Tabernacle in the Wilderness 27 nacle’s history? Very much, indeed; far more than we shall have space here fully to examine. In the first place, these books tell us that during at least part of the times which they in general describe, the Mosaic Tabernacle was located at Shiloh, up in the Ephraimite district. Then next we learn that at least one of the great festivals connected with the Tabernacle services—the “yearly sacrifice” it is called—was still being observed. Also we learn that this is the place where Samuel’s parents, Elkanah and Hannah, went up every year, in order to take part in that sacrifice. Moreover, it was in the sanctuary at Shiloh, or in some one of its apart ments, that Samuel slept at the time when he had those extraordinary revelations of Jehovah talking with him, and where also he came into such intimate and important relations with the aged Eli and his house. And among still other items reported in those books there is one that invites our special attention. In 1 Sam., Chap. 2, v. 22, mention is made of certain “women that did service at the door of the tent meeting.” And it was with these women, as we farther learn, that Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, committed at least a part of their wickedness, for which they were so severely condemned, and afterward punished by Jehovah. Now whatever else this passage may signify, it certainly intends to teach, by its use of the words “tent of meeting,” that in the time of Samuel the old Mosaic Taber nacle was in existence at Shiloh. For, as we have already seen, those words, “tent of meeting,” formed a characteristic expression by which in Old Testament times the Tabernacle was, quite often at least, designated and known. This much, as we have already noticed, even Wellhausen is willing to admit. However, the critics raise here two objections. One of them is that the sanctuary at Shiloh was not really a tent or tabernacle, but rather a solid structure, built perhaps out of stone, wood, or some other material; and the special reason
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