Religion Compass 1/1 (2007): 38–49, 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2006.00006.

The Tabernacle and the Temple in

Ancient Israel
Michael M. Homan*
Xavier University of Louisiana

Abstract
According to the Bible, the Tabernacle, a portable and ornate tent shrine, served
as the terrestrial home for ancient Israel’s deity from its construction at Mount Sinai
under the supervision of Moses until it was replaced by Solomon’s Temple. Solomon
built his Temple in Jerusalem on the summit of Mount Moriah, and this served as
God’s home for approximately four hundred years.The Babylonians destroyed the
Temple in 586 BCE. Zerubbabel oversaw the building of a Second Temple in 520
BCE. This building underwent extensive renovations by Herod in 19 BCE, and
the Jerusalem Temple was finally destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans. Many of the
most famous events in the Bible and history take place at the Tabernacle and
Jerusalem Temple, as they were the most important structures in ancient Israel. For
the past two millennia they have been the focus of more attention than any other
buildings in antiquity.

The Temple in Jerusalem and its predecessor, the Tabernacle, are the two
most important structures in ancient Israel according to the Bible. They
both served as terrestrial homes for Yahweh, the primary deity of ancient
Israel.The authors of the Hebrew Bible allotted nearly 470 verses to describe
the form and furnishings of the Tabernacle and Temple, far more than any
other structures in all of ancient Near Eastern literature.

The Tabernacle
According to the Hebrew Bible,Yahweh showed Moses a model of Yahweh’s
celestial tent above Mount Sinai (Exodus 25:40). Yahweh commanded the
ancient Israelites, under the leadership of the craftsmen Bezalel and Oholiab,
to build a similar tent so that Yahweh could dwell with the Israelites on
earth. This elaborate tent was known as “Tent of Meeting” (Hebrew vohel
mô‘Ed) and the “Tabernacle” (Hebrew miškAn, meaning literally “place of
dwelling”).
The Tabernacle complex, as described in Exodus 25–27, 35–40, was
enclosed by a linen fence hung on posts spanning 100 × 50 cubits (1 cubit
≈ 18 inches/45 cm, the approximate distance from elbow to fingertip) with
its entrance orientated towards the east. A large sacrificial altar was placed
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 The Tabernacle and the Temple in Ancient Israel . 39

inside the courtyard. A laver (a large basin) stood nearby for the priests to
wash. The entrance to the Tabernacle stood in the center of the courtyard.
The Tabernacle’s frame consisted of large wooden beams 10 cubits in height
and overlaid with gold. Most reconstructions of the Tabernacle measure 30
cubits in length by 10 cubits in width, although a model by R. Friedman
in which the frames overlap reduces the overall length and width by about
one-third. Three layers of various materials were placed on top of these
wooden frames to enclose the tent. The innermost layer was a sacred curtain
of fine linen with cherubim woven into the fabric. At times, this curtain
alone is referred to as the “Tabernacle” (e.g. Exodus 26:6). On top of this
was placed a black curtain woven from goat hair. The composition of the
outermost curtain has been the cause of much debate, with some earlier
scholars claiming it consisted of badger skins or even the hide of manatees
or narwhales. However, etymological parallels with Akkadian indicate that
it was simply goat leather dyed red.
An embroidered veil hung on five columns marked the entrance to the
Tabernacle, and in the opening chamber there were three cultic objects.
On the southern wall stood the menorah, a seven branched lamp. On the
northern wall was a table of showbread, on which twelve loaves of bread
were placed each week as a symbolic food offering to Yahweh. An incense
altar stood in the rear of this entrance chamber. An ornate veil with cherubim
forms woven into its fine-linen fabric separated the main chamber of the
Tabernacle from the sacred back room, known as the Holy of Holies. Inside
this space rested the Ark of the Covenant, an ornate wooden box overlaid
with gold. This was the most sacred relic in ancient Israelite religion. Inside
of the Ark the Israelites kept the symbol of their covenant with Yahweh,
the two tablets of the Ten Commandments, along with a pot of manna and
Aaron’s staff. Only the High Priest on one day per year, the Day of
Atonement, was allowed in this back room (Leviticus 16).
Yahweh’s glory, in the form of a cloud, descended from Mount Sinai
and inhabited the Holy of Holies nine months after the Exodus from Egypt,
according to the author of Exodus 40. Aaron and his sons were consecrated
as priests for the next seven days in a ceremonial ordination involving
anointing and sacrifices of atonement (Leviticus 8). On the eighth day, the
sacrificial cult was inaugurated (Leviticus 9). These eight days inaugurating
the Tabernacle, priests, and sacrificial system as described in Leviticus 1 –9
served as a paradigm for all subsequent temple inaugurations (see J. Milgrom,
1991). Large amounts of food, including animals, grains, oil, and beverages,
were sacrificed in the Tabernacle, as was customary in all ancient Near
Eastern temples, in order to meet the daily needs of the resident deity. Thus,
priests in many ways served as butlers to the gods, and sacrifices were
motivated by the notion of do ut des: “I have given [a sacrifice to the god],
so grant me [a gift in return].”
Yahweh reportedly lived in this sacred tent for approximately two hundred
years, and it provided the setting for many famous stories in the Hebrew
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40 . Michael M. Homan

Fig. 1. Possible ground plan of the Tabernacle and court.

Bible. It was here that Moses spoke with God face-to-face (e.g. Exodus
33:11). When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years,
Yahweh’s departure from the Tabernacle in the form of a pillar of cloud by
day or a pillar of fire by night signaled to the tribes that they were to pack up
camp and move to another location (Exodus 40:36–38). The silver trumpets
were sounded (Numbers 10), and the priests entered the Tabernacle, removed
the veil, and covered the Ark with it (Numbers 4). The Levites then carried the
covered Ark with poles, along with the other materials in carts, to the next
camp, where they set up the Tabernacle complex once again. Aaron’s sons,
when they offered the wrong type of incense, were consumed by fire that
shot out of the Tabernacle (Leviticus 10). Hannah prayed for the conception
of her son Samuel at the Tabernacle, where it was manned by Eli and his
corrupt sons (1 Samuel 1–2). David stored Goliath’s head and weapons in
this tent (1 Samuel 17:54). The Tabernacle was ultimately replaced by the
Jerusalem Temple built by Solomon (reigned approximately 968-928 BCE).
Many scholars doubt whether the Tabernacle ever existed, although this
is a relatively recent trend. Few scholars questioned the historicity of the
Tabernacle until the advent of Higher Criticism in the nineteenth century.
Julius Welhausen’s influential book Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels (English:
Prolegomena to the History of Israel) claimed “For the truth is, that the tabernacle
is the copy, not the prototype, of the temple at Jerusalem.” Wellhausen argued
that a Jewish priest after the Exile in 586 BCE invented the Tabernacle to
give credence to the period of desert wanderings described in the Torah.
According to Wellhausen, this Priestly author simply halved the width and
length of the Temple and fictitiously then made it portable. It should be
noted that many of Wellhausen’s theories were influenced by anti-Jewish bigotry.
For example,Wellhausen argued that the great pre-Exilic Israelite religion,
practiced by heroes such as Isaiah, was ruined by Exilic Jewish priests who
killed the free and erudite religion with pedantic and oppressive laws.
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 The Tabernacle and the Temple in Ancient Israel . 41

The view that the Tabernacle was an invention of the Exile dominated
the field until Frank M. Cross, Jr., published a seminal article in 1947 that
drew upon Phoenician parallels to argue that the Tabernacle was an actual
structure that predated the Jerusalem Temple. Since then, increasing
archaeological, historical, and linguistic evidence supports Cross’s view. The
most remarkable parallels to the Tabernacle come from reliefs commissioned
by Ramesses II depicting his military tent used at the Battle of Kadesh.
Ramesses’ tent complex almost exactly matches the layout and orientation
of the Tabernacle. It seems that Yahweh, as the Divine Warrior for ancient
Israel, traveled in His military tent for ancient Israel in much the same
manner that the living incarnation of Horus, Ramesses, traveled in his.
Most Bible scholars today would agree that the elaborate tent described
in Exodus is embellished. However, the idea that an ornate tent shrine played
a key role in the religion of the ancient Israelites fits perfectly well into the
context of ancient Near Eastern religions. Similarly at Late Bronze Age
Ugarit, for example, the older Canaanite deity lived in a tent, while the
younger deity Baal inhabited a temple. Moreover, the etymological parallels
between El’s tent and Yahweh’s give credence to the Tabernacle’s historicity.
For example, El’s tent is called a “Tabernacle” (mškn) and is supported by
a wooden “frame” (qrš), the same word that is used for the Tabernacle’s
supporting wooden “frame.” Earlier, cuneiform texts from Mari also describe
a tent-shrine as being supported by a “frame” (qersu). It should be noted that
there are many words for wooden frames and boards in the Hebrew Bible, but
qrš is quite rare, used only for the Tabernacle frames and one other time for a
ship’s deck in Ezekiel 27:6. Thus, it seems the term has a strong affiliation with
religious tent shrines, and was chosen to comply with this linguistic custom.
So given this historical context, it seems likely that a tent shrine played a
large role in the formative years of ancient Israelite religion, although it is
unclear from the biblical account what ultimately happened to this tent.
Some scholars such as I. Kalimi argue that the Philistines destroyed it after
the Battle of Ebenezer (1 Samuel 4; cf. Jeremiah 7:12 and Psalm 78:60),
with F. Cross claiming that a new and more ornate “Tent of David” replaced
the previous tent. Cross further argues that David’s tent served as the model
for the later Priestly author as he described the Tabernacle in Exodus 25 –
27. Other scholars, such as R. Friedman, contend that the Tabernacle was
actually set up or stored inside the Temple’s Holy of Holies.
In the New Testament, the Tabernacle is cited as the true form of worship
(Acts 8:44–50; Hebrews 8–9), as opposed to the corrupt Temple.
Additionally, John’s Apocalyptic vision describes heaven and the New
Jerusalem as God’s “Tabernacle” (Revelation 13:6, 15:5, 21:3).

The First Temple

King David (reigned approximately 1005-965 BCE) moved the Tabernacle
and the Ark to Jerusalem, where he established his new capital. David
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42 . Michael M. Homan

Fig. 2. The military tent camp of Ramesses II as depicted at Abu Simbel (original background
image from Yigael Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands in the Light of Archaeological
Discovery).

attempted to build Yahweh a more permanent house (Hebrew bayit) in the

form of a temple (Hebrew hêkAl). However, Yahweh declined David’s
request, according to the author of 2 Samuel 7:6, stating “I have not dwelt
in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this
day, but I have been moving in a tent for my dwelling.” Yahweh in turn
built David a “house” in the form of a dynasty that lasted more than four
hundred years, one of the longest in history. The building of the Jerusalem
Temple was left to David’s son Solomon.
Solomon began construction on the Temple in the fourth year of his
reign. Mount Moriah, one of the hills of Jerusalem where Abraham nearly
sacrificed his son Isaac according to Genesis 22:2, served as the location for
Solomon’s Temple (2 Chronicles 3:1). It later became a threshing floor, and
David purchased the land in order to set up a sacrificial altar to avert a plague
(2 Samuel 24). Today Mount Moriah is covered by the Temple Mount
(Arabic al-haram esh-sharif, meaning commonly “noble sanctuary,” or more
literally “glorious holy place”), where two Muslim shrines stand: the Dome
of the Rock, where the Temple stood, and the al-Aqsa Mosque to the
south. At the southern base of Mount Moriah lies the Gihon Spring, the
primary source for water in ancient Jerusalem.
Solomon purchased much of the building materials and craftsmen from
the Phoenician king Hiram of Tyre. Solomon also raised a labor tax on his
subjects to quarry stones. The dressing of these stones was completed at the
quarry, as according to 1 Kings 6:7, the sound of hammers never disturbed
the Temple. The massive structure was 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and
30 cubits tall, and like the Tabernacle, it too was a long-room structure
oriented to the East. At the entrance, Solomon erected two pillars named
“Jachin” to the south and “Boaz” to the north (1 Kings 7:21). The meaning
of these names is much debated. The Temple’s outer parameter consisted
of several storage chambers, but there were three main rooms: the vestibule
© Blackwell Publishing 2006 Religion Compass 1/1 (2007): 38–49, 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2006.00006.x
 The Tabernacle and the Temple in Ancient Israel . 43

Fig. 3. Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, with the al-Aqsa Mosque to the left (black dome) and the
Dome of the Rock to the right (gold dome).

(Hebrew ’ûlAm) in the front of the Temple, the main chamber known as
the Holy Place (Hebrew hêkAl), and the cube-shaped back room, the Holy
of Holies (Hebrew debîr), with all three rooms separated by two veils. Cedar
paneling lined the stone walls throughout the Temple, and the paneling in
the Holy of Holies was overlaid (or perhaps inlaid) with gold. The Ark was
placed beneath the outspread wings of two massive cherubim made of olive
wood and overlaid with gold. Like the Tabernacle, the Temple’s main
chamber contained the table of showbread and the menorah lamp, as well
as an incense altar. A giant metal bowl known as the “molten sea” stood on
twelve oxen statues in front of the Temple (1 Kings 7:23 –26). This bowl
measured 10 cubits in diameter and 5 cubits deep, and it was filled with
water. A massive altar stood in the courtyard, and it was here that animals
were regularly sacrificed to Yahweh.
The Temple symbolically represented the cosmic center of the universe,
a place where the heavens and earth merged on the primordial cosmic
mountain. The seven lamps of the menorah represented the seven days of
creation, which in turn mirrored the seven visible luminary planets (Sun,
Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter). Similarly, the molten
sea symbolized the cosmic fountain of the deep. Exotic animals and flora,
both in reality and in artistic depictions, were ubiquitous in the Temple
complex, and thus the Temple was in many ways an earthly paradise in
addition to a model of the cosmos.
Ultimately it took Solomon seven years to complete the Temple, and
then he took another thirteen years to build his elaborate palace next door
to the Temple. This spatial proximity of temple to palace architecturally
symbolized to the Israelites that their God was working closely through
their king. However, in many ways the Temple was elitist. Before the
Temple, with the Tabernacle, the cultic center for Israel moved from tribe
to tribe. Now the nonportable Temple was essentially the king’s private
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44 . Michael M. Homan

chapel. Israelites would have to come to the king’s house at the king’s
discretion to participate in the official cult. Even so,Temple priests continued
to hold great amounts of political power, and they often checked the
monarch’s sovereignty. Moreover, the High Priest of the Jerusalem Temple
ruled all of Judah during much of the Hellenistic period, as there was no
king. The Temple in Jerusalem, like all ancient Near Eastern temples, served
an important socioeconomic role in ancient Israel. Temple officials collected
taxes from the people, redistributed goods, and kept a large national
treasury.
Shortly after Solomon’s death, the Egyptian king Shoshenq I (Shishak in
most English Bibles) invaded Judah and “he took away the treasures of the
Yahweh’s house” (1 Kings 14:26). These treasures might have included the
Ark, although the biblical text is mysteriously silent concerning the ultimate
fate of this relic. Later Judean kings renovated and repaired Solomon’s
Temple. It was during one such repair that workers for King Josiah (reigned
640-609 BCE) claimed to have found a scroll written by Moses (2 Kings
23). Most scholars agree that this scroll represents, in some form, the law
code in the Book of Deuteronomy. The discovery of this scroll in the
Temple provided the impetus for Josiah’s religious reforms, principal of
which was the centralization of the religion. From then on in Judah, only
the Jerusalem Temple had legitimacy, and all other temples were forbidden.
Nevertheless, archaeological evidence indicates that many local temples in
the area continued to function.
Jerusalem, including Solomon’s Temple, was nearly destroyed in 701
BCE when the Assyrian army led by King Sennacherib invaded. They laid
siege to Jerusalem, but eventually they left without destroying the capital
city after the Judean king Hezekiah provided them payment, some of which
consisted of the gold decorations from the Temple, (2 Kings 18). This narrow
escape, along with God’s promise to David that his descendants would always
sit on the Jerusalem throne (2 Samuel 7:13; Psalm 132:11 –13), led many
Judeans to believe that Yahweh would never allow His home in Jerusalem
to be destroyed. This theory ended violently on the 9th of Av in 586 BCE,
when the Babylonian forces led by King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed
Jerusalem along with its Temple. The Temple had been Yahweh’s home
for nearly four centuries, and Israelites struggled with questions of theodicy:
How could an omnipotent deity such as Yahweh allow His chosen people
to be led away into Babylonian captivity, and how could Yahweh allow His
own home to be destroyed? The prophet Ezekiel writes that Yahweh left
the Temple immediately prior to its destruction, and then flew to Babylon
in a chariot driven by cherubim (Ezekiel 10). This departure symbolized
that Yahweh became a universal deity not confined to a single location.
Furthermore, deities departing their temples is a common and widely attested
motif in the ancient Near East. Ezekiel later envisioned Yahweh’s return to
an idealized Jerusalem Temple in the twenty-fifth anniversary of his exile
to Babylon (Ezekiel 40–48).
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 The Tabernacle and the Temple in Ancient Israel . 45

Archaeology has shed a great deal of light on the Temple, even though
excavations on the Temple Mount are illegal for the most part due to the
fact that the Temple platform continues to support Islamic religious
sanctuaries. No remains of the First Temple have been found to date.
However, archaeology outside of Jerusalem has provided a great deal of
evidence that has illuminated knowledge about the Temple. Temple
buildings with remarkable architectural parallels have been found throughout
the Near East, but the most strikingly similar come from northern Syria. At
Tel Tainat the remains of a temple similar to Solomon’s have been
excavated. The structure, built in the ninth to the eighth centuries BCE,
has the same long room tripartite construction with two pillars in front, and
is also built next to a palace. Similarly a temple at ‘Ain Dara is tripartite with
pillars in the front, and its floor-plan matches almost exactly that described
in 1 Kings 7.

The Second Temple

With the destruction of the First Temple and many Judeans in exile, some
refugees worked to build new temples in their exilic homes. Papyrus
documents from fifth century BCE Egypt show that Jewish mercenaries in
Elephantine built a temple where Yahweh (and other Canaanite deities)
were worshipped. Josephus also describes a Jewish priest named Onias who
fled to Egypt, and using funds raised from the rulers of Egypt, he built a
Jewish temple at Leontopolis. However, many Babylonian Judeans sought
to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
Shortly after 538 BCE, when the Persian king Cyrus allowed all Jewish
exiles to return to Judah, Sheshbazzar, the Babylonian governor in Judah,
was charged with rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple (Ezra 5:15). Cyrus
ordered that all the cultic implements plundered by Nebuchadnezzar be
returned to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:5–11). Sheshbazzar apparently began construction
on the Second Temple, but did not get far due to the difficult conditions
in post-Exilic Jerusalem.
Reconstruction began anew in 520 BCE under the leadership of
Zerubbabel, an enigmatic descendant of David. This work continued with
the encouragement of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah who linked
Zerubbabel to notions of messiah in earlier prophetic texts. The work on
the Temple began with the construction of an altar and the re-initiation
of animal sacrifices to Yahweh (Ezra 3). They next laid the Temple’s
foundation, which was met with a mixed review. Most people celebrated
with sounds of joy, but many of the older priests who had seen the first
Temple sixty-six years prior, wept due to the Second Temple’s inferiority
(Ezra 3:12–13; cf. Haggai 2:3). During the building process, the Samaritans
offered to help. Samaritans claimed they were the direct descendants of the
northern tribes conquered by Assyria in 722 BCE, although Jews returning
from the Babylonian Exile, such as Ezra, claimed the Samaritans were in
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46 . Michael M. Homan

fact non-Jews brought by the Assyrians. The Samaritan’s request to assist

was denied, and these bitter feelings fueled the further divide between Jews
and Samaritans. Some Samaritans began to stir up problems that made the
rebuilding of the Temple more difficult (Ezra 4:1– 5). The plans for the
Second Temple called for a structure 60 cubits tall and 60 cubits wide (Ezra
6:3), and it took five years to complete. However, additional details
concerning the form of this Temple are missing, and the dimensions of the
completed structure are unknown. Similarly, the fate of Zerubbabel remains
a mystery.
Ezra read the Law to the people in the Temple court, in front of the
Water Gate (Nehemiah 8:1), apparently in close proximity to the Gihon
Spring. The Seleucids under the reign of Antiochus IV seized control of
Jerusalem in 168 BCE and reportedly desecrated the Temple in an effort to
Hellenize the Jews. One story claims that Antiochus actually placed a statue
of Olympian Zeus in the Temple. Outraged, the Jews rebelled under the
leadership of Judas Maccabee, and ushered in a time of Jewish autonomy
under the Hasmonean dynasty. Upon retaking the Temple, the Jews
reportedly only had enough olive oil to burn in the Temple lamps for one
day. Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight, and these events are
commemorated in the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
The Temple suffered desecration and decay under centuries of Greek and
Roman rule. Then, in 19 BCE, Herod the Great began extensive
renovations. He extended the Temple platform by building a series of
underground vaults. In the end, the Temple Mount on the summit of Mount
Moriah was extended into a giant square spanning 144,000 square meters,
making it the largest sanctuary in antiquity. In fact, it was more than twice
the size of Trajan’s Forum in Rome. Vast remains of this Temple platform
can be seen today in Jerusalem, and some of the stones in the foundation
wall weighed over 100 tons. Part of this foundation wall is now called the
Western (or Wailing) Wall, one of the holiest places in Judaism.
Herod’s workers dismantled Zerubbabel’s Temple and built a new, more
magnificent structure. Traditionally this new Temple is not referred to as
the “Third Temple,” because priests sacrificed and carried out other religious
obligations without interruption during its construction. The Temple
platform was divided into two courts. The Outer Court was also known as
the Court of Gentiles, because non-Jews were allowed access to it. The
Inner Court was divided into three sections: the Court of Priests, which
contained the Temple and the altar, the Court of Israel, and the Court
of Women. Worship was sexually segregated, and Israelite men were allowed
the closest access to the Temple and the Temple priests. Herod’s Temple,
according to the Jewish historian Josephus, measured on the exterior 100
cubits in length and 100 cubits in height. The Temple’s interior measured
60 cubits tall, 60 cubits long, and 20 cubits wide. The main room,
corresponding to the Holy Place in Solomon’s Temple, was 40 cubits long,
and like the Tabernacle, it contained a menorah, table of showbread, and
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 The Tabernacle and the Temple in Ancient Israel . 47

Fig. 4. Model of Herod’s Temple from the Holy Land Hotel, Jerusalem.

an altar of incense. The Holy of Holies in the back, separated by a curtain,

was a 20 cubit cube. As the Ark had long since disappeared, the Holy of
Holies in Herod’s Temple contained no furniture whatsoever. Herod’s
Temple was decorated extensively with gold and other ornate accoutrements.
A common proverb at the time stated that “He who has not seen Herod’s
building has never seen anything beautiful.”
The Temple was the center of Jewish life in New Testament times, as it
had been for previous centuries. Many stories from the New Testament
take place here. The birth of John the Baptist was announced in the Temple
(Luke 1:11 –20). When Jesus was twelve years old, his parents accidentally
left him behind after Passover. When they returned, they found him
impressing the Jewish teachers in the Temple (Luke 2:42). Money changers
set up shop on the Temple platform. As standard coinage bore the portrait
of the emperor, the money changers exchanged these coins for image-free
silver tokens that were then used to purchase animals for sacrifice. Their
profiting from this practice upset Jesus, and he subsequently turned over
their tables and said that instead of a house of prayer, these people turned
God’s house into a “den of robbers” (Matthew 21:12). This led to Jesus’
arrest and ultimately to his crucifixion. Upon Jesus’ death, the curtain that
closed off the Temple’s Holy of Holies was said to have been torn in two
(Mark 15:38), symbolically suggesting that with Jesus’ sacrifice, unhindered
access to God was now available. The first Christians met at the Temple
(Acts 2:46) and Paul was arrested there as well (Acts 21:27).
The Temple was destroyed by the Roman army under the leadership
of Titus in 70 CE on the same day in the Jewish calendar that Solomon’s
Temple came to an end, the 9th of  Av. According to Josephus and the
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48 . Michael M. Homan

Roman historian Tacitus, Titus ordered that the magnificent structure be

spared, most likely so that he could transfer it into a pagan temple.
Nevertheless, rogue Roman soldiers bent on revenge burnt the structure
anyway. Recently, archaeologists uncovered along the southwestern corner
of the base of the Temple Mount vast remains from this violent destruction,
indicating that the destruction was likely no accident. The destruction of
the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE marked the end of Temple
Judaism, and ushered in the Rabbinic period. Animal sacrifices to Yahweh,
once such an integral part of the Jewish faith, now ended. However, the
Samaritans, a group claiming descent from the northern tribes of Israel
(although many Jews contend the Samaritans were imported by Assyria,
and thus not Jewish), continue to sacrifice annually on Mount Gerizim to
this day.
Although destroyed, the Temple continued to be an important influence
on both Judaism and Christianity. Early “rabbinic” texts including the
Talmud and Mishnah record the Tannaim and Amoraim leaders often
focusing their discussions on the Temple. Many Temple rituals, such as
blowing the shofar horn, and waving lulav during Sukkot, were transferred
into synagogue services. Furthermore, Jews throughout the world continue
to pray facing the Jerusalem Temple. For Christians, early literature
referenced Jesus as the ultimate Temple sacrifice, and according to Matthew
27:51, Jesus’ death tore the curtain of the Temple in two, thus symbolically
allowing all access to the Holy of Holies where God dwelled.
The Temple in Jerusalem, like the Tabernacle before it, played a central
role in the religion of ancient Israel. Further discoveries in archaeology and
history will no doubt shed more light on these important structures.

Short Biography
Michael M. Homan’s research focusses on the historical and archaeological
contexts of how people in the ancient Near East lived. His book To Your
Tents O Israel! The Terminology, Function, Form, and Symbolism of Tents in the
Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East (Leiden: Brill Academic, 2002) received
the 2003 Frank Moore Cross Publications Award from the American Schools
of Oriental Research for the author of the most substantial volume related
to ancient Near Eastern and eastern Mediterranean epigraphy, text and/or
tradition. In addition to his research on architecture, he has published
extensively on ancient diets, and in particular the important role of beer (see
“Beer and Its Drinkers: An Ancient Near Eastern Love Story” in Near Eastern
Archaeology 67.2 [June 2004]: 84 –95). He is the co-author of The Bible for
Dummies (Wiley, 2002) and the website bibledudes.com. He received BA
degrees in Religion, History, and Psychology from the University of
Nebraska at Omaha, and his MA and PhD in Ancient Near Eastern History
at the University of California, San Diego. He has participated on ten major
excavations in Israel and Jordan, and is most recently a supervisor on the
© Blackwell Publishing 2006 Religion Compass 1/1 (2007): 38–49, 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2006.00006.x
 The Tabernacle and the Temple in Ancient Israel . 49

Tel Zeitah Excavations. Currently, he teaches courses pertaining to the Bible

and ancient Near Eastern history, archaeology, and religion at Xavier
University of Louisiana.

Note
* Correspondence address: Xavier University of Louisiana, Department of Theology, 1 Drexel
Drive POB 81-A, New Orleans, LA 70125-1098. E-mail: mhoman@xula.edu

Bibliography
Busink,T, 1970 –1980, Der Tempel von Jerusalem von Salomo bis Herodes: eine archäologisch-historische
Studie under Berücksichtigung des westsemitischen Tempelbaus, 2 Vols. Brill, Leiden.
Clifford, R, 1972, The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the Old Testament, HSM 4, Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Cross, F, 1947, ‘The Tabernacle: A Study from an Archaeological and Historical Approach’,
Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 10, pp. 45–68.
——, 1973, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Friedman, RE, 1992,‘The Tabernacle’, Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. VI, pp. 292–300.
——, 1987, Who Wrote the Bible? Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
——, 1980,‘The Tabernacle in the Temple’, Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 43, pp. 241–48.
Haran, M, 1978, Temples and Temple-Service in Ancient Israel, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Homan, M, 2002, To Your Tents, O Israel! The Terminology, Function, Form, and Symbolism of Tents
in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East, Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, vol.
12. Brill, Leiden.
——, 2000,‘The Divine Warrior in His Tent’, Bible Review, vol. 16.6, pp. 22–33, 55.
Hurowitz, V, 1992, I Have Built You an Exalted House: Temple Building in the Bible in Light of
Mesopotamian and North-west Semitic Writings, JSOT Sup 115. Sheffield.
——, 1994,‘Inside Solomon’s Temple’, Bible Review, vol. 10/2 (April), pp. 24–37, 50.
Kalimi, I, 2005, The Reshaping of Ancient Israelite History in Chronicles, Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake,
IN.
Meyers, C, 1992,‘Temple, Jerusalem’, Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. VI, pp. 350–369.
Milgrom, J, 1991, Leviticus 1–16.Anchor Bible Commentary, Doubleday, New York.
Wellhausen, J, 1905, Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels, 6th ed., Georg Reimer, Berlin.
Zwickel,W, 1999, Der salomonische Tempel, von Zabern, Mainz.

© Blackwell Publishing 2006 Religion Compass 1/1 (2007): 38–49, 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2006.00006.x