122 PEOFESSOE JAMES OEE, D.D.^ OX THE 



The little volume, Mount Seir, Sinai and Palestine, which I wrote- 

 with details of the expedition is now, I fear, out of print. 



The Rev. J. A. Lightfoot said : It seems to me that a strong 

 argument for the historicity of the Mosaic Tabernacle may be derived 

 from the character of the narrative of its construction : — (1) Two 

 accounts of the details of the Tabernacle are given. One gives us 

 the order in which it was revealed to Moses, Exodus xxv to xxx ; the 

 other gives us the order in which it was actually constructed, briefly 

 in Exodus xxxv, 10-19, and fully in Exodus xxxvi to xxxix. The- 

 fact that we have two accounts gives a verisimilitude to the whole 

 transaction. Surely this would be a Cjuite unaccountable method of 

 narrating, if the writer were an Exilic romancer. It is indeed 

 pointless and clumsy, unless it is a history of what ha2Dpened. 

 (2) But the two accounts strikingly differ in the order in which they 

 deal with the diflferent parts. The first begins with the Ark and 

 the Mercy-seat (the contents of the Holiest), the Table and the 

 Candlestick (contents of the -Holy Place); then follows the 

 Tabernacle. But the second begins w4th the Tabernacle, and 

 places the making of the Ark, etc., after the Tabernacle had been 

 made. Xow if we are dealing with a historical narrative this change 

 of order is natiu-al and intelligible. It was natural that in the order 

 of revelation the Ark should be mentioned first, for it was the central 

 object, and the Tabernacle was constructed for its sake. It was 

 natural that in the order of construction the Tabernacle should 

 come first, for its resting-place must be ready for the Ark before 

 that sacred thing itself was made. 



One other point of verisimilitude in the narrative is worth 

 noticing. The series of instructions to Moses closes with an injunc- 

 tion as to Sabbath observance (Exodus xxxi, 13-17). This comes- 

 in naturally as a warning, as if God said : "I have set before you a 

 sacred work to be done, but remember that its sacredness will not 

 justify a breach of the Sabbath for its sake " ; not even Tabernacle 

 construction is allowed to be done on the Sabbath. It is no less 

 natural that in the series of instructions given by Moses to the people, 

 the reminder about Sabbath observance should come first of all 

 (Exodus XXXV, 1-3). 



Bishop Westcott {Commentary on Ilelreics, p. 233) called the 

 "critical" theory of the Tabernacle "an incredible inversion of 

 history." It seems to me that the narrative itself defies the theory 



