TABERNACLE
133
TABERNACLE
Comer Bnnrd of the Tab- enincle ( accordiug to Riggeubach).
be, since they are at opposite corners, tlie expression may mean tliat each corner plank of itself makes twins, which it would tlo if it had two legs containing the angle betv/een them. If the corner plank be two-legged, it adds necessa- rily something to the length, and thus destroys the meas-- urement. One explanation is therefore to regard the end of the corner plank, e, as twin, i. e. corresponding to the side plank a. Further, each corner plank must be "entire (~^"iri, iammim) at or on its head" (A. V., with many others, considers iammim the same as toamim}. Now if the " head'" be not the top of the plank, but the edge or point of the corner,_/J then the statement implies that the corner plank of the end wall, though prolonging the side wall outside, must not be cut away or slojied, for example, in the fashion indicated by the dotted lines c d. Once more, the words are added " unto one ring," accurately '• mi to the lirst ring." Keil (Comment, ad loc.) understands that "the two corner boards at the back were to consist of two pieces joined together at a right angle, so as to form, as double boards, one single whole from the top to the bottom." and that " one ring was placed half-way lip the upright board in the corner or angle, in such a manner that the central bolt, which stretched along the entire length of the walls, might fasten into it from both the side and back." Murphy {Comment, ad loc.)
suggests a form which we rep- resent by the annexed figure. But Paine's ar- rangement, as in the cut below, seems to us to meet all the re- quirements of the case in the simplest and most etiectual manner. The ring and staples
Corner Board (according to Murphy).
at the top and bottom of the corner planks formed a hhuje. so that the adjoining planks were twinned, or car- ried together as one. That the end planks went in be- tween the last side planks (as neatness and usage in sncli structures dictated), making the interior width of the tabernacle the full twelve cu- bits, is probable from the length of the roof-curtains presently de- scribed, it they were longitudinal- ly arranged.
The walls or planks, in addition to the stability they may have de- rived from the sockets at tlio bot- tom (and perhaps the clasps at the top), were bound together by five bars or bolts, thrust into rings at- tached to each plank. These bars, in all probabilit3',ran along the out- side, though that is not intimated, and Ewald thinks otherwise. One bar is said to have gone in the mid- dle (Tlir'S) : this is usually taken to mean half-way up the plank, and with two bars on each side of it, above and below ; but some inter- pret " through the heart of the boards" (Kiggenbach), and others understand it of the rear bar alone. Thus there seem to have been three
Top and Bottom Parts of Corner -boards (according Paiue).
to
rows of bars, the top and bottom one on each of the sides being in two pitces. Josephus's account is some- what different: "Every one," he says (.4 w^ iii, 6, 3), " of the pillars or boards had a ring of gold affixed to its front outwards, into which were inserted bars gilt with gold, each of them five cubits long, and these bound together the boards ; the head of one bar run- ning into another after the manner of one tenon insert- ed into another. But for the wall behind there was only one bar that went through all the boards, into which one of the ends of the bars on both sides was in- serted." The whole edifice was doubtless further stayed by ropes attached to tent-pins in the ground from knobs on the outside of the planks. (See below.)
3. Drapery of the Tabernacle. — The wooden structure was completed as well as adorned b}' four kinds of hangings, each of which served a useful and even need- ful purpose.
(1.) The Roof. — The first question that arises here is whether the roof was flat, like that of Oriental houses, or peaked and slanting, as in Occidental buildings. The
General View of the Wooden Walls of the Tabernacle. (From Paine.)
TABERNACLE
134
TABERXACLE
The Tabernacle as resuned by Fergus-sou.
old representations, such as Calmet's, take the former order to be water-tight (especially since they ran paral- view; but to this it may be forcibly objected that it lei with the ridge and eaves) as well as smooth, would would in that case be impossible to stretch the roof- best be formed liy overlapping the edges, in shingle style, covering sufficiently tight to |)rcvent the rain and snow 1 The sixth "curtain," or extra single piece, was to be from collecting in the middle, and eitlier crushing the I "doubled in the fore-front of the tabernacle" (xxvi, 9, whole by its weight or Hooding the apartments. Hence ^nxn ''33 b^l-C-bs FISSZI), which interpreters gen- most later writers assume a peaked roof, although there ^^'l,^; ,,;;^ understoocVaV meant to close the gat.le.
is no mention of a ridge-pole, nor of supports to it; but the name " tent" given to the upper part of the editice is itself conclusive of this form, and then these accesso- ries would necessarily follow.