Tabernacle

The Work of the Priest in the Tabernacle

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The legislation in the Pentateuch assigned numerous duties to the Hebrew priests and Levites. Chief among them were maintaining and transporting the tabernacle (Num. 3–4) and performing the rituals and liturgies associated with Israelite worship in the sanctuary (Exod. 28–29). It is likely that some of these duties were determined by lot and discharged on a rotating basis (cf. 1 Chron. 23–24).

Bronze Basin or Laver. The priests were to wash their hands and feet at the laver upon entering the tent of meeting (tabernacle proper) and before ministering at that altar of burnt offering (Exod. 30:17–21).

Altar of Burnt Offering. The national festival, daily, and individual sacrifices took place at the altar of burnt offering. Mosaic law instructed the priests to prepare and sacrifice a year-old lamb in the morning and evening each day. This burnt offering was to be accompanied by grain and drink offerings (Exod. 29:38–46; Num. 28:1–8).

The Mosaic legislation prescribing the five basic sacrifices offered to God by the people of Israel is found in Leviticus 1–7. Three types of sacrifices were required: offerings of expiation, offerings of consecration, and offerings of fellowship.

The offerings of expiation included a six-part ritual, three acts performed by the worshiper and three acts performed by the priest. The worshiper brought his offering to the gateway of the tabernacle (perhaps in the forecourt on the north side of the altar of burnt offering). He then laid his hands on the sacrificial victim and confessed his sin and guilt. Then the worshiper slaughtered the sacrificial animal. The priest cut the victim into pieces, arranged the sacrifice on the altar, and ignited the burnt offering. During this process the priest collected the blood of the victim in a basin and dashed it against the four sides of the altar. Then the priest and his family, or the priest and the worshiper, ate the remaining portions of the offering as a sacrificial meal.

Non-animal sacrifices were prepared by the worshiper; this preparation included anointing the offering with oil and frankincense, and in some cases baking without leaven. The worshiper brought the sacrifice to the entrance of the tabernacle. There the priest received the sacrifice and burned a portion of it on the altar of burnt offering. The priest was permitted to retain the remaining portion of the offering as a sacrificial meal for his family (Lev. 2:1–10).

Specific ritual sacrifice was also prescribed for the national and festival worship gatherings. Especially prominent were the Passover, the Feast of Firstfruits, Pentecost, and the Day of Atonement. Sacrificial instructions for these and other national and festival holy days are outlined in Exodus 12:3; 29; Leviticus 16; 23; and Numbers 28–29. The instructions to the priests for keeping the fire burning on the altar of burnt offering are in Leviticus 6:8–13.

Table of Shewbread and Lampstand. The priests were charged to keep the lampstand (Hebrew mƒnorah) burning during the hours of darkness (evening until morning) each day (Lev. 24:1–4). The priests also prepared twelve loaves of bread to be arranged on the table of shewbread in two rows of six loaves each. The loaves were to be garnished with frankincense and were replaced every Sabbath by the priests (Lev. 24:5–8).

Altar of Incense. The priests were commanded to burn incense twice daily on the altar of incense, which stood before the curtain of the tabernacle separating the Most Holy Place from the sanctuary. The incense offerings coincided with the snuffing out of the lampstand in the morning and the lighting of the lampstand in the evening (Exod. 30:1–10).

Once a year sacrificial blood was sprinkled on the altar of incense to purify it as part of the Day of Atonement ceremony (Lev. 16:18–29).

Curtain or Veil of the Tabernacle. The curtain was made of wool, dyed blue, purple, and scarlet, and was embroidered with cherubim. The curtain divided the tent of meeting into two sections: the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest was permitted to go beyond the curtain into the Most Holy Place (Exod. 26:31–35).

Ark of the Covenant. The ark of the covenant was the visible symbol of God’s holy presence and covenant relationship with Israel. The ark contained the tokens of Israel’s redemption from slavery in Egypt: the stone tablets of God’s law, a bowl of manna, and Aaron’s rod. The ark of the covenant resided in the Most Holy Place. Annually, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest appeared before the ark to burn incense and sprinkle blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat resting on the top of the ark. The ritual made atonement for the tabernacle, cleansing the sanctuary of Israel’s uncleanness and transgressions (Lev. 16:11–19).

The Tabernacle of Moses

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The central theme of the Mosaic tabernacle is the dwelling of God in the midst of Israel. The actualization of God’s dwelling is expressed in every aspect of the tabernacle, including its structure, materials, courts, sanctuaries, and furnishings including the altars, the lampstand, and the ark of the covenant.

Terminology and References

A number of words and phrases are used in connection with the tabernacle.

(1) “The tent” occurs nineteen times; similar phrases include “tent of the Lord” (1 Kings 2:28–29); “the house of the tent” (1 Chron. 9:23); “the house of the Lord” (Exod. 23:19); and “the tabernacle of the house of God” (1 Chron. 6:48).

(2) “Tent of meeting,” that is, of God and of Israel through Moses, indicates the tabernacle as a place of revelation. This name occurs over 125 times (Exod. 33:7; Num. 11:16; 12:4; Deut. 31:14). The place where the Lord met with Moses and Israel (Exod. 29:42–43; Num. 17:4) was for communication and revelation (Exod. 29:42; 33:11; Num. 7:89). It is equivalent to “tent of revelation,” since here God declared his will for Israel. The rendering “the tabernacle of the congregation” is not exact.

(3) “Dwelling place” or “dwelling” indicates the place where God disclosed himself to his people and dwelt among them. The root is “to dwell.” Exodus 25:8 uses the word to speak of the entire shrine; in Exodus 26:1 it is limited practically to the Holy of Holies.

(4) “The tabernacle of the testimony” also occurs (Exod. 38:21). Less frequently, we see “the tent of the testimony” (Num. 9:15, asv).

(5) The general term Holy Place, or “sanctuary,” appears in Exodus 25:8 and Leviticus 10:17–18. The root is the verb “to be separate, holy.”

The principal passages dealing with the tabernacle are (1) Exodus 25–29; (2) Exodus 30–31; (3) Exodus 35–40; and (4) Numbers 3:25–26; 4:4–6; and 7:1–89.

The Structure of the Tabernacle

The purpose of the structure is stated in Exodus 25:8, 21–22. It was made after the pattern shown to Moses on the mount (Exod. 25:9; 26:30). The entrances to the court and to the structure were from the east. The altar of burnt offering was in the court, then the laver; inside the tabernacle, farthest west, stood the Holy of Holies, or Most Holy Place, which housed the ark of the covenant and was hidden by a veil, or curtain. The second division inside the tabernacle, the Holy Place, contained the table of shewbread, the golden lampstand, and the altar of incense.

In the development of Israelite religion, altars appeared before sanctuaries (Gen. 12:7–8). The tabernacle reflected the monotheism of Israel, and the later temples were modeled after it. The ground plan of the tabernacle is sufficiently clear, although there are various opinions concerning the details. It is customarily held that the shape of the structure was oblong with a flat roof and ornate coverings that hung down at each side and at the back. Another opinion is that the tabernacle had a sloping roof.

The outer court contained the altar of burnt offering and the bronze laver. The tabernacle structure consisted of two divisions: the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, or Most Holy Place. In the former, which was on the north side, stood the table of shewbread (the structure was oriented toward the east); the golden lampstand was on the south; the golden altar of incense was on the west against the veil leading to the Most Holy Place. The innermost compartment held the ark of the covenant, in which were deposited the two tablets of the Law, the pot of manna, and the rod of Aaron that had budded. The ark’s covering, a lid of pure gold, was the mercy seat, or propitiatory, overshadowed by two angelic figures called cherubim. At the mercy seat God met with his people in their need on the basis of shed blood.

Materials and Furniture

The tabernacle was made from the voluntary gifts of Israel. Materials are listed in Exodus 25:3–7 and 35:4–9: gold, silver, bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet material and fine, twined linen; goats’ hair, dyed rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood, oil for lamps, spices for anointing oil and fragrant incense, onyx stones, and stones for the ephod and the breastpiece. The three metals of ancient times—bronze, silver, and gold—were used in meaningful gradation from the outer court to the Most Holy Place. The most artistic use of the metals was found in the cherubim and the golden lampstand. The wood used throughout the structure was shittim, or acacia wood, known for its durability. The material employed was linen, also fine, twined linen, dyed blue, purple, and scarlet (Exod. 25:4). The yarn was spun by women in charge of the weaving (Exod. 35:25–35); the work included embroidery and tapestry.

Framework and Coverings

The framework of the tabernacle (Exod. 26:15–37; 36:20–38) was made of 48 wooden frames, fifteen feet high by 27 inches wide, with three vertical arms, joined by three crosspieces. These were placed in wooden supports, and over them were hung two large curtains. Overall were spread three covers. The framework was constructed of uprights of acacia wood, making three sides of the oblong structure. The front was closed by an embroidered screen (Exod. 26:36–37). The boards, 48 in number, were overlaid with gold. The construction was divided into two compartments, separated by a veil hung from four pillars overlaid with gold and set in sockets of silver. The veil, like the covering of the tabernacle, was woven in blue, purple, and scarlet, with figures of cherubim. The Holy Place was thirty feet long by fifteen feet wide; the Most Holy Place was fifteen feet square. It has been suggested that the tabernacle proper was shaped like a tent, with a ridge pole and a sloping roof.

The coverings of the tabernacle are described in Exodus 26:1–14 and 36:8–9. The wooden framework of the tabernacle had three coverings: the total covering of the tabernacle itself, the covering of goats’ hair, and the covering of ram’s skins and goatskins spread over the entire structure. The first covering was made of ten curtains of fine, twined linen woven in blue, purple, and scarlet, with figures of cherubim. The second covering was of eleven curtains of goats’ hair. The top covering was made of rams’ skins dyed red and goatskins.

Court of the Tabernacle

The court is described in Exodus 27:9–18 and 38:9–20. The court of the tabernacle was a rectangle on an east-to-west plan, one hundred cubits (about 150 feet) long and fifty cubits wide. To the west was the tabernacle proper and to the east, the altar. The court was screened from the camp by five white curtains five cubits high. It was an enclosure 150 feet long by 75 feet wide, with curtains of fine, twined linen, supported on bronze pillars and attached by silver hooks. In the court stood the altar of burnt offering and the laver, the latter being set between the altar and the tabernacle proper (Exod. 30:17–21). The entrance to the court was on the eastern side through a “gate” or “screen” with hangings.

The Altar

The altar of burnt offering is discussed in Exodus 27:1–8 and 38:1–7. It is called “the altar of bronze” for its appearance and “the altar of burnt offering” for its use. The fire on this altar was never to go out (Lev. 6:13). The most important of the contents of the outer court was the altar. It was a hollow chest of acacia wood covered with bronze, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, with a horn at each of the four corners. In the middle of the altar was a ledge (Lev. 9:22) and below it a grating. The altar was carried by bronze-covered poles in bronze rings. The horns of this altar were at times misused for asylum (1 Kings 1:50–51). They were sprinkled with blood at the consecration of the priests (Exod. 29:12), at the presentation of the sin offering (Lev. 4:18–34), and on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:18). The grating on the four sides at the foot of the altar permitted the blood of the sacrifices to be spilled at the base of the altar through the network. Laymen were permitted to approach the altar, for when they brought their sacrifices, they laid their hands on the victim (Lev. 1:4).

The Laver

The laver is described in Exodus 30:17–21. It was for the exclusive use of the priests as they ministered in the ritual of the tabernacle. They neglected this provision at the peril of their lives (Exod. 30:20–21). Made of bronze, the laver had a base, evidently for the washing of the feet of the priests. Some scholars believe the base was a part of the laver proper, whereas others with greater probability maintain that the base was a vessel separate from the laver itself. The record indicates that the bronze was contributed by the ministering women who were engaged in work about the tabernacle (Exod. 38:8).

The Sanctuary Proper

The tabernacle proper is described in Exodus 26:1–14 and 36:8–19. It appears that the curtains, rather than the boards, constituted the dwelling of the Lord (Exod. 26:1). The record of the wooden framework of the dwelling is in Exodus 26:15–30 and 36:20–34. At the inner portion of the court stood the tabernacle, an oblong structure 45 feet long by 15 feet wide, with two divisions, the Holy Place and the Most Holy (Exod. 26:33). These two divisions are found in the Solomonic temple as well (1 Kings 6:5). The area of the Most Holy Place was thirty feet square; the Holy Place measured sixty feet by thirty feet. The two were separated by a veil. On the Day of Atonement the high priest entered the veil, or curtain, at the open end, into the innermost sanctuary. The emphasis in Exodus 26 and 36 is on the tabernacle itself and its curtains, of which there were ten, each 28 cubits by 4 cubits. The ten curtains of colored fabric with woven cherubim were joined in two sets of five along the sides of the tabernacle. Fifty loops of violet thread were sewn onto the curtains, which were to be held together by fifty gold clasps, thus uniting the whole tabernacle (Exod. 26:6). Over all was placed a tent, one covering of goats’ hair with five or six curtains coupled by hooks and clasps, amounting to a total size of fourty cubits by thirty cubits, to make certain the tabernacle was completely covered. The covering overlapped the linen and permitted an extra fold at the front (Exod. 26:9). The tent had two coverings, one of rams’ skins dyed red and another of goatskins (cf. Exod. 26:14; 40:19).

The curtains were held in place by fourty-eight acacia frames. These frames consisted of two arms connected at the top, center, and bottom by rungs with two silver bases for each frame. The silver bases formed an unbroken foundation around the tabernacle. The frames were also held together by five bars. The frames and bars were gold plated. The front of the structure was enclosed by curtains. (Exodus 26:22–25 is difficult to interpret. It may speak of a pair of frames joined at each corner of the west or rear of the framework, sloping upward and inward from their bases to a point under the top bar.) The screen was the entrance to the Holy Place. The veil separated the Holy of Holies, or Most Holy Place, from the Holy Place. The veil was made of variegated material embroidered with cherubim, draped over four pillars of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, and supported by four silver bases. The screen was of the same material as the screen at the entrance to the outer court (Exod. 27:16). It was suspended from golden hooks on five pillars of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, and supported by bronze bases.

The Holy Place

The outer compartment, or Holy Place, contained three pieces of furniture: (1) the table of shewbread; (2) the golden lampstand; and (3) the golden altar of incense. The table was set on the north side of the Holy Place (Exod. 40:22); the lampstand on the south side (Exod. 40:24); and the altar of incense on the west side, before the veil. The table was made of acacia wood covered with fine gold and ornamented with gold molding. Rings and poles were used for carrying the table. A number of accessories were made for the table: gold plates to hold the loaves, dishes for frankincense (Lev. 24:7), and golden vessels for wine offerings. On this table were placed two piles of twelve loaves, or cakes, which were changed each week (Lev. 24:5–9). The dishes, spoons, and bowls were all of pure gold.

On the south side of the Holy Place stood the golden, seven-branched lampstand. It was the most ornate of all the furniture. Of pure gold, it had a central shaft (Exod. 25:32–35) from which sprouted six golden branches, three on either side. The lampstand was adorned with almonds and flowers. Each branch supported a lamp that gave continuous (some say only nightly) illumination (Exod. 27:20; Lev. 24:2–3; 1 Sam. 3:3). Accessories of the lampstand, such as snuffers, snuff dishes, and oil vessels, were all of gold. The lampstand was made of a talent of pure gold (Exod. 25:38). In front of the veil was an altar of incense (Exod. 30:1–5; 37:25–28). Because it is not mentioned in Exodus 25, it is considered by some to be a later addition. It is not mentioned in the Septuagint translation of Exodus 37. It was a small altar, constructed of acacia wood and overlaid with gold, one cubit long, one cubit wide, and two cubits high. It was a miniature replica of the bronze altar (Exod. 30:1–10). Its firewas provided from the main altar. Horns, rings, poles, and a golden molding were made for it. Perpetual sweet-smelling incense was offered on it, and on the Day of Atonement expiation was made on its horns. On the basis of Hebrews 9:4, some believe Exodus 30:6 and 1 Kings 6:22 suggest that the altar of incense was inside the veil, in the Most Holy Place. The writer of Hebrews views the sanctuary and its ritual proleptically, that is, in light of future events: the rent veil and an accomplished redemption. Furthermore, the passages in Exodus and 1 Kings cannot be made to teach a condition contrary to the other passages on the Holy Place. Provision was made for replenishing the oil for the lampstand and the incense for the altar (Exod. 30:22–38).

The Holy of Holies

The smallest of all the parts of the sanctuary was the Holy of Holies, yet it was the most significant because of the ritual that was carried out there on the Day of Atonement and because of the reiterated declaration that God himself dwelt in the tabernacle in the Most Holy, a dwelling represented by the cloud of glory over the innermost sanctuary.

Exodus 25:10–40; 30:1–10; and 37 records the account of the tabernacle, beginning with the construction of the ark (Exod. 25:10). Its measurements were about 3×34 feet by 2×14 feet by 2×14 feet. It was the only furniture in the Holy of Holies. It contained the Ten Commandments (2 Kings 11:12; Ps. 132:12), the pot of manna (Exod. 16:33–34), and Aaron’s rod, which had budded (Num. 17:10). It was covered within and without by pure gold and had golden moldings, rings, and staves. Resting on the ark of the covenant and held securely in place by the gold molding was a solid slab of gold called the mercy seat, or the propitiatory. Wrought on the ends of the covering, or lid, were cherubim of gold (Exod. 25:18; 37:7–8). They faced the mercy seat and their wings touched overhead. Between the cherubim the God of Israel dwelt visibly (Exod. 25:22; 30:6; Num. 7:89) and met with his people through their representatives—first Moses, then Aaron. The rendering “mercy seat” was first employed by William Tyndale, the first English translator of the Bible, who followed Martin Luther’s translation, Gnadenstuhl, based on the Greek hilastērion and the Latin propitiatorium. “Propitiatory” best conveys the concept intended, that is, that of making propitiation for sin; hence the place where God was rendered favorable to his people. The cherubim of pure gold were soldered to the propitiatory, making them “of one piece” with it (Exod. 25:19). They represented angelic ministers of the Lord who guarded the divine throne from all pollution. The ark was carried by poles through four golden rings at the sides of the ark. The ark was lost in the battle of Aphek (1 Sam. 4) but was later returned to Israel and eventually taken to Jerusalem. The second, or restoration, temple of Zerubbabel contained no ark with its propitiatory according to the apocryphal book of Baruch (cf. Bar. 1:6–7).

Construction and Consecration of the Tabernacle

The account of the construction and consecration of the tabernacle is in Exodus 25–29. Moses was instructed to erect the tabernacle on the first day of the first month in the second year of the Exodus, nine months after reaching Mount Sinai (Exod. 19:1). God revealed the pattern for his dwelling place (Exod. 25:8; 29:45). The many workmen were led by men of artistic skill who were empowered and illuminated by the Spirit of God: Bezalel the son of Uri and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach (Exod. 31:1–6). When the structure was completed and the furniture installed, the cloud symbolizing the presence of God filled the area. The cloud henceforth signaled to Israel when they were to camp and when to journey. When Israel was encamped, the tabernacle was at the center of the camp with Levites on three sides and Moses and Aaron and his sons on the fourth (east) side: Judah at the center of the east side; Ephraim at the center of the west side; Reuben on the south side. The number of Levites who ministered at the tabernacle was 8,580 (Num. 4:48). The tabernacle manifested what has been termed a “graduated holiness and perfection,” that is, the metal in the Most Holy Place was solid gold; in the Holy Place, ordinary gold; in the court, bronze. The people were allowed in the court, the priests in the Holy Place, and only the high priest in the Most Holy Place (only one day a year). Only the altar is mentioned for consecration (Exod. 29:36–37), but later all the furniture of the sanctuary was included (Exod. 30–31).

The Tabernacle in the New Testament

John, in his prologue (John 1:14), makes much of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ as the tabernacling among men. The testimony of Stephen (Acts 7:44) is unmistakable. Paul directly equates the cross of Calvary as God’s mercy seat, or propitiatory, in finalizing the redemption of sinful man (Rom. 3:25). In speaking of regeneration (Titus 3:5) he had in mind the laver. The proper interpretation of Colossians 1:19 and 2:9 relates to the dwelling presence of God in the tabernacle of old. The Epistle to the Hebrews is inexplicable without the teaching of the worship of Israel and its priesthood residing in the tabernacle. Passages such as Revelation 8:3–4; 13:6; 15:5; and 21:3 are too clear to need comment.

Two extremes are discernible in discussions of the symbolism of the tabernacle. Some make little or nothing of the symbolism of the sanctuary, despite what has been shown of the New Testament references to that structure. On the other hand, some seek to draw some spiritual truth from every thread and piece of wood. Those somewhere in the middle do not deny symbolism in the colors, where white, blue, and scarlet predominate with their connotations of purity, heavenly character, and shedding of blood. Because some of the early church fathers imagined fanciful interpretations for the appointments of the tabernacle does not make it valid to posit that any figurative interpretations lack a solid basis in the Old Testament. Hebrews gives, at length, the Christian interpretation of the symbolism of the Mosaic tabernacle. The furniture symbolizes man’s access to God. The tabernacle is patterned after a heavenly model (Heb. 8:5); there is a divine prototype (Heb. 8:2, 5; 9:11); it conveyed important spiritual truths in the first century a.d. (Heb. 9:9). Christ appeared and then entered after death into the heavens (Heb. 9:24).

The truth of the tabernacle is inseparably bound up with the fact of the Incarnation (Col. 1:19; 2:9). In fact, the tabernacle may rightly be considered, with its emphasis on the fact of God’s dwelling with man, as the main foreshadowing in the Old Testament of the doctrine of the Incarnation. The tabernacle, rather than the later temples, is the basis of New Testament teaching. Hebrews (Heb. 9–10) refers not to any temple, but to the tabernacle. The tabernacle is the symbol of God’s dwelling with his people (Exod. 25:8; 1 Kings 8:27). This concept progressed until it was fulfilled in the incarnation of God the Son (John 1:14). He is in the church (2 Cor. 6:16), in the individual believer (1 Cor. 6:19), and in the eternal state (Rev. 21:3). In Hebrews the central passages on the New Testament tabernacle represent the earthly and heavenly aspects of Christ’s activity. The Old Testament was the shadow of which Christ is the substance (Heb. 8:5; 10:1). The tabernacle of Christ’s ministry was pitched by the Lord, not by man (Heb. 8:2). He is the high priest of the more perfect tabernacle (Heb. 9:11). He is not in an earthly tabernacle, but appears now before “God for us” (Heb. 9:24). The writer of Hebrews draws his imagery from the ceremonies of the tabernacle and clothes his concepts in the priestly and sacrificial terminology of the sanctuary in the wilderness.

Paul refers to “the washing of regeneration” (Titus 3:5) and to Christ offering himself as a sacrifice to God (Eph. 5:2). The first three Gospels underscore the rending of the temple veil (Matt. 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45) which the author of Hebrews indicates opened the way into the Holy of Holies (Heb. 9:8; 10:19–20).

The Significance of the Tabernacle

The tabernacle, with its priests and their ministry, was foundational to the religious life of Israel. The basic concept was that which underlay the theocracy itself: the Lord dwelling in visible glory in his sanctuary among his people (Exod. 25:8). Even if the tabernacle had no historical validity, which it assuredly had, it still may have value for the readers because of its embodiment of important religious and spiritual concepts. It reveals, first, the necessary conditions on which Israel could maintain fellowship in covenant relationship with the Lord. Second, it reveals the dominant truth of the presence of God in the midst of his people (Exod. 29:25), a dwelling that must conform in every detail with his divine character, that is, his unity and holiness. One God requires one sanctuary; the holy God demands a holy people (Lev. 19:2). Third, it reveals the perfection and harmony of the Lord’s character, seen in the aesthetics of the tabernacle’s architecture: the gradations in metals and materials; the degrees of sanctity exhibited in the court, the Holy Place, and the Most Holy Place; and the measurements of the tabernacle, for example, three, four, seven, and ten, with their fractions and multiples dominating and pervading every detail of furniture and material.

The tabernacle was the first sanctuary reared for the Lord at his command and was rendered glorious and effective by his actual indwelling. The dwelling of God with humanity is the dominant theme of the symphony of the tabernacle, pointing to the future, eternal communion with God. The ark of the covenant, with the propitiatory, was the symbol of God’s meeting with his people on the basis of atonement (Rom. 3:25). The shewbread spoke of God’s sustenance of spiritual life; the lampstand represented Israel as God’s channel of light (Zech. 4); the incense was a symbol of prayer (Rev. 5:8; 8:3–4). The tabernacle was the authorized place of worship. It was the foundation of the theocracy. The mercy seat was the earthly seat of God’s glory where he met with his people for his glory and their blessing. The tabernacle foreshadowed the time when God’s kingdom would be fully realized and established on earth. Note the progress in the self-revelation of God to his people: first, his presence in the tabernacle; second, the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ; third, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in believers; and fourth, the descent of the New Jerusalem to the glorified earth.

Holy Places, Holy People in Biblical Worship

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Although holiness belongs to God, it may be imparted to objects, or even to people, which become the bearers of the holy.

The Holy Place

The men and women who first received the biblical revelation were acutely conscious of the ways ordinary things could take on an extraordinary, numinous quality as bearers of the sacred. The concept of the sanctuary, or holy place, comes readily to mind. The Old Testament records many occasions when the fathers of Israel worshiped at holy places. Some of these places were already sacred sites for the Canaanites, but they became Israelite sanctuaries as the result of a theophany of Yahweh God. When he appeared to one of the fathers to give or reaffirm the promise of the land, the patriarch would mark the site by erecting some holy object such as an altar or a memorial stone.

Altars. At Shechem Abraham “built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him” (Gen. 12:7). This location continued to be a holy place where Joshua later led the people in the renewal of the covenant with the Lord, erecting a stone as a memorial to this event (Josh. 24:1–8). Thus, the Israelite sanctuary was “a token of the covenant and a guarantee of its blessing” (Johannes Pedersen, Israel: Its Life and Culture, 2nd ed. [1959], Vols. III–IV, p. 214). A classic expression of the significance of the holy place occurs in the account of Jacob’s dream at Bethel, in which he sees a ladder reaching to heaven on which messengers of God are descending and ascending; the Lord appears and pronounces his promise of blessing, land, and descendants. Awakening, Jacob exclaims, trembling, “Surely the Lord is in this place.… This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:16–17). Before leaving, Jacob sets up a sacred pillar, the stone on which he had been sleeping, and anoints it as a bearer of the holy, “God’s house” (Gen. 28:10–22). The sanctuary is a place where earth and heaven meet, where “angels ascend and descend”; for this reason, ancient temples were usually erected on hills or, in flat country, on artificial elevations. Ascending Zion in pilgrimage, the later Israelite worshiper cries, “I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven” (Ps. 123:1). The sanctuary is a place bearing a numinous aspect where the divine can break through into the ordinary, where man can sense the presence of the holy and communicate with him.

Mount Sinai. The archetype of the holy place in the biblical narrative is the desert sanctuary of Sinai. Here, the Lord appeared to his people in full and fearful theophany, in a presence of such intensity that only the specially consecrated could approach the mountain. After the Lord had set forth the stipulations of the Book of the Covenant (Exod. 20–23), Moses and the priests and elders of Israel went up the mountain to meet with Yahweh and to eat the covenant meal; there, in a further manifestation of the numinous, they “saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself” (Exod. 24:10).

Ark and Tabernacle. These numinous aspects of the Sinai sanctuary were transferred to the ark of the covenant, where Yahweh was “enthroned between the cherubim” (Pss. 80:1; 99:1), and to the tent of meeting, as the place where Moses “entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him” (Exod. 34:34). Not only the sanctuary structure with its altar, but all its furnishings and utensils, as well as the offerings presented there, were consecrated as “holy,” set apart for the exclusive use and service of the Lord.

The Temple on Zion. Before Israel’s entrance into Canaan, Moses spoke of “the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling” (Deut. 12:5). This unnamed place turned out to be Jerusalem and Mount Zion, which David captured as a center for Israel’s worship (2 Sam. 5:7). Zion had long been a Jebusite holy place, the “Salem” where Abraham had paid a tithe to Melchizedek, the king and “priest of God Most High” or ’El ‘elyon (Gen. 14:18–20). But when David transferred the ark to Zion and when Solomon’s temple assumed the role of the tabernacle, the sanctuary on Zion became, in effect, a continuation of Sinai, where the Lord “appeared” in theophanic majesty in the worship of Israel. Several of the psalms celebrate the numinous appearance of the Lord in his temple or in Zion with imagery that reminds us of the giving of the covenant on Mount Sinai (Ps. 50:1–6). Exactly how the Lord “appeared” in the worship of the temple is not clear, but there are indications in the Psalms that the liturgical recitation of the covenant Law, associated with a procession of the ark of the covenant, was a high moment when worshipers might experience the Lord’s presence in an especially compelling way.

“Holiness adorns your house,” sang the Israelite worshiper (Ps. 93:5). Israel’s theologians understood, of course, that the sanctuary was inadequate as a bearer of the sacred. “But will God really dwell on earth?” asked Solomon. “The heavens, even the highest heaven cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27; cf. Isa. 66:1). In the New Testament we meet with the concept of the heavenly sanctuary, of which the earthly one is but a copy (Heb. 8–9; cf. 2 Cor. 5:1; Rev. 11:19). No human edifice can convey the fullness of the presence of the holy. As Jesus explained to the Samaritan woman, the deepest and most authentic worship of the Father could occur “neither on this mountain [Gerizim] nor in Jerusalem” (John 4:21). Although Christ spoke of Jerusalem as “the city of the Great King” (Matt. 5:35), he foretold the impending desecration and violent destruction of its sanctuary (Matt. 24:2), a judgment on a religious establishment that had violated the Lord’s covenant.

Jesus and the Holy Place. Nevertheless, Jesus understood and accepted the concept of the holy place in its deepest sense. He questioned the focus of the Pharisees, who swore by the gold of the temple or by the offering on the altar—in other words, by the products and symbols of man’s religious commitment. To the contrary, said Jesus, it is the temple that sanctifies the gold and the altar that sanctifies the offering (Matt. 23:16–19). Jesus’ language, incomprehensible as it may seem to us, was not incomprehensible to the early church, which continued to respect those places where God had manifested his presence in a numinous experience. Thus Peter speaks of that time when the apostles were with Christ “on the holy mountain,” by which he meant not Sinai or Zion but the Mount of Transfiguration (2 Pet. 1:16–18). The proliferation of holy shrines in the Orthodox and Catholic traditions, however fanciful it may seem in Protestant perspective, is a witness to the persistence of this biblical concept.

The Numinous Aspect of the Church

When we appreciate the importance of the sanctuary in biblical worship, we can understand why the New Testament authors draw upon the imagery of Jerusalem and its temple to convey the significance of the church. Addressing Christian believers as a body, the apostle Paul asks, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple” (1 Cor. 3:16–17). Again he declares, “we are the temple of the living God” (2 Cor. 6:16). (In both these passages he uses the plural form, speaking not to individuals but to the church collectively.) As a temple, the church of Jesus Christ is “a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Eph. 2:22). These are not simply moralistic expressions; they point to a reality that transcends the idea of the church as a mere human association.

John the Revelator most fully develops the picture of the church as “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2). As the bride of the Lamb, the new sanctuary displaces the harlot “Babylon,” the old temple, and its religious establishment. The appearance of the new holy place brings a renewal of the covenant, in the declaration that “the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people” (Rev. 21:3), words that echo the covenant formula of the Israelite prophets. The sanctuary is a picture of the covenant God living among his own, enthroned on the praises of his people (Ps. 22:3). As John takes the concept further, we are brought face to face with the numinous brilliance of the Holy City (Rev. 21:10–11), “for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp” (Rev. 21:23). So overwhelmed is John by the vision that his description strains at the limitations of language. The Holy City is a temple yet not a temple: “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Rev. 21:22). There is a numinous, awesome aspect to the church as a bearer of the holy, a vehicle through which we may encounter the fearful presence of the King of kings.

Holy People

The mortal who would trespass into the territory of the sacred runs the risk of wrathful outburst and sudden destruction. It is paradoxical, then, that human beings can serve as bearers of the holy, vehicles through whom the numinous makes its presence felt. Study of the history of religions brings to light many instances of “holy” men and women, people whose presence is “larger than life,” awesome, commanding, not to be trifled with. In such personages, the worshiper senses the workings of the divine. Biblical faith, too, is familiar with the concept of people as bearers of the holy.

Priests. The Pentateuch takes pains to spell out the procedures of vesture, sacrifice, anointing, and life-style by which a priest may become and remain consecrated, in order to enter the Lord’s presence (Exod. 28–29; Lev. 8; 21). Through his consecration, some of the holiness of the Lord is imparted to the priest, enough to “inoculate” him against an outbreak of the wrath of the numinous. A special aura of holiness rested upon the high priest. He alone could enter the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary containing the ark of the covenant, on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16). A person accused of manslaughter was protected from the avenger of the deceased, provided he remained in a city of refuge until the death of the high priest then in office (Num. 35:25–28).

Prophets. The Scripture often calls the prophet a “man of God”; the term is applied to Moses (Deut. 33:1), Samuel (1 Sam. 9:6), Shemaiah (1 Kings 12:22), Elijah (1 Kings 17:18), Elisha (2 Kings 4:40), David (2 Chron. 8:14), and to a number of unnamed prophets or messengers of the Lord (Judg. 13:6; 1 Sam. 2:27; 1 Kings 13:1). In these instances the term man of God (or woman of God) does not mean a righteous person but one of special endowment, a bearer of the numinous, even one to be feared. The people’s reaction to Moses when he returned to them after speaking with the Lord was one of great fear because “his face was radiant” (Exod. 34:29); as a result, he had to wear a veil whenever he came out from before Yahweh. The biblical narrative ascribes miracles to prophets such as Elijah and Isaiah as the distinguishing mark of the “man of God” (1 Kings 17:24). Especially noteworthy is the numinous aura associated with the person of Elisha; he raises the dead son of the Shunammite woman by lying upon him, body member to member (2 Kings 4:32–37), and even after his death a corpse, thrown hastily into his grave, returns to life upon contact with Elisha’s bones (2 Kings 13:20–21). The earlier prophets seem to have been distinguished by special appearance, having a tonsured head in a manner similar to later Christian monks (1 Kings 20:35–42; 2 Kings 2:23). A man or woman of God can make mistakes, disobey the Lord, and pay the penalty but still be known as a man or woman of God (1 Kings 13:26; 2 Kings 23:17). Samson was consecrated to God by the Nazirite vow (Judg. 13:7) and was moved by the Spirit of the Lord (Judg. 13:25); even when he turned away from the Lord, he remained an awesome man, capable of exploits larger than life.

The Apostles. Although the New Testament uses the expression “man of God” more in the sense of a godly person equipped for the service of the Lord (1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 3:16–17), it also portrays the apostles, like the prophets, as bearers of the numinous. People laid their sick friends in the street in the hope that Peter’s shadow might fall on them (Acts 5:15); it was enough for Peter to confront Ananias and Sapphira with their duplicity, and they fell dead at his feet (Acts 5:1–11). The people of Lystra acclaimed Paul and Barnabas as gods and were prepared to sacrifice to them (Acts 14:11–13). Handkerchiefs or aprons from Paul’s body were carried to the sick, and they were healed (Acts 19:11–12). In recording such incidents, Luke is not simply chronicling the ignorant superstition of ancient peoples. The awe-inspiring aspect of the apostles, despite their lack of formal education, is a recognizable quality in their lives, the result of the fact “that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

Jesus Christ. The powerful, wondrous impact of the holy is evident throughout the gospel portrait of Jesus Christ himself, from his birth to his resurrection and ascension, and requires no lengthy demonstration here. To those already mentioned, we would add only a few examples. As a woman, suffering from a persistent hemorrhage, touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, Jesus immediately sensed that “virtue,” or power (dunamis), had gone out from him (Mark 5:25–34). Led to the edge of a cliff at Nazareth by a mob angry at his indictment of their lack of response to the love of God, Jesus was able simply to pass through their midst and go on his way. When soldiers came asking for Jesus the Nazarene to arrest him, Jesus replied, “I am he,” and “they drew back and fell to the ground” (John 18:6). The first preachers of the Resurrection referred to the miracles of Jesus, familiar to their audience, as acts that attested him as specially endowed and set apart by God (Acts 2:22). In his own preaching, Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, a realm breaking into present time and space in supernatural manifestation. We can understand much about the principles and operation of the kingdom of God when we view it as another expression for God’s covenant with his people. As to its inner dynamic, however, the kingdom is a mystery. It cannot be completely comprehended in rational argument and detail; its principles of growth can only be hinted at through picture and comparison, its power suggested through miracle and sign. Above all, it is present in the person of Jesus himself, as the bearer of the holy.

Like the prophets before him and the apostles afterward, Jesus was opposed, vilified, and persecuted by those who could not, or would not, look beyond the external to the reality of the unseen. Yet the final vindication of Jesus’ identity as the incarnate revelation of the holy is that most awesome of all events, the Resurrection, which not only displays the workings of the Creator in the person of his Son, but releases in his worshipers some measure of that same quality of sacred and mysterious power. Thus, the New Testament frequently refers to the body of believers collectively as “the saints” or “the holy ones” (Greek hagios, equivalent to Hebrew qadosh). Scripture makes it clear that the entire covenant community is “a kingdom of priests” (Exod. 19:6), “a royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9), consecrated to approach the Presence in worship. The awesome encounter with the living God is not the preserve of a spiritual elite but the inheritance of all who call on him.

Conclusion

This survey has attempted to demonstrate that in biblical worship there is a numinous dimension of awe, dread, majesty, transcendence in the presence of the Holy One. The worship of God is not confined to the flatness of the rational, the sentimental, or the moral. The error of much of both orthodox and modernistic Christianity is that it has tried, by default or by design, to constrain worship within these limits. Religion has been reduced, in the words of the nineteenth-century theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher, to a “feeling of dependence,” or more crudely, to “morality tinged by emotion” (On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers [New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1958]). Or it has become a matter of words and statements, precise definitions, carefully crafted confessions. Or it has degenerated into a mere social ritual, an exercise in group identification. In such a domesticated form, it lacks the intensity, depth, mystery, and abandon of biblical worship and so fails to speak to the deepest instincts of the soul.

The Biblical Role of Imagination and Imaginal Intelligence

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Here now, it will be helpful to consider what imagination is as put forth in the Hebrew Scriptures.  The Hebrew term for imagination is either yatsar or yetser.  It is a term that is use, for example in the passages in Jeremiah related to the Potter’s trade (e.g. Jer. 18:3). 

Yatsar means to fashion in the mind before forming in time and space.  That is, to fashion in the mind also holds in its meaning the capacity to imagine, to invent, to form, to frame (in the mind’s eye); and the emphasis of the term is in on the ability to see something—that could be real and true—in the mind’s eye BEFORE it is actually formed in time and space.  Yet, though it is ‘seen’ in the mind before it is actually created, the assumption of the term is that the thing “fashioned in the mind” will actually at some point in time be formed in reality (e.g. Jer. 18:4, “But the pot he (the potter) was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it (first in his mind fashioned it a different way to be made—the began to form it again, after having thought of its new form) into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him” (author’s expanded explanations).

 Hebrew concept of imagination includes two dynamic applications: 1) with regard to the human capacity to invent or make something, imagination is ‘the capacity to see what could be but is not yet.’  An example of this human capacity is Jer. 18:4, “But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” And, 2) with regard to the human capacity to interact with transcendence, imagination is ’the capacity to see through what is known into the realities beyond what is known.

A profound example of this second dimension of imagination—facilitating interaction with transcendence—is the exercise of faith in Hebrews 11:1: “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”.  One who believes ‘faithfully’ in God looks on the revelation of God has given (culminated in God’s revelation of Jesus, God Incarnate); and though not knowing ‘all’ there is to know about God’s saving work, knowing enough of God’s work in Christ (Christ’s real and earthly life, death and Resurrection), to place one’s hope in all the realities of salvation one has in Christ, most of which “we do not see” (Heb 11:1b).  That kind of ‘faith’ is not blind faith’.  It is true faith; though much of what goes into that faith is beyond the capacity of the human to ‘completely’ grasp. 

Paul says the same thing in Romans 11:34: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” (NASU). 

Jesus implies this same “faith principle” when speaking to His disciples after His Resurrection, when He said in John 20:29, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Three Protestant Concerns with Imagination
In spite of the marvelous assets God gave to humans through imagination, Protestants historically manifest three concerns with the human capacity to imagine. One challenge is that this term can be used to underscore wrong or evil imaginations.  For example in Gen 8:21, “the imagination of man’s heart (is) evil,” or “I know there (evil or disobedient) imaginations even before I bring them into the land . . .” (Dt. 31:21).  So apparently, Protestants have often thought about this term with negative feelings, unfortunately.

A second challenge imagination seems to bring before Protestants is that in passages where this term is used positively the translators use other English renderings which do not pick up the attribute of imagination.  For example the King James Version translates in Isaiah 26:3 with the term mind, instead of the term imagination: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee . . .”  The term is actually imagination, not mind.  Note the thrust of the passage if the term mind were rendered more correctly, as imagination:  “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose imagination is stayed on thee . . .”  Clearly, when the verse uses imagination there is far more mystery in this prophetic affirmation.

Given the orientation Protestant theologians have concerning the mind, the characteristics of the imaginal capacity of human intellect are sometimes lost.  It seems that the Protestant community somehow takes a one-dimension view of that the human mind is only given to rational and information ideal.  Certainly a life of faith will often move on past what seems rational to the “average person.” And, even the thoughts and mental engagement involved in worship itself encompasses much more than rational exercise or information.

A third challenge is the tendency to think of God’s attribute (or perfection) of creativity in terms of His POWER, and disregard the aspect of His own imagination.  That is, God has the power to create (bara) all things from nothing.  But here Scripture is emphasizing his power to make all things.  This reality of His power is true, and the Hebrew term bara seems only to be used for God, suggesting that this bara-power is reserved only for God.  But, God’s power to create also includes God’s yatsar-power—the ability to imagine—which, in Scripture, is not solely reserved for God.  One sees this yatsar-power attributed to man as well (e.g. Is 26:3).  So, if man is made in His imagine, God has given this power to people.  Although Protestants seem to discount imagination, the God-given human capacity of imagination is perhaps one of the most important characteristics distinguishing people from lower animal life.

God is Transcendent.  He is powerful, mighty and beyond our understanding. But, he is also imminent.  God is also personal, loving and he chooses to live in the hearts of men and women. The very fact that He has superintended for us a method to see Him as or father, friend, companion, and comforter demonstrates His own ability to exercise imagination. And, He gives people the ability to imagine as they worship.  Why? This is because God is both the object and the subject of human worship. Worship demands that humans enter a proximity with God they can neither completely understand or control.  God allows imagination in worship so that we be engaged with the true God who is fully real and beyond all that could be imagined. 

God directed Old Testament Israel to use metaphor and symbols and ritual activities as human aids to direct their faith into the realities of Himself.  This God is beyond the metaphors and symbols.  Ultimately, as Christians look at these Old Testament metaphors and symbols (types), a clear picture of the role Christ played in redemption is seen. This is the principle that the writer infers to in the Hebrew epistle:

11 When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, . . .” (Hebrews 9:11-12).

In summary, one can see that in the Old Testament, and in the Hebrew world view in general, God engages humans through all three dynamics of human intelligence—the rational (information, first spoken, then written in propositional form), the imaginal (metaphors, symbols and multi-sense expressions), and the emotional (the heart,[1] the core or center of a person’s self).

Imagination, as revealed in the Bible, is two-fold: First, humans have a capacity to invent things. This is the capacity to see what could be but is not yet. 

Second, humans  have a capacity, through the working of the Holy Spirit, to interact with transcendence—including the ability to engage with God. This is the capacity to see through what is known into the realities beyond what is known.

Once the Biblical concept (and definition) of imagination is seen in context with the biblical definition of the artist as a craftsman, the connection between God’s plan for worship and man-kind’s ability for expression can be seen.   First, it affirms the way God has made human kind.  Second, moves Christians to reject the notion that the arts and artists are simply elitist and somehow disconnect-from-main-stream-culture. Third presses Christians to seek out and include artists, creativity and beauty as mainstays in the life and worship of the Church.

Throughout Scripture,[2] and certainly exemplified in this Exodus 35 passage, one sees that God has directed His people to be engaged in a holistic, multi-sensory assortment of imaginative and emotional expressions to engage Him in worship—a worship-way-of-life. Dr. Ronald Allen, professor of Old Testament and Hebrew Languages at Dallas Theological Seminary addresses this issue:

Many Christians who cherish the bible for its teaching about Christ and about the nature of salvation have yet to learn to experience the Bible itself . . .  We (must) learn how to develop the discipline of imagination from the Scripture in two ways. First, we must recognize the role of imagination in the very process of writing the bible.  Second, we must exercise our own imagination in developing the art of creatively reading the Scriptures.  . . .  Many evangelical bible readers . . . read the Bible for its content, but we rarely linger over its style..  We read for doctrine, but we miss its art.[3] God has created humans and human community to engage Him through the fullness of the mind:  the imaginal dynamic of intelligence, the emotional dynamic of intelligence, and the intellectual dynamic of the intelligence.  God designed man to enjoy all three dynamics in worship.

[1]  Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Word defines the Hebrew term, Lebab, rendered HEART in English, as follows: Lebab is often compounded with “soul” for emphasis, as in 2 Chron 15:12, which reads, “And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul” (cf. 2 Chron 15:15). Also see, “…man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” 1 Sam 16:7.  From Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright © 1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Electronic Database © 1996 by Biblesoft.

[2]  Other Scripture passages that reveal both, God interacting with believers, and directing believers to interact with Him, in multi-sensory ways are: The Three Visitors appear to Abraham, Gen 18:1-33; the ram in the bush and the voice of God for Abraham to substitute for Isaac, Gen 22: 1-14; Jacob wrestles with God, Gen 32: 22-32; Moses and the burning bush, Ex 3:1-22; Moses, Pharaoh and the ten plagues, Ex. 6-12; Moses and the Red Sea crossing, Ex. 13:17-14:31; God’s directions to build the Tabernacle Worship Center, Ex. 25-50; Joshua and the Jericho Battle, Josh 6:1-21; The Singers in Solomon’s Temple, 1 Chron. 25; Solomon, the Temple, and Huram-Abi, Solomon’s Temple Designer, 2 Chron. 2:13-5:1; Isaiah’s Vision, Is. 6:1-8; Ezekiel’s call, Ez. 1:2-29; King Belshazzar, Daniel and the Hand writing on the wall, Dan 5:1-30; Jesus’ Birth, Lk 1:26ff; Jesus’ baptism, Mt 3:13-17; Jesus’ Transfiguration, Mk 9:1-12; Paul’s conversion, Acts 9:1-19; John’s Revelation, Rev. 1:9-19; The New Heaven and Earth, Rev. 21-22.

[3]  Allen, Ronald Barclay. Imagination: God’s Gift of Wonder. Portland, OR: Multnomah Press, 1985, 9.

A Biblical Definition of Artist

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Exodus 35:30—36:2 is one of the most helpful summary passages in Scripture that reveals a description and role of the artistic specialist in the life of the believing community. 

This Old Testament passage highlights the role of the artistic expression specialist in the worship-life of the believing community. It also provides critical instructional details that are specifically applied to specialized servants of God that were “filled with the Holy Spirit” and given “the ability to teach others:” 

Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of skills [crafts]— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts [craftsmanship]. And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers [craftsmen], designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers — all of them skilled workers [master craftsmen] and designers. So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the LORD has commanded. Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work”  (Ex. 35:30—36:2).

The first area of expertise for the “artist” involves craftsmanship. The term craftsman seems the best biblical expression for what people today think of as an artist.  Certainly, there are numbers of different kinds of crafts, industries, and trades noted in the Scripture.  There are at least nineteen different artistic crafts[1] mentioned in the Bible. But craftsman seems to be one of those wide-ranging terms, a class term, that serves as an umbrella under which exist many more specific craft areas.  Craftsman is very similar to two other wide-ranging, umbrella class terms:  one being musician, where there certainly exist more specific kinds of musicians—for example, harp players, flute players, trumpet (shofar) players, and cymbal players—each having a technical name.  The other class term is singers.  The term craftsman means “someone unusually wise at imaginative design and expression.”

First, craftsman is someone unusually wise at imaginative design and expression.  This definition arises from the fact that the term craftsman comes from the Hebrew word family for “wisdom.” In the Old Testament one finds at least four words that label specialist creative types[2]—those today labeled as artists—and all those words are connected to the idea of wisdom. Interestingly, three of these four terms are found in Exodus 35:30—36:2.  The specialists observed in the Exodus 35 passage—Bezalel and Oholiab—are designated or characterized by three of these four main specialist terms recorded in the Bible.  Bezalel and Oholiab, God says, are “unusually wise” in all these areas we today call artistic expression.[3]

What is more, there are also five adjectives that describe these specialized creative types; all of them also springing out of the wisdom word family.  These adjectives are: skill, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and ability.[4] The Exodus 35 passage uses four of these fives adjectives in that passage itself.

There are at least two verbs in Scripture that describe specialized artistic activity:[5]: “to do workmanship of artistic design” (malacha), and “to celebrate in song and music” (zamyr). The Exodus 35 passages uses one of these two terms—the term, malacha.

In the minds of Hebrew speakers in 1500 BC, all of these terms possess the characteristics and attributes of what we would today label as “artists”—people who are especially endowed (possessing unusual wisdom) by God to imagine, and then make things.  They are the creative and imagination specialists.

Second, the craftsman is someone unusually wise at imaginative design and expression.  They are the imagination specialists of the human community.  Even so, these craftsmen are not the only ones who possess imagination. The biblical position on this issue is that every human possesses imagination—one of the most significant human capacities that clearly reveals that humans are a higher order of creation than animals—because humans are made in the image of God.[6]  Craftsmen have simply been designed by God with a larger capacity for imaginative ability, so that they can carry out the specific assignments God has given them in the human context (that assignment will be addressed further below).

Third, humans and human community are not simply intellectual.  According to God’s design, humans possess two other dynamics of human intelligence—imagination and emotions.  And then, so that those two realms (imagination and emotions) are dealt with well, God designed craftsmen, as the “imagination and emotion specialists.”  Apparently, God did this  so that people can touch, hold, and interact with the transcendent realities of God, and the rest of life.

So, with those things in mind, note three biblical truths God reveals about these uniquely capacitated artistic specialists. It is God who is the prime mover in all this.  And God did this for the sake of the worship vitality of His community of worshipers.

One, God specially equipped Bezalel “. . . with wisdom, with understanding, and with all kinds of skills—to make artistic designs for work in . . . all kinds of artistic crafts [craftsmanship] . . .  He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as [craftsmen]” (Ex 30:31-33, 35).  Here, the focus is not so much on the “craftsman” issue but on why they were creatively endowed and gifted for the design of worship environments; particularly for the Tabernacle. 

Bezalel was equipped as an artist, and called into a specialized assignment, all for the purpose of creating a worship environment.  God called him to oversee the design and making of the Tabernacle.  Bezalel was actually helping to lead the entire worshipping community into the actual worship transaction itself, by designing the environment in which the community would do their worship—the Tabernacle.

Two, God commanded the involvement of artistic specialists in creating the context (environment) for the believing community’s (Israel’s) worship.  Exodus 35:1, 10-11 states, “Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, ‘These are the things the LORD has commanded you to do:  . . .  All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the LORD has commanded: the tabernacle with its tent . . .”  God knows how He made humans and the human community to work.  They need more than just “information”—they must deal with objective truth. Therefore He designed, then directed, “human expression specialists” (what current culture labels “artists”) to lead the community into touching and interacting with Him, the Transcendent Living God!  And that interaction with Him requires more than just rational reasoning. Interaction with God is intercourse, not simply information. 

Interacting with God requires all of the faculties He gave to humans—rationality, imaginality, and emotionality.  He did this so that to enjoy relationship with the crown of His Creation—His people!  That interaction is a multi-dimensional mystery. So He created a specialized kind of person, the artist (the person unusually wise at imaginative expression) to creatively rearrange human metaphors, symbols and human signal systems in such a way that the whole of their creative rearrangement provides a kind of miracle. Those creative expressions allow for finite people to hold and interact with transcendent reality. 

Three, God directs the artistic specialist to lead the congregation into the activities of  worship.  God directs the “human expression specialists” (artists) to lead the believing community into the “experience” of worship, both by creating the environments where that worship happens and by leading them into those experiences. 

Here in this Exodus 35 passage, the craftsmen were leading the entire community into a worship way of life—by virtue of their work of forming the actually structure, equipment, and furniture of the Tabernacle, which then became the environment around which revolved the worship life of the community.  The Tabernacle was to be in the middle of the camp, symbolizing that God Himself was dwelling with them in the middle of the life of the community.  His presence would be visibly with them (e.g., see Ex. 40:36-38—the Tabernacle, the Ark, the Cloud by day and the Fire by night).  These “expressions” were far more than entertainment, far more than novelty, far more than just pretty things.  These expressions, and the activities the Israelis were later to “practice,” were environments in which their hearts would be shaped—through the Tabernacle worship practices—toward God.  Their Tabernacle-centered living comprised the spiritual disciplines (liturgies) that God used to train Israel and the rest of the world to understand Himself and the ways He requires (or desires) of all peoples to relate to Him.

Later, one sees the Levitical musicians and other specialists leading the congregation 1) in regular worship (Asaph and his associates before the Ark “. . . regularly, according to each day’s requirements . . .” 1 Chron 16:37ff), 2); in celebration (e.g. bring the Ark to Jerusalem, properly in line with God’s directives, 1 Ch 15:19ff); and, 3) in worship-related ministry assignments (e.g. the Battle of Jericho, Josh 6:3ff).

Artistic leadership was also necessary for instruction and admonition
Throughout the Prophetic Books of the Bible, one sees serious dramatic teaching, instructing, and admonishing.  This was done through media (vision), story, and parable and with a view to engaging both the content/information God wanted to be communicated and the relational interaction God expects from His believers. Consider this:
1. God’s communication to Pharaoh via Moses’ multi-media confrontations (e.g. Ex 7:10ff),
2. God’s pastoral counseling through David’s Psalms (e.g. the entire Book of Psalms),
3. God’s instructions on life and living through Solomon’s proverbs and epic poems (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, 
4. God’s warnings through the Laments of Ezekiel (e.g. Ez. 19) and the allegories of Ezekiel (Ez. 16),
5. God’s prophetic calls to Israel through Isaiah’s poetry (a majority of the entire Book of Isaiah),
6. God’s prophetic announcements through the dramas of Jeremiah (e.g. Jer. 13, 18, 19, 27),
7. God’s instruction to all Creation through the Incarnation for Messiah Jesus (The Gospels),
8. God’s instruction about Himself and His Kingdom through the parables of Jesus (e.g. Luke 14-18),
9. God’s Revelation of The End Times and the New Heaven and Earth through John’s Revelation (The Revelation of John).

The Exodus 35 passage revealing the work of the Craftsman—the artistic expression specialist, the imagination and emotions specialist—provides clear that God has designed this specialized Kingdom servant to serve His believing community. Other passages that give evident to the way artistic expression is woven into the fabric of the Scripture and life of God’s people include, but are not limited to: Exodus 31:1-11; Judges 5; 21 Kings. 10:12ff; 1 Chronicles. 9:33ff; 15; 2 Chronicles 5:7ff;  23:13ff; 29:28ff; 35:15ff; Ezra 2:40ff; 7:7; 10:24; Nehemiah 7, 10, 11, 12, 13; and Psalm 68:25; All of the Literary genre of the Old Testament Scriptures; The hymns inserted into the passages of Scripture—e.g. Romans. 11:33-36, Philippians 2:5-11; Ephesians 5:18-12; Colossians 3:16-17; and Revelation 4-5; The Seven Angels of the Revelation sounding their trumpets; the poetry inserted throughout the text of John’s Revelation; Rev. 15:2ff;.  Hallelujah.  Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

[1]  Nineteen (19) artistic crafts mentioned in the Bible: 1. Brick Making, 2. Carpentering (Wood-Working), 3. Carving (Engraving), 4. Ceramics, 5. Dyeing and Cleansing, 6. Embroidering (Needlework), 7. Glass-Making, 8. Grinding, 9. Mason Work, 10. Metal-Working (Mining), 11. Oil-Making, 12. Painting, 13. Paper-Making, 14. Perfume-Making, 15. Plastering, 16. Spinning and Weaving, 17. Tanning,
18. Tent-Making, and 19. Wine-Making.  (From  James A. Patch,International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE), Electronic Database Copyright © 1996; all these definitions were researched from ISBE in Biblesoft PC Study Bible 5.0, Electronic Database, Biblesoft, Inc; Copyright, 1996, 2003, 2006.)

[2]  Four (4) words that label specialist creative types—those we today label as “artists”:

  1. machashabah (makh-ash-aw-baw’)  4284; or machashebeth (makh-ash-eh’-beth);
     master craftsman. From Ex. 35:35.
  2. chashab (khaw-shab’) 2803; e.g. Ex 35:32 – here rendered to devise cunningly, to think up, to imagine
    craftsman . . . the root word of “Master Craftsman” – machashabah of Ex. 35:35.
  3. chakam (khaw-kawm’) 2450; skilled person . . . From Ex. 36:2.
  4. shiyr (sheer) 7891; or (the original form) shuwr (1 Sam. 18:6) (shoor); singer, musician a primitive root [identical with 7788 through the idea of strolling minstrels]; to sing: sing (-er, -ing man, -ing woman). From e.g. 1 Chr. 6:33 or Ps. 27:6.

From  James A. Patch, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Electronic Database Copyright © 1996.  All these definitions were researched from Biblesoft PC Study Bible 5.0 , Electronic Database, Biblesoft, Inc; Copyright, 1996, 2003, 2006.

[3]  It is true that Bezalel and Oholiab, technically, are not musicians or singers.  And it is true that technically this Exodus 35 passage does not deal with the specific artistic-expression area of music.  But once one understands the capacities of wisdom that these terms embrace, one easily makes the clear connection that all these kinds of people—craftsmen, musicians and singers—are all “unusually wise at imaginative design and expression.”

[4]  Five (5) adjectives that describe creative types as specialized expression specialists:

  1.  yatab (yaw-tab’) 3190; Skillful. From Ps. 33:3.
  2.  da` ath (dah’-ath) 1847; Knowledge. From Ex. 35:31.
  3.  tabuwnah (taw-boon’) 8394; and (feminine) tebuwnah (teb-oo-naw’); or towbunah (to-boo-naw’); Understanding in. From Ex. 35:31.  This term is from biyn 995.
  4. chokmah (khok-maw’) 2450 & 2451; Wisdom in. From Ex. 35:31.
  5.  melakah (mel-aw-kaw’) 4399; Ability, Workmanship, Artistic Ability. From Ex. 35:1 & 3.

(From James A. Patch, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Electronic Database © 1996 by Biblesoft; along with observations from Byron Spradlin.)

[5]  Two (2) verbs that describe specialized artistic activity:

a. mela’kah (mel-aw-kaw’)] 4399; to do workmanship of artistic design [NIV]). From Ex. 35:31.

b. zamiyr (zaw-meer’) 2158; or zamir (zaw-meer’); and (feminine) zemirah (zem-ee-raw’); from zamar (zaw-mar’) 2167; to celebrate in song and music: KJV– give praise, sing forth praises, psalms; -psalm (-ist), singing, song; a primitive root [perhaps identical. with 2168 through the idea of striking with the fingers]; properly, to touch the strings or parts of a musical instrument, i.e. play upon it; to make music, accompanied by the voice. 

(From James A. Patch, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Electronic Database © 1996 by Biblesoft.)

[6]  Dr. Dallas Willard and Dr. James Le Fanu both write about this very issue.  Dr. Willard writes about the human’s unique “thinking process” as follows:  “Thought brings things before our minds in various ways (including perception and imagination) and enables our will (or spirit) to range far beyond the immediate boundaries of our environment and the perceptions of our senses.  Through (thought) our consciousness reaches into the depths of the universe, past, present, and future, by reasoning and scientific thinking, by imagination and art—and also by divine revelation which comes to us mainly in the form of thought.”  (See Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ (Colorado Springs, Colo: NavPress, 2002), 32.) 

Medical doctor, author, and science columnist for the London Daily Telegraph, the Christian Dr. James Le Fanu writes about the unique human capacity of imagination as follows: “The self, the ‘inner person’ . . . is composed of several distinct attributes which define (the person). . . . The fourth component is the ‘higher’ attributes of the mind, those powers of reason and imagination that through the power of language transcend the boundaries of personal experience to commune with the minds o  others and make sense of the world we inhabit.  These several distinct attributes are in turn closely interdependent—so, my subjective impressions of those trees outside my window are influenced by my memories and emotional feelings about trees in general, and so on.”  (See James Le Fanu, Why Us?: How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves (New York: Vintage Books, 2010), 150.)