812.—Form of the Sanctuary.
We are now studying about the sanctuary; and I would like to get a correct picture of it in my mind. In your book it is represented with a pointed roof; and so all the Bible helps give it; but I do not find anything in the Bible to show that the roof was raised to a peaked form. If the inner covering was drawn over flat, the edges would extend far enough over to form a porch all around, about five cubits in width. Can you kindly tell me where a description is found in the Bible, to show that the top was raised in the form of a ridge-pole? A. S. B., Palestine, Neb. Ans.—We do not know of any specific description as to the form of the roof of the sanctuary in its tent, or original, form. But the material of which the two outer coverings was composed (Ex. 26:1, and onward) would suggest a form that would give the most thorough protection against sun or rain. In the wilderness of Sinai, where the tabernacle was first erected, of course it seldom rains; but we must remember that the sanctuary was to retain its original form after its entrance into the promised land, where provision would have to be made against heavy dews and abundant rains; and the tabernacle did remain as at first constructed, for over five hundred years, till the days of Solomon. There has been a question how these coverings were applied to the tabernacle. If they were thrown straight over, there would be a depression, or sagging, in the center, and the water would certainly work through, and snow would form such a weight as to tear the curtains in pieces; besides, applied in this way, the curtain of goats’ hair, being thirty cubits long, would hang over the walls of the tabernacle ten cubits, or, in other words, reach the ground on both sides; whereas it seems to have been designed, according to Ex. 26:13, to hang down only one cubit on each side. In view of these particulars, Smith, in his Unabridged Bible Dictionary, Art., Temple, argues that the sacred tent must have been raised in the center, or have a ridge, as all tents have had from the days of Moses. It seems extremely probable that the tabernacle was arranged in this manner.