FROM THE EDITOR
THE TABERNACLE OR TEMPLE
M
any Masonic students have greatly erred in the way in which they have referred to the Sinaitic Tabernacle, as if it were represented by the Tabernacle said in the legends to have been erected by Zerubbabel at Jerusalem at the time of the building of the second Temple. The belief that the Tabernacle of Zerubbabel was an exact representation of that erected by Moses, arose from the numerous allusions to it in the writings of Doctor Oliver, but in this country principally from the teachings of Thomas Smith Webb and Jeremy L. Cross. It is, however, true, that although the symbols of the Ark, the Golden Candlestick, the Altar of Incense, and some others were taken, not from the Tabernacle, but from the Temple, the symbolism of the veils was derived from the latter, but in a form by no means similar to the original disposition. It is therefore necessary that some notice should be taken of the real 4
Tabernacle, that we may be enabled to know how far the Masonic is connected with the Sinaitic edifice. The word tabernacle means a tent. It is the diminutive of the Latin word taberna, and was used by the Romans to denote a soldier’s tent. It was constructed of planks and covered with skins, and its outward appearance presented the precise form of the Jewish Tabernacle. They are enjoined to make, in what concerns it (i.e. the building of the Temple), a holy site and an innersanctum,[a] and where there is positioned in front of the holy site a certain place that is called a ‘Hall’ (Hebrew: )םלוא. The three of these places are called ‘Sanctuary’ (Hebrew: )לכיה. They are [also] enjoined to make a different partition surrounding the Sanctuary, distant from it, similar to the screen-like hangings of the court that were
The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Maryland - THE LIGHT - June 2023
