The Vail of the Sanctuary.
Has the heavenly sanctuary but one vail? Did Christ, when he ascended from the earth, enter within that vail into the most holy place? Has he been carrying on the work of cleansing the sanctuary, ever since his ascension? These questions are equivalent to a few others which may be expressed as follows: Did the 2300 days, at the end of which the sanctuary was to be cleansed, end before or at the time of Christ’s ascension? Did all prophetic time then end? Have the special movements based on prophetic time, Rev. 10 : 6 ; 14 : 6, 7, been fulfilled? In short, is all our present system of prophetic interpretation, and the whole advent movement, a farce and deception? If the first three questions can be answered in the affirmative, the rest must be. Nevertheless, regardless of consequences, some contend that there is no vail but that which divides the holy from the most holy place, and that Christ entered the most holy, when he ascended. The only text urged in favor of this position, is Heb. 6 : 19, 20: “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the vail; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.” That this text refers to the entrance of our Lord into the sanctuary above, there is probably no question. And the only thing necessary to be shown to disprove the position above stated, is that the sanctuary has a vail at the entrance of the holy place, as well as the vail which divides between the holy and most holy, so that when Christ ascended and commenced his ministry in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, or holy place, he had then entered within the vail, as Heb. 6 : 19, 20, states. In Heb. 9 : 3, Paul calls the vail which divides between the holy and most holy place, “the second vail.” A second necessarily supposes a first; and our minds are at once carried to the door of the first apartment for the first vail. To say that the second vail is only the other side of the one vail, is too far removed from good common-sense to demand a moment’s notice. Now let us inquire whether the door of the sanctuary is ever called a vail. If we find that it is, it will be making assurance doubly sure. Kitto, under the word tabernacle, says:— “The entrance was turned toward the east, and was closed by means of a splendid curtain of byssus into which figures were woven. This curtain was supported by five wooden columns, which were plated with gold. . . . The holy of holies was ten cubits square and ten high, and was separated from the sanctuary by a curtain into which the figures of cherubim were woven and which was supported by four columns plated with gold.” Here Kitto calls the hangings at the entrance, of both the holy and the most holy place, curtains, showing that he regarded them as the same; if one could be called a vail, so could the other. Josephus (Jewish Antiquities, book iii, chap. 6) gives a description of the Mosaic tabernacle. After describing the vail that divides the holy from the most holy place, he says:— “Another vail there was which covered the five pillars that were at the entrance. It was like the former in its magnitude, and texture, and color.” Here he calls the hanging at the entrance a vail, just like the other, applying to it the same term, and giving of it the same description. In book viii, chap. 3, he gives a description of the sanctuary after it was incorporated into the temple of Solomon. He says:— “Now when the king had divided the temple into two parts, he made the inner house of twenty cubits [every way], to be the most secret chamber, but he appointed that of forty cubits to be the sanctuary; and when he had cut a door place out of the wall, he put therein doors of cedar, and overlaid them with a great deal of gold, that had sculptures upon it. He also had vails of blue, and purple and scarlet, and the brightest and softest of linen, with the most curious flowers wrought upon them, which were to be drawn before these doors. . . . And he added doors to the gate of the temple, agreeable to the measure of the height of the wall. . . . He also had curtains drawn over these doors, in like manner as they were drawn over the inner doors of the most holy place.” This testimony shows that what was placed at the entrance of one apartment, was placed at the other. They were alike. Whatever one could be called, the other could be called, also. But the reader may say that this is only human testimony, and nothing will be decisive on the question but the evidence of the Scriptures themselves. It shall be furnished. The word used for vail in Heb. 6 : 19, and 9 : 3, where Paul speaks of the second vail, is katapetasma. This is defined by Robinson as follows: “A covering, vail, which hangs down. In Septuagint, a vail, curtain, of the tabernacle and temple, of which there were two, viz., one at the entrance of the outer sanctuary, Ex. 26 : 36; 40 : 5; and the other before the holy of holies, separating it from the outer sanctuary. Ex. 26 : 31; 27 : 21; 40 : 3.” In the passages referred to in Exodus, our translators have called the first curtain, a “hanging,” and the second, a “vail.” But they are all from the same original word in the Septuagint, and should all have been rendered vail. Had they been so rendered, we should have had at least three instances in the Bible, in which the curtain at the entrance of the first apartment would have been called a vail. In the Hebrew, two different words are used, but both are defined by Gesenius, a vail, or curtain.