Exodus 40:2. On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
This was thirty cubits long by ten wide, and was ten cubits in height (Ex. 36:20-30). It was made of boards of shittim or acacia wood, every board being ten cubits long, and one cubit and a half wide (Ex. 36:21). The thickness is not mentioned in the Bible, but Josephus says that each of these boards was four fingers thick, excepting the two corners of the west end, which were each a cubit in thickness. (Ant. of the Jews, Book 3, chap. 6, ยง 3). Each board had two tenons at the base (Ex. 36:22), which fitted into silver mortises (Ex. 36:24). These mortises in turn were fastened to the ground by means of brass pins (Ex. 38:20), which, according to Josephus, were each a cubit in length. The boards were held together by means of wooden bars covered with gold (Ex. 36:31-34).
Several kinds of curtains and coverings were made for the Tabernacle. One was of fine linen, the threads being “blue, purple. and scarlet,” and on the curtains were figures of cherubim, either woven or embroidered (Ex. 36:8-13). Another was of goats’ hair, spun and woven into cloth (Ex. 35:26; 36:14). Another was of “rams’ skins dyed red,” and a fourth was of the skins of the tachash or “badger” (Ex. 36:19), though precisely what animal is meant by that name is not known.
The design and arrangement of these different curtains and coverings are a subject of dispute among restorers of the Tabernacle. Some regard them as coverings thrown over the tabernacle, the figured curtain being the first, and making a beautiful ceiling, the goats’ hair next, the dyed rams’ skins next, and over all the tachash skins. Others think that the figured curtains not only made a ceiling, but also were suspended on the inside, either partially or entirely covering the gilded boards.
Connected with this question is that of the shape of the Tabernacle roof, whether flat, like Oriental houses, or peaked and slanting, like Oriental tents. Great names might be mentioned on both sides. Fergusson, the celebrated English architect, presents a very strong plea in favor of the tent theory in Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, art. “Temple.” Some very strong arguments against his plan of restoration may be found in a recent work by a learned Scotch layman (The Tabernacle and its Priests and Services, by Willam Brown, Edinburgh, 1871). One of the most original treatises on the subject is to be found in Solomon’s Temple, etc., by the Rev. T. O. Paine, Boston, 1861. Mr. Paine adopts the tent-theory, but, as we shall presently see, has a method of restoration entirely his own.
Fergusson supposes that the Tabernacle of gilded boards was entirely uncovered within and without, and that above this, and stretching beyond it on either side, so as completely to cover and protect it, were the curtains and coverings, in the form of a tent. The beautiful figured curtain was first thrown over the ridge pole, and was thus visible from the inside of the Tabernacle. Over this was the cloth of goats’ hair, and over this the “rams’ skins dyed red.” The tachtash skins he places along the ridge polo as a protection to the joint of the ram-skin covering.
Mr. Paine supposes that the linen curtains were hung in festoons on the inside of the gilded boards, four cubits from the bottom, thus leaving six cubits of gilded boards uncovered. Stretched over the Tabernacle, in tent form, was a double covering, made of goats’ hair, spun and woven into cloth of a dark brown color. This made the roof of the tent, and it came down close to the boarded sides of the Tabernacle. Fergusson’s tent, it will be remembered, stretches some distance beyond. Next to the gilded planks, on the outside, Paine puts the tachash skins, and over these the skins of the rams, with the wool on and dyed red. Thus “the Tabernacle had red sides and end, and a brown roof and gable, nearly black” (Solomon’s Temple, p. 16). He makes the front entirely open above the low entrance veil, and also has a small. opening in the rear, or west end, between the top of the gable and the peak of the roof. (See engraving on p. 77).
Nothing is said of the floor of the Tabernacle; whether of earth or boards is not known. In front were five pillars, over which was hung an embroidered curtain for a door (Ex. 36:37-38). There was also a veil dividing the interior into two rooms. This veil was of embroidery and hung on four pillars (Ex. 36:35-36). The precise length of each of these two rooms is not given, though, from the analogy between the Tabernacle and the Temple, two thirds of the space are supposed to have been given to the first room and the remaining third to the second. See 1 Kings 6:17-20.
The first room, which was called the Holy Place (Ex. 28:29) contained on one side the table of show-bread, on the other the golden candlestick (Ex. 26:35) and in front of the veil the golden altar of incense (Ex. 30:6). Behind the veil was the second room, supposed to have been in the form of a perfect cube. It contained the ark, and was called the Most Holy Place (Ex. 26:33-34).
In this Tabernacle of the Israelites there was a general resemblance to the temples of other ancient nations. This resemblance is to be seen, among other things, in the secret place where no one was permitted to enter, the special shrine of the Deity.
The wandering tribes of Asia have tents for their temples. They are larger than their dwelling-tents, and of better material and workmanship.