It is never, however, employed for legislative purposes,
but is simply a shelter for the ark; it stands without the camp,
as the oldest sanctuaries were wont to do outside the cities.
It is kept by Joshua as aedituus, who sleeps in it, as did Samuel
the aedituus for Eli.
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in connection with the Mosaic camp, and outside it, just as the older
high places generally had open sites without the city. The question
before us has reference exclusively to the particular tent which,
according to Exodus xxv. seq., was erected at the command of God
as the basis of the theocracy, the pre-Solomonic central sanctuary,
which also in outward details was the prototype of the temple.
At the outset its very possibility is doubtful. Very strange is the
contrast between this splendid structure, on which the costliest
material is lavished and wrought in the most advanced style of
Oriental art, and the soil on which it rises, in the wilderness
amongst the native Hebrew nomad tribes, who are represented as
having got it ready offhand, and without external help. The
incompatibility has long been noticed, and gave rise to doubts as
early as the time of Voltaire.
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