The Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Shema!  Key features of the Israelite religion as portrayed in the Hebrew Bible, even if widely misunderstood or virtually unknown among the populace at large.  (Can you explain them off the top of your head?  If not, keep reading.  If so, keep reading to see if you’re right.  If you’re right, congratulations!)

Here I continue this Hebrew Bible thread by extracting two side-boxes from my textbook, The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction, 2^nd ed. (Oxford University Press.

BOX 6.1 THE TABERNACLE AND THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

Nearly all religions have sacred places that are set aside for the worship of the deity. But how can you have a sacred place if you are not settled down in a single location but are on the move? You can have one if the sacred place is a tent that you move with you.

According to the books of the Pentateuch, Israel was on the move after leaving Egypt and before conquering the Holy Land. According to the Priestly source P, their sanctuary was in fact a large tent called the tabernacle (see figure 5.5). It was believed in some circles that the tabernacle was a kind of mirror image of the place where God dwelt in heaven. In other words, God lived in a tent. But his tent on earth was very special (and the one in heaven, needless to say, would have been very, very special). In it was housed the ark of the covenant, on which God himself was thought to be enthroned in his manifestation here on earth.

The tabernacle was made up of woven curtains on a wooden frame. It could be assembled and disassembled as the people were on the move. It enclosed a large area of 75 x 150 feet—so roughly half the size of a football field. The inside was divided in half: the first half was where any of the Israelites could go; the other half was closed off and was only for the priests. This inner part contained a table where offerings were made, an altar, and a seven-branched lamp stand. Deeper inside was a special room called the “holy of holies”—that is, the most holy, or sacred place. This was a curtained-off room that no one could enter except the high priest, on one day of the year—the Day of Atonement—when he would make atonement for the people’s sins. Inside this holy of holies was the ark itself.

The ark was an elaborate wooden box, about 4 x 2.5 feet—the size of a modern cedar chest. It was overlaid with gold and had rings on each corner through which poles could be inserted so it could be carried. But more significant, on top of it was a covering that boasted two winged angelic-like beings called “cherubim.” In ancient Israel it was believed that God himself sat between these cherubim so that the ark was his throne. That is why the room that housed the ark was so very holy, and why not just anyone could come in to get a glimpse. It was set apart from all else.

Inside the ark were stored the two tablets that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai containing the Decalogue. This was a sacred depository, then, for the most sacred of texts: the covenant that God had made with his people Israel.

 

BOX 6.2 THE SHEMA

Historically, one of the most important passages of the entire Torah for Jewish worship, and eventually for Christian understandings of the Old Testament, is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

These words are traditionally known as the Shema, because in Hebrew, that is the first word, translated “hear.” There have been various translations of the Hebrew of these verses over the years, some of them seeming to emphasize that Judaism is strictly monotheistic: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” But probably the first translation is to be preferred. This foundational statement of what it means to be a follower of the God of Israel is stressing not that other gods do not exist but that these other gods are not to be accepted or worshiped as gods by the Israelites. Yahweh alone “is our God.” And the sacred religious duty of the Israelite is to love Yahweh with his or her whole being.

As we will see, Jesus of Nazareth maintained that this was “the first and great commandment.” It is not the first commandment to be given in Scripture—far from it—but for Jesus, and then his followers, it is the one of first importance. Many Jewish readers to this day continue to see it as the cornerstone of their faith.