2. The structure of the tabernacle was obviously de- termined by a complex and profound symbolism, but its meaning remains one of the things at which we can but dimly guess. No interpretation is given in the law itself. The explanations of Jewish writers long after- wards are manifestly wide of the mark. Tliat which meets us in the Ei)istle to the Hebrews, the application
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of the lypes of the tabernacle to the mysteries of re- deinptiuii, was hitent till tliose mysteries were made known. Yet we cannot but believe that, as each [lor- tion of the wonderful order rose before the inward eye of the lawgiver, it must have embodied distinctly mani- fold truths which he apprehended himself and sought to communicate to others. It entered, indeed, into the order of a divine education for Moses and for Israel, and an education by means of symbols, no less than by means of words, presupposes an existing language. So far from shrinking, therefore, as men have timidly and unwisely shrunk (Witsius, .i/V/z/yj/iaca, in Ugulino, The- saur. vol. i), from asking what thoughts the Egyptian education of JNIoses would lead him to connect with the symbols he was now taught to use, we may see in it a legitimate method of inquiry — almost the only method possible. Where that fails, the gap may be tilled up (as in Biihr, Si/mbol. passim) from the analogies of otlier nations, indicating, wliere they agree, a widespread primeval symbolism. So far from laboring to prove, at the price of ignoring or distorting facts, that everytliing was till then unknown, we shall as little expect to lind it so, as to see in Hebrew a new and heaven-born lan- guage, spoken for the first time on Sinai, written for the tirst time on the two tables of the covenant,
3. The thought of a graduated sanctity, like that of the outer court, the holy place, the holy of holies, had its counter[)art, often the same number of stages, in the structure of Egyptian temples (Bithr, Sijmbul. i, 216). See Temple.
(1.) The interior adytum (to proceed from the inner- most recess outward) was small in proportion to the rest of the building, and commonly, as in the tabernacle (Jo- sephus, .4«^ ii, 6, 3), was at the western end (Spencer, Be Leg. Hehrmor. iii, 2), and was but little lighted. In the adytum, often at least, was the sacred ark, the cul- minating-point of holiness, containing the highest and most mysterious symbols — winged figures, generally like those of the cherubim (Wilkinson, Anc. FAiyfii. v, 275; Kenrick, Egypt, i, 400), the emblems of stability and life. Here were outward points of resemblance. Of all elements of Egyptian worship this was one which could be transferred with least hazard, with most gain. No one could think that the ark itself was the likeness of the God he worshipped. When we ask what gave the ark its holiness, we are led on at once to the infinite difference, the great gulf between the two systems. Tliat of Egypt was predominantly cosmical, starting from the productive powers of nature. The sj'inbols of those powers, though not originally involving what we know as impurity, tended to it fatally and rapidly (Spen- cer, ]Je Leg. IhbrcBor. iii, 1 ; Warburton, Dicine Lega- tion, ii, 4, note). That of Israel was predominantly eth- ical. The nation was taught to think of God, not chief- ly as revealed in nature, but as manifesting himself in and to the spirits of men. In the ark of the covenant, as the highest revelation then possible of the Divine nature, were the two tables of stone, on which were graven, by the teaching of the Divine Spirit, and there- fore by " the finger of God" (Matt, xii, 28 ; Luke xi, 20 ; see also Clement of Alexandria [Stroin. vi, 133J and 1 Kings xviii. 4C ; 2 Kings iii, 15; J^zek. i, 3; iii, 14; 1 Chron. xxviii, 19), the great unchanging laws of hu- man duty which had been proclaimed on Sinai. Here the lesson taught was plain enough. The highest knowledge was as the simplest, the esoteric as the exo- teric. In the depths of the holy of holies, and for the high-priest as for all Israel, there was the revelation of a righteous \\\\\ requiring righteousness in man (Saal- schlitz, .4 rchdol. c. 77). See Ariv.
Over the ark was the kophereih (" mercy-seat"), so called with a twofold reference to the root-meaning of the word. It covered the ark. It was the witness of a mercy cnvervig sins. As the "footstool" of God, the " throne" of the Divine glorj', it declared that over the law which seemed so rigid and unbending there rested the compassion of one forgiving " ini(iuity and trans-
gression." Ewald, however, giving to 133, the root of hophereth. the meaning of "to scrape," "erase," de- rives from that meaning the idea implied in the Sept. iXanriipiui', and denies that the word ever signified iTTt^ma {Alterth. p. 128, 129). See Mercy-seat.
Over the mercy-seat were the cherubim, reproducing, in part, at least, the symbolism of the great Hamitic races, forms fiimiliar to Moses and to Israel, needing no description for them, interpreted for us bj' the fuller vision of the later prophets (Ezek. i, 5-13; x, 8-15; xli, 19), or by the winged forms of the imagery of Egypt. Kepresenting as they did the manifold powers of nature, created life in its highest form (Biihr, De Leg. Hebrieor. i, 341), their "overshadowing wings," "meeting" as in token of perfect harmony, declared that nature as well as man found its highest glory in subjection to a divine law, that men might take refuge in that order, as under " the shadow of the wings" of God ( Stanley, Jewish Church, p. 98). Placed where those and other like fig- ures were, in the temples of Egypt, they might be liin- derances and not helps, might sensualize instead of puri- fying the worship of the people. But it was part of the wisdom which we may reverently trace in tlie order of the tabernacle that while Egyptian symbols are retained, as in the ark, the cherubim, the urim, and the thummim, their place is changed. They remind the high-]jriest, the representative of the whole nation, of the truths on which the order rests. The people cannot bow down and worship that which they never see. See Cheri'bim.