Commentaries:
No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for Exodus 26:36.
Exodus 26:36-37
Excerpted from: Approaching God Through Christ (Part 4)Exodus 26 talks about this door. Most people understand that there was a veil in front of the Holy of Holies. But there was also a veil, or curtain that was in front of the entire tabernacle, in front of the holy place, or the first sanctuary. Here are the instructions:
These are fairly simple instructions. The front door, as it says here, is called a screen. It was a curtain. The Hebrews 9:3 alludes to it as the first veil. There were two veils. The first veil was to screen the holy place from the outside, and the second veil was the one we are more familiar with between the holy place and the Holy of Holies, behind which was the Ark of the Covenant, symbolic of God's throne.
It was a curtain woven by a weaver, and there is some dispute about whether this was a white linen weave with blue, purple and scarlet threads in it, or whether it was actually a blue weave with purple, scarlet, and white in it. Most people think that it was blue, and that blue was the warp, with the other colors in the woof. But, it is hard to know. It might have been white, or blue. The reason most people think blue is because it is the first color mentioned. And, that would be, you would think, the predominant color.
It was very beautiful, this mix of colors—blue, purple, and scarlet threads, and white. It would have been an amazing thing. It had no design on it, which is another difference between this, and the second veil. This first one only had these various colors woven into it, while the second had cherubim embroidered into them. So, if one were to walk through the first veil, and look up toward the Holy of Holies, he would see these great angels there on the veil (verse 31), as a pre-image of the cherubim over the ark itself, which was inside the Holy of Holies, and no one ever saw them, except the high priest once a year on the Day of Atonement.
This first curtain or screen was probably 15 feet square. If the tabernacle was square, the curtain was also square. This is roughly the same size of this stage where I am standing. And, this screen covered this opening top to bottom, side to side—completely covered. It was hung from 5 pillars made from acacia wood. And, it appears from what it says here that the entire pillar was gilded. But, if you go to another place where it says what the men actually did, it says that they only gilded the capitals and the hooks, with the rest of the wood exposed, and probably set so that the pillars on the outside of the screen/veil with the hooks facing inward, holding up the screen.
These posts or pillars had bases of cast bronze. You can compare them to the pillars or posts that were used for the second veil, and those were made of silver. What you are seeing here is that as you approach the Holy of Holies, things get richer. So, on the outside, we had posts set in bronze bases with un-gilded wood. But as we go onward into the tabernacle, seeing some of the other things, all of the furniture inside the holy place was gilded. And also, that the next curtain with its gilded posts was set in silver bases.
This outer curtain was placed along 15 feet. So if you placed five of them across, then that would leave six openings. Now there were two ways you could do this. There would be six openings if you did them using the corners of the tent as posts, and then you put your five posts inside of that, there would be six openings, and they would be roughly 34 inches apart. It is plenty wide enough. Our normal exterior doors are 36 inches. So you could get in and out without any problems. However, if you put the five posts with the outside post right next to the wall, then you would get four places/entrances, and they would be three feet and three quarters wide (36.75 inches, or 45 inches?) so that would be a quite a bit bigger door.
We do not know how it was. It does not really say. The Bible is a bit vague on it, whether you put these outside posts right next to the wall, or whether you set them … . . .
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