Considering how much emphasis has been placed upon the
construction of a third temple, especially in terms of end-times
theology, one would have to assume that it is either commanded by the
Torah, prophesied of in the Torah, or otherwise sanctioned by the Torah
in order for it to be legitimate. However, as with many traditions,
there is a definite problem when delving into what the Torah actually
says regarding the subject. We will look at the wordings of many
rituals, as well as other relevant passages, in investigating this
matter.
Exodus 25:8 speaks regarding the commencement of the collection and construction of the Tabernacle. It states that Israel shall make for Him a holy-place, and He shall tabernacle (shakan’thiy) in their midst. The holy-place commanded is clearly what follows in these passages, and what comprises nearly half of the book of Exodus. It was the holy-place that was designed by YHWH and required and commanded by Him. There is no mention made regarding it being a temporary or otherwise insufficient holy-place, but instead it is the COMMANDED holy-place of the Torah.
Furthermore, following this passage in the Torah are a multitude of specific verses regarding the ceremonies being done with the Tabernacle specifically, as we will see shortly. First, I will address the reference in the Torah which is commonly accepted to be a temple reference, then we will look at the ceremonial commands.
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The passages from the Torah which are commonly interpreted to refer to a temple are from Deuteronomy, variously worded as referring to “…the place (lit. “the rising”) which YHWH your Elohim shall choose…”. It has been argued that “the place/rising” must be a newly constructed stationary temple. However, no where does the Torah ever actually say this, nor does it explicitly indicate that this rising/place is to be distinct from the already commanded Tabernacle. When looking at these passages, we see a pattern of wordings which would seem to be relevant:
“But rather, to the rising which YHWH your Elohim shall select from all of your scepters to place His name there, to His tabernacling (l’shiknu) you shall inquire, and you shall come toward there.” – Dt 12:5
“And it shall be the rising which YHWH your Elohim shall select in it, to make tabernacle (l’shaken) His name there…” – Dt 12:11
“And you shall eat to faces of YHWH your Elohim in rising which He shall select to make tabernacle (l’shaken) His name there…” – Dt 14:23
Is this “place” or “rising” not the place where the Tabernacle was to come to rest? For what reason should the place which is “His tabernacling” or “tabernacling His name” be considered as anything different than the “holy-place” with which “I shall tabernacle (shakanthiy) in their midst” in Exodus 25:8?
There are no commandments in the Torah that say anything
about building something to replace the Tabernacle, but instead we see
repeated explicit commandments regarding the ceremonies being done in
accordance with the Tabernacle, not any other structure.
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Since sacrifices and other ceremonies are not typically practiced today, due to the lack of a priesthood/etc, many who are otherwise concerned with the Torah seem to somewhat gloss over the specifics of all of these ceremonies, then allow their skimming of these verses to be filtered through their preexisting understanding of the ceremonial system (as did I when I once believed in the temple idea as well). This would make sense, as learning to do a particular ceremony that is not intended to be practiced in the near future would likely not be a priority. However, we should indeed be attending to the wordings of these passages.
Read the following verses, and notice my emphasis. Is not the Tabernacle/Tent of Appointment the commanded holy-place (Ex 25:8)? Are not all of these commands in accordance with it, and it alone?
“And you shall command children of Israel, and they take
to you olive oil, clear, pounded, for light, to rise up lamp
continually. In tent of appointment from outside to divider, which [is] over the witness, Aaron and his sons shall arrange it from evening until morning to faces of YHWH, enactment of forever, for their generations from children of Israel.” – Ex 27:20-21
“And make for them linen pants…And they shall be on Aaron and on his sons in their entering into tent of appointment, or in their coming close to the altar, to minister of in holy, and they shall not bear iniquity, and they shall die. Enactment of forever for him and for his seed after him.” – Ex 28:42-43
“And you shall make round of copper, and its stand copper, for laving, and you shall give it between tent of appointment and between the altar…Aaron and his sons shall lave from it their hands and their feet. In their entering to tent of appointment
they shall lave waters and they shall not die, or in their coming close
to the altar to minister, to cause smoke of fire to YHWH.” – Ex
30:18-20
“If ascent [is] his nearing, from the herd, male, perfect, he shall near it to opening of tent of appointment. He shall near it for acceptance of him to faces of YHWH.” – Lev 1:3
“And he shall slay son of the herd to faces of YHWH, and
Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall near the blood and shall sprinkle the
blood on the altar round-about, which [is by] opening of tent of appointment.” – Lev 1:5
“And if slaughter of peaces [is] his nearing, if it [is]
from the herd…he shall support his hand on head of his nearing, and he
shall slay it [at] opening of tent of appointment, and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood on the altar round-about.” – Lev 3:1-2
“And if goat [is] his nearing, and he nears it to faces
of YHWH, And he shall support his hand on its head, and he shall slay
it to faces of tent of appointment, and sons of Aaron shall sprinkle its blood on the altar round-about.” – Lev 3:12-13
“if the priest, the anointed, does wrong to guilt of the people…he shall bring the young bull to opening of tent of appointment
to faces of YHWH, and he shall support his hand on head of the young
bull, and he shall slay the young bull to faces of YHWH. And the
priest, the anointed, shall take from blood of the young bull and he
shall bring it to tent of appointment. And the priest shall dip his finger in blood and he shall spatter from the blood seven strokes to faces of YHWH, faces of divider of the holy. And the priest shall give from the blood on horns of altar of smoking of the aroma to faces of YHWH, which [is] in tent of appointment, and all of blood of the young bull he shall spill out to foundation of the altar, the ascent, which [is at] opening of tent of appointment.” – Lev 4:3-8
“And the reserve from it Aaron and his sons shall eat, unleaveneds it shall be eaten, in holy standing, in court of tent of appointment they shall eat it…Every male in children of Aaron shall eat it, enactment of forever to your generations…” – Lev 6:16-18
“The priest, the one making wrongdoing [offering], shall eat it in holy standing. It shall be eaten in court of tent of appointment.” – Lev 6:26
“Wine and intoxicant you must not drink, you and your sons with you, in your coming to tent of appointment, and you shall not die. Enactment of forever for your generations.” – Lev 10:9
“And the priest, the one cleaning, shall cause the man to stand, the one cleansing himself, and them, to faces of YHWH, [at] opening of tent of appointment.” – Lev 14:11
“And he shall bring them in the eighth day for his cleansing to the priest to opening of tent of appointment to faces of YHWH.” – Lev 14:23
“And in the eighth day he shall take to him two torim or two children of yonah and he shall come to faces of YHWH, to opening of tent of appointment, and he shall give them to the priest.” – Lev 15:14
“And in the eighth day she shall take to her two torim or two children of yonah, and she shall bring them to the priest to opening of tent of appointment.” – Lev 15:29
“And he shall take two of the hairies (goats), and he shall cause them to stand to faces of YHWH, [at] opening of tent of appointment.” – Lev 16:7
“And he shall make covering over the holy, from defilements of children of Israel, and from their transgressions, for all their wrongdoings, and so he shall do for tent of appointment, the one tabernacling (shoken) with them in midst of their defilements. And any of human shall not be in tent of appointment in his entering to make covering in holy until his going, and he shall make covering about him and about his house and about all of assembly of Israel.” – Lev 16:16-17
“And Aaron shall enter to tent of appointment, and he shall spread coverings of the linen which he wrapped in his coming to the holy, and he shall leave them there.” – Lev 16:23
“And he shall make covering for holy-place of the holy and tent of appointment and the altar. He shall make covering, and over the priests and over all of people of the assembly he shall make covering.” – Lev 16:33
“Every man from house of Israel who slays bull or sheep or goat in camp, or who slays from outside to camp, and to opening of tent of appointment he brings it not, to near nearing to YHWH, to faces of tabernacle of YHWH, blood shall be designed to that man. He poured blood, and that man shall be cut from within his peoples, so that which children of Israel shall bring their slaughters which they [are] slaughtering on faces of the field, and they shall bring them to YHWH, to opening of tent of appointment, to the priest, and they shall slaughter them slaughters of peaces to YHWH. And the priest shall sprinkle the blood on altar of YHWH, opening of tent of appointment, and he shall cause the fat to smoke to smell of restful to YHWH….Enactment of forever this shall be for them, for their generations. And to them you shall say, Every man from house of Israel and from the sojourner who sojourns in their midst, who shall ascend ascent or slaughter, and to opening of tent of appointment he shall not bring it, to do of it to YHWH, and that man shall be cut from his peoples.” – Lev 17:3-9
“And he shall bring his guilt to YHWH, to opening of tent of appointment, ram of guilt.” – Lev 19:21
“From outside of to divider of the witness, in tent of appointment, Aaron shall arrange it from evening until morning to faces of YHWH continually, enactment of forever for your generations.” – Lev 24:3
“Near rod of Levi, and stand him to faces of Aaron, the priest, and they shall minister him. And they shall guard his keeping and keeping of all of the congregation to faces of tent of appointment, to serve service of the tabernacle.”- Num 3:6-7
“And the priest shall take holy waters in article of scratch and from the dust which is in floor of the tabernacle, and the priest shall take and he shall give to the waters,” – Num 5:17
“And in the eighth day he shall bring two of torim or two of sons of yonah to the priest, to opening of tent of appointment…
And this [is] law of the sequestration, in day to fill days of his sequestration he shall bring it to opening of tent of appointment…
And the sequestered shall shave, opening of tent of appointment,
head of his sequestration, and he shall take hair of head of his
sequestration, and he shall give on the fire which [is] under slaughter
of the peaces.” – Num 6:10, 13, 18
“And I have given the Levites, ones being given, to
Aaron and to his sons from midst of children of Israel, to serve service
of children of Israel in tent of appointment, and to
make covering over children of Israel, and infliction shall not be in
children of Israel in coming of children of Israel to the holy-place.” – Num 8:19
“And YHWH said to Aaron, You and your sons and house of your father with you shall bear iniquity of the holy-place…and you and your sons with you [shall be] to faces of tent of the witness…” – Num 18:1-2
“And to sons of Levi, behold, I give all of tithe in Israel to inheritance, exchange of their service which they [are] ones serving service of tent of appointment.” – Num 18:21
“And the Levite shall serve it, service of tent of appointment, and they shall bear their iniquity, enactment of forever for your generations, and in midst of children of Israel they shall not inherit inheritance.” – Num 18:23
“And you shall eat it in any rising, you and your house, that it [is] hire for you, exchange of your service in tent of appointment.” – Num 18:31
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The ceremonies described throughout the Torah are
clearly intended to be done with the Tabernacle/Tent of Appointment, not
with any temple. A massive rewriting of the commandments would be
required to justify performing these ceremonies with anything other than
the commanded Tabernacle, which obviously would not be legitimate.
In fact, we see in the previously cited passage of
Leviticus 17 that a temple could be deemed practically outright
prohibited. If a person slaughters an offering in or out of the camp
and does not bring it to the Tabernacle (mishkan), he shall be
cut from his peoples. Bringing such a sacrifice to another place, like a
temple, would surely be going against this.
All of these ceremonies have very specific practices
which are to be performed in the service, and its specificity is
practically made to be irrelevant if we deem that we have the ability to
change these commandments. If the commandments had been intended to
refer to another place, surely there would have been a command in the
Torah regarding this, but there is not. Instead, we see repeated
explicit reference to performing these ceremonies with the Tabernacle,
“forever”. If they are “forever”, as with any commandment of the Torah,
then how would they legitimately be replaced or otherwise be made
obsolete? They cannot be. Is not the giving of the Tabernacle a
prophesied blessing (Lev 26:11)?
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Within the TNK, there are repeated positive references
to a temple, even in terms of prophecy. When the temple idea was first
“commanded”, David gave his complaint to Nathan in 2 Samuel 7:2, saying,
“…I sit in house of cedars, and container of the Elohim sits in midst
of the curtain.” Obviously with David’s presumed wealth, he might have
felt that the Torah-commanded Tabernacle was insufficient, and this is
likely considered in comparison to the immense pagan temples that other
nations were building. However, we should remember that the “holy-place”
commanded by the Torah is indeed the Tabernacle, not a temple. The word
“holy” (qodesh) itself implies being “set apart”, and the
Tabernacle indeed is distinct and set apart from a conventional pagan
temple. Should David have felt this way, that the Tabernacle was not
good, considering the holy-place was already commanded to be a certain
way? For what reason should he have sought to replace what the Torah
commanded with something according to the imaginations of his and his
son’s heart? For what reason would the commandments of the Torah be
insufficient?
It is indeed true that the Torah requires that future
prophets be listened to (Dt 18:15-22), but this would indeed be
applicable only in the case of a legitimate true prophecy. Regarding
the validity of later prophecy, should we arbitrarily hold writings
which come after Moses to be inherently inspired simply because of
rabbinic or Christian tradition on the matter? If we are commanded to
test prophets which come after Moses and be skeptical of such prophets
(see Dt 18:21-22), then surely blind acceptance of prophets after Moses
would not be expected of us. We are also not commanded
to look at a prophetic book to “see if it the prophet claims to be
pro-Torah” or “claims to have made verifying signs” to determine whether
it is a true prophecy. We can readily see what is commanded in the
Torah on this matter, and part of the actual prophets test is regarding
whether the commandments “…thrust you from the way which YHWH your Elohim
commanded you to walk…” (Dt 13:5). By the command of the Torah, when
we look into these TNK books that sanction the replacement of the
Torah-commanded Tabernacle, what source should take precedence to us?
Should we try to mentally reword or otherwise rewrite the Torah to
justify what a later prophet says, or should we test a later prophet
according to the commandments of the Torah? Obviously, we are expected
to hold the Torah as the authority on the issue, and the Torah commands
the Tabernacle.
If we are to take the commandment of not adding to or
taking away from the commandments seriously (Dt 4:2, 12:32), then we
would not be able to add new commandments regarding new ceremonies, such
as what occurs in Ezekiel 40-46. These are new ceremonies that are
being prophesied of. In justifying this, it has been argued that “these
are just the things we are to do when the temple is rebuilt”, and that
is exactly the problem. These are not instructions given to a single
person for a single point in time, these are actually explicitly said to
be new laws, which by its very definition would be a violation of
Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32. If it is not, then those commandments
regarding not adding to or taking away from are practically meaningless.
These future prophets, such as Nathan in 2 Samuel 7,
should not be deemed as higher than the Torah. We should test them
according to the Torah commandments, and we should not just be
presumptuous in our emphasis on traditional theology. However, one
cannot readily test an actual prophet just based upon writings (in the
sense of proving such a writing to be a “true prophecy”), which is
another reason why we should hold such writings with skepticism to begin
with. We can, however, see if it goes against the Torah, once we are
aware of what the Torah says. In this case, the Torah repeatedly
commands that ceremonies should be done with the Tabernacle, and there
is no expectation of anything otherwise indicated as such in the Torah.
If we hold the Torah to be true, then what we should be hoping for is
the rebuilding of the Tabernacle, NOT the construction of a temple.
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Leviticus 26:3-12 lists the blessings of obedience, and
among them is, “I shall give My Tabernacle in your midst…” (Lev 26:11).
The blessings of obedience to the Torah contain explicit references to
“the land” (Lev 26:4-6), and considering these are blessings which are
obviously relevant for the dwelling in Canaan, for what reason would “I
shall give My Tabernacle” be considered a blessing in Canaan if the
Tabernacle was only a temporary thing? By the standard of tradition and
later prophecies, the Tabernacle has been deemed as practically
intended to be replaced, and instead, a temple has been treated as a
great sign of the dominion of Israel and Israel’s obedience. However,
what we see in the actual Torah does not say this! Instead, we see
that, due to Israel’s obedience, the commanded Tabernacle will be given
in their midst. The anticipation of the “rebuilding of the temple” as
being a sign of Israel’s return to the Torah is not what should be
expected by the standard of the commandments, and it is not what is
described in Leviticus 26:11.
Surely we should take these commandments of the Torah as
they are written, and we should not seek to rewrite them for the
purposes of justifying a later theology or tradition. The ceremonies of
the Torah repeatedly refer to them being done in and with the
Tabernacle, and they are said to be forever. We should not nullify the
Torah with later theology, but we should uphold the theology of the
Torah. The Tabernacle is the holy-place commanded by the Torah, and it
is with this place that YHWH chooses to dwell in Israel’s midst, and
that is a blessing of obedience.
(From prior posting on Gr. 8/24/14)
