The Holiest of Holies

Old Testament
Book Two: Exodus
Israel at Mount Sinai
Chapter 25: Blueprints for the Ark
Chapter 26: Blueprints for the Tabernacle
Chapter 27: Blueprints for the Court of the Tabernacle
Chapter 28: Patterns for the priests' posh frocks

Uh, wow. I've been warning you the narrative was going to fall off a cliff. It was approaching like a Gathering Storm of Tedium, and it finally arrived. Four solid chapters of nothing but descriptions of the temple in excruciating detail. It completely put my brain to sleep, so I have almost nothing to say about it. Two things:

One: Why are these chapters here? I don't get it. They seem to be instruction for the one-time construction of these objects--they don't need to be included in our bible for all time. Who besides me would ever bother to read them?

Two: the lavishness and holiness of the ark and the tabernacle come awfully close to breaking commandment number 2 against worshiping idols and images of god. The entire point is to focus the worshiping on these objects rather than on God. Also, the narrative is completely broken up once again by later writings being inserted into earlier ones. At the end of chapter 24 Moses went up to the mountain. We don't return to that story until I think chapter 32.

There are a couple of interesting moments. One is the mention of the Holiest of Holies (26:33). The holiest of holies was mentioned in Pulp Fiction! If that's the holiest of holies, I'll leave it to your imagination what the holy place (also mentioned in 26:33) must be.


--bibletoenail


PS. Oh, I forgot one thing. 28:42 includes instructions for Aaron's underwear in order to hide his privates, proving two things. One, the Israelite women did indeed go around in miniskirts without panties; and two, Aaron had an ENORMOUS penis--his linen drawers had to reach to his thighs!


Quotables:
"Thus the veil will make a clear separation for you between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies." --Exod. 26:33
"Make the breast-piece of judgment." --Exod. 28:15
"Make for them linen drawers reaching to the thighs to cover their private parts." --Exod. 28:42