Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

Hebrews IX. 2-5. 493
'Ev ^ ardfivog XP'^^V, etc. It will be necessary to inquire here,
first, whether the pot of manna together with Aaron's rod, really
stood in the ark of the covenant, and then, why these two objects,
which had no significance in respect to the cultus of the tabernacle
are here mentioned.
With regard to the first of these questions, the passages Ex.
xvi. 33 ; Numb. xvii. 10 ; and 1 Kings, viii. 9, have been strangely
referred to in support of the view, that those two things had their
place not in, but before, or beside the ark of the covenant. The
two first of these passages, it is said, expressly affirm that they were
placed before the ark ; the third as expressly denies that they were
placed in the ark. But the very opposite of this is true. In Ex.
xvi. 33, it is said, quite generally, that Jehovah commanded Moses
to lay up njn^—'isV a pot full of manna for a memorial. Now, so
much, certainly, is true, that this expression does not positively
affirm that the pot of manna was to be laid precisely in the ark of
the covenant, for nin-'—'SsV is often used of any one who enters into
the holy of holies, nay, even into the tabernacle and its fore-court ;
and so, when it is said of Moses, he came nini—'isV, it is assuredly
not meant that he went into the ark of the covenant. But neither
does that expression/or&ic? our associating it with the holy of holies,
and the ark of the covenant. And, if the pot of manna was kept
at all in the holy of holies^ it must have been kept in the ark of the
covenant ; for, placed on the ground, it would soon have been spoiled
(it is not to be forgotten that the tabernacle was daily moved from
place to place), and there was no niche in the wall, as the wall consisted
of hangings. Now, as the ark was the only vessel in the holy
of holies, it is reasonable to suppose, that the pot of manna would
have its place nowhere else than in it.
If we are led to this conclusion already, a priori from Ex. xvi.
33, it is expressly confirmed, with respect to the pot of manna by
ver. 34, and with respect to Aaron's rod, by Numb. xvii. 10. For
it is said there, of both these objects, that they were laid n^yn •'js^
"before the testimony."
Expositors have yet to produce a passage
in which the ark was designated by rrtv. The ark is called I'liNn or
n-'nan'-'S. i":??'3n''"i?5 ; on the other hand, n^? is always, and everywhere,
used to designate the decalogue or the tables of the law,
which, as is well known, lay in the ark. If now, for example, I
have a microscope standing in a press, and I were to say, I have laid
some article before the microscope, no rational man would understand
me to say that I had laid it upon the ground, before the press
in which the microscope stands, but every one would understand that
I have laid it in the press, and before the microscope there.
Just so
is it with the pot of manna and Aaron's rod. If they were laid before
the tables of the law then must they have been placed on the