How many veils in the temple

A holy God could not look upon evil nor could sinful people gaze upon God's holiness and live. To mediate between him and his people, God appointed a high priest. Aaron was the first in that line, the only person authorized to go through the barrier between God and man.

But God's love did not start with Moses in the desert or even with Abraham , father of the Jewish people. From the moment Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, God promised to restore the human race to a right relationship with him. Christ was the completion of the sacrificial system established by God the Father. Only shed blood could atone for sins, and only the sinless Son of God could serve as the final and satisfying sacrifice.

When Jesus died on the cross , God tore the veil in the Jerusalem temple from top to bottom. No one but God could have done such a thing because that veil was 60 feet tall and four inches thick. The direction of the tear meant God destroyed the barrier between himself and humanity, an act only God had the authority to do.

The tearing of the temple veil meant God restored the priesthood of believers 1 Peter Every follower of Christ can now approach God directly, without the intervention of earthly priests. Christ, the great High Priest, intercedes for us before God. Through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross , all barriers have been destroyed.

Through the Holy Spirit , God dwells once more with and in his people. Exodus 26, , , , , , , ; Leviticus , 17, , , ; Numbers , ; 2 Chronicles ; Matthew ; Mark ; Luke ; Hebrews , , Three curtains had to be passed.

Each one would add to the sense of the great gulf that existed between God and Man. Each curtain became more exclusive. Any Israelite could enter the outer court as long as he brought his sacrifice. Of all the Israelites, only priests were permitted to enter the Holy Place. Finally, only one priest was permitted beyond the veil that led to the Holy of Holies. The Holy Spirit was teaching the people, even the other priests, that the way into — the Holiest of all was granted only to one member of all Israel's race — the high priest.

Even then, the high priest had to come properly prepared. The New Testament tells us of another veil of separation. John tell that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Christ, who is of the very same essence and nature as God, emptied Himself. He took on the limitations of humanity without surrendering any of the attributes of His divinity.

Hebrews calls the very body of Christ a veil that hid the Deity of Jesus from the eyes of men. Instead they asked, "Is not this the carpenter's son? The prophet Isaiah foresaw that the Messiah would be one of us. None of His glory would be visible; it would be hidden in the veil of His flesh Isaiah , Isaiah Even though that glory was hidden during His earthly ministry, we can see glimpses of His glory. By divine revelation His disciples were at times able to see beyond the veil of His flesh and behold the fact that Jesus was indeed the Son of the living God.

John declares that the disciples beheld His glory. Glimpses of that glory were manifested to the disciples through the miracles of Jesus. At the wedding in Cana, for example, Jesus changed the water into wine. John records, "This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples put their faith in him. The glory of the Son of god came to its peak at the moment when He died on the cross of Calvary. In Mark , 38 we read about a very interesting event that took place when Jesus died.

The veil was torn in two. Luke says: — Luk And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. Luk And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. Luk Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.

There are two assumptions we could make here about what the Centurion saw was done a. You could chose one or the other, or maybe they refer to two different Centurions , unfortunately it is not clear but Mark and Matthew definitely refer to the Centurion beside the cross. I find it hard though to think that one Centurion saw all things at the same time. Alister, when it comes right down to it, I think Andrew is right in suggesting that the centurion did not see the veil being torn. You suggest that it could be one i.

By: chuckbumgardner on March 20, at am. I agree completely with you Chuck, and with Andrew as I mentioned at the start of my dialogue. I am sorry if you misunderstood me. What do you think? I can expand on this in the future if you would like! I apologise I am doing too much by posting it here. I would be interested in your comments to the following: — Through the Veil 1. Hebrews b. A horse on each side could not pull it apart.

He entered once a year to perform his priestly duties and only after he had sacrificed a sin offering, and thoroughly washed himself symbolically clean from sin. For anyone else entering in it was death. Mar The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

The veil was torn by an act of GOD. When Jesus died, the veil was torn, and God no longer needed a place on earth. By: cyril on April 15, at am. Although modern bent is toward the premise that the veil torn was that of the first veil, i. I thank-you Cyril for your encouraging words. Thank-you for pointing out Hebrews , Paul. It makes me think also, what would be the significance of having access through a torn veil into a human area, i.

This is a most wonderful blog. Heathly conversation to make us idg deeper, while doing so in humble adoration. By: chuckbumgardner on September 26, at pm. What gave you this impression? Your friend in Christ :. By: chuckbumgardner on November 29, at am. There are two basic kinds of fibers, plant and animal.

Plant fibers are cellulose and animal fibers are protein. If the curtain was made of a felted technique then it would be made of an animal fiber, like from a sheep or a goat. If the curtain was made from a plant fiber, then weaving and quilting techniques could be used. Examining the initial construction of the temple, as recorded in Exodus, the curtain separating the Holy place from the Most Holy Place in the temple was made from linen according to Exodus I am definitely assuming that Jewish traditions would keep the construction of this curtain from the exact same fiber, even if they replaced the curtain because it was explicitly told how it should be made.

Thus we can rule out felting as the technique for creating the curtain. It must be some woven technique, or perhaps a combination of weaving and quilting. The next step would be to work from the translated text to see what a fabric would look like if it was made with 72 cords or made on a loom with 72 rods.

How thick is the veil? Exo And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy. I came across a comment that the veil was between inches thick, another said 4 inches and yet another 5 inches. According to the comments on this website none of these could really be substantiated.

It was a comment on a comment on a comment of a rabbi. I tried to get to an answer, because in the end what we say must at least make sense too. Is it what the Word says? From a practical point: The measurement of this veil was 10x10ft.

Consider that there were four pillars between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, and that the veil was to be hooked on the pillars with hooks made of gold. Gold is a relatively soft metal. A curtain of inches thick would be so unpractical and heavy that it would bend the hooks, how would such a thick thing it be folded or rolled up or transported, even with priests available???? Even a curtain of inches thick would be equally difficult to manage.

An ordinary 10 x10 ft. Considering the measurements it is very unlikely that it could be anywhere that thick, not even 4 inches. They would have needed a very special and sophisticated weaving apparatus to make this veil.

The Word does not say that this veil was woven in squares either and then sewn together. This is perhaps not an academically researched answer, but just a common sense one. I am not a fan of Josephus, in fact rather sceptical of his sayings? Chojnowski, Ph. Such would be quite an odd fact to make up if one were looking to skew the text in any way. Simeon ben Gamaliel the son of the Sagan. If true it would seem that there were was another available to be put up. Thank-you for your comments and quotes on the quilted form of the veil, Chuck, they certainly help make it sound feasible in the physical.

However I feel what is most important is the Spiritual meaning it implies. One thing no one used was the Bible itself! Exodus Moreover you shall make the Tabernacle with 10 Curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with Cherubim not necessarily angels of cunning work you shall make them.

So 5 Curtains expanded across the room being 42 feet wide in a 30 foot space, making them wrinkled somewhat, with the other 5 exactly behind the first set, setting the same way.

Each curtain may have been about 4 inches thick making both about 8 inches thick, PLUS they were squished from 42 feet smashed up to 20 feet, and two curtains thick, it would have to make them close to feet thick. Split from top to bottom.

I used Exodus to figure out from cubit 18in to feet, then you see the size of the Tabernacles. Me blessed my friends, Messianic Rabbi Tom Barnes.

I realize not many confronted this task, and only yearly, but it seems to me, to be a very difficult task at best, especially since no one else was permitted entry or even to offer assistance for fear of death. Secondly, is there any validity regarding any attachment to the High Priest, such as a cord to extract him if something went wrong. This container of some sort presents yet another difficulty for entry.

I presume again, entry was through the side, or corner and not through underneath. Once again, would protocol dictate the left of right side for entry, and would some type of burning lamp be taken along, yet another obstacle, with heavy weight pushing against you, with both hands filled? Lastly, if replacements were a standard yearly process, that would expose the inside of the Holy of Holies to people.

How could this be done, and who would do it, and were there any scriptural allowances for this to happen? I had not given a bit of thought to the potential difficulty of getting through the veil.

I assume that if the high priest did have difficulty entering, other priests could stand to the side and pull the curtain to one side in order to help the high priest enter. They would not be inside the holy of holies in so doing. By: chuckbumgardner on March 22, at pm. Sorry, I was referring to the veil being replaced as needed, due to soiling or just time deterioration, or even just being washed. This would expose the entire inside of the Holy of Holies, with no covering of the entrance. Just curious!

Regards, Ken. Why would it be replaced? I have heard that the priest sewed the veil up again. Is there any information on this as being true. I have heard the same thing myself and this very question arose this morning as I was studying the Word.

I gleaned a lot form each post. May the Holy Spirit bring a spirit of revelation Eph. By: Joseph F. Pickens on March 26, at am.

My search for information on the thickness of the veil led me here. Many thanks to all who have contributed to this informative and enlightening discussion. By: bgoodnough on March 29, at pm. Thanks a lot for the great explanation of the thickness of the veil in the temple.

It gives me a new view on the miracle which took place in the temple. Thanks to all who took time to share their knowledge. By: Daniel Ritchie on April 22, at am. Very interesting comments here. Thanks to all the contributors. You would think their astonishment and awe would be recorded somewhere in all of their commentaries. After all, the High Priest still had to perform the rituals on the Day of Atonement all by himself for 40 years yet.

Josephus records the Jews seeing and hearing many strange things before the destruction of Jerusalem. It seems the priests just kept the torn veil all hush-hush during that whole long period. As far as yearly curtains being handmade, are there not regulations found in any rabbinic writings as to proper cleaning of the old, and storing of all those extra curtains? How dirty would that curtain get if only used once a year? The silence regarding this issue is quite strange to me.

We can read about the meticulous procedures the scribes used for copying manuscripts but nothing about the proper handling of the sacred curtain? And finally, the significance of the torn veil is always treated as if every gentile was just yearning for the day to come when God would give them access to a relationship with Him. Not one person knew what it meant on the day it happened!

For sure the High Priest was clueless just as millions today are — even after years of preaching about it. Everytime I study any topic from the Bible I end up with dozens of questions but never a definitive answer. Take the baptism of Jesus for instance. You could say He was 1. Men accept what seems right in their mind and reject the rest.

That torn veil, though. If I may add another that I had often seen in this, maybe for you ponder on: — 1. My question is one that i have asked many times but no solid answers were presented. Aniph, although only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, perhaps other priests pulled the veil back from the other side without themselves entering.

By: chuckbumgardner on May 27, at am. The veil was draped in a fold so that the High Priest could enter on one side the right and in front of him was still more veil.

He had to walk to his left to the end of the veil, turn right through a slit before the Holy of Holies was visible. This prevented anyone else from accidentally peering into the Place he out not.

They crawled underneath it! I am in a bible study class and this subject has come up in it. This has been very interesting to read, and I would just like to know the answer to this question. If the tearing of the veil was to signify a few things, no need for more sacrifices, God coming to dwell with us, etc….

Please know I am new in my walk with Christ, and whatever I read or study I have a tendency to over analyze. With this being so significant to those who believe, surely this has some significance to them. It also points to the fact that the way to God is now open and thatJesus is the only way the truth and the life.

I trust that you have come that way. It is nice to hear that you are a new beliver. God will speak to you through his word , and you are quite capable of listening to Him so be patient and He will reveal himself to you. Keep going to church , and enjoy Good Christain fellowship. But the Rabbis do not shy from difficult things to explain. This would have been no small thing as these were understood as the famed Nikanor gates that nearly everyone entered the Temple by into the court of the Women.

And we know the Temple was destroyed exactly 40 years after the death of our Lord, the Mesiah in 70 a. So either these two events coincided, which is probable,or the doors have been misinterpreted as the veil, which seems unlikely in light of the comment of Josephus noted by someone here already.

Also regarding the belief that God is Spirit, it is both the belief of Judaism and Christianity that He is exactly that. It is not foreign to Judaism that the Spirit of God inhabits flesh, but perhaps more the reaction to an ill understanding of just how that concept worked itself out in the form of our Lord. Until He comes. Good question. But I do believe it really happened, regardless of the lack of extrabiblical evidence, simply because Scripture says it did.

And the gospels show us that Jesus said a number of things that indicated his equality with the Father see John , e. But how did the Jews explain the torn veil in particular? By: chuckbumgardner on September 30, at pm. I was involved in the Ashkenazi Messianic Jewish community for 20 years, and I echo and extend what Chuck says. Not just that only two writers of the Bible were gentile Job and Dr Luke , but that many Jewish people today accept that Yeshua Jesus is the Messiah, and that includes accepting that haShem, God the Father, tore the temple veil in two.

Although the majority of the Jewish people rejected who Messiah was, this is by no means all Jews. That does not make them any less part of the Body of Messiah. By: David on October 1, at am. Thanks, David. We see some of this reflected in Scripture in the Pharisees vs. By: chuckbumgardner on October 1, at am. I have searched in so many places and cannot find the answer to this question. Removing it to wash it would leave an open view to the most sacred place.

Please enlighten me and provide me reading sources. What passages are you thinking of when you say that the blood was sprinkled on a daily basis on the veil? By: chuckbumgardner on October 26, at pm. Leviticus mentions that the priest had to sprinkle the blood on the veil 7 times if the congregation or the priest sinned.

But I am still curious, what happened to this blood- stained veil? I apologize for my misunderstanding. Thank you!

By: chuckbumgardner on November 6, at am. I read in a book that Blood was sprinkled upon the mercy seat once a year by the High Priest and that not one drop of that blood ever touched the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant because the Shakana Glory of the Lord consumed or lapped up every single drop of that Blood??? Concerning extrabiblical records of the veil. Though not a great fan of Josephus I thought I would check and see what he had to say about this.

We, also, have the singular fact presented that the curtain of the Temple, after being rent at the time of the Passion, was left hanging for a considerable period of time. The Works of Josephus, trans. Very encouraging to see this discussion. There is value in this on another level. The sages, as noted here, comment on the thickness of the veil for perhaps another reason. The veil serves to shield us from the Presence of Hashem. It is for our benefit that it existed.

We are also told that the chasm separating Sheol from Gan Eden, Paradise, is precisely this distance as well. Yet it is a distance too great to transgress, as Abraham tells the rich man in Sheol. A mere handbreadth separates life from death, flesh from spirit, heaven from hell. And I will remove My palm and you shall see My back, but My face cannot be seen. Interesting that the moment the Son of God departs this world, the handbreadth is removed.

Interesting perspective you bring there to the situation, Chris. Man now had access to the presence of GOD, as mentioned a number of times above , which on earth was the Holiest of Holies behind the veil. GOD no longer needed to be present on earth for priests to bring sin offerings to. Hebrews 16 — Alister, I like this strand of thought and will certainly think about it a bit. But some immediate concerns emerge. Yes, we do have access to God, but we always did. He entered to offer atonement.

We access our Father now on this earth by prayer, they did also. I think the point of no man entering the Holy of Holies rests on the issue of that atonement, the Most Acceptable Sacrifice that the annual offering pointed man toward.

Offerings were not new to the Temple periods. Righteous Abel offered outside of the sacrificial system long before. I like this idea, but having some difficulty with the whole of the thought. He is, as you stated, the Lamb. He is the High Priest. Each had a holy place and each had a most holy place or holy of holies.

Separating the holy place from the holy of holies in both cases was a veil. Again, while there were similarities between the furniture placed in each, the only item in the holy of holies of both the temple and the tabernacle was the ark. The instructions given to Solomon for the building of the original temple are given in 1 Kings 6 and 2 Chron.

Clearly it was a magnificent building, not only internally but externally - you did not have to go inside to appreciate its beauty. Tradition tells us that it glistened in the sun and could be seen from afar. The temple was thus a vehicle of display. By contrast, all the glory of the tabernacle was inside - nothing met the eye outside except its coverings of animal skins Ex. Coupled with this was the fact that whereas the temple was stationary and permanent, the tabernacle was essentially an adapted tent moved from place to place.

Now when the Lord Jesus was here on earth, He did not liken Himself to the tabernacle but to the temple, and this is recorded in the very Gospel where He is presented as the Apostle or Sent One of God.

In John 2: 19—21, He speaks of the temple naos - the inner sanctuary of His body - not the tabernacle of His body, for it was a question of making God known and revealing Him as Father.

For this the temple, the vehicle of display, was the suited figure, not the tabernacle. Similarly in 1 Cor. In each of the three synoptic Gospels we are told that the veil of the temple was rent. This has nothing directly to do with man going in to God but the very reverse. In the old Levitical economy of law God was hidden, dwelling in thick darkness behind the veil in the temple 1 Kings 8: 12, 2 Chron. The temple veil was rent for God to come out. While the revelation of the Father in the Son was complete in His life here, the revelation of the love of God in all its fullness only came out in the death of Christ - a revelation symbolised by the temple veil being rent.

In the world to come there will be yet another temple, the details of which are given to us in Ez. Now while there are similarities with Solomon's temple there are also differences.

In Ez. The lesson of this is that once a revelation is made, it is not retracted - the temple veil is not reinstated - it is rent for ever. Thus, for example, we still know God as Jehovah Israel's relationship but we also now know Him as Father. However, while revelation cannot be taken back, approach is another matter. Thus associated with Ezekiel's temple there will be the various offerings for example see Ez.

This indicates that approach to God will not be the same as now, even though the present revelation remains. In the early verses Christ is presented as the Apostle, the One sent from God to make Him known in revelation - answering to Moses in the old economy. This paves the way for the main thrust of the epistle from Heb.