Tabernacle, Critical Issues An introduction to critical issues concerning the sacred tent of Israel in the Old Testament and in later interpretations.

The tent sanctuary, the tabernacle, plays an important role in the Pentateuch. Its description covers 13 chapters in the second half of the book of Exodus alone (Exod 25–31; 35–40), and it is the location of much that takes place throughout the book of Leviticus and up to Num 10, where it is instructed that it be packed up for the first time and carried in the wilderness journeys.

There are a number of issues of critical concern about the tabernacle that have engendered much scholarly discussion.

1. There are two differing depictions of the “tent of meeting” within the Old Testament (Exod 33:7–11; Num 11:14–17, 24–30; Num 12).

2. Many critical scholars since Wellhausen have presupposed that the description of the priestly tabernacle was only a retrojection of a Jerusalem temple and that it is historically untenable.

3. The theological significance of the tabernacle, centering on issues of its portability and priestly concerns, have been highlighted.

4. The use of the tabernacle in the New Testament and in Second Temple literature has also been a fertile area of investigation (see especially Heb 8–10).