Acts 7:44. Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness. The mention of this Tabernacle of Moloch reminds Stephen that he has not yet spoken of the true Tabernacle, where the Eternal had borne witness of Himself, and of the holy Temple, which occupied subsequently the place of the Tabernacle. The words used by Stephen are from the LXX. of Numbers 16:18-19, where the sacred tent is called σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου , tabernacle of the witness or the testimony. It receives this name most probably from the fact of Jehovah giving there witness of Himself in the visible glory, the Shekinah, which at certain times rested on the golden mercy-seat of the ark between the cherubim.

According to the fashion he had seen. The superior sanctity of the primitive Tabernacle to the Temple, which afterwards rose in all its stately beauty, is here suggested. The old Tabernacle which has disappeared was fashioned after a pattern given to Moses in the mount by the Eternal and His angels (Exodus 25:9-40).

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Old Testament