Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 26:1-3

1 Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.

2 The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and every one of the curtains shall have one measure.

3 The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another.

In later verses we will learn how the frame of the tabernacle was to be built, and that it would be covered with the curtains that are described in these verses. Each individual curtain would be a very long rectangle, 7 times as long as they were wide, which seems a symbolic ratio to me.

The construction of each curtain would be done with “fine twined linen,” meaning many separate strands of flax woven together, and they would be stitched with the pattern of a cherubim, which was to be an intricate, “cunning work.” Thus, there was to be complexity and multiplicity in this border, a unifying of separate strands to create both a functional and beautiful whole.

That unifying of separate parts continues as we are told that the ten curtains were to be joined together in two main parts. Five curtains for one part, five for the other. From the following verses we will be made to understand that each curtain would be joined to its neighbor along the long sides. Thus the two composite pieces would become twenty-eight cubits by twenty, nearly a square. How the five curtains would be joined together is not clear. Perhaps they were stitched together, permanently bound together as one after first being formed as individuals. By whatever method, though, the ten had become two.

Note: It can be difficult to visualize some of the structures described in these verses. Here is an excellent and extremely focused series of animations that show the visual form of the temple and its instruments, built up verse-by-verse from the Exodus record: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpjohncRg94EZ55nJrbaKfi-lfeo3MFgl&si=6wm1J9Sdnu7LKYC_

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 26:1

1 Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.

God is working from the inside out in His directions for the tabernacle. First He gave the testimony of Hebrew law, written upon the tablets of stone in the mountain. Those, He explained, were to be housed within the Ark of the Covenant, the first religious relic He described the fashion of. He went on to describe the table of shewbred, the menorah, and the lamps, which would be placed just outside the curtain where the ark resided. Now, in today’s verses, he goes further outward to describe the border of the tabernacle, which was to be defined by a series of curtains.

It seems to me that God is describing a body, whether that be the body of a man, or the body of a people. Looking at the design of the tabernacle, the written law reminds me of John’s pronouncement: “in the beginning was the Word,” meaning that first comes the idea, the concept, the Spirit of God, animating from within. Around that spiritual core are the instruments of ritual, the religious practices that keep the body connected to that inner spiritual core, that remind us of our center. Then, the outer layers, the skin that separate the spiritual from the outside world. The outer layer has one face pointed outward, one face pointing inward, a duality that allows one to navigate their surrounding domain while keeping the inner sacred sacred.

Let us keep that representation in mind as we examine the details of these curtains tomorrow.