Illustrating the Tabernacle
I've just finished illustrating the Tabernacle, or at least I hope I have! No other biblical illustration has given me quite so much trouble. I've lost count of the alterations I've had to make to this picture! There's been much screwed up paper and head-scratching involved.
The first piece of advice that I would give to anyone about to illustrate the Tabernacle is "Don't be influenced by anything that's been done before, be it illustration or model!" This advice will save you a lot of re-draws! I speak from experience! Don't be influenced by my picture either as I may have missed some things too! Glean as much as you can from the Bible alone.
The problem is, is that there are a number of different theories as to how things were laid out. The main problem I had was with the fence surrounding the Tabernacle court.
A common mistake that Bible illustrators make is that they read from the biblical description that there are 60 posts around the Tabernacle court. Twenty along the two 100 cubit lengths, and 10 along the two 50 cubit lengths. They do a quick calculation 20+20+10+10 = 60. No Problem! So they then set out to draw a fence which has 20 posts by 10 posts. Problem solved? Er...no! If they then took the time to count the posts again, they would find that there are only 56 posts in their picture, not 60. They forgot about the corners!
The second popular way of setting out the Tabernacle fence gets its inspiration, I believe, from the biblical dimensions. The Bible tells us that the court is 100 cubits by 50 cubits. If you draw a grid 100x50 cubits, (which I've done several times this week), and then, starting from one corner, place a post every 5 cubits around the perimeter, you will end up with 60 posts all 5 cubits apart! Problem solved? Er..no! Because, if you count the posts along each side now, you will find that you now have 21x11 posts, not 20x10! I can hear the protests at this point coming from the Tabernacle model makers.... "But you don't count the eleventh post because that's the first post of the following twenty. In the same way that you don't count the twenty first post because that's the first post of the following ten".
That's an interesting explanation, but there's one problem with it; Exodus 27:13 describes in detail the layout of the eastern facing fence, and there are only 10 posts, three to each side of the entrance, and four of which support the entrance veil. Model makers who use the above solution prop up this veil with five posts! This is incorrect.
So what is the solution then? It's quite simple really...stick to the biblical account! Space out twenty posts along the 100 cubit long borders facing north and south, and space out ten posts along the 50 cubit long border facing west. (We've already looked at the eastern border). What about the corners though? I would place all the corner posts together in pairs. Although, I wonder if they might have been positioned diagonally in relation to each other, so that each row of posts could truly be described as facing a point on the compass. (e,g. 20 south, 10 east etc).
Moving on now to the white linen drapes that were attached to the aforementioned posts and bordered the court. Most illustrators and model makers, (who I suspect are influenced by the 100x50 cubit grid method), depict these linen drapes as hanging individually in between each set of posts, and they show them to be roughly 5x5 cubits in size. It's true that the drapes were 5 cubits high, but they varied in length. Two were 100 cubits long by 5 cubits high, two were 15 cubits long by 5 cubits high, and one was 50 cubits long by 5 cubits high. (Not including the 20x5 entrance veil). How do I know this? Because It says so in Exodus 27:9-16!
There is also a suggestion in Exodus 38:18 that the longer linen drapes were made up from shorter 20x5 cubit lengths stitched together. This means that there would have been a seam at approximately every four posts. For those of you who are interested in numerical values, the total combined length of these 5 linen hangings was 280 cubits or 40 times 7!
Another mistake that is often made is using golden thread in the Tabernacle veils. (The new ESV Study Bible shows golden cherubim on the veil of the Holy of Holies). Make a note that only blue, scarlet, purple and white bleached linen was used on all the embroidered veils in the Tabernacle complex. The only time that gold thread was used was on the ephod of the high priest. Speaking of the high priest, the one in the picture above, (stood by the Tabernacle), has all the 12 precious stones in the correct order on his breastplate! (I know, I need to get out more!)
We've mentioned the outer covering of the Tabernacle before in the Covering the Ark post, and the distinct possibility that Dugong hides were used for this purpose. The hides from a dugong, or Halicore tabernaculi would certainly have provided ample protection against the elements. To make sure that I got the color right, I visited Manchester Museum last week as they have a stuffed dugong on display! They're actually grey with a hint of pink!
I've been listening to a very interesting radio station recently 'Awake, Alive and Jewish' over the internet. Although I'm not Jewish, this is a really interesting program which contains many items of information that are helpful to the Bible artist. For example, a few weeks ago the host, Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan, mentioned that one thing which was essential to the survival of the Israelites in the desert was shade. He pointed out that the pillar of cloud, (the Shekinah Glory), that rested on the Tabernacle also provided protection for the Israelites from the intense heat of the sun. I thought this was a good point and so I've tried to show the shadow from the cloud being cast over part of the Israelite camp.
Also if you go to the archives section of 'Awake Alive and Jewish' and select the program broadcast on March 1st 2009, you can listen to an interview with Alec Garrard, builder of the Herod's Temple model.
The first piece of advice that I would give to anyone about to illustrate the Tabernacle is "Don't be influenced by anything that's been done before, be it illustration or model!" This advice will save you a lot of re-draws! I speak from experience! Don't be influenced by my picture either as I may have missed some things too! Glean as much as you can from the Bible alone.
The problem is, is that there are a number of different theories as to how things were laid out. The main problem I had was with the fence surrounding the Tabernacle court.
A common mistake that Bible illustrators make is that they read from the biblical description that there are 60 posts around the Tabernacle court. Twenty along the two 100 cubit lengths, and 10 along the two 50 cubit lengths. They do a quick calculation 20+20+10+10 = 60. No Problem! So they then set out to draw a fence which has 20 posts by 10 posts. Problem solved? Er...no! If they then took the time to count the posts again, they would find that there are only 56 posts in their picture, not 60. They forgot about the corners!
The second popular way of setting out the Tabernacle fence gets its inspiration, I believe, from the biblical dimensions. The Bible tells us that the court is 100 cubits by 50 cubits. If you draw a grid 100x50 cubits, (which I've done several times this week), and then, starting from one corner, place a post every 5 cubits around the perimeter, you will end up with 60 posts all 5 cubits apart! Problem solved? Er..no! Because, if you count the posts along each side now, you will find that you now have 21x11 posts, not 20x10! I can hear the protests at this point coming from the Tabernacle model makers.... "But you don't count the eleventh post because that's the first post of the following twenty. In the same way that you don't count the twenty first post because that's the first post of the following ten".
That's an interesting explanation, but there's one problem with it; Exodus 27:13 describes in detail the layout of the eastern facing fence, and there are only 10 posts, three to each side of the entrance, and four of which support the entrance veil. Model makers who use the above solution prop up this veil with five posts! This is incorrect.
So what is the solution then? It's quite simple really...stick to the biblical account! Space out twenty posts along the 100 cubit long borders facing north and south, and space out ten posts along the 50 cubit long border facing west. (We've already looked at the eastern border). What about the corners though? I would place all the corner posts together in pairs. Although, I wonder if they might have been positioned diagonally in relation to each other, so that each row of posts could truly be described as facing a point on the compass. (e,g. 20 south, 10 east etc).
Moving on now to the white linen drapes that were attached to the aforementioned posts and bordered the court. Most illustrators and model makers, (who I suspect are influenced by the 100x50 cubit grid method), depict these linen drapes as hanging individually in between each set of posts, and they show them to be roughly 5x5 cubits in size. It's true that the drapes were 5 cubits high, but they varied in length. Two were 100 cubits long by 5 cubits high, two were 15 cubits long by 5 cubits high, and one was 50 cubits long by 5 cubits high. (Not including the 20x5 entrance veil). How do I know this? Because It says so in Exodus 27:9-16!
There is also a suggestion in Exodus 38:18 that the longer linen drapes were made up from shorter 20x5 cubit lengths stitched together. This means that there would have been a seam at approximately every four posts. For those of you who are interested in numerical values, the total combined length of these 5 linen hangings was 280 cubits or 40 times 7!
Another mistake that is often made is using golden thread in the Tabernacle veils. (The new ESV Study Bible shows golden cherubim on the veil of the Holy of Holies). Make a note that only blue, scarlet, purple and white bleached linen was used on all the embroidered veils in the Tabernacle complex. The only time that gold thread was used was on the ephod of the high priest. Speaking of the high priest, the one in the picture above, (stood by the Tabernacle), has all the 12 precious stones in the correct order on his breastplate! (I know, I need to get out more!)
We've mentioned the outer covering of the Tabernacle before in the Covering the Ark post, and the distinct possibility that Dugong hides were used for this purpose. The hides from a dugong, or Halicore tabernaculi would certainly have provided ample protection against the elements. To make sure that I got the color right, I visited Manchester Museum last week as they have a stuffed dugong on display! They're actually grey with a hint of pink!
I've been listening to a very interesting radio station recently 'Awake, Alive and Jewish' over the internet. Although I'm not Jewish, this is a really interesting program which contains many items of information that are helpful to the Bible artist. For example, a few weeks ago the host, Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan, mentioned that one thing which was essential to the survival of the Israelites in the desert was shade. He pointed out that the pillar of cloud, (the Shekinah Glory), that rested on the Tabernacle also provided protection for the Israelites from the intense heat of the sun. I thought this was a good point and so I've tried to show the shadow from the cloud being cast over part of the Israelite camp.
Also if you go to the archives section of 'Awake Alive and Jewish' and select the program broadcast on March 1st 2009, you can listen to an interview with Alec Garrard, builder of the Herod's Temple model.
