-block. The two are angled, and are joined to the last plank of the side series by a ring "beneath" and a ring " above the head." These rings are countersunk into the body of the

Q.

'/2 cu.^9 hand breadths a planks, and unite the three members of each corner into firm starting

Upper end of planks, ^^* u n r^ <_u

HP F points tor the construenorth west corner'. showing manner of coupling by tion of the walls which, the Ring above the Hfcad.. ag we ^ ^ RVQ thus

so strongly united as to need no addition of cords or mortises or plates to prevent either collapse or outward spread.

THE T£iVOA T S

«3

In some plans of the tabernacle the planks are assumed to need support, and they are shown as tongued and grooved, or with dowels ; in others, plates are added on the top over the joints for the same purpose, but such additions seem unnecessary with the corners well secured, the cross bars to be spoken of later, and the long outside bars called for in the description.

The tenons, two to each plank, are not described as to size or materials. Josephus speaks of them as having been of silver and, of course, as driven into the body of the board ; but this seems not so likely a plan as that they were projections of the body of the plank, especially if, as seems probable, these were manufactured by joining several smaller pieces, in which case the extension of the proper member would give the desired result. Then, too, such a tenon with its larger surface and greater purchase would be much stronger and more useful than would a smaller one of silver. The position of these tenons on the planks is determined by the necessity of having a socket-block under each corner for

I 4 THE SANCTUARY OR TENT OF MEETING

the support of the ring beneath the twinned boards. Dr. Paine in his great and exhaustive work on the "Holy Houses" demonstrates that a talent of silver, the amount contained in each of the socket-blocks (Exod. xxxviii. 27), would make exactly nine cubic hand-breadths, and experiment with different forms has led to the adoption of 4 x 2 1-2 hand-breadths == 10, from which take out the area required by the socket and 9 square hand-breadths are left, in a shape to give greater strength and stability to the structure than if square. This shape also fits the requirements of support under the corners of the building for the ring which must be beneath, and that the planks must be tenoned alike. They are in pairs. They cannot be separated further, or be equally spaced under the whole extent of wall, nor can they be brought closer together and give the necessary support to the bottom ring, as an examination of the diagram or experiment will show. It now rests not only on the corner block, but also on those adi,

T£A r OA T S AND SOCKETS joining it on both sides.

Under end of corner planks.showing the Ring and its three supporting

The Revised Version of Exod. xxxv. 2, reads, " two tenons joined one to another/' where the Authorized Version reads, " two tenons equally distant one

^ socket blocks

from another." This seems to mean, as here developed, that they were separated somewhat, but nearer together as pairs, than each pair was from the next.

This plan makes the inner line of the socket-blocks flush with the inner face of the planks, and outside they project much as the feet of a file of soldiers, in pairs. It may also be noted that the extreme width of the foundation on the west end, from the outside of southern corner socket-block to the outside of the northern corner, is exactly twelve cubits — a measure which seems to be associated with this place.

And thou shalt make bars of shittim wood ; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the two sides westward. And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end. And thou shalt overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars ; and thou shalt overlay the bars with gold. (Exod. xxvi. 26-29.)

Nothing is said of the thickness of these bars, but the probabilities are that they were a handbreadth in diameter ; and this conclusion is reached in part by the requirement that the middle bar of each of the side series must extend from end to end of the building. This diameter admits the bar to extend through the return or elbow of the end plank, without materially weakening it (that is if the planks were two hand-breadths in thickness), to the corresponding bar of the west end, and, with a dowel on the end of the side bar, to enter into a socket in the other as Josephus says it did. Any one constructing a model of the tabernacle on a scale, say of two inches to a cubit, will recognize the importance of this feature and the secure locking of the sides together,

SIDE BARS AND RINGS thereby leaving no possible chance for spreading of the walls at the end.

The four remaining bars of each series were two in the upper tier and two in the lower, and these were probably of nearly equal length. These do not appear to have gone through to the extreme west end of the building, but seem to have stopped at the easterly face of the elbow of the corner plank.

The rings usually represented as round were more probably flat, like sections of a tube ; for such rings could be as readily and as firmly attached to the planks as if round, and there would be no staples, or their equivalent, to interfere with the free passage of a round bar through them. With the corners of the building secured both by the rings and the bars as above described, one such ring on a plank for each series is allsufficient for strength, and, indeed, is far better in use than two.

All the forty-eight planks and the fifteen bars were to be overlaid with gold, but whether this was in the form of plates or of gold-leaf we are not informed. It must have been thin, for no allowance seems to have been made for it in preparing the wood form. The dimensions given include the gold.

The pillars for the veil and for the door-screen with the bars supported by them, were to be of wood and gold covered.

And thou shalt hang it [the veil] upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold : their hooks shall be of gold, upon the four sockets of silver. . . . And thou shalt make for the hanging [the door screen] five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold : and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them. (Exod. xxvi. 32, 37.)

The height of the veil pillars is not given, nor if round or square in form. The only instruction bearing on this point is, that the veil is to hang below the taches joining the united sets of linen and wool curtains that formed the tabernacle proper. These taches, it will be shown later, were not more than one cubit below the top of the side planks, and thus these pillars, with their hooks

THE VEIL AND DOORBARS 19 and the bar they supported, must have been as high as the walls — ten cubits. Dr. Paine, in the work before mentioned, states that the word translated hooks — waf — in its ancient form as shown on the Moabite stone is shaped thus : and such a form upon the top of each of the four pillars is precisely the thing needed as a rest for a bar which, extending from wall to wall, would serve as a support both for the veil and for the rich colored curtains of the tabernacle. This bar would also greatly strengthen the walls and effectually prevent all danger of collapse. The same arrangement for the door screen seems even more demanded than for the veil, for there not only is that curtain to be supported, but provision must be made for the goats'-hair tent and the outer skin coverings, which if not so held in place must have special support. The centre line of these door pillars naturally comes on the line of the front edge of the first side planks, or thirty cubits from the west end of the enclosed area ; the centre of the bar, therefore, is in the same

2Q THE SANCTUARY OR TENT OF MEETING vertical plane, or one half is beyond the front line of the building. By halving the bar and letting

THE BAR OVER THE DOOR PILLARS. SUPPORTING THE ROOF COVERINGS from, above from the inside from the outside it project along the face of the end planks we not only give support to the walls, as we did with the bar of the veil pillars, but we give a firm rest to the goats'-hair tent and its outer skin-coverings which, in their turn, add stability to the structure and bind all its parts securely together.

It is possible that both the veil and the door screen were double and were thrown over the bar, thus covering both sides of the pillars ; or it may be that one or the other, or both, were single, in which case hooks must be added to the pillars and rings to the curtains. We incline to the opinion that the veil was double, showing the cherubim on the inner side only, and

THE TABERNACLE PILLARS 21

these in size and position to match those on the north, south, and west sides of the Most Holy ; and that, because of the great pressure from the roof-coverings upon the front bar and the consequent difficulty in hanging the door curtain over it, that that curtain was single and suspended from hooks in the pillars under the overhanging doubled eleventh goats'-hair curtain, as the veil was under the overhanging tabernacle curtains and their taches. We think, too, that the pillars were more likely rectangular than round, because in this form their bases would have firmer support, the upper face would present a better place for hooks from which to hang a curtain, and would bring the edges of the curtains into closer connection with the walls.

III. The Curtains

Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine-twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet : with cherubim of cunning work shalt thou make them. The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and every one of the curtains shall have one measure. The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another ; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another. And thou shalt make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the selvedge in the coupling ; and likewise shalt thou make in the uttermost edge of another curtain, in the coupling of the second. Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one curtain and fifty loops shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling of the second ; that the loops may take hold one of another. And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches : and it shall be one tabernacle. (Exod. xxvi. 1-6.)

In the above description we have many items, all important and each bearing on every other — the materials of which the curtains were made;

THE COLORED CURTAINS their colors ; the method of joining each five into a single curtain ; how the loops were made ; what were the taches and how they were used ; and, finally, where these curtains w r ere placed. There is no unanimity of view among commentators on any one of these points, and the thoughts upon them presented here are essentially different from any known to have been published heretofore.

There is little doubt about the linen having been the thread of the warp, or that the colored threads were the filling, and of wool. This is not so stated, but it is inferred from the fact that the linen is always spoken of as a material distinct from that which w r as dyed. Cloth made of a combination of linen and wool was certainly known to the people, but its use for clothing was forbidden except to the priest. But here the cloth was not for garments and the prohibition consequently does not apply.

The colors of the wool are always named in the same order — Blue, Purple, and Scarlet. We are not told how these were associated or used, but stripes are not only the simplest arrangement, but it is the one in common use today among the desert peoples, and it seems probable that these curtains, and the others of similar materials, were woven in stripes. Experiment in trying to fit the taches upon stripes so as to follow some order representing or embodying spiritual truth, seems to support this assumption and to prove that the stripes were each a hand-breadth in width.

The colors here called blue, purple, and scarlet were not those we know by those names. The blue was warmed by a considerable infusion of red. Our purple is a color midway between blue and red, whereas this was a deep crimson inclined towards blue, but still far from the idea conveyed by the name purple as popularly used. The scarlet would more properly be described as "Flame" color. We thus have in the colors named an ascending series. "These three colors serve most accurately to discriminate the threefold quality of the sincere worshipper, i, Blue, descriptive of the quality of celestial light or truth ; 2, Crimson

THE COLORED CURTAINS

(purple), the quality and brilliancy of celestial heat or love in the affections of the will ; and 3, Flame (scarlet), denoting the quality and warmth of enlightened faith and mutual charity reflected in the outward life." Made ley.

20 cubits

The ten curtains of equal size, each four cubits by twenty-eight cubits, were joined so as to form two sets of five each, the joining being undoubtedly on the selvedges, thus making the joined curtain twenty cubits by twenty-eight.

These two sets of five each were then united by means of loops of blue and taches of gold.

The loops and their associated taches have caused much speculation, and many ingenious plans have been devised to answer the requirements ; but the one which seems to satisfy the demand better than any other is, that the loops were such as would be made by stretching a piece of cord out and fastenings the ends as far apart as possible, rather than the usual form of attaching the ends to the fabric close together. Or, better still it would seem, using a single long cord, sewing tight and leaving a space alternately. Two curtains so treated laid one upon the other, and the taches of the A. V. or the clamps of the R. V. inserted in the loops, the two would be closely united. These loops on both curtains were especially directed to be of blue, and to be fifty in number. Much time and labor was spent in efforts to make these loops and taches fall into some manifest order in their relation to the stripes of color in the curtains, but not until the curtains were actually made in scale, the stripes each a hand-breadth wide, and the taches, each a hand-breadth in length, were spaced upon it, did the order appear. It is this : the stripes being one hand-breadth in width, the space between the taches is two and one-third stripes, the first in a series is a tache on a blue stripe, the second is two-thirds blue and one third red, the third is one-third blue and two-thirds red, the fourth

THE T ACHES 27 all red, the fifth two-thirds red and one-third orange, the sixth one-third red and two-thirds orange, the seventh all orange, the eighth two-thirds orange and one-third blue, the ninth one-third orange and two-thirds blue, the tenth, like the first, all blue ; and so through the whole series : the fifty, with the end fastenings, exactly filling the length of twenty-eight cubits, thus confirming the selection of a hand-breadth as the width of the stripes.

THE TACHES IN RELATION TO THE COLORS

What the form of the taches was is not plainly seen. They were attachments of the curtains, connecting the two united sets of five each so closely that they two were made one. A search in Egyptian collections has failed to show any thing more likely than a spirally-twisted wire — a form used at the time in earrings and in some