Until the building of
Solomon's temple the unity of worship according to it had,
properly speaking, never had any existence; and, moreover, it is
easy to read between the lines that even after that date it was
more a pious wish than a practical demand. The Priestly Code, on
the other hand, is unable to think of religion without the one
sanctuary, and cannot for a moment imagine Israel without it,
carrying its actual existence back to the very beginning of the
theocracy, and, in accordance with this, completely altering the
ancient history. The temple, the focus to which the worship was
concentrated, and which in reality was not built until Solomon's
time, is by this document regarded as so indispensable, even for
the troubled days of the wanderings before the settlement, that it
is made portable, and in the form of a tabernacle set up in the
very beginning of things. For the truth is, that the tabernacle
is the copy, not the prototype, of the temple at Jerusalem. The
resemblance of the two is indeed unmistakable, /1/
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1. In Wisdom of Solomon ix. 8 the temple is called MIMHMA SKHNHS
HAGIAS.
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