Table of Contents
The tabernacle is the tent Israel carried through the wilderness, the portable sanctuary that held the Ark of the Covenant before there was a temple. The Bible spends chapter after chapter on its curtains, frames and gold, and the pages on this site read those chapters in very different ways: as a dwelling for the glory of the LORD, as a heavily guarded workplace for the Levites, and in the Oahspe as a base through which light from a heavenly place reached Moses. I put them side by side here.
The plan in Exodus
Exodus gives the outline: in chapter 25 God tells Moses to collect offerings and gives plans for the ark, the table and the menorah, chapter 26 describes the curtains, frames and veil, and chapter 30 adds the incense altar, the bronze basin and the anointing oil. The Old Testament – The Hebrew Bible sums up the book as detailing the construction of the Tabernacle as a place of worship.
Golden objects lists what stood inside: the pure gold lampstand with seven lamps (Exodus 25:31-40), the altar of incense of acacia wood overlaid with gold (Exodus 30:1-5), and golden plates, dishes, cups and bowls. Do the seven lampstands in Revelation represent the Pleiades star cluster? takes the seven lamps further, and shows an early image of the menorah on a coin of Antigonus II Mattathias, the last Hasmonean king of Judea.
The Ark in the Holy of Holies
The heart of the tent was the innermost room. The Ark of the Covenant explains that the Ark was housed in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle and later in Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. The Blueprint of the Ark notes the acacia wood of the tabernacle and suggests it was chosen for resonance and durability.
The glory fills the tent
When the work is finished, something moves in. Kavod (glory), Ruach (spirit) and Merkaba (chariot) quotes the moment:
Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
Exodus 40:34-35 (KJV)
The Hierarchy of YHWH reads the same verses in the World English Bible and notes that the same thing happens again at Solomon’s temple.
Carried by the Levites
The tent had to move with the camp, and only one tribe could touch it. On Transport of the Ark of the Covenant, Numbers 1 appoints the Levites to carry the tabernacle and its furnishings, to take it down and to set it up, while anyone else who comes near is to be put to death. The page compares the Levites with specialized engineers tasked with the tabernacle’s assembly, maintenance and transport. All Levites were members of the tribe of Levi gives the division of labor: the Gershonites carried the fabrics and the Merarites the poles and boards, and The 12 Tribes notes that Levi received no large territory because it served in the Tabernacle and later the Temple.
The Oahspe’s tabernacle
The Oahspe tells how the tent began. In The Book of Saphah an Egyptian woman, Koetha, hears a voice in the lodge, and Moses has a tabernacle made:
The woman, Koetha, did as commanded, and Moses commanded workmen to make a tabernacle (a model or image of a place of worship, a portable temple), and the sacred implements were kept within said tabernacle, and this was the corporeal base of the ark of Bon
Oahspe, The Book of Saphah
The same passage says the light of the sacred heaven reached Moses and his people through it, in a pillar of cloud by day and of light by night.
Related pages
- Exodus
- The Ark of the Covenant
- Golden objects
- Kavod (glory), Ruach (spirit) and Merkaba (chariot)
- Transport of the Ark of the Covenant
- All Levites were members of the tribe of Levi
- The Hierarchy of YHWH
- The Book of Saphah
For every page I tagged with Tabernacle, see the Tabernacle tag archive.
