The Ark of the Covenant in the sanctuary of Israel had but one purpose: it was the treasure chest of God's Law. I name those two tables the foundation stones – the substance and underlayment construction – for the throne of God. They are the piles and struts on which God's throne and His kingdom are established. They give us an image of His character, what He stands for. Sin to which the law points can never harbour in the presence of God.
By thorough study during many years, I have come to the conviction that by a faulty translation many have been brought to think that the text of Hebrew 9:4 is saying that Aaron's rod and the pot with manna were also IN the arc chest. However a correct reading of the text and comparing it to the related texts in the OT tell us something different, that this cannot be the case. There is, I think, another explanation. In this 2-part article, the author explains why there need not to be confusion about Hebrews 9:1-5.
Part I – Where was ‘before the Lord’?
Understanding Hebrews 9:1-5 right, boils mainly to understanding what the Bible means with ‘Before the Lord’. Does it mean in the Holy of holies, in front of the ark chest? Or even in the ark chest? Or before the second veil, in the Holy? Bible texts that provide clarity, are:
Exodus 25:16 – "And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee."
Exodus 25:21 – "And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee."
The Ark of the covenant is often named as the arc of the testimony because it was made for the testimony – the Ten Commandments, the Ten Words, twice written by the Lord himself on two tables of stone – and for nothing else. See also Ex 24:12; 40:20; Deut 10:1,5.
1 Kings 8:9 – "There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt." This is mentioned at the inauguration of Solomon's temple. This is following Exodus 25:16, 21.
Exodus 16:33 – "And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations."
Exodus 16:34 – "As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept."
In Numbers 17 it is written that there arose a discussion about the authority of Aaron. God commanded Moses to lay the rod of every tribe's head together with the rod of Aaron before the testimony, and the rod that would bloom will indicate the tribe the Lord had chosen to Himself. The next morning the rod of Aaron bloomed. And then we read that the Lord commands to bring the rod again before the testimony to be kept as a perpetual remembrance.
Numbers 17:10 – "And the LORD said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels; and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me, that they die not."
Numbers 20:7 9 – "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together … And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him." This chapter records the issue of Moses' sin at the rock of Meribah.
How could Moses bring the rod out if it was placed IN the ark? How could Aaron go and take the rod in the Holy of Holies if the Lord has stressed: without the proper preparations of Day of Atonement (DoA) you will not come through the inner veil before the mercy seat (Ex 16:2-4).
Numbers 17:4 gives a clear explanation of where that "before the Lord, before the testimony" was, "in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony, where I will meet with you."
The tabernacle in the desert had two compartments and around that were the inner and outer courtyards.
The tabernacle is also called the tabernacle of the congregation or simply the tent.
Every day the Lord met with His people there, on that place. There he came together with the representatives of the people.
The statement "before the Lord" is used time and time again to indicate that something was placed or set before the second veil in the tabernacle. The table of the shewbread, the candlestick and the golden altar (Ex 25:30; 30:8); the blood of the sin offering was sprinkled before the Lord, "before the veil of the sanctuary…. which is in the tabernacle of the congregation" (Lev 4:6,7); the high priest served every day before the Lord (Ex 28:29), before the inner veil and this all happened in the section of the sanctuary – the Holy.
The same significance is to be given to the declaration "before the testimony."
Aaron and his sons (who became high priests after him) had to attend the lampstand with holy oil before the testimony, in the tent of the congregation, in the first compartment (Ex 27:21). The altar of incense stood "before the veil — that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony – where I will meet with you" (Ex 30:6; Ex 40:5).
By placing the sub sentence between hyphens, the true meaning becomes clear right away: the altar of incense stood before the veil, where God met with the people.
A handful of the perfume was laid "before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation" – in the first compartment, before the veil (Ex 30:36), on the golden altar.
When we want to have a clear understanding of the text of Hebrew 9:4 we must read it in its context and begin in Chapter 8.
Then we will understand that in Hebrew 9 Paul[1] is elaborating on his discourse on first and second, and old and new in Hebrew 8. In the last verse (8:13) he ended by saying: "In the saying New, He had made the first old. And the one being old and growing old nears extinction." Meaning that the old sanctuary has become extinct. And then he goes forth in Chapter 9 to explain what he meant by then and now (as in 8:6) and comparing the service of the old or the first with that of the new.
Let's follow how the Greek text in Hebrews is translated in our KJV-Bible:
"1 Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. 2 For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. 3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holies of all; 4 Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid roundabout with gold, ….
Hey, wait a minute! We see something strange right away. It seems that Paul is in error by placing the golden altar in the Holy of Holies when it is crystal clear that it stood in the Holy. I think that Paul is not in error; I think that we do not understand him right.
By linking verse 3 with a semicolon and linking the golden altar with an and to the ark of the covenant, the translators wrongly suppose a relation, that was not meant by Paul and that is in clear contrast with many texts in the OT. This brings confusion. T he golden altar stood NOT in the Holy of Holies, and the ark on the other hand DID.
Some explain that there is not meant the golden altar but a golden censer (pot) the high priest brought within the second veil before the Lord in the Holy of Holies on the DoA (he alone, once a year), that a cloud of perfume would surround the mercy seat (see Lev 16:12,13).
Some English translators sensed this problem and do not translate the altar of incense but a jar of incense (others say, censer). But then they introduce a second major problem into the text. Leviticus does not tell us that a jar of incense was to be permanently in the Holy of Holies but had to be carried in as part of the ceremony on the DoA. It would not make sense, for its burning would not last a day, let alone to next year's DoA, and how would the high priest fetch it to fill it with burning coals and incense to carry it in? Makes no sense.
Besides, there was probably more than one censer in the temple. In fact, on each pile of shewbread, there was a perpetual burning of incense. Most probably in a censer, as an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Nadab and Abihu each had a censer with strange fire. So did Korah and his 250 men contrabands. So, this creates even more confusion.
Probably the translators had wrestled with this text and didn't quite manage to catch the meaning of it.
Besides, we must see that the words before and for /of in the English language have different meanings (see Ex 16:34; 31:6; etc.). Before indicates the localization of a physical place in space and for/ of are datives of nouns.
Significantly, Paul uses the neutral form to denote the noun – Greek: accusative, singular, neutral - (correctly translated with "a"). It is incorrect for KJV to translate "the censer" if there were more of such as it would be meaningless to translate "an altar of incense" if there was only one of such.
Some translators sensed this and tried to work around this difficulty by translating "a censer", because the Greek gives a neutral noun, implying the indefinite article.
What is Paul speaking of here? An indefinite article can also indicate that its noun is not particularly identified to the listener or reader. It may be something that the speaker or writer is mentioning for the first time, or its precise identity may be irrelevant or even hypothetical in the current discourse, or the speaker or writer may be making a general statement about something.
From his remark at the end of verse 5, we may conclude that it was not his intention to tire the reader with details. His purpose was to give some main points of the sanctuary as a place of worship for the congregation to underscore the contrast he had made in the previous chapter, namely that the sanctuary in heaven was of a different order than the shadow sanctuary on earth.
But let us resume reading … wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, …
In my opinion, the same grammatical error is made here. I have given references above that describe where the rod and manna pot may have been located: before the testimony, that is in the Holy, before the veil that separated the two compartments, and the tables of the covenant; 5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat; of which we cannot now speak particularly."
To be in harmony with the description of the sanctuary in Exodus, 'the cherubims overshadowing the (Shekinah) glory of the mercy seat' would have been a more proper arrangement of the translated Greek words.
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[1] Among scholars there is debate whether Paul is the author of Hebrews. The mentioning of Timothy, the coworker of Paul (Rom.16:21), in Ch 13:23 is for me enough proof for the Pauline authorship. Paul was among the apostles of the first Christian Church the only Torah scholar capable of writing an authoritative letter as to the Hebrews.