The Tabernacle on my Bookshelf

There have been two times in my life where I was simultaneously in complete awe and terror. First was when I had the privilege of being in Normandy, France for the 75th anniversary of D-Day. That day I was standing at the top of the hill that looked down on Omaha beach. The sense of awe and terror realizing what happened just below me 75 years ago was something that I never experienced before or have not since until March 26, when I saw the image below. You open the book and are confronted with the beautiful page, and then you turn it and pass through the veil and into the tabernacle.

Codex Amiatinus. Image Link

The Book this page is in gives us an image of God for us to behold, that will not be seen in full until the unveiling. This sense of mystery that the nature of books have, also provides us a sense of the Author of the book that we are looking at. Bede says, "For while we are in this life, we never manage perfectly to love God for his own sake, or to comprehend the love that God has for us (Bede, 13)." The Author is mysterious to us just like his book. Though different writers and thinkers have been wrestling with the problem of how to read and interpret the Bible, and the mystery it contains. This is complicated because if you are a believer then this is not simply just a book that gives the reader some guidelines in order to be happy, but that God literally authored the text that we have the privilege of seeing. But how do we go about reading it?

Firstly, we must ask for the Lord's assistance in the act of reading, understanding, and instructing people in the Bible (Bede, 1). This is sort of a strange idea, 'I must ask the Author of this text to help me understand the text, so I can be in his presence. But then how do I ask him to begin with, if I do not know who He is?' Maybe, this is where the pictures, icons, play a role, which allows us to see what is to be adored (Gregory the Great). The brave reader undergoing this joyful challenge also needs to familiarize themselves with the historical context and topography the story is being told from (Bede, 1). Think of Tolkien's map of Middle-Earth being on the pages before the story even starts. It allows the reader to put themselves into the world. I know where Frodo is and where he needs to go, and why he chose the path that he did because I know what the world, he is in looks like. Similarly, the places being discussed in the Bible are real and you and I can physically go there. I cannot go to Rohan, no matter how much I really want to. This is linked to what C.S Lewis said in Myth Became Fact, "It happens - at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius Pilate (Lewis, 141)." The story the Bible tells is anchored in time, place, and Person; we can interact with it!

Mount Sinai (aka Mount My Measure) taken from Google Maps. Image Link

Like I said previously the Bible is not like other books. This means I cannot, or at the very least should not, read it like other books. Sure, you can just open it up at Genesis and read until you complete Revelation like any other book, but that does not seem to be the best way to behold the glory that the book contains. We can see this clearly reading Bede's text On the Tabernacle, that he does not think this is the best way either. Continuously throughout Bede's writing, he explains the verses on the tabernacle with references to the New Testament, particularly the Gospels. The tabernacle points to something that has yet to occur: the Incarnation (Bede, 2). This leads to the idea that the Bible is in constant communication with itself, and I will not pretend to be smart enough to attempt an understanding of that. Bede is smart enough, "The two testaments can be figured through the two cherubim; one of them proclaims the incarnation of the Lord as future, the other as having been accomplished. They look toward one another because they do not disagree with one another at all in the attestation of truth which they preach (Bede, 18)." Just as the Book talks to itself, the people that read it also talk about the book. The most obvious example is the footnotes that Bede utilizes. While many of them are citing other parts of the Bible, some are referencing other writers as well such as Pope Gregory the Great and Saint Jerome. This implies that one is not supposed to be left to their own devices when reading the Bible but rely on those that have come before in order to be better instructed in the meaning of the text.

Bible Cross-References. Image Link

Besides focusing on the historical authenticity of the text, the reader must keep an out out for the symbolism that fills the story and shows us what we are now supposed to do once we have heard the story. Bede again points us to the connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament, when he explains the story of Moses going up the mountain to receive the law from God, and that he should go down and teach the Israelites at the bottom of the hill all that Moses learned. Compare this with the New Testament story that it points to, Jesus goes up on the mountain and does not call one person to teach but all twelve apostles, as well as the crowds that followed. For the law that Jesus was teaching is not just for the Israelites but for all people, speaking many different languages to bring it to all the corners of the world (Bede, 2). 

-- L. O'Connor Jelenik

Bede, & Holder, A. G. (1994). Book One. In Bede: On the Tabernacle (pp. 1–27). essay, Liverpool University Press. 

Lewis, C. S., & Walmsley, L. (2000). Myth Became Fact. In Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces (pp. 138–142). essay, Harper Collins. 

Pope Gregory the Great. (600, October). Letter to Serenus of Marseilles.