Showbread ( , literally:
"Bread of the Presence"), 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 is
constantly in the presence of God ( ).
Biblical references
Within the
Torah, the Shewbread 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 Shewbread 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
Kohathite 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 shewbread 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
The Table
The table for the Shewbread 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
acacia wood, and only covered with pure gold, with a
gold border around the top; the table's dimensions are given as 2
ells 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.
Origin
Although, according to
textual
scholars, the only source texts among
those comprising the Torah which
mention the shewbread 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 shewbread;
biblical scholars view this as suggesting
that the shewbread 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
Babylonian
practice of offering to their gods a number of
different kinds of cakes/bread (akalu); the Hebrew term
for the shewbread, 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 shewbread 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 shewbread, 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 (ie.
unleavened), and like the biblical shewbread were baked from wheat
flour.
In classical Jewish literature
The somewhat scanty biblical details concerning the shewbread are
complemented by further information given by
Josephus (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.
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 Saul 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-
libations, but the
Targums
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.
Among ancient groups
There is
evidence of Jewish groups around the turn of the common era, such
as the Qumran
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 Therapeutae and the Essenes.
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.
See also
Footnotes
- Jewish Encyclopedia
- , cf. ,
- ,
- , cf. ,
- et sequentia
- Jewish Encyclopedia, Books of Samuel
- Jewish Encyclopedia, Shewbread
- cf. ,
- cf. , , et sequentia, and
- ibid
- Stade, Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, (1905),
1:168
- Peake's commentary on the
Bible
- Peake's commentary on the
Bible
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, volume
3, 10:7
- Menahot
11:1
- Menahot Men 11:1
- Sifra to Leviticus
24:5-9
- Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Tamid:5:8
- Menahot, 11:4
- Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Tamid:5:9
- Men. 11:2
- Menahot 99b
- Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Tamid:5:4
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, volume 3, 10:7
- Menahot 94b, 96a
- Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Tamid:5:2
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, volume 3, 10:7
- Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Tamid:5:2
- Tosefta on Menahot 11
- Yoma
- Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Tamid:5:5
- Menahot 11:5
- Josephus, The Jewish Wars, volume 5, 5:5
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, volume 3, 6:6
- Yoma
- Matthew Black, Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 110
- ibid
- Philo, The contemplative life, 81-82
- Philo, The contemplative life, 81-82
Bibliography
- B. Baentsch, Exodus-Leviticus, p.
419,
Göttingen
, 1900;
- Riehm, Handwörterbuch, ii. 1405
et seq
- M. Black, The Scrolls and Christian Origins: Studies in the
Jewish Background of the New Testment (London: Nelson,
1961)
- M. Barker, Temple Theology: An Introduction (London:
SPCK, 2004)
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
