14. Chapter V: The Materials and Arts Employed in the Construction of the Tabernacle and Prie...

Chapter V: The Materials and Arts Employed in the Construction of the Tabernacle and Priests’ Garments.

Cultivation of the Arts Among the Egyptians and Israelites.

It has been adduced as an argument against the historical character of the Pentateuch, that the construction of the tabernacle and the priest’s garments, implies a cultivation of the arts and an abundance of costly materials, such as we could not expect to find among the Israelites when they left Egypt. These materials consisted not merely of gold, silver and brass, but also of costly stuffs, furs and spices, things which a nomade people are not accustomed to carry with them in their wanderings. It is accordingly argued that the whole description of the tabernacle belongs not to history but to fiction.^[496] The assertion was made with so much confidence that it has by degrees become established and traditional.

[496] See Vater, Abhand. S. 648, De Wette, Beitr. I. S. 259. II. S. 260. Von Bohlen, S. CXII. The foundation for its confutation, we have indeed previously laid,^[497] by showing that the prevalent view concerning the condition of the Israelites in Egypt, according to which they merely continued their nomade life, is a false one, since they there availed themselves of the advantages of Egyptian culture and civilization, and in some respects attained to considerable prosperity. To complete the structure, there is now nothing further requisite, than to show that the materials which were used in making the tabernacle and priestly robes, were at that time already in use in Egypt, but most especially that the arts and contrivances which come into consideration, were there already in existence and known. For the material and intellectual resources of the Egyptians we justly consider as common to the Israelites with them.

[497] Beiträge Th. 2. S. 430 ff. But to furnish this information is not our only design in this chapter. We also aim at a more positive object beyond this. While we show that the Israelitish arts are connected with the Egyptian by many characteristic peculiarities, we prove that the situation of things is just such as it must be, if we suppose that Moses is the author of the Pentateuch, or at least that it is historically accurate, while later fiction or fictitious narrative could not have originated or sustained this Egyptian relationship.

We begin with a general declaration of one of the most distinguished investigators of Egyptian antiquity. “It is a wonderful fact, that the first information which we have with regard to the history and manners of the Egyptians, shows us a nation which is far advanced in civilized life. The same customs and inventions which prevailed in the Augustan era of this people, at the commencement of the eighteenth dynasty, are also found even in the far distant age of Osirtasen, the contemporary of Joseph.” The Art of Cutting and Setting Precious Stones. The materials which were used in the construction of the tabernacle and priest’s garments were a part of them hard, and a part soft. Among the former, precious stones take the first place. Bezaleel, is spoken of in Ex. 33:36, as distinguished among other things for his skill “in the preparation of stones for setting.” Precious stones, on which the names of the Israelites were engraven in the character engraven on the signet ring, were placed, according to Exodus 28:9-11; Exodus 28:17, seq., in golden encasements upon the ephod and breastplate of the high priest. The art of cutting precious stones, generally very early discovered, was practised in Egypt even in very ancient times.^[498] “There are several necklaces of gold and cornelian in the new gallery of Egyptian antiquities opened at the British Museum, whose exquisite workmanship could scarcely be surpassed by modern artists, though as we see from the engraving, the apparatus of the jeweller was as simple as could well be imagined. This is still the case in Hindoostan, where the native jeweller, travelling from house to house with his little furnace and blow pipe, produces ornaments of considerable beauty.”^[499] How very much genuine precious stones were valued is indeed evident from the circumstance that imitations of them were made in considerable numbers. The Theban artists were particularly distinguished in this employment of counterfeiting. As, then we find it common for the Egyptians to imitate the ornaments of the rich in cheaper materials for the use of the lower classes, it is very evident that the spirit of luxury, which belongs to an advanced state of civilization was already at an early period widely diffused in Egypt.^[500] That the art of the engraver was native to Egypt, is manifest from the data which Wilkinson has furnished with regard to the Egyptian signets. Of many of them he has also engravings.^[501] There, for example, is described the signet yet preserved, of one of the earliest of the Pharaohs. Upon one side of the plate the name of the king is engraved; upon the opposite, a lion with the motto: “The lord of strength,” which is applied to the king; on one side is a scorpion, and on the opposite a crocodile.^[502] Moreover, various other inscriptions are found engraved on Egyptian rings.”^[503] [498] See quotations from Winkelmann, Müller and others in Bähr Symbol. Th. II. S. 103.

[499] Taylor, p. 88.

[500] Taylor, p. 88.

[501] Vol. III. p. 373-4.

[502] The assertion of Pliny, 33: 6: “Non signat Oriens aut Aegyptus etiam nunc, literis contenta solis,” is by these discoveries shown to be false.

[503] Compare Wilk. III. p. 376. The Art of Purifying and Working Metals.

Among the hard materials, the metals hold the second place. Of Bezaleel it is said in Exodus 35:32, he had power to devise curious works, to work in gold and silver and brass.” With this compare what Rosellini^[504] says: “From all such articles, as they are represented in the Egyptian tombs, it is manifest, how anciently the art of casting and working metals was practised in Egypt”—And: “The greater part of Egyptian metallic articles are of bronze, not a few of gold, a smaller number of silver, very few of lead and those made of iron are seldom found.”^[505] [504] II. 2. p. 297.

[505] Ros. II. 2. p. 208. The gold which was ordered to be used about the sanctuary is commonly designated as pure gold.^[506] A painting in the tomb at Thebes which bears the date of Thothmes IV., appears to represent the fusion and purifying of gold.^[507] Many ornaments are found in the Egyptian collections which are made of the purest gold. The monuments furnish clear evidence that gold was purified, and thus of course distinguished from that which was unwrought and not purified. Incorrectly, therefore have some, referring to some one old ornament, made of impure gold, denied to the Egyptians the art of preparing pure gold.^[508] According to Exodus 25:11, the ark of testimony, and according to 26:29, all the boards of the tabernacle were to be overlaid with gold. “We find,” says Wilkinson,”^[509] that in Egypt substances of various kinds were overlaid with gold leaf, at the earliest periods of which the monuments remain even in the time of the first Osirtasen.” Even the mummies were gilded.^[510] [506] SeeExodus 25:11;Exodus 25:17;Exodus 25:24;Exodus 25:29and other passages.

[507] Rosellini II. 2. p. 278.

[508] Ibid. p. 280.

[509] Vol. III. 224.

[510] See Pettigrew, History of Egyptian Mummies, London, 1834, p.63.

According to Exodus 39:3, the high priest’s ephod was interwoven with threads of gold. We find even gold wire attached to rings bearing the date of Osirtasen the first; and silver wire existed in the days of the third Thothmes.^[511] Some of the colored Egyptian dresses represented in the paintings are probably woven with gold threads.^[512] [511] Wilk. III. p. 129.

[512] Wilk. III. p. 131. In the two upper golden rings of the breastplate, wreathed golden chains were inserted, for fastening the breastplate to the ephod.^[513] Golden chains were very common among the Egyptians, and are often, for example, represented as necklaces.^{[514] [513]} Exodus 28:22seq. Bähr Symbol. Vol. II. S. 105.

[514] Wilkinson, Vol. III. p. 376, with the engraving, 409, M. The golden candlestick was ornamented with flowers of gold, Exodus 25:31 seq. Representations of flowers were also probably made on the variegated cloths of the tabernacle.^[515] The Egyptians had an extraordinary love for flowers, both natural and artificial. The Lotus and other favorite flowers are found everywhere worn as ornaments. According to Pliny^[516] they made artificial flowers which received the name of “Ægyptiæ.”^[517] [515] Bähr Th. I. S. 314.

[516] 21:2.

[517] Wilk. Vol. II. p. 183. In Exodus, Exodus 35:22, among the free will offerings which both the men and women of Israel brought for the sanctuary, “nose rings and ear rings, and signet rings and pendants,” all jewels of gold, first mentioned. Astonishment at this abundance of ornaments is at an end, when we read what Rosellini^[518] upon this point: “Costly and elegant ornaments abounded, in proportion as clothing in general was simple and scarce among the Egyptians. Girdles, necklaces, armlets, rings, earrings and amulets of various kinds suspended from the neck, are found represented in the paintings and in fact, still exist on the mummies. Figures of noble youth, are found entirely devoid of clothing, but richly ornamented with necklaces,” etc.^[519] [518] Vol. II. 2. p. 419-20. says

[519]Gilding was certainly understood by the Egyptians, for we find several examples of it on the mummies and the mummy cases. In the new Egyptian gallery just opened at the British Museum, there are masks on a mummy and a mummy case exquisitely gilt and burnished, which are among the richest specimens of the gilding art in any age. It would be too long a digression to examine whether the “overlaying the boards of the tabernacle with gold,” (Exodus 36:34,) refers to gilding ora covering of thin plates ; but, in support of the former view, we may notice that the weight of the plates would have rendered the tabernacle very difficult of transport, and a positive incumbrance to the Israelites in their journeying through the desert; the amount of gold, too, collected by Moses, would not have supplied sufficient material for plates, however thin, to cover the entire edifice ; and, finally, the word hero rendered “overlaying” is the same used to describe the decorating of the carved work in Solomon’s temple, which must have been gilding, as plates, however thin, would have concealed the tracery and foliage described to have been wrought with so much artistic skill. The quantity of gold, indeed, which would have been required to cover all the parts of the temple which Solomon is said to have “overlaid,” would be utterly incredible if we supposed that he covered them with plates, however thin; this is sufficiently clear from the description: “So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold ; and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold. And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold. And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high. And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing unto the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits. And the other cherub was ten cubits: both the cherubims were of one measure and one size. The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was it of the other cherub. And he set the cherubims within the inner house; and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubims, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall: and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house. And he overlaid the cheruhims with gold.” (1 Kings 6:21-28.) Isaiah distinctly mentions that the goldsmith “spreadeth over” the molten image with gold, (Isaiah 40:19.); and he also intimates that wood was also gilt over, for he speaks of the “carpenter encouraging the goldsmith.” (Isaiah 41:7.) The brazen laver according to Exodus 38:8, was made of the brazen mirrors which the holy women offered.^[520] “One of the principal objects of the toilet,” says Wilkinson,^[521] “was the mirror. It was of mixed metal, chiefly copper, most carefully wrought and highly polished; and so admirably did the skill of the Egyptians succeed in the composition of metals, that this substitute for our modern looking- glass was susceptible of a lustre which has even been partially revived at the present day, in some of those discovered at Thebes, though buried in the earth for many centuries.” The mirror was nearly round, inserted into a handle of wood, stone or metal of various forms.^[522] See also the same author^[523]upon looking-glasses discovered at Thebes, and upon the whole subject, Rosellini,^[524] according to whom, the Egyptian name of mirror like the Hebrew, signifies, the view of the face.

[520] Th. 3. der Beiträge, S. 133.

[521] Vol. III. p. 384.

[522] Engravings of them are found in Wilk. III. 385-6.

[523] Vol. III. p. 253.

[524] Vol. II. 2. 528 seq.

Skill in Carving Wood. The third hard material is wood. The circumstance that the same kind of wood which was employed about the sanctuary, the acacia, (tamarisk, sant,)^[525] was also commonly used in Egypt is of but little importance, since this is the only wood which the desert furnishes. The Egyptians were greatly skilled in joiner and cabinet work.^[526]Rosellini says, on p. 38: according to the monuments, the saw was known and in use 2000 years before our era.

[525]Compare Herod. B. 2. c. 122. Jablonsky, Vocc. Aeg. ap. Script. Vett., s. v. Sant and Sittim, Rosellini, II. 2. S. 33. Wilk. Vol. III. p. 168.

[526]Compare Ros. II. 2. p. 32, and Taylor, p. 106 seq.

Use of Leather.

Leather holds the first place among the soft materials. The covering of the tabernacle, which lay directly over that of goat’s hair, according to Exodus 26:14, was to consist of ram’s skins colored red. Above that, was a covering of another kind of handsome leather, which cannot be accurately defined. The preparation of leather, says Wilkinson,^[527] was an important branch of Egyptian industry. The fineness of the leather of the straps of a mummy discovered at Thebes, and the beauty of the figures which are stamped upon it, show conclusively the skill of the artist who prepared it. Some of these pieces of leather bear the name of the kings of the oldest times. Rosellini^[528] also gives an account of the art of making leather. In the tombs at Thebes, a shop filled with leather-workers is found represented. They made bottles, quivers and pouches of different colors, and ornaments, shoes and sandals, shields, etc., of leather. “The wood of the Egyptian harps was sometimes covered with colored leather. In the museum of the Louvre, at Paris, an Egyptian harp is preserved, whose wood is covered with a kind of green morocco, cut in the form of a lotus blossom.”^[529] [527] Vol. III. p. 155.

[528] Ros. II. 2. p. 355.

[529] Ros. II. 3. p. 16.

Spinning, Weaving and Embroidery.

We now turn our attention to their cloths of the tabernacle and priests’ garments. Many passages mention the twisted byssus.^[530] In the tombs of Beni Hassan, the process of preparing the thread and twining it, in preparation for weaving, is exhibited.^[531] They were accustomed to beat the yarn with clubs so as to make it softer and more suitable for twining; they also boiled the thread in water to increase its softness, and at the same time give it greater consistence, and thus make it better for twisting and weaving. The byssus in particular was treated in this way. The inscription on a part of an Egyptian wall-picture is interpreted by Rosellini:^[532] The preparation of the yarn of byssus. Then follows the representation of the twisting itself, which is performed, partly by men and partly by women, and indeed in different ways, which Rosellini describes.^[533] [530]Exodus 26:1;Exodus 26:31, and other passages.

[531] Ros. II. 2. p. 13, 14.

[532] p. 16.

[533] p. 16 and 17. The skill of the Egyptians in weaving, and the great renown of their cloths in all antiquity, is recognized and confirmed by the fact, that the ancient writers attribute to the Egyptians the invention of this art.^[534]

^[534] Aegyptii textilia (invenerunt). Plin. B. 7. c. 56.Moses is the first who mentions the preparation of gold in threads to be interwoven with the more precious cloths. “And they did beat the gold into thin plates and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen with cunning work.” (Exodus 39:3.) Cloth of golden tissue is not uncommon on the monuments, and specimens of it have been found rolled about the mummies, but it is not easy to determine whether the gold thread was originally interwoven or subsequently inserted by the embroiderer. 

Herodotus^[535] mentions as one of the points in which the Egyptians differ from other nations, that among them the women perform the out-of-door’s work, and the men weave.^[536] Other ancient writers bear testimony to the same thing. “In ancient times the weavers of Panopolis, in Upper Egypt, were especially distinguished, in later times, those in Arsinoe, Pelusium and Alexandria.”^[537] Also very many men are seen on the monuments employed in weaving,^[538] and when we not unfrequently also see women weaving,^[539] this can, in view of the testimony of ancient writers, yet be considered only as the exception which destroys not the rule.—Now, in most perfect agreement with these notices of ancient writers, the preparation of the cloth for the sanctuary and the sacerdotal robes is represented throughout as under the care of men.^[540]

[535] Chap. 2. 35 Compare c. 105:Οἱδὲἄνδρες κατʼοἰκους ἐόντες ὑφαίνουσι.

[536] Heeren, S. 388.

[537] Strabo, 17, 813. Drumann Inschrift von Rosette, S. 170.

[538] See, e.g. Minutoli, t. 25.

[539] Ros. II. 2. p. 30, and Wilk. Vol. III. p. 134, and the engravings, Vol. II. p. 60.

[540] See the phrase, “work of the weaver,” inExodus 28:32;Exodus 39:22;Exodus 39:27; “work of the artificer,” in 28:6, 15, 26:31, but especially ch. 35:36. The women, on the contrary, performed the spinning,^[541] and this work generally belonged to them in Egypt.^[542] Wilkinson gives engravings of women who are employed with the spindle. Yet this was not exclusively their work.^[543] [541]Exodus 35:25.

[542]Herod. 2. 35, and Wilk. 2.60.

[543]Wilk. Vol. III. p. 133. The same author also gives an engraving of Egyptian spindles, p. 136.

It is evident from Exodus 35:25, according to which the Israelitish women brought of the purple which they had spun, that the colored fabrics which were employed about the tabernacle, were dyed before weaving. The same thing was also done among the Egyptians. In Minutoli^[544] it is said: “From many experiments upon the ancient Egyptian cloth it appears that the byssus was colored in the wool before weaving, which also is shown by Exodus 25:4; Exodus 26:1. The process which Pliny^[545] describes for impressing different colors all at once upon the web after it is finished by the use of various preparations, appears therefore to be a later advancement in Egyptian art.” Wilkinson^[546] also shows that cloth was colored in the thread among the ancient Egyptians.

[544] S. 402.

[545] Hist. nat. p. 35, 42.

[546] Vol. III. p. 125. The colored figures in the cloth of the Israelites were partly the product of the weaver in colors, ה‍‍שֵׁב, whose art appears the superior, and partly that of the embroiderer in colors, רֹקַם.^[547] Both methods are reproduced on the monuments, so that the objection which has been brought forward against rendering the word rokem by embroiderers, that the art of embroidering was generally unknown in earlier ages, and particularly among the Hebrews, is to be regarded as entirely groundless. “Many of the Egyptian stuffs,” says Wilkinson,^[548] “presented various patterns worked in colors by the loom, independent of those produced by the dyeing or printing process, and so richly composed, that they vied with cloths embroidered with the needle.” The Egyptian sails, says the same author,^[549] were some of them embroidered with fanciful devices, representing the phoenix, flowers and other emblems. This, however, was confined to the pleasure boats of the nobles and king. That this was done even in the early ages, is evident from the paintings at Thebes, which show sails ornamented with various colors of the time of Remeses III. The devices are various, the most common one is the phoenix.^[550]

[547] Compare the passage in the LXX, and the proof thatרֹקַםsignifies embroiderers, in opposition to Hartmann, Gesen. and others, in Bähr Symb. I. S. 267.

[548] Vol. III. p. 128.

[549] Ibid, 210.

[550] See engravings in Wilk. III. 210. In Exodus 28:32, it is said of the outer garment of the high priest: “And its opening for the head shall be in the middle of it, a border shall there be to the opening round about, of woven work, like the opening of a habergeon shall it be, so that it be not rent.” No other than a linen harbergeon can be meant; for no other would need a binding. The linen armor of the Egyptians was renowned in all antiquity. Herodotus^[551] mentions a linen habergeon (or corselet), ornamented with many animals, and worked with cotton thread and with gold, which Amasis sent to the Lacedemonians as a present, and also another which the same king dedicated to Minerva at Lindus. He designates this last as a “linen corselet worthy of admiration.”^[552] It is acknowledged, that the linen corselet was not peculiar to Egypt alone.^[553] But yet an importance such as is here implied, the linen corselet had nowhere except in Egypt.

[551]3. 47.]] [552]2. 182. See also Wilk. III. 127 seq.

[553] Ajax is designated in theIliad, 2. 529, as,λινοθώρηξ. Compare the passages collected and referred to in Perizonius upon Sueton. Galba, c. 19.

Preparation and Use of Unguents.

We also remark, that what is said in Exodus 30:22 seq., concerning the holy ointment and its preparation, has received abundant explanation and confirmation from investigations in Egypt. Unguents were very much used among the Egyptians. This is evident in part from representations in the paintings, and in part from the vases for containing them which yet exist. Some of them still retain their odor. As far as can be determined from these last, unguents appear sometimes to have been made of nut oil, but it is probable, that animal as well as vegetable oil was used for this purpose, while the other ingredients depended on the taste of the maker or purchaser.^[554] [554] Wilk. II. p. 214, and III. 378.

It is worthy of notice, that in the description of the holy ointment, the hin is first used as a measure, which afterwards often appears in the Pentateuch. It has no discoverable Hebrew etymology, and furthermore it appears probable that the name is not of Hebrew origin, since it is found, out of the Pentateuch, only in Ezekiel, in the description of the temple, where, like so many other words, it is not taken from the current language of the day, but from the Pentateuch. According to Leeman,^[555] the word is borrowed from the Egyptian language. The hin, he asserts, was originally the general name for a vessel which then was transferred by the Hebrews and Egyptians to a certain measure of variable compass.

[555] Lettre a M. Salvolini sur les Monumens Égyptians, Leyden 1838.

Hitherto we have occupied ourselves only with the materials of the tabernacle and priest’s garments, and the arts which are known to have been employed upon them. Now, we will also show, that even in the religious institutions of the Books of Moses, Egyptian references cannot be denied, notwithstanding the opposition of those who in modern times, combating the practice so hostile to sound criticism, of finding such references wherever there is the least semblance of a reason for it, have wholly denied their existence.