622
SHELAH
SIDON
(b) 1 P 414 ' the (Spirit) of glory and the Spirit of God ' (xi ri,; do^y,f xou TO rov biou crnvf,i.x). Here 'glory' may = Shekinah, which is identified with Christ. This identification may be seen more clearly, perhaps, in (c) Ja 2i r->,v ^ia-rit toXi xupiou Yifj.Siv 'I'/ia-ou 'S.fiiirTotJ r/fi S<^|-/;s, which not improbably = ' the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Shekinah ' (Mayor). For further doubtful reif. in the NT, see below.
There can be no doubt that the word ffKrjvrj, ' tabernacle ' (and its verb <tk7]vovv, ' to tabernacle '), has been chosen for use in Jn 1" and Rev 2P from its likeness both in sound and meaning to the word Shekinah, and conveys a direct allusion to the latter. The Revelation passage runs : ' Behold the tabernacle {aKtjvq) of God is with men, and he will tabernacle (cr/cTji/axret) with them.' In Jn V^ 'The Word (Logos) . . . tabernacled (eaKrivwa-ev) among us, and we beheld his glory,' etc., all the three Hebrew terms, Menira (N-i?'p = 6 \6-fos), Shekinah, and Yekara (5d|a = »<-ii:;) are represented. 'All the three entities became incarnate in Jesus.'*
The identification of Jesus with the Shekinah has already been referred to above in connexion with 1 P 41-* and Ja 2i. Another example where the same idea may be implicit is Mt 1820 ' Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them ' ; compare with this Pirke Ahoth iii. 5: 'Two that sit together and are occupied with words of Torah, have the Shekinah among them." Cf. also 2 Co 46 ' God that said. Out of darkness light shall shine, is he who shone in our hearts for the illumination of the know- ledge of the glory of God in the. face of Jesus Christ.' The last phrase may = the glory of God made manifest in the presence of Jesus Christ, i.e. Jesus is the Shekinah of God. Shekinah in these connexions is practically = Innnanuel (' God with us ').
Other passages worth examination in this connexion are Eph 117 (the remarkable phrase 'the Father of the glory' [0 zTa,Tr,p TYii So'|-,i?j =?' the father of the Shekinah (incarnate in Jesus) '), Lk 232 (' the glory of thy people Israel '). Cf. also 1 Co 2** (Jesus ' Lord of glory '). The representation of man as a temple in which God dwells (cf. 2 Co 6I6 ' we are a temple of the living God,' Jn 1423 ' we will come . . . and make our abode with him ') was probably suggested by the Shekinah-idea, which may also have influenced the language applied to Christ in Col 29 (' for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ').
In the identification of the Shekinah and cognate conceptions with the incarnate Christ, 'a use is made of these ideas.' as Dalman says, ' which is at variance with their primary applica- tion.' It marks a specifically Christian development, though the way had certainly been prepared by hypostatizing tendencies.
Literature. — Weber, Jiid. Theol.'^ esp. pp. 185-190 ; Gfrorer, Das Jahrhundert des Heils, i. esp. p. 301 ff. ; Langen, Juden- thum zur Zeit Christi, 201 ff. ; art. ' Shekinah ' in Hastings' DB and in JE ; the Lexicons, s.v. nyjSf (Buxtorf, Levy, Jastrow, Kohut); Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers^, p. 43; the Comm. on Ep. of St. James by Mayor and Knowling (on Ja 21).
G. H. Box. SHELAH.— A Judahite ancestor of our Lord (Lk
3^5).
SHEM. — The patriarch, mentioned as a link in our Lord's genealogy (Lk 3^^).
SHEWBREAD, 'bread of the face or presence' (Ichem pdnim), was placed on a special table in the Holy Place, in the presence of God. This was a very ancient custom in Israel, and is found also among other Semitic peoples. The bread was originally designed for the god to eat, but, of course, this early notion did not persist ; the bread, how- ever, was still held to imply the presence of God, and His acceptance of the Avorship rendered to Him.
Shewbread is mentioned in the Gospels on only one occasion, Mt 12* 1| Mk 2^6 and Lk 6*. Jesiis and His disciples, passing through the cultivated fields on the Sabbath, were plucking the ears of grain, rubbing out the kernels, and eating them. They were challenged by the Pharisees for doing what was unlawful on the Sabbath. The plucking of grain without instrument, while walking through another's field, was expressly permitted by the Jewish law, but the manual labour involved was interpreted as harvesting and threshing, which
* Dalman, Words of Jesus, p. 231. To these should be added the great passage in He 1**, where the Son is said to be the 'effulgence of the glory,' i.e. of the Shekinah-glory as 'the manifested Deity.'
were forbidden on the Sabbath. Jesus replied to the Pharisees by citing two illustrations (according to Mt. ), one of which was an act of David as recorded in 1 S 2P"®. In David's flight from Saul he had come to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. He was hungry, and asked for food for himself and his men. There Avas no bread at hand except the sheAvbread, Avhich, after lying on the table for the Aveek, had been replaced by fresh bread. The bread is described as 'holy.' There is no hint in the passage that David did an unlaAvful thing in eating the bread. He did not do it Avithout due deliberation, for the question of the legality Avas expressly raised by the priest. Before giving the men the bread, he asked if they Avere 'clean.' This Avas his one concern, and, being satisfied on this point, he readily gave it to them. If it had been unlawful for any to eat except the priests, that surely Avould have been stated, and the ' cleanness ' Avould have been of no moment. In case the parley is considered, as it may be, to have been the effort of later tradition to clear the king from the charge of irregularity in the matter, the state of the case is not altered. The passage seems to shoAV that no laAV Avas knoAvingly broken in the transaction.