Lesson Seventeen
The First and Second Part of the Tabernacle
For laying aside the commandment of G-d, you hold the tradition of men - the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do. He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of G-d, that you may keep your tradition.”
Mark 7:8-9
Introduction
- Last week we looked at the issue of shadows. Unlike Theistic Platonism, we saw that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews did not negate the ‘shadows’ but pointed out that the shadows contain (present tense) the outline of the substance. The ‘shadows’ of are the only way that we can perceive what is invisible to us in this physical realm.
- The Physical and the Spiritual are not in opposition, but united in defining reality. The earthly Tabernacle was a copy of the heavenly one. It was a visible representation of what is invisible to us.
- The purpose for the ‘shadows’ is to reveal (present tense) the original.
- Hebrews 9 describes this revelation and the relationship between the shadows and their heavenly counter part.
The First, and Second
- Characteristic in the classic reading of Hebrews 9, is the acting upon a false premise. The premise is that the ‘first’ and ‘second’ discussed in this passage are the ‘first Tabernacle’ and the ‘second Tabernacle’. First = protos, second = deuteros.
- One fundamental flaw in the theology developed from the classic reading of Heb 9 comes from these words.
- Heb 8:5: the earthly Tabernacle was not the ‘first’ – it was made according to the pattern of the ‘first’ in the heavenliest. There is no ‘new Tabernacle’ in the sense of the ‘New Covenant’. That is a flawed understanding of this passage.
- The ‘first’ does NOT refer to the earthly Tabernacle, it is referring to the first part of the earthly Tabernacle when moving inward through the levels of holiness.
- 9:2: The ‘first’ refers to the earthly Tabernacle, outside the veil. It is what was daily visible.
- 9:3-8: The ‘second’ refers to that which was behind the veil in the earthly Tabernacle. It was what was daily invisible (“only once a year.”)
The Holy Place, the Holy of Holies – a Parable
- Heb 9:8-9: Is this saying that the earthly Tabernacle had to go away in order to see the real thing? May it never be. What is the ‘first Tabernacle’? Not the earthly one – but the first part of the earthly one. The writer has already given the definition for protos and deuteros = ‘visible’ and ‘invisible’.
- 9:5 kataskiazo [overshadowing] – what was behind the veil is a shadow of what exists in the heavenlies.
- The parable (9:9) is that the relationship between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies points to the relationship between the protos and the deuteros – the visible Tabernacle (represented in the Holy Place) and the invisible Tabernacle (represented in the Holy of Holies).
- His whole point of bringing the Tabernacle into the discussion was to discuss this ‘parable’.
- Once you define the writer’s protos and deuteros, go back and read 8-10 and you will be amazed how the discussion shifts.
- The entire argument is kal v’chomer – “how much more.”
Translator Bias
- In the New King James, no less than 11 times the translators change the tense of the verbs. Most of the changes are to make it appear that the Tabernacle and its function is a past tense thing. The King James does even worse.
- When the translators came upon a verb that made it sound as if the Tabernacle, or its system was valid, they changed the present tense to the past tense.
- When the translators came upon a verb that made it sound as if there was something yet to be realized with regard to the effect of Yeshua’s work on our behalf, they changed it to past tense.
- One has to ask “why?” The answer is clear: they either did not understand the passage – or they did not like what it is saying about the things that those same translators say in 8:13 “is becoming obsolete.” Their biased fiddling with the verbs in these passages is wicked.
Visible and Invisible
- 1Tim 1:17: G-d is invisible.
- John 1:18: No one has seen Him.
- Col 1:15: Yeshua is the visible image, of He Who is invisible.
- John 1:1-14: G-d, manifested. They could see Yeshua. He was physical, and visible.
- John 14:8-11: Look at Yeshua, see what cannot be seen.
- James 2:14-26: Faith and works. Faith = invisible; works = visible. You see faith, by seeing works.
- Want to “see” the Tabernacle in the heavenlies = look at the earthly one.
Summary
- Hebrews 9 is a chapter that seems to be about the abrogating of the Tabernacle/Temple system. That is because the translators want you to read it that way. Instead, the Tabernacle imagery is being used to point to the relationship between the visible and the invisible – because the discussion which began in chapter 8 and continues in chapter 10 is about the New Covenant, and Yeshua being the Mediator – and the writer is trying to teach us what “first” and “second” – “old” and “new” mean to us.
- Both the visible and the invisible comprise reality. They are not exclusive of each other – the invisible is enclosed within the visible.