On the tedious and monotonous repetitions in the Tabernacle accounts: a reassessment

Abstract

Modern scholarship and medieval commentators have generally viewed the execution of the Tabernacle and the priestly ordination described in Exodus 35–40 and Leviticus 8 as the fulfilment of the earlier commands contained in Exodus 25–31, following the command-fulfilment pattern that is so common in priestly writings. We challenge this reading and conclude, on form, thematic, and narrative considerations, that we are in the presence of two alternate versions and that the skillful placement of the second version harmonizes these versions and creates a novel and largely ignored account. Priestly versions, when read in isolation, could have presented two competing (ideological) depictions of the Tabernacle.