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different from mere position. The Ark and the Altar of incense typified the two innermost conceptions of the heavenly Sanctuary, the Manifestation of God and the spiritual worship of man. And thus they are placed in significant connexion in the Pentateuch: Ex. 30:6; 40:5; comp. Lev. 4:7; 16:12, 18 (before the Lord).

In one passage indeed (1 Kings 6:22) the Altar of incense is described in language closely resembling that which is used here as ‘belonging to the

shrine’ ( rybiD“l'Arv,a} ).

It is further to be observed that the word qumiathvrion is left indefinite. While the writer says hJ lucniva, hJ travpeza ( hJ provqesi" tw'n a[rtwn ), hJ kibwto;" th'" diaqhvkh", to; iJlasthvrion , he says simply crusou'n qumiathvrion , ‘a golden incense (altar).’ The word is descriptive and not the technical name of a special object.

On the whole therefore it appears that both the evidence of language and the evidence of the symbolism of the passage are in favour of the sense ‘Altar of incense.’ This sense is given by the O.L. The Syriac is ambiguous

amsib tyb incense-vessel (lit. house of perfumes ).

In Apoc. 8:3, 5 the word for ‘censer’ is libanwtov" which is not found in
LXX. (elsewhere
libanwtiv" ). It may be added that in the service of the Day of Atonement the Golden Altar was treated in the same manner as the Holy of Holies by the sprinkling of blood: Ex. 30:10.

In prophetic imagery also there is an altar in heaven (Is. 6:6; Apoc. 8:3). The type of heaven therefore could not be without its proper altar; though it was not placed locally within it.

Perhaps it is worthy of notice that in the legend mentioned in 2 Macc. 2:5 Jeremiah hides the Ark and the Altar of incense in the cave. th;n kibwto;n th'" diaq. ] the ark of the covenant ...Vulg. arcam testamenti. Ex. 25:10 ff.; 37:1 ff. (Deut. 10:3). The writer of the Epistle, as has been noticed before, fixes attention on the Mosaic type, the Tabernacle. The Ark, which had belonged to the Tabernacle, was placed in Solomon's Temple (1 Kings 8:1 ff.); but in the later Temple the Holy of Holies was entirely empty (Jos. B. J. 5.6, 5 e[keito de; oujde;n o{lw" ejn aujtw'/ ; Tac. Hist. 5.9). The site which the Ark should have occupied was marked by ‘the stone of foundation’

( hy:YTiv' $ b,a, ), a raised platform on which, according to a late tradition, the

sacred Tetragrammaton was inscribed. Comp. Buxtorf, Lex. s. v. hyytv .

On the traditional later history of the Ark see Grimm on 2 Macc. 2:1-5; and Wetstein on Apoc. 2:17.
perikek. p. crusivw/ ] This clause is added predicatively: ‘the Ark of the covenant, an Ark overlaid all round about with gold.’ Crusivon as distinguished from crusov" has the secondary idea of gold wrought for a particular use, as jewels 1 Pet. 3:3, or coin, Acts 3:6. For pavntoqen compare Ex. 25:10 e[swqen kai; e[xwqen .
stavmno" ] Vulg. urna. Ex. 16:32 ff. The epithet, ‘a golden pot,’ is an addition to the Hebrew text which is found in the LXX. (Ex. 16:33). In the Pentateuch the pot of manna and Aaron's rod are said to be laid up ‘before the Testimony’ (Ex. 16:34; Num. 17:10; comp. Ex. 25:16, 21) and not definitely in the Ark.


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