Tent (4636) (skenos from skene = tent, booth, cloth hut, habitation, tabernacle Mt 17:4 Mk 9:5) is used only here and 2Co 5:4 ("in this tent" [skenos] ~ idiom meaning to be physically alive) and refers to a temporary abode, residence (tent, tabernacle) as opposed to a permanent structure. Skenos is used figuratively by Paul to refer to the human body as the habitation of the soul (the "tabernacle of the soul" - As an aside, beloved, recall that in the OT the "tabernacle" was where people met with God (Ex 25:22)! Is that true of your "tabernacle"? More to the point, have you met with Him yet today? This week? Remember you are under grace not law - let that love of God [which has been poured out in your heart by the Spirit -Ro 5:5-note, 1Jn 4:19] motivate your meeting with Him.). Paul had just used another metaphor to describe the human body - earthen vessels (2Co 4:7-note) IVP Bible Background Commentary writes that... Greek writers described the body as a vessel, a house, a tent and often as a tomb Denney comments that... Despite the fact that he was himself a by trade a tentmaker (Acts 18:3), this is the only place where Paul employs any of the terms correlative to skene. Alford comments that the figure of an earthly tent... is a common one with Greek writers...“The whole passage is expressed through the double figure of a house or tent, and a garment. The explanation of this abrupt transition from one to the other may be found in the image which, both from his occupation and his birthplace, would naturally occur to the Apostle,—the tent of Cilician hair-cloth, which might almost equally suggest the idea of a habitation and of a vesture.” (Stanley). Chrysostom observes "Having thus implied easy taking down and transitoriness, he opposes to this the house (building) which is eternal" Spurgeon comments on our bodies as tents declaring that The apostle Paul perceived that the body in which he lived was frail in itself. Paul was accustomed to make tents....When a tent is newly placed it is but a frail structure, very far removed from the substantiality of a house; in that respect it is exactly like this feeble corporeal frame of ours, which is crushed before the moth. Paul felt that his body would not need any great force to overthrow it; it was like the tent, which the Midianite saw in his dream, which only needed to be struck by a barley cake, and lo! it lay along. A house of solid masonry may need a crowbar and a pick to start its stones from their places, but feebler tools will soon overturn a tent and make a ruin of it. The body is liable to dissolution from causes so minute as to be imperceptible-a breath of foul air, an atom of poisonous matter, a trifle, a mere nothing, may end this mortal life. I hope that you and I duly remember the frailty of our bodies. We are not so foolish as to think that because we are in robust health today we must necessarily live to old age. We have had among ourselves lately abundant evidence that those who appear to be the healthiest are often the first to be taken away, while feeble persons linger on among us, whose lives are a continued wonder and a perpetual struggle. When we think of the brittle ware whereof our bodies are made it is not strange that they should soon be broken. Is it not a wonderful thing that we continue to live? much more wonderful than that we should die?...It is a very delicate process by which dust remains animated (Ed: "dust" referring to our mortal bodies); a thousand things can stay that process, and then our body is dissolved. Paul, therefore, because he saw his body to be frail us a bubble, looked forward to the time when the earthly house of his soul would be dissolved....There are signs about the aged which warn them that their earthly house was not built to stand for ever; it is a tabernacle or tent set up for a temporary purpose, and it shows signs of waxing old, and being ready to pass away. Hence, then, Paul was led to feel that both from the natural frailty of the body, and also from the injuries which it had already sustained, there was before him the evident probability that the earthly house of his tabernacle would be dissolved.... It would not long affect a man if his tent should be overthrown; he would shake himself clear of it and come forth; it would not otherwise disturb him. So death shall not affect us for the worse, but for the better; the dissolution of this hampering frame shall give us liberty. Today we are like birds in the egg; so long as the shell is whole we are not free: death breaks the shell. Does the fledgling lament the dissolution of the shell? I never heard of a bird in its nest pining over its broken shell; no, its thought runs otherwise: to wings, and flight, and sunny skies. So let it be with us. This body will be dissolved: let it be so; it is meet it should be. We have been glad of it while we have needed it, and we thank God for the wondrous skill displayed in it; but when we no longer require it, we shall escape from it as from imprisonment, and never wish to return to its narrow bounds. Death, as it pulls away our sackcloth canopy, will reveal to our wondering eyes the palace of the King wherein we shall dwell for ever, and, therefore, what cause have we to be alarmed at it? I have set out the whole catastrophe before you, and surely no believer trembles in view of it. (The Tent Dissolved and the Mansion Entered) "Copy and paste the address below into your web browser in order to go to the original page which will allow you to access live links related to the material on this page - these links include Scriptures (which can be read in context), Scripture pop-ups on mouse over, and a variety of related resources such as Bible dictionary articles, commentaries, sermon notes and theological journal articles related to the topic under discussion." http://www.preceptaustin.org/2corinthians_51-3_commentary.htm#t