Secret_History

Chapter 10: Who Wrote the Bible and Why? 377
glorious tale of David and Solomon and their marvelous Ark were created to
inspire the masses. We do, of course, think that these stories were based on more
ancient models, but what is clear is that the Great King Solomon - whoever he
might have been originally - was not a king of Israel or a worshipper of Yahweh.
In searching for a single, clear mention of the existence of a major temple in
Jerusalem during the period in question, that can be verified archaeologically, I
have come up empty handed. Even Finkelstein, quoted above, sort of skips over
the issue. He says that in the 7 th century BC, Jerusalem was a “relatively large city
dominated by a Temple to Yahweh”. If that were the case, then there would not
have been so much focus in the P document on the Tabernacle. It seems to have
been fairly easy to put words in Moses’ mouth retroactively; that problem hadn’t
stumped the priests so far; so why the big deal about the Tabernacle? They could
have slid right over the Tabernacle problem altogether by having Moses say,
“when you get there, fold up the tent and build a Temple”. For some reason, that
was not an option. This “Tent of Meeting” was clearly something that the P
Document sought to establish as an item of great significance to the people. For
some reason, it had to be emphasized, and its historical status as the only
Tabernacle that was legitimate obviously needed to be established over and above
all other such “tents”. We find several new things in the P document that were
obviously a new spin being put on something that was so commonly known and
accepted by the people that it required specific “shaping” to the purposes of the
priests.
First of all, we have a new Fall Holiday that was formerly known as the Feast of
Tabernacles. Next, we have a very specific Tabernacle itself. Finally, we have the
ostensible reason for this tabernacle being the one and only legitimate tabernacle:
an object that goes inside the tabernacle: the Ark of the Covenant!
All the references to the Tabernacle in the P document suggest that this was an
object with tremendous historical value because it was assembled under the
direction of Moses himself. The P document describes it as the sacred shrine that
housed the Ark of the Covenant, the tablets, the Urim and Thummim, and the
cherubs. The P document tells us that the Tabernacle itself was constructed of
precious wood, gold, brass, wool and linen woven with gold, scarlet, and purple,
with a covering of red leather.
Even though the Tabernacle was supposed to have resided at Shiloh with the
Ark inside it, (according to the P text), the E document of the northern kingdom,
the domain of the Shiloh priests, never mentions the ark! According to the E texts,
the “Tent of Meeting” was the most important sign of god’s presence. God was in
the tent, not the ark. And clearly there were many “Tents of Meeting”.
The J document, on the other hand, mentions that the Ark was very important to
the children of Israel as they journeyed to the Promised Land. In the book of
Numbers, the Ark was said to have been carried in front of the people as they
traveled. Another J text emphasizes the Ark as a military “weapon”; the idea being
that it was impossible to be successful in military matters without it. And then, of
course, in the J text remarks about the Temple of Solomon, we find that the Ark
was the most important object in it. It should come as no surprise that the Tent of
Meeting is never mentioned in the J document!