#Exodus 26:1-30
The walls of the Tabernacle
Okay, it’s true - this might be the most boring material in the entire Pentateuch. And it’s Passover tonight, so let’s not get carried away with some massive thread here. Two quick points:
The walls of the Tabernacle
Okay, it’s true - this might be the most boring material in the entire Pentateuch. And it’s Passover tonight, so let’s not get carried away with some massive thread here. Two quick points:
It somehow became a thing for people to translate the words ערת תחשים, for the upper covering of the Tabernacle, as “dolphin skin.” The skin part is right - the dolphin part is pretty unthinkable. Serious attempts have been made to defend this idea, but I just can’t buy it.
The NRSV has “fine leather” here, which is a cop-out, but which at least isn’t embarrassing. Dolphin skins - I mean, come on. In the middle of the damn desert? Just mind-boggling.
The other thing of note here is the last verse, 26:30, because it gives away part of the game here. Scholars and readers basically forever have found it impossible to accurately reproduce the Tabernacle’s appearance. The basics are easy enough, but not the specifics.
And here’s why: the text doesn’t give us the specifics. Only Moses knows - he’s the one who was given the blueprint. And this is a good reminder that even this text, as boring and descriptive as it is, is part of a story, where the characters can know things the reader doesn’t.
These words are for Moses, not for us - they make sense within the story world, not in ours. We aren’t meant to build a Tabernacle - Moses is (was). We won’t ever see it. Moses saw it. It belongs in the narrative, in the past, not in our present. And the Bible knows it.
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