Tent or Temple?

tabernacle-jewishIt is often pointed out that the author of the letter to the Hebrews speaks of the Jerusalem temple as if it is still standing.

Repeatedly. He refers to it as still standing multiple times.

This suggests that the book of Hebrews was written before the Romans destroyed the temple in A.D. 70.

The thing is, the author of Hebrews doesn’t refer to it as the temple. Instead, he refers to it as the “tent.”

This is a reference to the “tent of meeting” or “tabernacle” that the Hebrews built under Moses, before the temple was first constructed by Solomon.

Some have thought that this reference means he wasn’t referring to the temple, which might or might not have been destroyed by the time the letter was written.

They also propose various other arguments to cast doubt on whether the references to the still-functioning temple/tent reveal a pre-A.D. 70 date, but let’s set those aside. Here I want to focus on the one based on the references to the temple as if it were the tent of meeting.

This could simply be a literary way of referring to the temple, based on its pre-history as the tent of meeting.

Is there evidence that this view is correct?

I think there is. In Hebrews 9:6-9, we read:

These preparations having thus been made, the priests go continually into the outer tent, performing their ritual duties; but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people.

By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary is not yet opened as long as the outer tent is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age).

Got that?

The author regards the “outer tent” as “still standing,” and this “is symbolic for the present age.”

If the successor to the temple, the temple, had already been destroyed then it is very hard to imagine how he could conceive of the “outer tent” as “still standing.”

It would have–rather obviously–have fallen and thus not be symbolic of the present age.

How could he expect his readers in a post-70 environment to see the outward manifestation of the tent as still standing and symbolizing the present age?

It thus seems far more likely that he was simply using the language of the “tent” as a literary way of describing the temple–before it fell.

Why would he do that?

Perhaps because–precisely because–the tabernacle was a temporary structure that gave way to the temple.

By referring to the temple itself in this way, he suggests that the temple itself is a temporary, outward, manifestation of the true, spiritual reality to which access will be granted when the temple falls.

In other words, it was precisely because the temple had not yet fallen that he refers to it as the tent.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

2 thoughts on “Tent or Temple?”

  1. The tabernacle does have a prophetic aspect to it. The whole structure spiritually represents the priestly function of Israel beginning with Jacob, or Israel, the patriarch as the entrance.The bronze altar represents the Mosaic revelation and its associated sacrifices. The basin of water represents the later influence of Elijah developing down through the nazarite to the Essenes and finally to John the Baptist.

    Christ is the door to the completely enclosed holy place (and to the Melkizedek priesthood) which is in darkness until the seven-stemmed menorah (representing the light of the Holy Spirit) is lit. The holy place and most holy place are constructed in a ratio of two to one, corroborating the statement of Christ in Luke 13:32-3 “…Go and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and do cures today, and tomorrow, and the third day I am consummated.” His second coming is also represented by the door or veil to the most holy place.

    It is interesting that Solomon’s Temple had different details than the tabernacle in the wilderness, perhaps because it was at the center of the short-lived Davidic Empire. At the time of the resurrection of Apoc 21 a separate temple will not be needed because the functions of priest and king will be combined together within the New Jerusalem.

  2. Shouldn’t “If the successor to the temple, the temple…”, read “If the successor to the tent, the temple…”? Yeah, I’m I professional editor and can’t stop nitpicking.

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