Temple Veil

God gave clear instructions concerning the veil (or curtain) that separated the Holy of Holies (the inner chamber) from the front chamber, the Holies, whether in the tent in their wilderness or the temple in Jerusalem. Moses wrote these down for us to glimpse how majestic that veil was. Josephus, the first centurion historian, added to these. He was a priest who would have seen this veil with his eyes before he was exiled to Rome, where he became a historian.

The veil was a finely woven linen with four colors of thread: blue, purple, crimson, and white. Skilled workers embroidered the linen with cherubim. The veil hung from four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold, standing on four silver bases. Several golden hooks held the veil on the acacia wood. Two hundred square meters of fabric was needed to make this veil, and when it was defiled and needed washing, three hundred priests worked together to purify it. This veil was so valuable that Antiochus (a Greek in the 2nd century B.C.) and Titus (a Roman, in 70 A.D.) took it with them when they looted the temple.*

The veil, with its tapestry of cherubim and colored threads, gave the appearance of a panorama of the heavens. The Hebrews thought the veil represented the heavens that separated where God lived (the Holy of Holies) and where the people were (the Holies). The Greek word for this veil, katapétasma, was descriptive: that which spread out (pétomai) downwards (kata).

As Jesus breathed the last, the temple veil (katapétasma) was torn into two from top to bottom (kata). That which spread out downwards tore from top to bottom. God picturesquely showed that the veil that divided the heavens and the earth was torn and removed. God and his people lived together.

The writer of Hebrews elaborated on this.

“We have an unshakable hope as an anchor for our souls, firm and secure, that enables us to enter the second chamber behind the veil (katapétasma) where our forerunner, Jesus, entered, having become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek” (6:19–20).

“Brothers and sisters, having the confidence to enter the Holy of Holies in the blood of Jesus, which he used to open a freshly slain way yet living through the veil (katapétasma) of his flesh – the high priest in the house of God – let us come near with truthful hearts in the full assurance of faith, sprinkling our hearts from an evil conscience and washing the bodies with clean water.” (10:19–22).

As Jesus’s body was torn, God tore the veil between his people and him. The heavens and the earth, the inner chamber and the outer, merged into one. His blood and body worked together to achieve this – a freshly slain way yet living – reality, almost an oxymoron: how could it be freshly slain and yet living? It can be both because Jesus died and resurrected. Dead and alive at the same time.

Since he is alive, sitting in the inner chamber, at the right hand of God, we draw near to him with boldness, hope, truthful hearts, full assurance, and clean hearts. Our symbolic acts – baptism and communion – declare these truths.

* Sources: Exodus 26:31–33; 1 Maccabees 1.21–2; Mishna, Shakalim 8.4–5; and Josephus War 5.213 and 7.162.