Veil Of The Temple (part 1)

Then Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up His spirit. Just then the temple curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom. – Matthew 27:50-51a (NET)

We read about this event again in the Gospel of Mark, when “Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed His last. And the temple curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom” (15:37-38). Additionally, it is mentioned in the Gospel of Luke, where we read that “The temple curtain was torn in two” (23:45b). This is a very significant event, however, any recounting of this significant happening is absent from the Gospel of John. All three synoptic Gospel writers are sure to include this event, because the tearing of the veil, from top to bottom, was linked to the entire narrative of the Hebrew Scriptures. Of course, the author of the Gospel of John takes a different approach to telling the story of Jesus than that which was taken by the Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and it stands alone as something entirely different from the other three. It appears to have been written for the widest possible audience, as the ranks of Christians from many nations had grown significantly by the time that it was said to have been composed. The wider audience, possibly composed of more Jews than Gentiles, would not have grasped the overwhelming significance of what it was that had taken place when the veil was torn. Though these issues are always un-settled, Matthew is generally perceived to be directed towards a primarily Jewish audience, while it is thought that Mark wrote to a specific audience that was largely non-Jewish. However, the specifically Jewish terms employed in Mark suggest that Mark’s audience was a mixed audience of both Jews and Gentiles, thus providing a basis for making mention of the tearing of the temple veil. Luke, together with Acts, was specifically written for a Roman ruler named Theophilus, but clearly, drawing so heavily from Mark and through its employ of so much Jewish terminology and ideas, in its wider dissemination, had a mixed, but predominantly Jewish audience in mind as well.

When something is mentioned so many times, and especially when it is mentioned as a component of the telling of the climactic event of all of history, we should pay it a great deal of attention and make an attempt to understand it as best we can. So what makes this veil so significant? Why bring it up? Why mention it in the way that it is mentioned, which is in connection with Jesus’ death? With this presentation, the veil of the temple seems to be given an exalted place in the telling of the Gospel of Jesus. Is it deserved? Well, not only do we read about the veil of the temple in the Gospels, but we are first introduced to it in the book of Exodus. When God was giving Moses the extraordinarily detailed instructions for the building of the tabernacle, a large number of curtains, or veils, are mentioned. For one curtain in particular, God said, “You are to make a special curtain of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twisted linen” (Exodus 26:31a). Furthermore, Moses was “to hang this curtain under the clasps and brink the ark of the testimony there behind the curtain. The curtain will make a division for you between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place” (26:33). This veil was of particular importance to God, and as we will go on to see, it repeatedly finds itself as part of the narrative of the Scriptures. Therefore, it can be understood to be part of God’s covenant faithfulness and His plan for mankind and His creation.

When the second tabernacle was built, that being Solomon’s temple, we find these curtains again, though obviously larger and more elaborate than those made for the tabernacle of the wilderness. Though it is not mentioned in the descriptions of the temple in the first book of the King, when we move to the second book of the Chronicles, we find that Solomon “made the curtain out of violet, purple, crimson, and white fabrics” (3:14a). When the temple is rebuilt, following the return of Judah from Babylon, a detailed description of what was made for it, done in it, and placed in it, is not provided, though we are told that those who saw the second temple, if they had seen the first temple, wept. They wept, not only because the second temple paled in comparison to the first temple, but also because of what it did not contain, which was, among other things, the Ark of the Covenant and the Lord’s Shekinah. However, we can be assured that the second temple contained a curtain of division from the Most Holy Place similar to the first temple, which had been based on the pattern of the veil of the tabernacle. Also, this was the same temple that was re-furbished and expanded by Herod the Great, which was the temple in which the veil was rent upon Christ’s death. As part of his building program, Herod the Great had sought to restore the temple to its original splendor. This restoration, undoubtedly, would have included the creation of a veil that would have rivaled that of Solomon’s temple.