Tabernacle
In: The Book of ExodusSearch for other papers by Helmut Utzschneider in
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Abstract
The tabernacle-texts are introduced by a spectacular theophany (Exod 24:15-18), during which Moses climbed the mountain of God. In a forty-day visit on the mountain Moses received God's instructions for the production of the "tabernacle" and the sacred furnishings of the sanctuary, in order to convey them to the Israelites (Exod 25-31). The speeches with the instructions form the first part of the sanctuary texts. The second part, Exod 35-40, broadly explains the wording of the instructions, how the Israelites carry out the divine directive, how the sanctuary is made (Exod 35-39), how Moses sets it up (Exod 40), and finally how YHWH tabernacles within it (Exod 40:35). The instruction portion is structured in seven speeches and is embedded in an extremely minimal narrative frame. It opens with a theophany narrative in Exod 24:15-19 and closes with a reference to the "stone tablets".