The Fundamentals given by the critics for this view is that, in Samuel’s account of the structure at Shiloh, there are “posts,” “doors,” and some other matters usually indicative of a solid structure mentioned. But this difficulty can be very easily explained from a statement made in the Jewish Mishna,* which is that the lower part of the sanctuary at Shiloh “was of stone,” but that above this there was a tent. Or a more decisive answer to this objection is that in various Scriptures (such as 2 Sam. 7:6; Psa. 78:60; 1 Kings 8:4; Josh. 18:1, and still others) the structure under consideration is positively called “a tent” and “a tabernacle.” Then the other objection raised by the critics is that these words, “tent of meeting,” aS found in 1 Sam. 2:22, are an interpolation, or that the whole passage containing those words is spurious. The reason which they give for such an assertion is that this passage is not found in the Septuagint. But in reply to such objection it may be said, first, that this is not the only passage in the Bible in which mention is made of these women “at the door of the tent of meeting.” In Ex. 38:8, like mention is made; and, as Dr. Orr has observed, it is inconceivable even on the supposition, which he does not accept, of a post-exilic origin of the last indicated passage, that just this one mention of the matter alluded to should occur, unless there was behind this matter some old and well- established tradition; or, in other words, the genuineness of the text in Exodus argues for the genuineness of the text in Samuel. Besides, as Dr. Orr has again suggested, there may have been some special reason of delicacy or of regard for the good moral reputation of the Israelites, on the account of which the makers of the Septuagint version threw out this item respecting the wickedness of Hophni and Phinehas as connected with these women. Then, moreover, as an offset to the Septuagint’s authority—which, owing to the known *See Conder’s “Tent Work in Palestine,” Vol. 2, p. 84.
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