TABERNACLE (tab'Er-na-le1), (Heb.
o' hel mo-ade', tent of assembly, from a root, to fix or appoint time and place of meeting).
1. Names. Kimchi explains the name thus: 'And thus was called the because the Israelites were assembled and congregated there, and also because he (Jehovah) met there with Moses,' etc. It is from the Hebrew word meaning tent of testimony, or to witness. The Septuagint almost constantly uses the phrase, tent of testimony. The Vulgate has tabernaculum fwderis, tent of the covenant. With this render ing agrees Luther's Stiftshfitte. The Chaldee and Syrian translators have, tent of festival.
Other Hebrew terms are: 1. Soke (Heb. '715), and sook-kaw' both from saw-kak', to entwine, are used to denote a booth, a hut (Lev. xxiii:34; Ps. lxxvi:2; Job xxxvi:29; Is. iv:6; Amos 1; Zech. xiv:16).
2. Sik-kooth' (Heb. rn:q), employed to denote an idolatrous booth which the worshipers of idols constructed in their honor, as was the tabernacle of the covenant in honor of Jehovah (Amos v:26).
The Greek terms for tabernacle are: (t) Skay nay' (annin5), any structure made of skin, cloth, green boughs, etc. (Matt. xvii:4; Mark ix:5; Luke, ix:33; John vii:2; Heb. xi:9, etc.). The "tabernacle of Moloch" (Acts vii:43; comp. Amos v:26), was a portable shrine, in which was carried the image of the god. (2) Skay' no-mah (cnr4voza), used of the tabernacle, etc.
2. Three Tabernacles. We may distinguish in the Old Testament three sacred tabernacles : (1) The which was probably the dwelling of Moses, and was placed by the camp of the Israelites in the desert, for the transaction of public business (Exod. xxxiii :7).
(2) The Sinaitic Tabernacle. The Ante Sinaitic tabernacle, which bad served for the transaction of public business probably from the beginning of the Exodus, was superseded by the Sinaitic: this was constructed by Bezaleel and Aholiab as a portable mansion house, guildhall, and cathedral, and set up on the first day of the first month in the second year after leaving Egypt. Of this alone we have accurate descriptions. Philo (Opera, p. 146) calls it transported temple, and Josephus (Antic. iii, 6, 1), a portable traveling
temple. It is also sometimes called 'temple' (I Sam. i :9, iii :3).
(3) The Davidic Tabernacle was erected by David in Jerusalem for the reception of the ark (2 Sam. vi :17), while the old tabernacle remained to the days of Solomon at Gibeon, together with the brazen altar, as the place where sacrifices were offered (t Chron. xvi :39, and 2 Chron. 1:3).
3. Of thePrincipal Tabernacle. The second of these sacred tents is, as the most important, called the tabernacle tar excellence. Moses was commanded by Jehovah to have it erected in the Arabian desert, by voluntary contributions of the Israelites, who carried it about with them in their migrations until after the conquest of Canaan, when it remained stationary for longer periods in various towns of Palestine.
(1) Materials. The materials of which this tent was composed were so costly, that skeptics have questioned whether they could be furnished by a nomadic race. The tabernacle exceeded in cost liness and splendor, in proportion to the slender means of a nomadic people, the magnificence of any cathedral of the present day, compared with the wealth of the surrounding population. It is, however, remarkable that Moses was directed by Jehovah to collect the means for erecting the tabernacle, not by church-rates, but by the vol untary principle. The mode of collecting these means, and lie design of the structure, are fully said that the east end of the Tabernacle had no boards, but only five pillars of acacia wood; it was, therefore, enclosed with a richly embroidered curtain, suspended from these pillars (Exod. xxvii :16).
(4) The Veil. Such was the external appear ance of the sacred tent, which was divided into two apartments, by means of four pillars of shit tim wood, overlaid with gold, like the pillars be fore described, two cubits and a half distant from each other ; only they stood on sockets of silver, instead of sockets of brass (Exod. xxvi:32; xxxvi :36) ; and on these pillars was hung a veil. formed of the same materials as the one placed at the cast end (Exod. xxvi :31-33; xxxvi :35).