Title PageLiteraturei. Tent or Tabernacle of the Oldest Sourcesii. The Tabernacle of the priestly writersiii. Nomenclature of the Tabernacleiv. Underlying conception of the Tabernacle--Sanctuaryv. General arrangement and symmetry of the sanctuaryvi. Furniture of the Courtvii. Tabernacle Properviii. Furniture of the Holy Placeix. Furniture of the Most Holy Placex. Erection and Consecration of the Tabernaclexi. Tabernacle on the Marchxii. Historicity of P's Tabernaclexiii. Ruling ideas and Religious SignificanceLiteratureEndKennedy, A. R. S. "Tabernacle." A Dictionary of the Bible. Ed. J. Hastings. Vol. 4. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1902. 653-68. Public Domain. [This outdated article assumes JEDP theory unfortunately and flat out denies the tabernacle's historical existence based on his presuppositions. Good example how old critical scholarship sliced and diced the text. TAH] TABERNACLE. by A. R. S. Kennedy i. The Tabernacle of the oldest sources. ii. The Tabernacle of the priestly writers. The literary sources. iii. The nomenclature of the Tabernacle. iv. The fundamental conception of the Sanctuary in P. Nature and gradation of the materials employed in its construction. v. General arrangement and symmetry of the Sanctuary. The Court of the Dwelling. vi. The furniture of the Court--(a) the Altar of Burnt- offering ; (b) the Laver. vii. The Tabernacle proper--(a)the Curtains and Coverings; (b) the wooden Framework; (c) the arrangement of the Curtains, the divisions of the Dwelling, the Veil and the Screen. viii. The furniture of the Holy Place--(a) the Table of Show- bread or Presence-Table; (b) the golden Lampstand; (c) the Altar of Incense. ix. The furniture of the Most Holy Place--the Ark and the Propitiatory or Mercy-seat. x. Erection and Consecration of the Tabernacle. xi. The Tabernacle on the march. xii. The Historicity of P's Tabernacle. xiii. The ruling Ideas and religious Significance of the Tabernacle. Literature. The term tabernaculum, whence ‘ tabernacle’ of the Eng. VSS since Wyclif, denoted a tent with or without a wooden framework, and, like the skhnh< of the Gr. translators, was used in the Latin VSS to render indiscriminately the lh,xo or goats'-hair 'tent' and the hKAsu or 'booth' (which see) of the Hebrews. Its special application by the Romans to the tent or templum minus of the augurs made it also a not altogether inappropriate rendering of the NKAw;mi or ' dwelling' of the priestly writers (see § iii.), by which, however, the etymological signification of the latter was disregarded, and the confusion further 653Kennedy: Tabernacle 653 increased. The same confusion reigns in our AV. The Revisers, as they inform us in their preface, have aimed at greater uniformity by rendering mishkan by ‘tabernacle’ and ‘ohel by ‘tent’ (as AV had already done in certain cases, see § iii.). It is to be regretted, however, that they did not render the Heb. sukkah with equal uniformity by ' booth' (e.g. in Mt 17:4 and parallels), and particularly in the case of the Feast of Booths (EV Tabernacles), i. THE TENT OR TABERNACLE OF THE OLDEST SOURCES.--Within the limits of this art it is manifestly impossible to enter in detail into the problems of history and religion to which the study of ‘the tabernacle’ and its appointments, as these are presented by the priestly authors of our Pentateuch, introduces the student of the OT. The idea of the tabernacle, with its Aaronic priesthood and ministering Levites, lies at the very foundation of the religious institutions of Israel as these are conceived and formulated in the priestly sources. To criticise this conception here--a conception which has dominated Jewish and Christian thought from the days of Ezra to our own--would lead us at once into the heart of the critical controversy which has raged for two centuries round the literature and religion of the OT. Such a task is as impossible to compass here as it is unnecessary. The almost universal acceptance by OT scholars of the post-exilic date of the books of the Pentateuch in their present form is evident on every page of this Dictionary. On this foundation, therefore, we are free to build in this article without the necessity of setting forth at654a Hastings: A Dictionary of the Bible every stage the processes by which the critical results are obtained. Now, when the middle books of the Pentateuch are examined in the same spirit and by the same methods as prevail in the critical study of other ancient literatures, a remarkable divergence of testimony emerges with regard to the tent which, from the earliest times, was employed to shelter the sacred ark. In the article ARK (vol. i. p. 1496) attention was called to the sudden introduction of the 'tent' in the present text of Ex 3:37 as of something with which the readers of this document--the Pentateuch source E, according to the unanimous verdict of modern scholars--are already familiar. This source, as it left its author's pen, must have contained some account of the construction of the ark, probably from the offerings of the people (33:8) as in the parallel narrative of P (25:2ff), and of the tent required for its proper protection. Regarding this tent we are supplied with some interesting information, which may be thus summarized:--(a) Its name was in Heb. 'ohel mo'ed (33:7, AV 'the tabernacle of the congregation,' RV 'the tent of meeting'). The true significance of this term will be fully discussed in a subsequent section (§ iii.) (b) Its situation was ‘without the camp, afar off from the camp,’ recalling the situation of the local sanctuaries of a later period, outside the villages of Canaan (see HIGH PLACE, SANCTUARY). In this position it was pitched, not temporarily or on special occasions only, but, as the tenses of the original demand, throughout the whole period of the desert wanderings (cf. RV v.7 ‘Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it,’ etc., with AV). Above all, (c) its purpose is clearly stated. It was the spot where J", descending in the pillar of cloud which stood at the door of the tent (v. 9f, cf. Nu 12:5, Dt 31:15), ‘met his servant Moses and spake unto him face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend’ (v. 11). On these occasions Moses received those special revelations of the Divine will which were afterwards communicated to the