Tabernacles, Feast of
Tabernacles, Feast of
One of the three great feasts of the Hebrew liturgical calendar, even the greatest, according to Philo (heorton megiste) and Josephus (heste hagiotate kai megiste). The common name, feast of Tabernacles — among Greek-speaking Jews skenopegia, that is, “the pitching of the tent” (John 7:2) — recalls to mind the custom established by the law of Lev., xxiii, 40, of erecting on the roofs of houses, and even in streets and public squares, booths of branches and foliage, wherein all who were not exempt through illness or weakness were obliged to live during the entire celebration. It is sometimes asserted that the origin of the feast was similar to our “harvest-home” festivities.
This naturalistic view, based on the assumption that the religious enactments of the Law are of relatively recent date and mere sacerdotal ordinances, takes no account of the significance which at all times attached to the feast. True it is that one of the features of the celebrations was to be, after a fashion, a harvest-home, and to offer thanksgiving for the crops of the year (Deuteronomy 16:13; Exodus 23:16); and it is perhaps owing to this special feature that the character of the feast was one of joy and merriment (cf. Psalm 4:7-8, in Hebrew; Josephus, Ant., VIII, 4:1), and that numerous sacrifices were then offered (num., xxix, 12-39); yet to the Jews the feast of Tabernacles was always and primarily in commemoration of their forefathers’ indwelling in tents in the wilderness (Leviticus 23:43) and in thanksgiving for the permanent abode given them in the Promised Land, and later on, after the erection of the Temple, for a permanent place of worship (cf. 1 Kings 8:2; 12:32). The feast began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, Ethanim of Tishri (about our September), and lasted seven days (Leviticus 23:34-36). Every male Israelite was, according to law, obliged to go to jerusalem, and “every one who was of the people of Israel” was bound to live in booths, which, though involving some discomfort, at the same time contributed much to the merriment attending the celebration. The distinctions between rich and poor were then somewhat obliterated in the general encampment, and thus the feast had a most beneficial social influence. The first day was held most solemn and considered a sabbath, all servile work being forbidden on that day (Leviticus 23:39; Numbers 29:35); during the whole octave numerous sacrifices were offered (Numbers 29:12-39) and on the eighth day [styled the great(est) day of the feast in John, xii, 37], was held a sabbath like the first and marked by special sacrifices of its own, the booths were broken up and the people returned home.
After the Exile, the feast was protracted to the twenty-fifth of the month, and two new rites were added to the old ceremonial. Every morning of the celebration a priest went down to the Siloe Fountain, whence he brought in a golden ewer water which was pored on the alter of holocausts amidst the singing of the Hallel (Pss, cxii-cxvii) and the joyful sound of musical instruments. It was possibly the performance of this ceremony (the institution of which may have been suggested by Isaiah 12:3) which afforded to Our Lord the occasion to compare the action of the Holy Ghost in the faithful to a spring of living water (John 7:37-39). The other new feature added to the ritual of the feast was the illumination of the women’s court, together with the singing of the Psalms of the Degrees (Pss. cxix-cxxxiii) and the performance of dances or processions in the sacred precincts. On the eighth day a procession went seven times around the alter, the people carrying myrtle-boughs and palms and shouting: “Hosannah!” in memory of the fall of Jericho.
Every seven years, that is in the year of release, during the feast of Tabernacles, the Law was to be read before all the people according to the command found in Deut., xxxi, 10. But this enactment was probably soon found to be impracticable; and thus the Jewish authorities arranged to read on every sabbath, commencing with the sabbath after the feast of Tabernacles in one year of release and ending with the feast of Tabernacles in the next year of release, a portion of the Law so calculated that the whole Pentateuch would be read through in seven years. This would in some way the commandment be fulfilled. Some time later, the Jews of Palestine lengthened the sections for each sabbath in such a manner that he entire Law could be read in three years (Talm. Babyl. Megillah, 29b). At present (and this custom seems to go back to the first century B. C.) the Jews have the Pentateuch so divided that they read it through every year, the first Parashah (division) being appointed for the sabbath after the feast of Tabernacles, and the last chapters for the last day of the feast in the next year, this being the day of “rejoicing in the Law”.
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GREEN, The Hebrew Feasts (Cincinnati, 1886); IKEN, Antiquitates Hebraicae (Bremen, 1741); RELAND, Antiquitates sacrae (Utrecht, 1741); BAHR, Symbolik des mosaischen Cultus (Heidelberg, 1839); BENZIGER, Hebräische Archäologie (Frieburg im Br., 1894); SCHEGG, Biblische Archäologie (Frieburg im Br., 1894), 591 sq.; WELLHAUSEN, Prolegomena zur geschichte Israels (4th ed., Berlin, 1895); EDERSHEIM, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (New York, 1897), II, 149, 156-160, 165; IDEM, The Temple, Its Ministry and Services (London, 1874), 232-49; Talmud, ROOKINSON (Boston, a. d.), IV, Tract. Succah; DORTLEITNER, Archaeol. Bibl. (Innsbruck, 1906), 99-101; LESÊTRE IN VIG., Dict. de la Bible, V, 1961-66.
CHARLES L. SOUVAYTranscribed by Scott Anthony Hibbs
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIVCopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Tabernacles, Feast of
the third of the great annual festivals of the Jews (Lev. 23:33-43). It is also called the “feast of ingathering” (Ex. 23:16; Deut. 16:13). It was celebrated immediately after the harvest, in the month Tisri, and the celebration lasted for eight days (Lev. 23:33-43). During that period the people left their homes and lived in booths formed of the branches of trees. The sacrifices offered at this time are mentioned in Num. 29:13-38. It was at the time of this feast that Solomon’s temple was dedicated (1 Kings 8:2). Mention is made of it after the return from the Captivity. This feast was designed (1) to be a memorial of the wilderness wanderings, when the people dwelt in booths (Lev. 23:43), and (2) to be a harvest thanksgiving (Neh. 8:9-18). The Jews, at a later time, introduced two appendages to the original festival, viz., (1) that of drawing water from the Pool of Siloam, and pouring it upon the altar (John 7:2, 37), as a memorial of the water from the rock in Horeb; and (2) of lighting the lamps at night, a memorial of the pillar of fire by night during their wanderings.
“The feast of Tabernacles, the harvest festival of the Jewish Church, was the most popular and important festival after the Captivity. At Jerusalem it was a gala day. It was to the autumn pilgrims, who arrived on the 14th (of the month Tisri, the feast beginning on the 15th) day, like entrance into a silvan city. Roofs and courtyards, streets and squares, roads and gardens, were green with boughs of citron and myrtle, palm and willow. The booths recalled the pilgrimage through the wilderness. The ingathering of fruits prophesied of the spiritual harvest.”, Valling’s Jesus Christ, p. 133.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Tabernacles, Feast of
(See FEASTS.) Hasukoth, “feast of in-gathering”; haciyp (Exo 23:16); Greek skenofgia (Joh 7:2). Third of the three great feasts; from Tisri 15 to 22 (Lev 23:34-43); commemorating Israel’s passage through the desert. Thanksgiving for harvest (Deu 16:13-15). The rites and sacrifices are specified, Num 29:12-38. The law was read thereat publicly on the sabbatical year (Deu 31:10-13). Kept with joy on the return from Babylon (Nehemiah 8); compare the contemporary Psa 118:14-15; Psa 118:19-20; Psa 118:22-27, in undesigned coincidence, alluding to the feast, the joy, the building of the walls, and setting up of the gates; Zec 4:7-10; Zec 3:9; Zec 14:16-17. The earlier celebration under Zerubbabel was less formal and full according to the law (Ezr 3:4); therefore it is unnoticed in the statement (Neh 8:17) that since Joshua’s days until then (when the later celebration under Nehemiah, which was fuller and more exact, took place) it had not been so kept.
The people in the wilderness dwelt in tents, not “booths” (sukot). The primary design was a harvest feast kept in autumn bowers, possibly first in Goshen. The booth, like the tent, was a temporary dwelling, and so suited fairly to represent camp life in the desert. So Hosea (Hos 12:9) uses “tabernacles” or “tents” for “booths,” when speaking of the feast; the booth was probably used at times in the desert, when at certain places they made a more permanent stay during the forty years. It commemorated, with thanksgiving for the harvest which was the seal of their settlement in a permanent inheritance, their transition from nomadic to agricultural life. Its popularity induced Jeroboam to inaugurate his Bethel calf worship with an imitation feast of tabernacles on the 15th day of the eighth month, “which he devised of his own heart” (1Ki 12:32-33), possibly because the northern harvest was a little later, and he wished to break off Israel from the association with Judah by having a different month from the seventh, which was the legal month.
In Jerusalem the booths were built on the roofs, in house courts, in the temple court, and in the street of the water gate and of the Ephraim gate. They were made of boughs of olive, palm, pine, myrtle, and of her trees of thick foliage. From the first day of the feast to the seventh the Israelites carried in their hands “the fruit (margin) of goodly trees, branches of palm, thick trees, and willows” (Lev 23:40). In one hand each carried a bundle of branches (called luwlab or “palm” in rabbiical Hebrew) and in the other a citron (hadar, “goodly trees”.) The feast of tabernacles, like Passover, began at full moon on the 15th day of the month; the first day was a day of holy convocation; the seven days of the feast were followed by an eighth day, forming no part of it (Lev 23:34-36; Num 29:35), a day of holy convocation, “a solemn assembly” (‘atsereth), or, as the Hebrew denotes, “a closing festival” (2Ch 7:9). On each of the seven days the offering consisted of two rams, 14 lambs a year old, with 13 bulls on the first day, 12 on the second, and so on until on the seventh there were only seven, the whole amounting to 70 bulls; but on the ‘atsereth only one bull, one ram, and seven lambs.
The booths or, according to Jewish tradition, huts of boards on the sides covered with boughs on the top, were occupied only the seven days, not on the ‘atsereth. The feast of tabernacles is referred to in Joh 7:2-37; Joh 8:12. Jesus alludes to the custom of drawing water from Siloam in a golden goblet and pouring it into one of the two silver basins adjoining the western side of the altar, and wine into the other, while the words of Isa 12:3 were repeated, in commemoration of the water drawn from the rock in the desert; the choir sang the great hallel, and waved palms at different parts of Psalm 118, namely, Psa 118:1-25; Psa 118:29. Virtually Jesus said, I am the living Rock of the living water. Coming next day at daybreak to the temple court as they were extinguishing the artificial lights, two colossal golden candlesticks in the center of the temple court, recalling the pillar of fire in the wilderness, Jesus said, cf6 “I am the Light of the world” (Joh 8:1-2; Joh 8:12). As the sun by natural light was eclipsing the artificial lights, so Jesus implies, I, the Sun of righteousness, am superseding your typical light.
“The last great day of the feast” is the atsereth, though the drawing of water was on previous days not omitted. Joy was the prominent feature, from whence the proverb, “he who has never seen the rejoicing at the pouring out of the water of Siloam has never seen joy in his life” (Succah 5:1). The feast was called Hosanna, “save we beseech Thee.” Isaiah 11 refers to the future restoration of Israel; the feast of tabernacles connected with chapter 12 doubtless will have its antitype in their restored possession of and rest in Canaan, after their long dispersion; just as the other two great feasts, Passover and Pentecost, have their antitype respectively in Christ’s sacrifice for us, and in His writing His new law on our hearts at Pentecost. Jewish tradition makes Gog and Magog about to be defeated on the feast of tabernacles, or that the seven months’ cleansing shall end at that feast (Eze 39:12). Rest after wanderings, lasting habitations after the life of wanderers, is the prominent thought of joy in the feast, alike in its former and in its future celebration.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Tabernacles, Feast Of
TABERNACLES, FEST OF.The Feast of Tabernacles is mentioned in Joh 7:2; Joh 7:37. It was the third and. the most important of the Jewish festivals, requiring the presence of all males at Jerusalem. It began on the 15th of the seventh month, the month Tishri, and in the time of Christ continued for eight days.
In early times it was called the Feast of Ingathering (Exo 23:16; Exo 34:22), a name that testifies to its agricultural origin and character. In the time of the Judges it appears as a Canaanitish festival at Shechem (Jdg 9:27) and as an Israelitish festival at Shiloh (Jdg 21:19, 1 Samuel 1). It was the occasion that Solomon chose on which to dedicate his Temple (1Ki 8:2). The date given in this chapter, viz. the seventh month, does not correspond with the date of the completion of the Temple as given in 1Ki 6:38, and may be a later insertion giving the date of the Feast as fixed later. From the original character of the Festival, it is obvious that no precise date could be fixed at first. The early legislation in Exodus requires its observance, but does not give its date or duration.
The Deuteronomic Code calls it the Feast of Tabernacles, and requires it to be kept seven days, but does not fix a date. It describes it as a day of joy for all, including servant, stranger, and widow (Deu 16:13 ff.). In accordance with the sweeping centralization of worship of Deuteronomy, it must be kept at Jerusalem, and we may be sure that this change involved very radical alterations in its character.
The Book of Ezekiel significantly assigns it an exact date (Eze 45:25).
The Priests Code requires (Lev 23:33-43) the people celebrating it to dwell in booths to commemorate the fact that their fathers did likewise of necessity as they came out of Egypt. Sacrifices are prescribed (Num 29:12-38), and an eighth day is added. At the time of the promulgation of the Code as the law of the land in post-exilic times, the Feast was kept with the greatest enthusiasm (Neh 8:14 ff.), and as an examination of the Law showed that the dwelling in booths was required, this was done, as an innovation. The early practice had doubtless died out as incongruous with the centralized observance from the time of Deut., but was now restored with a special significance attached to it.
Later Jewish laws added to the regulations, and the Feast was kept at Jerusalem until the destruction of the Temple. Since then it has remained one of the great feasts of the Jews, although the mode of its observance has suffered changes to accord with modified conditions.
One rite which was observed in NT times was the drawing of water from Siloam, and the pouring of it out as a libation in the presence of the people. This Feast was regarded as the appropriate time for special prayer for abundant rain to ensure a plentiful harvest for the ensuing year. Many hold that this rite and custom furnished our Lord the occasion for using the figure of water for the thirsty, in His invitation on the great day of the Feast (Joh 7:37-38). This may have been the case, even though that particular rite was regularly omitted on the eighth day; but the teaching of Jesus seems to be very different, at least from the original thought of the rite on this Feast of Ingathering. It may be only a natural coincidence that an important part of Solomons prayer at the dedication of the Temple on the occasion of this Feast was for answer to prayers for rain, as they should be made statedly thereafter.
Literature.Art. Tabernacles [Feast of] in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible , and in EBi [Note: Bi Encyclopaedia Biblica.] and JE [Note: E Jewish Encyclopedia.] ; Edersheim, LT [Note: T Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Edersheim].] i. 145 ff.; cf. Benzinger, Heb. Arch, passim; and the Comm. ad loc.
O. H. Gates.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Tabernacles, Feast Of
TABERNACLES, FEAST OF
1. OT references.In Exo 23:16; Exo 34:22 it is called the Feast of Ingathering, and its date is placed at the end of the year.
In Deu 16:13-15 its name is given as the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (possibly referring to the use of booths in the vineyard during the vintage). It is to last 7 days, to be observed at the central sanctuary, and to be an occasion of rejoicing. In the year of release, i.e. the sabbatical year, the Law is to be publicly read (Deu 31:10-13). The dedication of Solomons Temple took place at this feast; in the account given in 1Ki 8:66 the seven-day rule of Deut. is represented as being observed; but the parallel narrative of 2Ch 7:8-10 assumes that the rule of Lev. was followed.
In Lev 23:34 ff. and Num 29:12-39 we find elaborate ordinances. The feast is to begin on 15th Tishri (October), and to last 8 days, the first and the last being days of holy convocation. The people are to live in booths improvised for the occasion. A very large number of offerings is ordained; on each of the first 7 days 2 rams and 14 Iambs, and a goat as a sin-offering; and successively on these days a diminishing number of bullocks: 13 on the 1st day, 12 on the 2nd, and so on till the 7th, when 7 were to be offered. On the 8th day the special offerings were 1 bullock, 1 ram, 7 lambs, and a goat as a sin-offering.
We hear in Ezr 3:4 of the observance of this feast, but are not told the method. The celebration in Neh 8:16 followed the regulations of Lev., but we are expressly informed that such had not been the case since Joshuas days. Still, the feast was kept in some way, for Jeroboam instituted its equivalent for the Northern Kingdom in the 8th month (1Ki 12:32-33).
2. Character of the feast.It was the Jewish harvest-home, when all the years produce of corn, wine, and oil had been gathered in; though no special offering of the earths fruits was made, as was done at the Feasts of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost. (The reason was perhaps a desire to avoid the unseemly scenes of the Canaanite vintage-festival, by omitting such a significant point of resemblance; cf. Jdg 9:27.) It was also regarded as commemorating the Israelites wanderings in the wilderness. It was an occasion for great joy and the giving of presents; It was perhaps the most popular of the national festivals, and consequently the most generally attended. Thus Zec 14:16 names as the future sign of Judahs triumph the fact that all the world shall come up yearly to Jerusalem to keep this festival.
3. Later customs.In later times novel customs were attached to the observance. Such were the daily procession round the altar, with its sevenfold repetition on the 7th day; the singing of special Psalms; the procession on each of the first 7 days to Siloam to fetch water, which was mixed with wine in a golden pitcher, and poured at the foot of the altar while trumpets were blown (cf. Joh 7:37); and the illumination of the womens court in the Temple by the lighting of the 4 golden candelabra (cf. Joh 8:12). The 8th day, though appearing originally as a supplementary addition to the feast, came to be regarded as an integral part of it, and is so treated in 2Ma 10:6, as also by Josephus.
A. W. F. Blunt.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Tabernacles, Feast of
See FEASTS AND FASTS, I., A., 3.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Tabernacles, Feast of
Feast of Tabernacles, one of the three great festivals of the Jews, being that of the closing year, as the Passover was of the spring. In Lev 23:34-43, directions for observing the feast are given in very clear terms (comp. Num 29:13-34). It was held in commemoration of the divine goodness as exercised towards the Jews when they were wandering in the desert, as well as expressive of gratitude for the supply of the rich fruits of the earth; and so was fitted to awaken the most lively feelings of piety in the minds of the Hebrews in each successive generation. From the writings of the Rabbins we learn,
1.That those who took part in the festival bore in their left hand a branch of citron, and in their right a palm branch, entwined with willows and myrtle.
2.A libation of water took place on each of the seven days (Isa 12:3; Joh 7:37); at the time of the morning oblation a priest drew from the fount of Siloam water in a jar holding three logs, and poured it out, together with wine, into two channels or conduits, made on the west side of the altar, the water into the one, the wine into the other.
3.In the outer court of the women there began, on the evening of the first day, an illumination on great golden candlesticks, which threw its light over the whole of Jerusalem; and a dance by torch-light, attended by song and music, was performed before the candelabra.
From these details, it appears that the Feast of Tabernacles was a season of universal joy. Jerusalem bore the appearance of a camp. The entire population again dwelt in tents, but not with the accompaniments of travel, fatigue, and solicitude; all was hilarity, all wore a holiday appearance; the varied green of the ten thousand branches of different trees; the picturesque ceremony of the water-libation, the general illumination, the sacred solemnities in and before the temple; the feast, the dance, the sacred song; the full harmony of the choral music; the bright joy that lighted up every face, and the gratitude at ‘harvest home,’ which swelled every bosomall conspired to make these days a season of pure, deep, and lively joy, which, in all its elements, finds no parallel among the observances of men.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Tabernacles, Feast of
This fell on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and continued seven days, with a holy convocation on the eighth day. Israel dwelt in booths during the feast, in remembrance of their having lived in tents when brought out of Egypt. Lev 23:34; Num 29:12; Deu 16:13; 2Ch 8:13; Ezr 3:4; Joh 7:2. It was at the end of their harvest and vintage, when they enjoyed the fruits of God’s goodness. The feast prefigures the millennium, when the people will enter into full blessing, and the eighth day, the great day, the communion of the heavenly and the earthly. Zec 14:16. See FEASTS and SEASONS.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Tabernacles, Feast of
Called also Feast of Ingathering.
Instituted
Exo 23:16; Exo 34:22; Lev 23:34-43; Num 29:12-40; Deu 16:13-16
Design of
Lev 23:42-43
The law read in connection with, every seventh year
Deu 31:10-12; Neh 8:18
Observance of:
– After the captivity
Ezr 3:4; Neh 8:14-18
– By Jesus
Joh 7:2; Joh 7:14
– Omitted
Neh 8:17
Penalty for not observing
Zec 14:16-19
Jeroboam institutes an idolatrous feast to correspond to, in the eighth month
1Ki 12:32-33; 1Ch 27:11
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Tabernacles, Feast of
Tabernacles, Feast of. Num 29:12-40. One of the three great annual festivals which all the Hebrews were to keep. During the seven days of its celebration the people dwelt in booths made of the branches and leaves of trees, in commemoration of the 40 years’ wandering in the wilderness. Lev 23:34-44, As the season of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth, it is also called the “Feast of Ingathering.” Exo 23:16; Exo 34:22. It commenced on the fifteenth day of Tisri, October; the first day and the eighth day were distinguished as Sabbaths. Num 29:12-40; Deu 16:13-15; Zec 14:16-19. In every seventh year during this festival, the law of Moses was read In the hearing of all the people. Deu 31:10-13; Neh 8:14-18. In later times, the priests went every morning during the festival, and drew water from the fountain of Siloam, and poured it out to the southwest of the altar, the Levites, in the meanwhile, playing on instruments of music, and singing the Psa 113:1-9; Psa 114:1-8; Psa 115:1-18; Psa 116:1-19; Psa 117:1-2; Psa 118:1-29. This ceremony is said to have been founded on Isa 12:3; and was probably a memorial of the abundant supply of water which God afforded to the Hebrews during their wanderings in the wilderness. Joh 7:2-39.