#Exodus 25:1-9
The Tabernacle: Introduction
Welcome to the wonderful world of P, where generations fly by in just a few words, but where we can devote six chapters to the incredibly detailed instructions for building and furnishing the Tabernacle.
The Tabernacle: Introduction
Welcome to the wonderful world of P, where generations fly by in just a few words, but where we can devote six chapters to the incredibly detailed instructions for building and furnishing the Tabernacle.
This stuff is dense and difficult at times and boring - but it’s also the heart of the priestly document, the necessary prerequisite for all the priestly ritual instructions and broader worldview.
And at the heart of the Tabernacle blueprint is the idea we have right here at the beginning: Israel will make a sacred place, a מקדש, and YHWH will dwell in their midst. This isn’t metaphorical - it’s as literal as it gets. The Tabernacle is YHWH’s home, and he will live there.
Everything else is details - important details, sure, but peripheral to the central priestly concept. YHWH dwells, literally and, it is hoped, permanently, in this building at the center of the Israelite community. The theological implications of this are immense and pervasive.
Virtually nothing in the rest of the priestly document is comprehensible without this fundamental claim. And, of course, we should remember that this is a claim unique (in the Pentateuch at least) to P. Ancient Israel was not of one mind about where and how their deity lived.
So join me, won’t you, as we take something of a tour of YHWH’s home - or at least as we peruse the blueprints for it. It might be hard for us to understand, but it was obviously pretty damned important to the biblical authors - so shouldn’t we give it some respect too?
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