The objection raised against the truthfulness of the narrative (Colenso, ihul. ch. vii) on the ground that the entire congregation of 600,000 is said to have been con- vened at the door of this small structure (Lev. viii) is readily obviated by the natural interpretation that oidy the principal persons stood immediately near, while the multitude easily viewed the ceremonies from a conven- ient distance (Birks, The Exodus of Israel, p. 111).
VI. Literature. — Besides the commentaries on Exodus ad loc, see Biihr, Symholik d, mos. Cull, i, 56 sq. ; Liuid, Die j lid. Heiligthiimer dargesfellt (Hamb. 1G95, 1738); Van Til, Comment, de Tabernac. J\fos. (Uord. 1714; also in Ugolino, Thesaur. vol. viii) ; Conrad, De Tahernaculi Mosis Structura et Fiffitra (Offenbach, 1712); Lamy, De Tahernarulo Foederis (Paris, 1720); Tympe, Taher- naculi e Monumentis Descriptio (Jena, 1731) ; Carpzov, ^;)/5ar. p. 248 sq. ; 'RoianA, Antiq. Sacr.\,i-b\ Schacht, A nimadv. ad Iken. A ntiq. p. 2G7 sq. ; D'Aquine [Phil.], Du Tabernacle (Paris, 1623-24); Benzelii Disserta- tiones, ii, 97 sq. ; Millii Miscellanea Sacra (Amit. 1754), p. 329 sq. ; Ravius, De iis quce ex Arabia in tisum Tu- bei-naculifuerant Petita (LTltraj. 1753, ed. J. M. Schrockh, Lips. 1755) : Recchiti, "jS'l'Sn (Mantua, 1776) ; Vrie- moet, De Aulceo adyti Tahernaculi (France. 1745); Meyer, Bibeldeutung, p. 262 sq. ; Lanzi [Michelangelo], Jai Sacra Scrittura Illustrata con Monum. Fenico As- siri ed. Erjiziani (Roma, 1827, fol.) ; Neumann, Die Stifts- hiitte (Gotha, 1861) ; Friedcrich, Si/mbol. d. inos. Stiftshittte (Leips. 1841); Kurtz, in the Si'nd. u. Krit. 1844, ii, 305 sq. ; Riggenbach, Die mos. Stiftshiitte (Basel, 1862, 1867); Soltau, Vessels of the Tabernacle (Lond. 1865); Paine, The Tabei-nacle, Temple, etc. (Bost. 1861); Kitto, The Tabernacle and its Furniture (Lond. 1849): Simp- son, Typ. Character of the Tahenwcle (Edinb. 1852) ; Brown, The Tabernacle, etc. (ibid. 1871, 1872, 8vo).
TABERNACLE is a name given to certain chapels or meeting-houses in England erected by Mr. White- field, and to similar places of worship reared by Robert Haldane for the accommodation of a few large congre- gations in Scotland, out of which have chiefly been
Stone Tabernacle at Kintore, Aberdeenshire.
formed the present churches of Congregational dissent- ers in that country.
Tabernacle is also a term applied to certain interior portions of churches, etc. : 1. A niche or hovel lor an image. 2. An ambrj' on the right side of the altar, or behind it, for the reservation of the host, chrism, and oil for the sick. 3. A throne carried like a litter on the shoulders of Spanish priests in the procession oi' Corpus Christi, and siqiporting the host. 4. A small temple over the central part of an altar for the reservation of the eucharist, contained in the pyx, and often decorated with a crown of three circlets. Its earliest form was a coffer of wood, or a little arched receptacle; then it be- came a tower of gold, or of circular shape, being a cas- ket for the chalice and paten, in fact a ciborium. In the 15th century the tabernacle became a magnificent piece of furniture over or on the left side of the high-al- tar, with statues, towers, foliage, buttresses, and superb work, as at Grenoble, vSt. John Maurienne, Lean, Tour- nay, and Nuremberg, the latter sixty-four feet high, and of white stone. SeeCiBOKiuM; Dovp:; Pyx.
Tabernacles, the Feast of, the third of the three great annual festivals, the other two being the feasts of the Passover and Pentecost, on which the whole male population were required to appear before the Lord in the national sanctuary. (We base our treatment of this subject upon Ginsburg's article in Kitto's Cijclopcpdin, with additions from other sources, especially Smith's Diet, of the Bible.) See Festival.
I. Names and their Siffnif cation. — This festival is called — 1. n2Bil 5n, Chuy has-Sukkoth ; Sept. ioprri (TK7]vuii', the Festival of Tents ; Vidg.ye?'ia? tahernacnlo- 7-um ; A. V. the Feast of Tabernacles (2 Chron. viii, 13 ; Ezra iii, 4; Zech. xiv, 16, 18, 19); (TKrjroTrrjyia (John vii, 2; Josephus, A7it. viii, 4, 5); (TKjjt'ai (Pliilo, De Sept. § 24); r) (yKip'i) (Plutarch, Sympos. iv, 6, 2); be- cause every Israelite was commanded to live in taber- nacles during its continuance (comp. Lev. xxiii, 43).
TABERNACLES, FEAST OF 145 TABERNACLES, FEAST OF
2. t]'^pXn 5n, fopTri avvTtXiiac, the Feast of Iiir/ather- tiiff (Exod. xxiii, 16; xxxiv, 22), because it was cele- brated at the end of the agricultural year, wlien the in- gathering of the fruits and the harvest was completed.
3. It. is kut' i^oxtjv denominated miT^ ^n, the Festival of Jehprah (Lev. xxiii, 39), or simply SHI^, 30, the Fes- tival (1 Kings viii, 2; 2 Chron. v, 3 ; vii, 8, 9; Mishna, Shekalim, iii, 1 ; Sukkafi, u, G ; Rosh hu-Shana, i. 2 ; Me- gilldh, iii, 5; Taanith, i, 1, 2), because of its importance, and of its being the most joyful of all festivals. The assertion of Winer [Bibl. Realwvrtei'huch, s. v. " Laub- hUttenfest"), repeated by Keil (.1 rchiiologie, vol. i, § 85, note 3) and Biihr {Si/mholik, ii, 660), that the rabbins call this festival n3"l"l^ri D1"', dies midtiplicationis, is incorrect. The Mishna, which Winer quotes in corrob- oration of this assertion, does not denominate this festi- val as such, but simply speaks of the many sacrifices offered on the first day thereof: " If any one vows wine [for the TcmpleJ he must not give less than three logs; if oil, not less than one log. ... If he says, I do not know how much I have set apart, he must give as much as is used on the day which requires most" {Menachoth, xiii, 5) — i. e. as is used on the first day of the festival [of Tabernacles] when it happens to be on a Sabbath, for on such a daj' there are more libations used than on any otlier day in the year, inasmuch as 140 logs of wine are required for the different sacrifices.