merely named among the other appurtenances of the first sanctuary. But although unexplained, it is re- ferred to as one of the leading and most solemn ap- pointments of the sanctuary. For exam|)le, the appeal of Abijam to the revolted tribes (2 Chron. xiii, 10, 11) runs thus, " But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken him ; and the priests, which minister unto the Lord, are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business; and they burn unto the Lord every morning and every evening burnt-sacritices and sweet incense ; the showbread also set they in order upon the pure table," etc. In this absence of explana- tion of that which is yet regarded as so solemn, we have but to seek whether the names bestowed on, and the rites connected with, the showbread will lead us to some apprehension of its meaning.
The lirst name we find given it is obvioush' the dominant one, 0^33 Dn?, " breail of the face, or faces." This is explained by some of the rabbins, even by Mai- monides, as referring to the four sides of each loaf. It is difficult to believe that the title was given on a groimd which in no way distinguished them from oth- er loaves. Besides, it is applied in Numb, iv, 7, simply to the table, CJEH "(nS'J, not, as in the English ver- sion, " the table of showbread," but the " show table," the " table of the face, or faces." We have used the wordsyj/ce &r\A faces ; for D"^33, it need scarcely be said, exists only in the plural, and is therefore applied equal- ly to the face of one person and of many. In connec- tion with this meaning, it continually bears the sec- ondary one q{ presence. It would be superfiuous to cite any of the countless passages in which it does so. But whose face or presence is denoted? That of the peo- ple? The rite of the showbread, according to some, was performed in acknowledgment of God's being the giver of all our bread and sustenance, and the loaves lay always on the table as a memorial and monitor of this. But against this, besides other reasons, there is the powerful objection that the showbread was unseen by the people ; it lay in the sanctuary, and was eaten there by the priests alone. Thus the first condition of symbolic instruction was wanting to the rite, had this been its meaning.
The n''35, therefore, or presence, is that not of the people, but of God. Tlie dproi eviottioi and the dp- Toi rTjC npocKpopaQ of the Sept. seem to indicate as much, to say nothing of 1 Sam. xxi, 6, where the words mn-' -^isbo n-noi^n U^'jfn "h seem deci- sive of the whole question. But in what sense? Spen- cer and others consider it bread offered to (iod, as was the Minchah, a symbolical meal for God somewhat an- swering to a heathen Lectisteridiim. But it is not easy to find this meaning in the recorded appointments. The incense is, no doubt, to be burned on the appointed altar, but the bread, on the Sabbath following that of its pres- entation, is to be eaten in the holy place by the priests. There remains, then, the view which has been brought out with such singular force and beauty by Biihr — a view liroad and clear in itself, and not disturbed by those fanciful theories of numbers which tend to abate confidence in some parts of his admirable Symbolik. He remarks, and justly, that the phrase n^3D is applied solely to the table and the bread, not to the other fur- niture of the sanctuary, the altar of incense, or the gold- en candlestick. There is something, therefore, peculiar to the former which is denoted by the title. Taking D^3En as e(iuivalent to the. presence {of God subaud.), he views the application of it to the table and the bread as analogous to its application to the angel, CIS "jxb"a (Isa. Ixiii, 9, compared with Exod. xxxiii, 14, 15; Dcut. iv, 37). Of the angel of (iod's presence it is said that God's "name is in him" (Exod. xxiii, 20). The pres- ence and the name may therefore be taken as equiya»
SHOWER
■12
SHRIYING-HAND
lent. li<itli, in reference to their context, indicate the I inanitestation of (itul to his creatures. ''The name of 1 Goil." lie remarks, "is himself, but that, in so far as he : reveals himself, the face is that wherein the beintj of a { man proclaims itself, and makes known its individual l)ersonality. Hence, as name stands for he or himself, so face for person : to see the face, for to see the per- son. The 'bread of the face' is, therefore, that bread throufrh which God is seen; that is, with the participa- tion of which the seeiufi; of(ii)ti is bound up, or throui^h the participation of which man attains tlie sight of (iod. Hence it follows that we have not to think of bread merely as such, as the means of nourishing the bodily life, but as spiritual food, as a means of appro- (iriating and retaining that life which consists in see- ing the face of God. Bread is therefore here a symbol, juid stands, as it generally does in all languages, both for life and life's nourishment; but by being entitled the bread of the face, it becomes a symbol of a life higher than the physical. It is, since it lies on tlie table placed in the symbolic heaven, heavenly bread. They who eat of it and satisfy themselves with it see the face of God" (Biihr, Symbolik, bk. i, ch. vi, § 2). It is to be remembered that the showbread was " taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant" (Lev. xxiv, 8), and may therefore be well expected to Ijear the most solemn meaning. Biihr i)roceeds to show very beautifully the connection in Scripture between seeing God and being nourished by God, and points, as the coping-stone of his argument, to Christ being at <mce the perfect image of God and the bread of life. The references to a table prepared for the righteous man, such as Psa. xxiii, 5; Luke xxii, 30, should also be considered. See Bkead.