tabernacle

—tabernacular /tab'euhr nak"yeuh leuhr/, adj.

/tab"euhr nak'euhl/, n., v., tabernacled, tabernacling.

n.

1. any place or house of worship, esp. one designed for a large congregation.

2. (often cap.) the portable sanctuary in use by the Israelites from the time of their wandering in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt to the building of the Temple in Jerusalem by Solomon. Ex. 25-27.

3. Eccles. an ornamental receptacle for the reserved Eucharist, now generally found on the altar.

4. a canopied niche or recess, as for an image or icon.

5. a temporary dwelling or shelter, as a tent or hut.

6. a dwelling place.

7. the human body as the temporary abode of the soul.

v.t., v.i.

8. to place or dwell in, or as if in, a tabernacle.

[1200-50; ME < LL tabernaculum, L: tent, equiv. to tabern(a) hut, stall, inn (cf. TAVERN) + -aculum, prob. extracted from hibernaculum winter quarters (see HIBERNACULUM)]

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In Jewish history, the portable sanctuary constructed by Moses as a place of worship for the Hebrew tribes during the period of wandering that preceded their arrival in the Promised Land.

Elaborately described in Exodus, it was divided into an outer room, the "holy place," and an inner room, the Holy of Holies, which housed the Ark of the Covenant. With the erection of the Temple of Jerusalem, the Tabernacle no longer served a purpose. In modern Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, the tabernacle is the receptacle on the church altar in which the consecrated elements of the Eucharist are stored.

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▪ Judaism

Hebrew  Mishkan 

      (“dwelling”), in Jewish history, the portable sanctuary constructed by Moses as a place of worship for the Hebrew tribes during the period of wandering that preceded their arrival in the Promised Land. The Tabernacle no longer served a purpose after the erection of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem in 950 BC.

      Israel's earliest sanctuary was a simple tent within which, it was believed, God manifested his presence and communicated his will. The elaborate description of the Tabernacle in Exodus is believed by some to be anachronistic, for many scholars consider the narrative as having been written during or after the Babylonian Exile (586–538 BC—i.e., after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple).

      The entire Tabernacle complex—whose specifications were dictated by God, according to the biblical account—consisted of a large court surrounding a comparatively small building that was the Tabernacle proper. The court, enclosed by linen hangings, had the shape of two adjacent squares. In the centre of the eastern square stood the altar of sacrifice for burnt offerings; nearby stood a basin holding water used by the priests for ritual ablutions. The corresponding position in the western square was occupied by the ark of the Law situated in the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle.

      The Tabernacle was constructed of tapestry curtains decorated with cherubim. The interior was divided into two rooms, “the holy place” and “the most holy place” (Holy of Holies). The outer room, or “holy place,” contained the table on which the bread of the Presence (shewbread) was placed, the altar of incense, and the seven-branched candelabrum (menorah). The inner room, or Holy of Holies, was thought to be the actual dwelling place of the God of Israel, who sat invisibly enthroned above a solid slab of gold that rested on the Ark of the Covenant and had a cherub at each end. This Ark was a gold-covered wooden box containing the tablets of the Ten Commandments.

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