Thread by @JoelBaden

#Exodus 25:17-22

The cover for the ark

Or, if you’re being old-timey about it, the “mercy seat.” I find that translation funny - like, as if “mercy seat” is a known thing, and Moses should just make one. Hey, make a mercy seat. It’s, you know, not a thing.

The translation “mercy seat” comes from the notion that the Hebrew name, כפרת, comes from the same root that means “atone” (though the jump from there to “mercy” has a pretty goyish ring to me, I must admit). The idea would be that from here YHWH accepts atonement for sins.

But that isn’t what the text says, here or anywhere else either. P is pretty clear about what this thing is for: it’s the precise spot in the inner sanctum of the Tabernacle where YHWH physically exists, and from where YHWH speaks to Moses (cf. Exod 30:6; Num 7:89).

It’s the locus of divine communication, not of divine atonement. (Not to mention that P doesn’t really have any notion of atonement as it’s understood in either Judaism or Christianity. We’ll get there.)

And its name has nothing to do with that function - it’s just a cover (another meaning of כפר, as in Gen 6:14). So let’s call it the cover for the ark, but recognize that it’s also the spot where YHWH hangs out, especially when Moses (or Aaron - see Lev 16:2) shows up.

As for the cherubs that are on top of the cover, I’m gonna assume we all know by now that they weren’t pudgy babies with wings and harps and shit, but more like a winged lion - think terrifying, not adorable. Think Ezekiel’s vision, not baby Jesus (with wings).

The big deal about the cover is that it reinforces the basic idea of the Tabernacle as a whole: as the literal physical location of the deity in the midst of Israel. We already knew YHWH would dwell in it; here we’re told exactly where he sits when issuing instructions.

Any understanding of this that attempts to make it metaphorical, or figurative, or otherwise soften the text somehow is more representative of the interpretive stance than of the text or the ancient Israelite world from which it emerged.