SHEWBREAD. An expression used in the English Bible for the 12 loaves which, according to the Pentateuchn) codes, were plced on a table of acacia wood in the Holy of Holies. They were made of fine flour, unleavened, and sprinkled with frankincense; they were arranged in two rows of six loaves each, and the bread was changed every Sabbath: when the change was made, frankincense was burned and the old bread was given to the priests to be eaten in the holy place (Ex. xxv. 23-30; Lev. xxiv. 5-9; Josepinis, Ant. iii. 10, 7). The term 'shew• bread' was used by Tyndale in his translation of the New Testament (Ileb. ix. 5). The Hebrew name means `bread of the presence.' Other ex pressions are used as 'holy bread' (I. Sam. xxi, 6), 'pile bread' (I. Citron. ix. 32). The refer ence in I. Samuel, where the shewbrcad of the sanctuary at Nob in the days of David is referred to, indicates the antiquity of the rite. Similar rites are found among various nations of an tiquity. There is a Babylonian phrase which is
identical with the llebrew• (cf. Zimmerli, Bei ledge zur Kenntnis der bob ylonischen Religion, Leipzig, 1896-1900), and references are found in Babylonian literature to the piling up of loaves on a table set before a divinity, the number of such loaves being 12, 24, or 30. The inclusion of the rite in the post-exilic regu lations of the Jewish cult is an instance of survival, though naturally FM interpretation was given in accordance with more advanced ideas. Great care was bestowed upon the prep aration of the shewbread. According to the Talmud the flour must be sifted 11 times and th6 kneading and baking were intrusted to a special priestly family in whose hands the priv ileges generally remained for several generations. Consult the Hebrew archivologies of Benzinger and Nowack.