Introduction to the Tabernacle: The thirteen chapters that describe the tabernacle have posed a challenge for interpreters since the time of Philo (d. 50 A.D.). In The Life of Moses Philo gave a symbolic reading that has influenced interpretation to the present day. For him, the tent of meeting represented the spiritual world and the courtyard signified the material world. The colors (blue, purple, crimson and white) represented the basic elements; the seven lights of the lampstand were the seven planets; and the twelve precious stones were the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Josephus and the early Christian interpreters Clement and Jerome, who wrote after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, interpreted it in a similar way. Origen added a symbolic moral dimension that held sway through…