Showbread table

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The table for the showbread (Hebrew שֻׁלְחָן schulchan : table) was a Jewish ritual object. It is described in the Torah and was part of the inventory of the Jerusalem temple .

In the Bible

The showbread table as an inventory of the Mishkan (tabernacle)

Regarding ritual acts: see showbread .

According to the biblical representation, Moses was commissioned to build a transportable sanctuary ( Mishkan ) on Mount Sinai . For each ritual object, he was given a description on the one hand, and a heavenly model on the other. One of these objects was a gilded table made of acacia wood :

23  You shall also make a table of acacia wood; It shall be two cubits its length, one cubit its breadth, and one cubit and a half its height. 24  And thou shalt overlay it with fine gold, and make a wreath of gold around it, 25  and a ledge about a hand's breadth around it, and a wreath of gold around the ledge; 26  and you shall make four rings of gold on the four corners of its four feet. 27  The rings should be close under the ledge so that rods can be put in and the table can be carried. 28  And you shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be supported with them. 29  Thou shalt also make of fine gold his bowls and spoons, his jugs and bowls, in which the libation will be offered. 30  And thou shalt put showbread on the table, which is always before me. (Exodus 25: 23-30, Luther Bible 2017)

The showbread table in the sanctuary of Nob

The seemingly archaic story in 1 Sam 21, 2-7 describes how David and his companions are fed by the priest Ahimelech with the showbread, which only priests are actually allowed to eat: “ The priest gave him some of the holy bread because there was no other there was as the showbread that one takes away from the Lord only to put on fresh bread on the day on which one takes away the other . ”(V.7) There is no explicit mention of a table here, but the terminus technicus is used for the bread ritual in the tent sanctuary or in the Jerusalem temple. According to this report, the same bread ritual took place in Nob.

The showbread table in the Temple of Solomon

According to 1 Kings 7:48, King Solomon had various ritual devices made for the temple, including a golden table for the showbread.

The entire establishment of the First Temple came to an end when Jerusalem was destroyed in July 586 BC. Chr. Lost. For the second temple , the temple implements were made from scratch.

The showbread table from an exegetical perspective

The description of the ritual objects in Exodus 25 is unanimously assigned to the priestly script by the exegetes . Research is not interested in the table as such, but in the bread on it. “They were considered to be food that was placed in front of the cult image.” It is therefore a practice that is well known from the temples of the ancient Orient, and especially Babylonia.

In any case, the Tanach shows a great distance from such archaic ideas of making contact with the deity (e.g. Ps 50  EU ). In the Septuagint there is even a story that makes the corresponding beliefs of the Babylonians ridiculous as priestly fraud ( Dan 14  EU ).

The showbread table in the Second Temple

Literary sources

Aristeas letter

The anonymous author of the letter to Aristeas , a Jew from Alexandria , told how Ptolemy II wanted to donate a showbread table to the Jerusalem temple, five times the size of the existing one. He let himself be persuaded to donate a table with the dimensions of the old one, but which should be distinguished by its handcrafted quality.

Septuagint

In Exodus 25: 23-25, the Septuagint offers a tradition deviating from the Masoretic text about the appearance of the showbread table:

“And you shall make a table of pure gold , two cubits long, one cubit wide and one cubit and a half high. And you are to make golden profile strips with a braided pattern all around it; and you make a garland of a hand's breadth around it; and you should make a profile strip with a braided pattern around the garland . "

Antiochus IV. Epiphanes plundered in 169 BC The temple and " had the golden altar, the candlestick and all the implements that go with it, the table on which the showbread lay ... " ( 1 Maccabees 1 : 21-22). Judas Maccabeus had new temple implements made in place of the lost temple: " And they had new holy vessels made and brought the candlestick, the altar of incense and the table into the temple ." (1 Maccabees 4:49)

Flavius ​​Josephus

How the table looked since the Maccabees, Flavius ​​Josephus described from his own experience (he belonged to the Jerusalem priestly nobility):

It was a table “ similar to the Delphic one, which was two cubits long, one cubit wide and three spans high. His feet were finely worked halfway down, like the Dorians use for their beds. The upper part towards the plate was square. The plate itself was grooved about four fingers wide on each side and was surrounded by a strip protruding above and below . ”( Antiquitates 3.6.6) Josephus also describes rings on the feet of the table through which wooden poles could be passed .

The menorah , the table of showbread and the censer lifted Josephus among all devices temple as " three admirable, world famous works of art produced". Regarding the meaning of the table and the loaves of bread placed on it, he wrote: " The twelve loaves of bread on the table [symbolize] the zodiac and the year ." ( Bellum 5.5.5)

The illustration in Nikolaus von Lyra's Biblical Commentary shows different interpretations of the description of the showbread table and menorah by Rashi (Jewish tradition) and “other scholars” (Christian tradition).

Mishnah

The dimensions of the table according to the information in the Torah were: 90 cm long, 45 cm wide and 65 cm high. That is not much space for placing twelve loaves of bread with incense. This problem was preoccupied by the rabbinical discussion (Mishnah Tamid, Chapter XI). The various modern reconstruction drawings of the showbread table therefore represent the ensemble of table, bread and incense together and differ in the way the gifts are arranged on the table.

Talmud

The table for the showbread (as well as the menorah and the altar of incense) was usually inside the temple, where no one except the priests could see it. At the pilgrimage festivals, however, these sacred devices were presented to the faithful in the priests' courtyard. The table was even lifted up so that it could be seen better:

“It was used to lift it up and show the pilgrims the showbread on the table and to say to them: See the love with which the omnipresent loves you, it will be taken away just as [fresh] as it was put on [a week ago] !" (Chagiga 26b )

Archaeological sources

Coin finds

A Jerusalem local issue ( Pruta ) of the last Hasmonean Antigonus from the collection of the Israel Museum , minted 40–37 BC. BC, shows sacred temple implements: “ Vs: showbread table; Paleo-Hebrew: Mattityah, the high priest Rs: Menorah; Greek: the king's Anti [gonos] . ”Antigonus was the only Hasmonean who had temple implements depicted on his coins. The showbread table motif comes in two variants, each on the obverse of coins that show a menorah on the reverse:

  1. as a showbread table in a circle of dots, with the inscription Mattityah, the high priest (מתתיה כהן ,ל),
  2. as a showbread table with two stacks of showbread in the circle of dots, with the same paleo-Hebrew inscription. The second coin is very detailed, you can see that the showbreads are bent up at the ends and that two table legs are connected at the bottom by an intermediate brace. This detail matches the representation of the table on the relief of the Arch of Titus. The table legs do not seem to be straight either, but have a ball-like ornament in the middle.

So there was a tradition, which is also confirmed by rabbinical sources, that the menorah and table were joint symbols of the Jerusalem temple. The menorah became a symbol of the Jewish faith, while the table disappeared from iconography. Why? Meshorer argues that on the one hand Menorot were used in synagogues, but not showbread tables. On the other hand, Judaism has iconographically distanced itself from Christianity, which chose a table with bread (Last Supper) as one of its symbols.

The showbread table on the Arch of Titus in Rome

Exhibition of the Jerusalem temple equipment in the triumphal procession of Titus. Copy of the then better preserved relief on the Arch of Titus in Rome by Jean-Guillaume Moitte, around 1791, ( Los Angeles County Museum of Art )

When the Romans conquered Jerusalem in September 70 AD, the temple burned; However, various temple implements, including the table for the showbread, were brought out of the building by the soldiers and presented to Titus .

These precious loot were presented on Titus' triumphal procession through Rome. This scene is depicted on the Arch of Titus , a triumphal arch in memory of this event. To the right of the menorah, you can see the showbread table with a cup on it. Two temple trumpets are draped between the table legs. According to Josephus, two of the objects that were on display on the triumphal procession attracted particular attention from the audience: “ A golden table weighing several talents and an equally golden candlestick. “(Bellum 7.5.5) He concluded his report on the triumphal procession with the information that the temple implements were deposited in the temple of peace donated by Vespasian ( Bellum 7.5.7). This is the last reliable historical information about their whereabouts.

Fresco in the synagogue of Dura Europos : Aaron as high priest at the dedication of the sanctuary. ( National Museum Damascus )

Synagogue of Dura Europos

The synagogue walls were decorated with frescoes . A panel (approx. 245 AD) shows the wall around the temple area with three access gates, behind it the sanctuary, a temple in Greco-Roman style (i.e. the second temple, although the fresco illustrates the biblical tent sanctuary ), inside a shrine (ark or Torah shrine?). In front of the temple you can see the menorah, two incense altars and the rather small table for the showbread.

Prokopios on the whereabouts of the showbread table after the destruction of Jerusalem

Prokopios of Caesarea , a historian of the 6th century, writes about the triumphal procession of Belisarius in 534 AD in Constantinople , which he is likely to have witnessed himself, that the " treasures of the Jews " were carried there, which Titus after the Jewish war Had Rome brought. A member of the Jewish community then turned to a person from the imperial environment with the comment: “ I think it is unwise to bring these treasures to the palace of Byzantium. Because they should only be in the place where Solomon, the former king of the Jews, had them set up. Because of them, Geiseric was able to take the palace of the Romans and now the Roman army beat the vandals . - When the emperor ( Justinian ) heard this, he was afraid and had everything brought to the shrines of the Christians in Jerusalem as quickly as possible . "

Larger metal objects from ancient times (e.g. statues) have rarely survived, and when they do, they have often been recovered from shipwrecks more recently. The bulk of the works of art were melted down because of their material value. This is also the likely fate of the golden table and other temple implements.

Ancient sources

literature

  • Othmar Keel / Ernst Axel Knauf / Thomas Staubli : Solomons Temple . Academic Press Friborg, Freiburg (Switzerland) 2004, ISBN 3-7278-1459-4 .
  • Wolfgang Zwickel : The world of the Old and New Testaments . A non-fiction and work book, Calwer Verlag Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-7668-3412-6 .
  • Friedhelm Hartenstein: "Loaves" and "Table of the face". On the logic of symbolic communication in the temple ritual. In: Johannes F. Diehl et al. (Ed.): "Make an altar of earth for me ...". Festschrift for Diethelm Conrad on his 70th birthday. Small works on the Old and New Testament , Vol. 4. Waltrop 2003, pp. 107–127. ISBN 978-3-89991-010-0
  • Keung-Jae Lee: Symbols for rule and royalty in the stories of Saul and David: The stories of Saul and David and in the environment of Israel, Kohlhammer Verlag 2016.
  • Siegfried Ostermann: The coins of the Hasmoneans. A critical report on systematics and chronology, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005. ISBN 3-525-53956-8
  • Ya'akov Meshorer : Ancient Jewish Coinage, Volume I: Persian Period through Hasmoneans, New York 1982.

Web links

  • Erika Fischer: Art. Furniture, in: WiBiLex .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Keung-Jae Lee: Symbols for rule and royalty . S. 174 .
  2. ↑ Othmar Keel: The history of Jerusalem and the emergence of monotheism . Vandenhoeck 6 Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-50177-1 , p. 1032 .
  3. ↑ Keung-Jae Lee: Symbols for rule and royalty . S. 174 .
  4. ↑ Talmud - Mas. Chagigah 2a. Retrieved December 17, 2017 (Translated from English).
  5. ↑ Coin and Power in Ancient Israel. Retrieved December 16, 2017 .
  6. ^ Siegfried Ostermann: The coins of the Hasmoneans . S. 59 .
  7. ^ Ya'akov Meshorer: Ancient Jewish Coinage . tape 1 , p. 95 .
  8. ↑ a b Ya'acov Meshorer: Ancient Jewish Coinage . tape 1 , p. 96-97 .
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Zwickel: The world of the Old and New Testaments . S. 235 .
  10. ↑ Othmar Keel et al .: Solomon's Temple . S. 1 .
  11. ↑ Prokopios of Caesarea: The Wars of Justinian . tape 4 , no. 9, 6-9 .