According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (Hebrew: מִשְׁכַּן, romanized: miškan, lit. 'residence, dwelling place'), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (Hebrew: אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, romanized: ʔōhel mōʕēḏ, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling of God used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instructed at Mount Sinai to construct and transport the tabernacle[1] with the Israelites on their journey through the wilderness and their subsequent conquest of the Promised Land. After 480 years, Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem superseded it as the dwelling-place of God.
The main source describing the tabernacle is the biblical Book of Exodus, specifically Exodus 25–31 and 35–40. Those passages describe an inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, created by the veil suspended by four pillars. This sanctuary contained the Ark of the Covenant, with its cherubim-covered mercy seat. An outer sanctuary (the "Holy Place") contained a gold lamp-stand or candlestick. On the north side stood a table, on which lay the showbread. On the south side was the Menorah, holding seven oil lamps to give light. On the west side, just before the veil, was the golden altar of incense.[2] It was constructed of 4 woven layers of curtains and 48 15-foot tall standing wood boards overlaid in gold and held in place by its bars and silver sockets and was richly furnished with valuable materials taken from Egypt at God's command.
Meaning
The English word tabernacle derives from the Latintabernāculum (meaning "tent" or "hut"), which in ancient Roman religion was a ritual structure.[3][4][5] The Hebrew word mishkan implies "dwell", "rest", or "to live in".[6][7] In Greek, including the Septuagint, the Hebrew is translated σκηνή (skēnē), itself a Semitic loanword meaning "tent".[8]
Traditional scholars contend that it describes an actual tabernacle used in the time of Moses and thereafter.[6] This view is based on the existence of significant parallels between the biblical Tabernacle and similar structures from ancient Egypt during the Late Bronze Age.[9]
The detailed outlines for the tabernacle and its priests are enumerated in the Book of Exodus:
Exodus 25: Materials needed: the Ark, the table for 12 showbread, the menorah.
Some interpreters assert the Tent of the Presence was a special meeting place outside the camp, unlike the Tabernacle which was placed in the center of the camp.[10][11] According to Exodus 33:7–11, this tent was for communion with Yahweh, to receive oracles and to understand the divine will.[12] The people's elders were the subject of a remarkable prophetic event at the site of this tent in Numbers 11:24–30.[13]
Builders
The erection of the tabernacle and the Sacred vessels, as in Exodus 40:17–19; from the 1728 Figures de la Bible
During the Exodus, the wandering in the desert and the conquest of Canaan, the Tabernacle was in part a portable tent, and in part a wooden enclosure draped with ten curtains, of blue (tekhelet תְּכֵלֶת), purple (’argāmān אַרְגָּמָן), and scarlet (šānî שָׁנִי) fabric. It had a rectangular, perimeter fence of fabric, poles and staked cords. This rectangle was always erected when the Israelite tribes would camp, oriented to the east as the east side had no frames. In the center of this enclosure was a rectangular sanctuary draped with goat-hair curtains, with the roof coverings made from rams' skins.[14]
Priests could only enter into the third room of the tent once a year: Leviticus 16
There is a strict set of rules to be followed for transporting the tabernacle laid out in the Hebrew Bible. For example:
You must put the Levites in charge of the tabernacle of the Covenant, along with its furnishings and equipment. They must carry the tabernacle and its equipment as you travel, and they must care for it and camp around it. Whenever the Tabernacle is moved, the Levites will take it down and set it up again. Anyone else who goes too near the tabernacle will be executed.
Twice a day, a priest would stand in front of the golden prayer altar and burn fragrant incense.[17] Other procedures were also carried out in the tabernacle:
An Israelite healed of tzaraath would be presented by the priest who had confirmed his healing "at the door of the tabernacle of meeting",[18] and a woman healed of prolonged menstruation would present her offering (two turtledoves or two young pigeons) to the priest "at the door of the tabernacle of meeting".[19]
It was at the door of the tabernacle that the community wept in sorrow when all the chiefs of the people were impaled and the men who had joined in worship to the Baal of Peor were killed on God's orders.[20]
Subsequent history
Location and remains of the Tabernacle at Shiloh, 2019
During the conquest of Canaan, the main Israelite camp was at Gilgal (Joshua 4:19; 5:8–10) and the tabernacle was probably erected within the camp: Joshua 10:43ESV "…and returned into the camp" (seeNumbers 1:52–2:34 "…they shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side").
After the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines, the subsequent history of the tabernacle is separate from that of the Ark, even after the latter was returned. Under King Saul, the tabernacle was eventually moved to Nob, near Saul's his home town of Gibeah, but after he massacred the priests there (1 Samuel 21–22), it was moved to Gibeon, a hill-shrine (1 Chronicles 16:39; 21:29; 2 Chronicles 1:2–6, 13).[23] Just prior to David's moving the ark to Jerusalem, the ark was located in Kiriath-Jearim (1 Chronicles 13:5–6).
The Ark was eventually brought to Jerusalem, where it was placed "inside the tent David had pitched for it" (2 Samuel 6:17; 1 Chronicles 15:1), not in the tabernacle, which remained at Gibeon. The altar of the tabernacle at Gibeon was used for sacrificial worship (1 Chronicles 16:39; 21:29; 1 Kings 3:2–4), until Solomon brought the structure and its furnishings to Jerusalem to furnish and dedicate the Temple (1 Kings 8:4).
Some rabbis have commented on the proximity of the narrative of the tabernacle with that of the episode known as the sin of the golden calf recounted in Exodus 32:1–6. Maimonides asserts that the tabernacle and its accoutrements, such as the golden Ark of the Covenant and the golden Menorah were meant as "alternates" to the human weakness and needs for physical idols as seen in the golden calf episode.[24] Other scholars, such as Nachmanides, disagree and maintain that the tabernacle's meaning is not tied in with the golden calf, but instead symbolizes higher mystical lessons that symbolize God's constant closeness to the Children of Israel.[25]
Synagogue construction over the last two thousand years has followed the outlines of the original tabernacle.[26][27] Every synagogue has at its front an ark, aron kodesh, 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, Ner tamid, or a candelabrum, lighted during services, near a spot similar to the position of the original Menorah. At the center of the synagogue is a large elevated area, known as the bimah, where the Torah is read. This is equivalent to the tabernacle's altars upon which incense and animal sacrifices were offered. On the main holidays the priests gather at the front of the synagogue to bless the congregation as did their priestly ancestors in the tabernacle from Aaron onwards (Numbers 6:22–27).[28]
Mandaean Mashkhanna (Beth Manda) in Nasiriya, Iraq
A mashkhannaࡌࡀࡔࡊࡍࡀmaškna (hebrew cognate מִשְׁכַּןmishkān),[30]Beth Mandaࡁࡉࡕ ࡌࡀࡍࡃࡀ, Beit Manda, or Mandi ('house of knowledge'),[31] is a cultic hut and place of worship for followers of Mandaeism. A Mashkhanna must be built beside a river in order to perform maṣbuta (baptism) and other ceremonies because Living Water is an essential element in the Mandaean faith.[31]