733. The Veil of the Temple

By: James M. Freeman

Narrator: Chris Genthree

• 1 min. read • grade level: 8

Matthew 27:51⁵¹And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; (Matthew 27:51). Behold, the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.

This veil was the curtain which hung between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. It was sixty feet in length, and reached from floor to ceiling. The rabbins say that there were two veils in this part of the temple; that while in the first temple there was a wall one cubit thick, in the second temple they placed two veils between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, leaving 4 vacant space of a cubit in width between them. If this were so, they were probably both torn at the time referred to in the text and parallels, since the design of the evangelists evidently is to show that the separation between the two parts of the temple no longer existed.

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