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The Fundamentals by the different kings of Judah and Israel, those original documents, or at least some of them, take us away back to the very times of Solomon and David, or to the period when, as we shall soon see, the Mosaic Tabernacle was still standing a t Gibeon. This was also, it may be observed, the general period during which the Tabernacle, having been taken down, was removed from Gibeon and stored away in Solomon’s temple at Jerusalem; and it is to the account of this trans ference that our attention is now, first of all, directed. In 1 Kings, Chap. 8, v. 4, we read: “And they brought up the ark of Jehovah, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; even these did the priests and Levites bring up.” A mere cursory reading of these words gives one the impression that the “tent of meeting,” which was brought up from somewhere by the priests and Levites, was nothing else than the old Mosaic Tabernacle; and as to the place from which it was brought, that is not told us in the Scriptures; but a comparison of texts (see 2 Chron. 1:3; 1 Kings, 3:1, 4) would seem to indicate that the Tabernacle was first transported from Gibeon to Mt. Zion, where the ark of the covenant was at this time, and then afterwards it was, with other sacred matters, carried up to Mt. Moriah, where it was put away in the temple. All this seems to be sufficiently clear; only now the ques tion arises whether, after all, this was really the old Mosaic structure or some other tent, as, e. g., the one built by David in Jerusalem, and which Seems, at this time, to have been still in existence.* Most of the critics, including even Well- hausen, are agreed that the words, “tent of meeting” (ohel moed), as used in this and various other texts of Scripture, do really signify the old Mosaic structure; and one reason for their so holding is that those words form a kind of tech nical expression by which that old structure was commonly, ♦See 2 Sam. 6:17 and 7:2; 1 Chron. 15:1 and 16:1. Cf. 1 Kings 1:29. ■
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