HISTORICITY OF THE MOSAIC TABEKNACLE. 



107 



inventing an ideal state of things in the past. How far does 

 this tally with reason or with fact ? 



The explanation proposed is that the idea of the tabernacle 

 was obtained by taking Solomon's ternple as a model, halving 

 its dimensions, making it portable by converting it into a tent, 

 then projecting it back into Mosaic times. The temple was not 

 an enlarged copy in stone of the tabernacle, but the tabernacle 

 was a copy of the temple, reduced to half its size. How does 

 this tally v\ ith the facts ? I need not dwell long on the 

 structure of Solomon's temple. It was a stately building of 

 hewn stone on a fixed spot, 60 cubits (roughly 90 feet) in length 

 20 cubits (30 feet) in breadth, 30 cubits (45 feet) in height — 

 interior measurement. It was divided by a partition and veil 

 into two apartments — the inner, or holy of holies, 20 cubits in 

 length, breadth and height, with a chamber above ; the outer, 

 or holy place, specially called in the narrative the " temple," 

 40 cubits in length, 20 in breadth, but 30 in height. Before the 

 temple was a lofty porch, in front of which stood two high 

 bronze pillars — Jachin and Boaz — and round the building, 

 adhering to its walls on the sides and back were three stories 

 of chambers for storage and, perhaps, dormitories for the priests. 

 The temple stood in the court, the dimensions of which are not 

 given — they are generally reckoned as double those of the 

 tabernacle — and this court again within an outer or greater 

 court, the size, situation, and relation of which to the adjoining 

 royal buildings are still matters of keen dispute, and do not 

 concern us here. It was, according to the theory, the imaginative 

 halving of the proportions of this temple and its appurtenances 

 which yielded the tabernacle. A very little consideration, how- 

 ever, will show the fallaciousness of this plausible speculation. 

 There is not such exactitude of proportion as the theory requires, 

 and it is far easier to understand how the temple should be 

 evolved out of the simpler structure of the tabernacle, than how 

 that tent-like sanctuary should come to be as a simplification of 

 the highly complex Solomonic temple. 



Picture to yourself, first, for clearness sake, what in general 

 the tabernacle was. Its name 'olid md'edh, " Tent of Meeting," 

 denotes it as the place of meeting between Jehovah and His 

 people, as the other name mishkan, "Dwelling," interchanged 

 with the former in the P descriptions, marks it as the place 

 where Jehovah abode with Israel. The tabernacle enclosure, or 

 court, 100 cubits (150 feet) long, by 50 cubits (75 feet) broad, 

 was formed by wliite linen curtains suspended fiom pillars, 

 5 cubits, or about 7^ feet high. Its entrance was towards the 



