The Tabernacle in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context

On the term miškan, see William H. C. Propp, Exodus 19-40, Anchor Bible (New York: Doubleday, 2006): 377-378, and Michael M. Homan, To Your Tents, O Israel! The Terminology, Function, Form, and Symbolism of Tents in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East, Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, Volume 12, Eds. B. Halpern, M.H.E. Weippert, Th. P.J. Van Den Hout, I. Winter (Leiden: Brill, 2002): 11-12.

For references, see Homan (2002): 2, note 8.

For other models of the Tabernacle, see Propp (2006): 502-506.

Photograph Homan (2001)

Editor’s note: For more on the religious significance of orienting towards the east in Ancient Israel, see Avraham Faust, “Houses Oriented Towards God in the East,” TheTorah (2017).

Peter James and Marinus Anthony van der Sluijs, “Ziggurats, Colors, and Planets: Rawlinson Revisited,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 60 (2008): 57-79. Note how the names of the seven days still reflect this original seven planet concept: Sunday (Sun day), Monday (Moon day), Tuesday (Tiw [=Mars] day), Wednesday (Odin [=Mercury] day), Thursday (Thor [=Jupiter] day), Friday (Frigg [=Venus] day), Saturday (Saturn day).

Homan (2002): 130.

CAD A/1 244 7’, Homan (2002): 130.

See also Exod 25:40.

Note also the Rabbinic suggestion that God made models of fire (see b. Menachot 29a).

See Homan (2002): 131.

Psalms 78:60 refers to an ancient Tabernacle of Shiloh, which is likely another reference to this same place. On the fluidity of housing terms such as “tent,” “house,” “temple,” and “tabernacle,” see Homan (2002): 16-27.

Jeremiah 7:12 implies that Shiloh was destroyed or abandoned at some point before the period of Jeremiah.

See also 2 Chron 5:4-5.

See Richard E. Friedman, “The Tabernacle in the Temple,” Biblical Archaeologist 43 (1980):241-48 and “The Tabernacle,” The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1992): VI:292-300.

B. Sotah 9a; see also Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, VIII: 101, 103.

Karl H. Graf, Die geschichtlichen Bücher des Alten Testaments: Zwei historisch-kritische Untersuchungen (1866); Julius Wellhausen, Geschichte Israels, vol. 1 (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1878) and later Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels (Berlin, 1883): 39. For an English translation, see Julius Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the History of Israel (Scholars Press Reprints and Translation Series; Douglas A. Knight edition; Duke University Press, 2000).

Frank M. Cross, Jr., “The Tabernacle: A Study from an Archaeological and Historical Approach,” Biblical Archaeologist 10 (1947):45-68. See also “The Priestly Tabernacle in the Light of Recent Research,” Temples and High Places in Biblical Times (ed., A. Brian; Jerusalem: HUC, 1981), 169-182.

Cross was not thinking of a historical Tabernacle in the wilderness but suggests that the Priestly account may have been using the tent David erected for the Ark’s arrival in Jerusalem as a model.

Homan (2002): 94-97.

Cf. The Context of Scripture, Volume 1, Ed. W. Hallo (Brill Academic, 2002), page 338, which translates lmšknthm as “their dwellings.”

Homan (2002): 99-100.

Homan (2002): 116-118.

Homan (2002): 117-118.

FM III.4.ii.7-14. See Daniel E. Fleming, “Mari’s Large Public Tent and the Priestly Tent Sanctuary,” VT 50.4 (2000): 484-98.

Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003), 275-283, points out that the Tabernacle’s materials and craftsmanship fit with a context of Late Bronze Age Egypt.

Homan (2002): 105-109, and plates 36-39.

Howard Carter, The Tomb of Tut-ankh-amen II (New York, Doran, 1927): pl. 4.

Editor’s note: For discussion of Nehushtan, see Richard Lederman, “Nehushtan, the Copper Serpent: Its Origins and Fate,” TheTorah (2017).

Photographs by Homan, 2001.

Homan (2002): 109.

Theodore M. Davis, The Tomb of Queen Tîyi (London: Constable, 1910): p. 31.

For Egyptian parallels see James K. Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Wilderness Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005): 193 ff.

Homan (2002): 66.

Homan (2002): 112.

From James H. Breasted, The Battle of Kadesh (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1903): plate 1.

From James H. Breasted, The Battle of Kadesh (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1903): plate 4.

Photograph from Markaz Tasjil al-Athar al-Misriyah, Grand Temple d’Abou Simbel(Cairo, 1971): plate 6. Drawing from W. Wreszinski, Atlas zur altägyptischen Kulturgeschichte (1935): Volume II: plate 169.

Richard E. Friedman, The Exodus (New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2017); Raanan Eichler, The Ark and the Cherubim (Ph.D. Thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2015); “The Poles of the Ark and Tutankhamun’s Chest,” TheTorah (2016). See also Scott B. Noegel, “The Egyptian Origin of the Ark of the Covenant,” in Israel’s Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective (eds. T. E. Levy, T. Schneider, W. Propp; Quantitative Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences; New York: Springer, 2015): 223-242.

Carol L. Meyers, “Lampstand,” Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1992): IV:141-43, and The Tabernacle Menorah, ASOR Dissertation Series 2. Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press, 1976): 181-84, note 74. Compare this to later lampstands in Solomon’s Temple (1 Kgs 7:49) and Zechariah’s vision (4:2).

Michael M. Homan, “The Divine Warrior in His Tent: A Military Model for Yahweh’s Tabernacle,” Bible Review 16 (2000): 22-33, 55.

Exod 12:41; Num 1:3, 10:15. Cf. Yahweh ṣb’ot in 1 Sam 1:3, 17:45; Hos 12:5.

For “trumpets” Num 10:2, 9. For “standards” see Num 1:52; 2:3 and 7; Psalm 20:6[5 in English]; Cant 6:4, 10. Cf. Baruch A. Levine, “The Meaning of Degel and the Elusive History of the Levites,” TheTorah (2014), who argues that “chieftain” is a better translation of Hebrew degel.

Homan (2002): 115-16

Homan (2002): 35-38.

Judges 4-5; Jeremiah 35.