Showbread
Encyclopedia
Showbread in the King James Version: shewbread, in a biblical
or Jewish
context, refers to the cakes or loaves of bread
which were always present on a specially dedicated table, in the Temple in Jerusalem
as an offering to God
. An alternative, and more appropriate, translation would be presence bread, since the Bible requires that the bread be constantly in the presence of God .
, the showbread is mentioned exclusively by the Priestly Code
and Holiness Code
, but certain sections of the Bible, including the Book of Chronicles, Books of Samuel
, and Book of Kings
, also describe aspects of them. In the Holiness Code, the showbread is described as twelve cakes/loaves baked from fine flour
, arranged in two rows/piles on a table standing before God; each loaf/cake was to contain two Omers of flour . The Biblical regulations specify that cups of frankincense
were to be placed upon the rows of cakes, and the Septuagint, but not the masoretic text
, states that salt was mixed with the frankincense; the frankincense, which the Septuagint refers to as an anamnesis, (a hapax legomenon
), constituted a memorial (azkarah), having been offered upon the altar
to God .
According to the Book of Chronicles, the Kohath
ite clan had charge of the baking and setting in order of the bread, suggesting that there were secret extra requirements in preparing the bread, known only to the Kohathites. Since leavened products were prohibited from the altar
, and the cakes/loaves are not described as being offered upon it
, it is possible that the showbread was leavened; however, as they were carried into the inner part of the sanctuary, it is highly probable that they were unleavened.
The cakes were to be left on the table for a week, and then be replaced with new ones on the Sabbath
, so that there were always fresh loaves on the table, and those that had started going stale were removed; the Biblical text states that the Jewish priests
were entitled to eat the cakes that had been removed, as long as they did so in a holy place, as it considered the bread to be holy. It appears that consumption of the bread wasn't the exclusive preserve of the priests, as the narrative of David's sojourn at Nob
mentions that Ahimelek (the priest) gave David the holy bread, at his request.
wood, and only covered with pure gold, with a gold border around the top; the table's dimensions are given as 2 ell
s long, 1 ell wide, and 1.5 ells high.
The feet of the table are described as having a ring-like enclosure to which four gold rings were fastened, so that rods (made from acacia wood, and covered with gold) could be passed through the rings, and used to make the table portable. The biblical text indicates that, when being carried, the table (shulchan) would be covered with a purplish-blue cloth, the loaves and vessels would be placed on the cloth, and another cloth, in scarlet, would be placed over it, with a fine skin being added on top of that. In each sanctuary there was only one table, except for the Temple in Jerusalem, which the Book of Chronicles describes as having ten tables within its Holy Place
.
In Solomon's Temple, there was provision made for the proper exhibition of the shewbread. Antiochus Epiphanes plundered the table of showbread from the Second Temple, but under Judas Maccabeus
a replacement was made.
, the only source texts among those comprising the Torah
which mention the showbread are the Holiness Code
and later additions to the priestly source
, the antiquity of the practise is shown by its mention in the Books of Samuel which textual scholars generally view as predating the priestly source. In the Books of Samuel, Ahimelek is described as asking for an assurance that David's men were in a ritually pure state, namely that they had not been involved in sexual activity with women, before handing over the old showbread; biblical scholars
view this as suggesting that the showbread was originally a sacrificial meal which was viewed as being shared with the deity, hence the need to be ritually pure, and the bread not being burnt but instead consumed.
The custom seems to have been widespread in the region, an example being the Babylon
ian practice of offering to their gods a number of different kinds of cakes/bread (akalu); the Hebrew term for the showbread, Lehem haPanim, is exactly translated by the Assyrian phrase akal pגnu, which refers to the Babylonian cake/bread offerings. In the Israelite case, a number of biblical scholars connect the use of showbread directly to the ancient cult of the Ark of the Covenant
, the Ark being seen as the home of the deity, and the bread being an offering of food, ready for consumption whenever the deity chose to make an appearance.
Like the biblical showbread, the Babylonians and Assyrians generally laid twelve cakes/loaves, or an integer multiple of twelve cakes/loaves, on tables in front of images of their deities; the number twelve, which is so prominent in the showbread rite, has always borne mysterious religious significance, and with the Assyrian practice of laying out twelve cakes/loaves, was directly connected with the Zodiac
. The Babylonian cakes/bread were also required to be sweet (i.e. unleavened), and like the biblical showbread were baked from wheat flour.
(a contemporary of Herod's) temple, and, over the several centuries after the Temple's destruction, by classical rabbinical literature. According to Josephus, the cakes were unleavened and were baked on the Friday before the Sabbath, since the biblical regulations forbade work of any kind during the Sabbath. The Mishnah
argues that the loaves were kneaded separately, but baked in pairs; the Mishnah also states that the loaves were moulded into shape by three different moulds (made from gold, according to Maimonides
, who lived more than a thousand years after the burning of Jerusalem), with one being used while the loaves were just dough
, another while the bread was being baked in the oven, and a third after baking, to protect the shape. The Mishnah describes the loaves as being 10 Etzba long, and 5 Etzba wide, with rims/horns that were 7 Etzba long; Maimonides gives the same figures but with Tefah as the unit rather than Etzba.
According to some Mishnaic contributors, the kneading of the dough was done outside the sanctuary, but the baking was done inside, but others state that all the preparations were carried out in the Temple courtyard, and others in the house of Pagi
, which according to Maimonides was very close to the Temple courtyard; no reason is given for these geographic distinctions, but the Gemara
argues that the House of Garmu
were responsible for baking the shewbread, and kept their methods and reasoning secret. The Mishnah states that to replace the bread, two priests would enter the sanctuary ahead of another four priests carrying the replacement bread; the two priests without the bread would go to the southern end of the table, while those with the new bread would go to the northern end, and while the priests at the south removed the old bread from the table, it would be replaced with the new bread by the priests at the northern side, so that the bread would always be present.
Josephus states that the cakes were placed in two equal piles (rather than rows), as does the Mishnah, which describes the existence of hollow golden tubes to carry air between the bread, and two golden fork-shaped supports attached to the table, each one to hold up a pile Josephus also states that the frankincense was placed in two golden cups - one on top of each pile; the Mishnah states that a handful of incense was placed in each cup, and the Tosefta
states that the cups, called bezikin, had flat bottoms/rims, so that they could also be placed on the table. According to the Mishnah, while the new bread was being carried in by the four priests, two other priests would carry in replacement cups of incense, and two further priests would go ahead of them to remove the old cups of incense.
The Mishnah argues that after being removed, the old bread was placed on a golden table in the Temple's hall, and then the old incense would be burnt; once this was done, the cakes would be divided, with the Jewish High Priest
getting five of the twelve loaves, and the remainder being divided among the other priests on duty during the previous week. On the occasion of certain Jewish Holidays occurring during the Sabbath, there were adjustments made, for example, if Yom Kippur
occurred on the Sabbath, the old bread wouldn't be divided between the priests until the evening.
argued that the cups of incense were placed within the gap. These dimensions clearly are too small for the loaves to rest on the table lengthways, and clearly some support would have been needed for them to be piled high upon the table in two distinct piles, which is difficult to reconcile with the apparent biblical implication that the loaves were free standing on the table.
The Mishnah states that there were 28 ventilation tubes, 14 for each pile, each of which was open at one end only. The Gemara
extrapolates from this the conclusion that the fork-like supports were set into the floor, two at each end of the table, and the tubes went between the fork-like supports above the table. The Gemara essentially has the view that the supports and tubes formed a complex receptacle for the loaves, similar to a grate, with the lowest loaf in each pile resting directly on the table, but the with the next loaf resting on the two lowest of the tubes, and so forth up the pile. Presumably a device as complex as this would have been mentioned at least briefly in the Bible had it been a biblical requirement, but it isn't, and neither was it depicted on the Arch of Titus
, which shows the table at the moment of its capture by the Romans.
As well as the golden cups for the incense, the Mishnah enumerates a number of other dishes (ke'arot) and hand-like bowls (kappot), including menakkiyyot (which were probably for dipping) and kesawot; the kesawot are identified by the Mishnah as being for the wine-libation
s, but the Targum
s argue that they were for the purpose of covering the shewbread. The Mishnah also suggests that the Table could be dismantled into small portions, so that if any part of it ever became ritually impure, it could be regain its ritual purity by washing the parts in a Mikvah
.
community at the Dead Sea
, and the Therapeutae
in Egypt
, which seem to have regarded themselves as part of the main Jewish body worshipping at the Jerusalem temple, despite being geographically isolated from it, and, in the eyes of later Jewish thought, theologically distinct from it.
Among the Dead Sea Scrolls
, a number of Aramaic fragments, found in cave 2, discuss eschatological
connections to the eating of shewbread, which Matthew Black
links with the sacred community meal discussed in a scroll from cave 1 (1QSVI), and the Messianic
meal discussed in another scroll in the same cave (1QSall); Professor Black suggests that the Qumran community may have considered their regular bread sharing to be an enactment of the Sabbath division of shewbread at the Jerusalem Temple.
There is dispute among scholarly groups as to whether the Qumran community was identifiable with the Essenes, but scholars do generally agree that there was an association between the Essenes and the Therapeutae
. Philo
reported that the Therapeutae's central meal was intended to emulate the holy table set forth in the sacred hall of the temple, but though the Qumran community are portrayed in the Dead Sea Scrolls as viewing the Jerusalem service as having failed to achieve priestly holiness, Philo describes the Therapeutae as deliberately introducing slight differences in their practices from those at the Temple, as a mark of respect for the Temple's shewbread.
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
or Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
context, refers to the cakes or loaves of bread
Bread
Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
which were always present on a specially dedicated table, in the Temple in Jerusalem
Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...
as an offering to God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
. An alternative, and more appropriate, translation would be presence bread, since the Bible requires that the bread be constantly in the presence of God .
Biblical references
Within the TorahTorah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
, the showbread is mentioned exclusively by the Priestly Code
Priestly Code
The Priestly Code is the name given, by academia, to the body of laws expressed in the Torah which do not form part of the Holiness Code, the Covenant Code, the Ritual Decalogue, or the Ethical Decalogue. The Priestly Code constitutes the majority of Leviticus, as well as some of the laws...
and Holiness Code
Holiness code
The Holiness Code is a term used in biblical criticism to refer to Leviticus 17-26, and is so called due to its highly repeated use of the word Holy. It has no special traditional religious significance and traditional Jews and Christians do not regard it as having any distinction from any other...
, but certain sections of the Bible, including the Book of Chronicles, Books of Samuel
Books of Samuel
The Books of Samuel in the Jewish bible are part of the Former Prophets, , a theological history of the Israelites affirming and explaining the Torah under the guidance of the prophets.Samuel begins by telling how the prophet Samuel is chosen by...
, and Book of Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
, also describe aspects of them. In the Holiness Code, the showbread is described as twelve cakes/loaves baked from fine flour
Flour
Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
, arranged in two rows/piles on a table standing before God; each loaf/cake was to contain two Omers of flour . The Biblical regulations specify that cups of frankincense
Frankincense
Frankincense, also called olibanum , is an aromatic resin obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia, particularly Boswellia sacra, B. carteri, B. thurifera, B. frereana, and B. bhaw-dajiana...
were to be placed upon the rows of cakes, and the Septuagint, but not the masoretic text
Masoretic Text
The Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible and is regarded as Judaism's official version of the Tanakh. While the Masoretic Text defines the books of the Jewish canon, it also defines the precise letter-text of these biblical books, with their vocalization and...
, states that salt was mixed with the frankincense; the frankincense, which the Septuagint refers to as an anamnesis, (a hapax legomenon
Hapax legomenon
A hapax legomenon is a word which occurs only once within a context, either in the written record of an entire language, in the works of an author, or just in a single text. The term is sometimes used incorrectly to describe a word that occurs in just one of an author's works, even though it...
), constituted a memorial (azkarah), having been offered upon the altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
to God .
According to the Book of Chronicles, the Kohath
Kohath
According to the Torah, Kohath was one of the sons of Levi, and the patriarchal founder of the Kohathites, one of the four main divisions among the Levites in Biblical times; in some apocryphal texts such as the Testament of Levi, and the Book of Jubilees, Levi's wife, Kohath's mother, is named as...
ite clan had charge of the baking and setting in order of the bread, suggesting that there were secret extra requirements in preparing the bread, known only to the Kohathites. Since leavened products were prohibited from the altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
, and the cakes/loaves are not described as being offered upon it
Korban
The term offering as found in the Hebrew Bible in relation to the worship of Ancient Israel is mainly represented by the Hebrew noun korban whether for an animal or other offering...
, it is possible that the showbread was leavened; however, as they were carried into the inner part of the sanctuary, it is highly probable that they were unleavened.
The cakes were to be left on the table for a week, and then be replaced with new ones on the Sabbath
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
, so that there were always fresh loaves on the table, and those that had started going stale were removed; the Biblical text states that the Jewish priests
Kohen
A Kohen is the Hebrew word for priest. Jewish Kohens are traditionally believed and halachically required to be of direct patrilineal descent from the Biblical Aaron....
were entitled to eat the cakes that had been removed, as long as they did so in a holy place, as it considered the bread to be holy. It appears that consumption of the bread wasn't the exclusive preserve of the priests, as the narrative of David's sojourn at Nob
Book of Judges
The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its title describes its contents: it contains the history of Biblical judges, divinely inspired prophets whose direct knowledge of Yahweh allows them to act as decision-makers for the Israelites, as...
mentions that Ahimelek (the priest) gave David the holy bread, at his request.
The table
The table for the showbread was, according to Biblical regulations, to be placed in the northern part of the sanctuary, opposite the Menorah, with the Altar of Incense between them. The Septuagint describes the table as being of solid gold, but the masoretic text argues that it was made from acaciaAcacia
Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...
wood, and only covered with pure gold, with a gold border around the top; the table's dimensions are given as 2 ell
Ell
An ell , is a unit of measurement, approximating the length of a man's arm.Several national forms existed, with different lengths, includingthe Scottish ell ,the Flemish ell ,the French ell...
s long, 1 ell wide, and 1.5 ells high.
The feet of the table are described as having a ring-like enclosure to which four gold rings were fastened, so that rods (made from acacia wood, and covered with gold) could be passed through the rings, and used to make the table portable. The biblical text indicates that, when being carried, the table (shulchan) would be covered with a purplish-blue cloth, the loaves and vessels would be placed on the cloth, and another cloth, in scarlet, would be placed over it, with a fine skin being added on top of that. In each sanctuary there was only one table, except for the Temple in Jerusalem, which the Book of Chronicles describes as having ten tables within its Holy Place
Hekhal
The Hebrew noun hekhal in Classical Hebrew means a large building. This can be either the main building of the Temple in Jerusalem, that is the nave or sanctuary of the Temple, or a palace, such as the "palace" of Ahab king of Samaria, or the "palace" of the King of Babylon.-Usage:It is used 80...
.
In Solomon's Temple, there was provision made for the proper exhibition of the shewbread. Antiochus Epiphanes plundered the table of showbread from the Second Temple, but under Judas Maccabeus
Judas Maccabeus
Judah Maccabee was a Kohen and a son of the Jewish priest Mattathias...
a replacement was made.
Origin
Although, according to textual scholarsTextual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
, the only source texts among those comprising the Torah
Documentary hypothesis
The documentary hypothesis , holds that the Pentateuch was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives, which were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of redactors...
which mention the showbread are the Holiness Code
Holiness code
The Holiness Code is a term used in biblical criticism to refer to Leviticus 17-26, and is so called due to its highly repeated use of the word Holy. It has no special traditional religious significance and traditional Jews and Christians do not regard it as having any distinction from any other...
and later additions to the priestly source
Priestly source
The Priestly Source is one of the sources of the Torah/Pentateuch in the bible. Primarily a product of the post-Exilic period when Judah was a province of the Persian empire , P was written to show that even when all seemed lost, God remained present with Israel...
, the antiquity of the practise is shown by its mention in the Books of Samuel which textual scholars generally view as predating the priestly source. In the Books of Samuel, Ahimelek is described as asking for an assurance that David's men were in a ritually pure state, namely that they had not been involved in sexual activity with women, before handing over the old showbread; biblical scholars
Biblical criticism
Biblical criticism is the scholarly "study and investigation of Biblical writings that seeks to make discerning judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work...
view this as suggesting that the showbread was originally a sacrificial meal which was viewed as being shared with the deity, hence the need to be ritually pure, and the bread not being burnt but instead consumed.
The custom seems to have been widespread in the region, an example being the Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
ian practice of offering to their gods a number of different kinds of cakes/bread (akalu); the Hebrew term for the showbread, Lehem haPanim, is exactly translated by the Assyrian phrase akal pגnu, which refers to the Babylonian cake/bread offerings. In the Israelite case, a number of biblical scholars connect the use of showbread directly to the ancient cult of the Ark of the Covenant
Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant , also known as the Ark of the Testimony, is a chest described in Book of Exodus as solely containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed...
, the Ark being seen as the home of the deity, and the bread being an offering of food, ready for consumption whenever the deity chose to make an appearance.
Like the biblical showbread, the Babylonians and Assyrians generally laid twelve cakes/loaves, or an integer multiple of twelve cakes/loaves, on tables in front of images of their deities; the number twelve, which is so prominent in the showbread rite, has always borne mysterious religious significance, and with the Assyrian practice of laying out twelve cakes/loaves, was directly connected with the Zodiac
Zodiac
In astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude which are centred upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year...
. The Babylonian cakes/bread were also required to be sweet (i.e. unleavened), and like the biblical showbread were baked from wheat flour.
In classical Jewish literature
The somewhat scanty biblical details concerning the showbread are complemented by further information given by JosephusJosephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
(a contemporary of Herod's) temple, and, over the several centuries after the Temple's destruction, by classical rabbinical literature. According to Josephus, the cakes were unleavened and were baked on the Friday before the Sabbath, since the biblical regulations forbade work of any kind during the Sabbath. The Mishnah
Mishnah
The Mishnah or Mishna is the first major written redaction of the Jewish oral traditions called the "Oral Torah". It is also the first major work of Rabbinic Judaism. It was redacted c...
argues that the loaves were kneaded separately, but baked in pairs; the Mishnah also states that the loaves were moulded into shape by three different moulds (made from gold, according to Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
, who lived more than a thousand years after the burning of Jerusalem), with one being used while the loaves were just dough
Dough
Dough is a paste made out of any cereals or leguminous crops by mixing flour with a small amount of water and/or other liquid. This process is a precursor to making a wide variety of foodstuffs, particularly breads and bread-based items , flatbreads, noodles, pastry, and similar items)...
, another while the bread was being baked in the oven, and a third after baking, to protect the shape. The Mishnah describes the loaves as being 10 Etzba long, and 5 Etzba wide, with rims/horns that were 7 Etzba long; Maimonides gives the same figures but with Tefah as the unit rather than Etzba.
According to some Mishnaic contributors, the kneading of the dough was done outside the sanctuary, but the baking was done inside, but others state that all the preparations were carried out in the Temple courtyard, and others in the house of Pagi
Pagi
Pagoi or Pagi is a village in the NW corner of Corfu Island in Greece. It is a community of the municipal unit Agios Georgios.-Agios Georgios Pagon :...
, which according to Maimonides was very close to the Temple courtyard; no reason is given for these geographic distinctions, but the Gemara
Gemara
The Gemara is the component of the Talmud comprising rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah. After the Mishnah was published by Rabbi Judah the Prince The Gemara (also transliterated Gemora or, less commonly, Gemorra; from Aramaic גמרא gamar; literally, "[to] study" or "learning by...
argues that the House of Garmu
House of Garmu
According to the Talmud, the House of Garmu was responsible for baking the Showbread offered in the Temple of Jerusalem. The Talmud praised the Garmu family for never permitting their children to be seen eating white bread, to avoid any possible suspicion that they might be appropriating Temple...
were responsible for baking the shewbread, and kept their methods and reasoning secret. The Mishnah states that to replace the bread, two priests would enter the sanctuary ahead of another four priests carrying the replacement bread; the two priests without the bread would go to the southern end of the table, while those with the new bread would go to the northern end, and while the priests at the south removed the old bread from the table, it would be replaced with the new bread by the priests at the northern side, so that the bread would always be present.
Josephus states that the cakes were placed in two equal piles (rather than rows), as does the Mishnah, which describes the existence of hollow golden tubes to carry air between the bread, and two golden fork-shaped supports attached to the table, each one to hold up a pile Josephus also states that the frankincense was placed in two golden cups - one on top of each pile; the Mishnah states that a handful of incense was placed in each cup, and the Tosefta
Tosefta
The Tosefta is a compilation of the Jewish oral law from the period of the Mishnah.-Overview:...
states that the cups, called bezikin, had flat bottoms/rims, so that they could also be placed on the table. According to the Mishnah, while the new bread was being carried in by the four priests, two other priests would carry in replacement cups of incense, and two further priests would go ahead of them to remove the old cups of incense.
The Mishnah argues that after being removed, the old bread was placed on a golden table in the Temple's hall, and then the old incense would be burnt; once this was done, the cakes would be divided, with the Jewish High Priest
Kohen Gadol
The High Priest was the chief religious official of Israelite religion and of classical Judaism from the rise of the Israelite nation until the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem...
getting five of the twelve loaves, and the remainder being divided among the other priests on duty during the previous week. On the occasion of certain Jewish Holidays occurring during the Sabbath, there were adjustments made, for example, if Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...
occurred on the Sabbath, the old bread wouldn't be divided between the priests until the evening.
The table
The majority of contributors to the Mishnah state that the table was of the same dimensions as the loaves - 10 Etzba long, and 5 Etzba wide, but Rabbi Akiba contributed a dissenting view, according to which there was a gap between the piles of shewbread, with the table being 12 Etzba long, and 6 Etzba wide; Abba SaulAbba Saul
For the first Generation Tanna sage with a similar name, see Abba Saul ben Batnit.Abba Saul was a fourth generation Tanna . His elder contemporary was Akiva ben Joseph...
argued that the cups of incense were placed within the gap. These dimensions clearly are too small for the loaves to rest on the table lengthways, and clearly some support would have been needed for them to be piled high upon the table in two distinct piles, which is difficult to reconcile with the apparent biblical implication that the loaves were free standing on the table.
The Mishnah states that there were 28 ventilation tubes, 14 for each pile, each of which was open at one end only. The Gemara
Gemara
The Gemara is the component of the Talmud comprising rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah. After the Mishnah was published by Rabbi Judah the Prince The Gemara (also transliterated Gemora or, less commonly, Gemorra; from Aramaic גמרא gamar; literally, "[to] study" or "learning by...
extrapolates from this the conclusion that the fork-like supports were set into the floor, two at each end of the table, and the tubes went between the fork-like supports above the table. The Gemara essentially has the view that the supports and tubes formed a complex receptacle for the loaves, similar to a grate, with the lowest loaf in each pile resting directly on the table, but the with the next loaf resting on the two lowest of the tubes, and so forth up the pile. Presumably a device as complex as this would have been mentioned at least briefly in the Bible had it been a biblical requirement, but it isn't, and neither was it depicted on the Arch of Titus
Arch of Titus
The Arch of Titus is a 1st-century honorific arch located on the Via Sacra, Rome, just to the south-east of the Roman Forum. It was constructed in c.82 AD by the Roman Emperor Domitian shortly after the death of his older brother Titus to commemorate Titus' victories, including the Siege of...
, which shows the table at the moment of its capture by the Romans.
As well as the golden cups for the incense, the Mishnah enumerates a number of other dishes (ke'arot) and hand-like bowls (kappot), including menakkiyyot (which were probably for dipping) and kesawot; the kesawot are identified by the Mishnah as being for the wine-libation
Libation
A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a god or spirit or in memory of those who have died. It was common in many religions of antiquity and continues to be offered in various cultures today....
s, but the Targum
Targum
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...
s argue that they were for the purpose of covering the shewbread. The Mishnah also suggests that the Table could be dismantled into small portions, so that if any part of it ever became ritually impure, it could be regain its ritual purity by washing the parts in a Mikvah
Mikvah
Mikveh is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism...
.
Among ancient groups
There is evidence of Jewish groups around the turn of the common era, such as the QumranQumran
Qumran is an archaeological site in the West Bank. It is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli settlement and kibbutz of Kalia...
community at the Dead Sea
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...
, and the Therapeutae
Therapeutae
The Therapeutae were a Jewish sect in which flourished in Alexandria and other parts of the Diaspora of Hellenistic Judaism in the final years of the Second Temple period. The primary source is the account De vita contemplativa by the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria who appears to have...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, which seem to have regarded themselves as part of the main Jewish body worshipping at the Jerusalem temple, despite being geographically isolated from it, and, in the eyes of later Jewish thought, theologically distinct from it.
Among the Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
, a number of Aramaic fragments, found in cave 2, discuss eschatological
Eschatology
Eschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...
connections to the eating of shewbread, which Matthew Black
Matthew Black
Matthew Black Matthew Black Matthew Black (Kilmarnock (3 September 1908 - 2 October 1994) was a Scottish biblical scholar. He was the first editor of New Testament Studies. Black joined the team of Kurt Aland, Bruce Metzger, and Allen Wikgren to work on the UBS Greek New Testament....
links with the sacred community meal discussed in a scroll from cave 1 (1QSVI), and the Messianic
Jewish Messiah
Messiah, ; mashiah, moshiah, mashiach, or moshiach, is a term used in the Hebrew Bible to describe priests and kings, who were traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil as described in Exodus 30:22-25...
meal discussed in another scroll in the same cave (1QSall); Professor Black suggests that the Qumran community may have considered their regular bread sharing to be an enactment of the Sabbath division of shewbread at the Jerusalem Temple.
There is dispute among scholarly groups as to whether the Qumran community was identifiable with the Essenes, but scholars do generally agree that there was an association between the Essenes and the Therapeutae
Therapeutae
The Therapeutae were a Jewish sect in which flourished in Alexandria and other parts of the Diaspora of Hellenistic Judaism in the final years of the Second Temple period. The primary source is the account De vita contemplativa by the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria who appears to have...
. Philo
Philo
Philo , known also as Philo of Alexandria , Philo Judaeus, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, Yedidia, "Philon", and Philo the Jew, was a Hellenistic Jewish Biblical philosopher born in Alexandria....
reported that the Therapeutae's central meal was intended to emulate the holy table set forth in the sacred hall of the temple, but though the Qumran community are portrayed in the Dead Sea Scrolls as viewing the Jerusalem service as having failed to achieve priestly holiness, Philo describes the Therapeutae as deliberately introducing slight differences in their practices from those at the Temple, as a mark of respect for the Temple's shewbread.