Shechinah
Shechinah
[some Shech’inah; also written Shekinah] (in .Chaldee and Neo-Hebrew Shekinah’, , strictly residence, i.e. of God, his visible presence, from
, to dwell), a word not found in the Bible, but used by the later Jews, and borrowed by Christians from them, to express the visible majesty of the Divine Presence, especially when resting or dwelling between the cherubim on the mercy seat in the tabernacle and in the Temple of Solomon; but not in Zerubbabels temple, for it was one of the five particulars which the Jews reckon to have been wanting in the second Temple (Castell, Lexic. s.v.; Prideaux, Connect. 1, 138).
1. Rabbinical import. The use of the term is first found in the Targums, where it forms a frequent periphrasis for God, considered as dwelling among the children of Israel, and is thus used, especially by Onkelos, to avoid ascribing corporeity to God himself, as Castell tells us, and may be compared to the analogous periphrasis so frequent in the Targum of Jonathan, the Word of the Lord. Many Christian writers have thought that this threefold expression for the Deity the Lord, the Word of the Lord, and the Shechinah indicates the knowledge of a trinity of persons in the Godhead, and accordingly, following some Rabbinical writers, identify the Shechinah with the Holy Spirit. Others, however, deny this (Calmet, Dict. of the Bible; Saubert [Joh.], On the Logos, 19, in Critic. Sacr.; Glass, Philolog. acr. v, 1; 7, etc.). Without stopping to discuss this question, it will not conduce to give an accurate knowledge of the use of the term Shechinah by the Jews themselves if we produce a few of the most striking passages in the Targums where it occurs. In Exo 25:8, where the Hebrew has Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell () among them, Onkelos has I will make my Shechinah to dwell among them. In 29:45, 46, for the Hebrew I will dwell among the children of Israel, Onkelos has I will make my Shechinah to dwell, etc. In Psa 74:2, for this Mount Zion wherein thou hast dwelt the Targum has wherein thy Shechinah hath dwelt. In the description of the dedication of Solomon’s Temple (1Ki 8:12-13) the Targum of Jonathan runs thus: The Lord is:pleased to make his Shechinah dwell in Jerusalem.
I have built the house of the sanctuary for the house of thy Shechinah forever, where it should be noticed that in 1Ki 8:13 the Hebrew is not used, but and . In 1Ki 6:13, for the Hebrew I will dwell among the children of Israel Jonathan has I will make my Shechinah dwell, etc. In Isa 6:5 he has the combination the glory of the Shechinah of the King of ages, the Lord of hosts; and in the next verse he paraphrases from off the altar by from before his Shechinah on the throne, of glory in the lofty heavens that are above the altar (comp. also Num 5:3; Num 35:34, Psa 68:17-18; Psa 135:21; Isa 33:5; Isa 57:15; Joe 3:17; Joe 3:21, and numerous other passages). On the other hand, it should be noticed that the Targums never render the cloud or the glory by Shechinah, but by and , and an that even in such passages as Exo 24:16-17; Num 9:17-18; Num 9:22; Num 10:12, neither the mention of the cloud nor the constant use of the verb in the Hebrew provokes any reference to the Shechinah. Hence, as regards the use of the word Shechinah in the Targums it may be defined as a periphrasis for God whenever he is said to dwell on Zion among Israel or between the .cherubims, and so on, in order, as before said, to avoid the slightest approach to materialism. Far most frequently this term is introduced when the verb occurs in the Hebrew text; but occasionally, as in some of the above-cited instances, where it does not, but where the paraphrast wished to interpose an abstraction corresponding to presence to break the bolder anthropopathy of the Hebrew writer.
Our view of the Targumistic notion of the Shechinah would not be complete if we did not add that, though, as we have seen, the Jews reckoned the Shechinah among the marks of the divine favor which were wanting to the second Temple, they manifestly expected the return of the Shechinah in the days of the Messiah. Thus Hag 1:8, Build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord is paraphrased by Jonathan I will cause my Shechinah to dwell in it in glory. Zec 2:10, Lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord is paraphrased I will be revealed, and will cause my Shechinah to dwell in the midst of thee; and 8:3, I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, is paraphrased I will make my Shechinah dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and, lastly, in Eze 43:7; Eze 43:9, in the vision of the return of the glory of God to the Temple, Jonathan paraphrases thus: Son of man, this is the place of the house of the throne of my glory, and this is the place of the house of the dwelling of my Shechinah, where I will make my Shechinah dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever…. Now let them cast away their idols,… and I will make my Shechinah dwell in the midst of them forever (comp. Isa 4:5, where the return of the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night is foretold as to take place in the days of the Messiah).
The rabbins affirm that the Shechinah first resided in the tabernacle prepared by Moses in the wilderness, into which it descended on the day of its cohnsecratio in in the figure of a cloud. It passed thence into the sanctuary of Solomon’s Temple on the day of its dedication by this prince, where it continued till the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Chaldmeans, and was not afterwards seen there.
2. Biblical History. As regards the visible manifestation of the Divine Presence dwelling among: the Israelites to which the term Shechinah has attached itself, the idea which the different accounts in Scripture convey is that of a most brilliant and glorious light enveloped in a cloud, and usually concealed by the cloud so that the cloud itself was for the most part alone visible; but on particular occasions the glory (in Heb. , in Chald. ) appeared. Thus, at the Exodus, the Lord went before the Israelites by day in a pillar of cloud… and by night, in a pillar of fire to give them light. Again, we read that this pillar was a cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, but it gave light by night to the Israelites. But in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians i.e. as Philo (quoted by Patrick) explains it, the fiery appearance of the Deity shone forth from the cloud, and by its amazing brightness confounded them. So, too, in the Pirke Eliezer it is said, The blessed God appeared in his glory upon the sea, and it fled back, with which Patrick compares Psa 77:16, The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid, where the Targum has They saw thy Shechinah in the midst of the waters. In Exo 19:9, the Lord said to Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, and accordingly in Exo 19:16 we read that a thick cloud rested upon the mount, and in Exo 19:18 that Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. This is further explained in 24:16, where we read that the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it (i.e. as Aben-Ezra explains it, the glory) six days. But upon the seventh day, when the Lord called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud, there was a breaking forth of the glory through the cloud, for the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel (Exo 19:17).
So, again, when God, as it were, took possession of the Tabernacle at its first completion (40:34,35), the cloud covered the tent of the congregation (externally), and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle (within), and Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation (rather, of meeting); just as at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple (1Ki 8:10-11) the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. In the tabernacle, however, as in the Temple, this was only a temporary state of things, for throughout the books of Leviticus and Numbers we find Moses constantly entering into the tabernacle. When he did so, the cloud which rested over it externally, dark by day and luminous at night (Num 9:15-16), came down and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses inside, face to face, as a man talketh with his friend (Exo 33:7-11). It was on such occasions that Moses heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubim (Num 7:89), in accordance with Exo 25:22; Lev 16:2. But it does not appear that the glory was habitually seen either by Moses or the people. Occasionally, however, it flashed forth from the cloud which concealed it, as Exo 16:7; Exo 16:10; Lev 9:6; Lev 9:23, when the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people according to a previous promise, or as Num 14:10; Num 16:19; Num 16:42; Num 20:6, suddenly to strike terror in the people in their rebellion. The last occasion on which the glory of the Lord appeared was that mentioned in 20:6, when they were in Hadesh in the fortieth year of the Exodus, and murmured for want of water; and the last express mention of the cloud as visibly present over the tabernacle is in Deu 31:15, just before the death of Moses. The cloud had not been mentioned before since the second year of the Exodus (Num 10:11; Num 10:34; Num 12:5; Num 12:10); but as the description in Exo 9:15-23; Exo 40:38, relates to the whole time of their wanderings in the wilderness, we may conclude that, at all events, the cloud visibly accompanied them through all the migrations mentioned in Numbers 33 till they reached the plains of Moab and till Moses died. From this time we have no mention whatever in the history either of the cloud, or of the glory, or of the voice from between the cherubim, till the dedication of Solomon’s Temple. But since it is certain that the ark was still the special symbol of God’s presence and power (Jos 3:4; Jos 3:6; 1 Samuel 4; Psa 68:1 sq.; comp. with Num 10:35; Psa 132:8; Psa 80:1; Psa 99:1), and since such passages as 1Sa 4:4; 1Sa 4:21-22; 2Sa 6:2; Psa 99:7; 2Ki 19:15, seem to imply the continued manifestation of God’s presence in the cloud between the cherubim, and inasmuch as Lev 16:2 seemed to promise so much, and as more general expressions, such as Psa 9:11; Psa 132:7-8; Psa 132:13-14; Psa 76:2; Isa 8:18, etc., thus acquire much more point, we may perhaps conclude that the cloud did continue, though with shorter or longer interruptions, to dwell between the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy seat until the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar.
The allusions in the New Test. to the Shechinah are not unfrequent. Thus, iii the account of the nativity, the words Lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them (Luk 2:9), followed by the apparition of the multitude of the heavenly host, recall the appearance of the divine glory on Sinai, when He shined forth from Paran, and came with ten thousands of saints (Deu 33:2; comp. Psa 68:17; Act 7:53; Heb 2:2; Eze 43:2). The God of glory (Act 7:2; Act 7:55), the cherubim of glory (Heb 9:5), the glory (Rom 9:4), and other like passages, are distinct references to the manifestations of the glory in the Old Test. It appeared at the baptism and-transfiguration of Jesus, and is called the excellent glory by Peter (2Pe 2:10). When we read in Joh 1:14 that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us ( v), and we beheld his glory; or in 2Co 12:9 that the power of Christ may rest upon me ( ); or in Rev 21:3, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them ( … ), we have not only references to the Shechinah (the Greek being itself, perhaps, an echo of the Heb. , shakan), but are distinctly taught to connect it with the incarnation and future coming of Messiah, as type with antitype. Nor can it be doubted that the constant connection of the second advent with a cloud; or clouds, and attendant angels points in the same direction (Mat 26:64; Luk 21:27; Act 1:9; Act 1:11; 2Th 1:7-8; Rev 1:7).
It should also be specially noticed that the attendance of angels is usually associated with the Shechinah. These are most frequently called (Ezekiel 10, 11) cherubim; but sometimes, as in Isaiah 6, seraphim (comp. Rev 4:7-8). In Exo 14:19 the angel of God is spoken of in connection with the cloud, and in Deu 33:2 the descent upon Sinai is described as being with ten thousands of saints (comp. Psa 68:17; Zec 14:5). The predominant association, however, is with the cherubim, of which the golden cherubim on the mercy seat were the representation. This gives forces to the interpretation that has been put upon Gen 3:24 (Jerus, Targum) as being the earliest notice of the Shechinah, under the symbol of a pointed flame, dwelling between the cherubim, and constituting that local presence of the Lord from which Cain went forth, and before which the worship of Adam and succeeding patriarchs was performed (see Hale, Chronol. 2:94; Smith, Sacr. Annal. 1, 173, 176, 177). Parkhurst went so far as to imagine a tabernacle containing the cherubim and the glory all the time from Adam to Moses (Heb. Lex. p. 623). It is, however, pretty certain that the various appearances to Abraham and that to Moses in the bush were manifestations of the Divine Majesty similar to those later ones to which the term Shechinah is applied (see especially Act 7:2).
3. From the tenor of these texts it is evident that the Most High, whose essence no man hath seen or can see, was pleased anciently to manifest himself to the eyes of men by an external visible symbol. As to the precise nature of the phenomenon thus exhibited we can only say that it appears to have been a concentrated; glowing brightness, a preternatural splendor, an effulgent something, which was appropriately expressed by the term glory; but whether in philosophical strictness it was material or immaterial it is probably impossible to determine. A luminous object of this description seems intrinsically the most appropriate symbol of that Being of whom, perhaps in allusion to this very mode of manifestation, it is said that he is light and that he dwelleth in light unapproachable, and full of glory. The presence of such a sensible representation of Jehovah seems to be absolutely necessary in order to harmonize what is frequently said of seeing God with the truth of his nature as an incorporeal and essentially invisible spirit. While we are told in one place that no man hath seen God at any time, we are elsewhere informed that Moses and Aaron and the seventy elders saw the God of Israel when called up to the summit of the holy mount. So, also, Isaiah says of himself (6:1, 5) that in the year that king Uzziah died he saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, and that, in consequence, he cried out, I am undone; for mine eyes have seen the Lord of hosts. In these cases it is obvious that the object seen was not God in his essence, but some external, visible symbol which, because it stood for God, is called by his name.
But of all these ancient recorded theophanies the most signal and illustrious was undoubtedly that which was vouchsafed in the pillar of cloud that guided the march of the children of Israel through the wilderness on their way to Canaan. A correct view of this subject clothes it at once with a sanctity and grandeur which seldom appear from the naked letter of the narrative. There can be little doubt that the columnar cloud was the seat of the Shechinah. We have already seen that the term shechinizing is applied to the abiding of the cloud on the summit of the mountain (Exo 24:16). Within the towering aerial mass, we suppose, was enfolded the inner effulgent brightness to which the appellation glory of the Lord more properly belonged, and which was only occasionally disclosed. In several instances in which God would indicate his anger to his people it is said that they looked to the cloud and beheld the glory of the Lord (Num 14:10; Num 16:19; Num 16:42). So when he would inspire a trembling awe of his majesty at the giving of the law, it is said the glory of the Lord appeared as a devouring fire on the summit of the mount. Nor must the fact be forgotten in this connection that when Nadab and Abihu, the two sons of Aaron, offended by strange fire in their offerings, a fatal flash from the cloudy pillar instantaneously extinguished their lives. The evidence would seem, then, to be conclusive that this wondrous pillar-cloud was the seat or throne of the Shechinah, the visible representative of Jehovah dwelling in the midst of his people, See Anon. De (Jen. 1720); Lowman. On the Shechinah; Taylor Letters of Ben-Mordecai; Skinner, Dissertation on the Shechinah (in Works, vol. 2); Watts, Glory of Christ; Upham, On the Logos; Bash, Notes on Exodus; Tenison, On Idolatry; Fleming, Christology; Patrick, Commentary on Exodus; Buxtorf, Hist. Arc. Fed. ch. 11; Wells, The Shechniath (in Help for Understanding the Scripture, p. 4); (Am.) Evang. Review, Jan. 1860. SEE CHERUB; SEE CLOUD; SEE PILLAR.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Shechinah
a Chaldee word meaning resting-place, not found in Scripture, but used by the later Jews to designate the visible symbol of God’s presence in the tabernacle, and afterwards in Solomon’s temple. When the Lord led Israel out of Egypt, he went before them “in a pillar of a cloud.” This was the symbol of his presence with his people. For references made to it during the wilderness wanderings, See Ex. 14:20; 40:34-38; Lev. 9:23, 24; Num. 14:10; 16:19, 42.
It is probable that after the entrance into Canaan this glory-cloud settled in the tabernacle upon the ark of the covenant in the most holy place. We have, however, no special reference to it till the consecration of the temple by Solomon, when it filled the whole house with its glory, so that the priests could not stand to minister (1 Kings 8:10-13; 2 Chr. 5:13, 14; 7:1-3). Probably it remained in the first temple in the holy of holies as the symbol of Jehovah’s presence so long as that temple stood. It afterwards disappeared. (See CLOUD
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Shechinah
SHECHINAH or SHEKINAH. Not found in the Bible, but in the targums. From shakan “to dwell,” from whence comes mishkan “the tabernacle.” God’s visible manifestation in a cloudy pillar and fire; the glorious light, enveloped in a cloud and thence bursting forth at times (Exo 16:7-10), especially over the mercy-seat or capporeth. (See CLOUD, PILLAR OF.) Exo 13:21-22; Exo 14:19-20). Its absence from Zerubbabel’s temple is one of the five particulars reckoned by the Jews as wanting in the second temple. In the targums, Shekinah is used as a periphrasis for God whenever He is said to “dwell” in Zion, between the cherubims, etc., to avoid the semblance of materialism. They anticipated the Shekinah’s return under Messiah; Hag 1:8 they paraphrase, “I will cause My Shekinah to dwell in it in glory”; Zec 2:10, “I will cause My Shekinah to dwell in the midst of thee,” etc.
The continued presence of the Shekinah down to Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of the temple seems implied in Joshua 3; 4; 6; Psa 68:1, compare Num 10:35; Psa 132:8; Psa 80:1; Psa 99:1; Psa 99:7; Lev 16:2. In the New Testament we find, corresponding to the Shekinah, “the glory of the Lord”: Luk 2:9; compare Deu 33:2; Act 7:2; Act 7:53; Act 7:55; Heb 2:2; Heb 9:5; Rom 9:4 “the glory”; Joh 1:14, “the Word tabernacled (eskeenosen) among us, and we beheld His glory”; 2Co 4:6; 2Co 12:9, “that the power of Christ may tabernacle (episkeenosee) upon me”; Rev 21:3. His coming again with clouds and fire is the antitype of this Shekinah (Mat 26:64; Luk 21:27; Act 1:9; Act 1:11; Act_2Th 1:7-8; Rev 1:7). Angels or cherubim generally accompany the Shekinah (Rev 4:7-8; Psa 68:17; Zec 14:5). In Gen 3:24 is the earliest notice of the Shekinah as a swordlike flame between the cherubim, being the “Presence of Jehovah” from which Cain went out, and before which Adam and succeeding patriarchs worshipped.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Shechinah
Shechi’nah. (dwelling). This term is not found in the Bible. It was used by the later Jews, and borrowed by Christians from them, to express the visible majesty of the divine Presence, especially when resting or dwelling between the cherubim on the Mercy-Seat, in the Tabernacle, and in the Temple of Solomon, but not in the second Temple. The use of the term is first found in the Targums, where it forms a frequent periphrasis for God, considered its dwelling among the children of Israel.
The idea which the different accounts in Scripture convey is that of a most brilliant and glorious light, enveloped in a cloud, and usually concealed by the cloud, so that the cloud itself was, for the most part, alone visible, but on particular occasions, the glory appeared. The allusions in the New Testament to the shechinah are not infrequent. Luk 2:9; Joh 1:14; Rom 9:4, and we are distinctly taught to connect it with the incarnation and future coming of the Messiah, as type with antitype.