Why Did the Menorah and Not the Showbread Table Evolve Into the Most Important Symbol of Judaism*

Chapter 1 Why Did the Menorah and Not the Showbread Table Evolve into the Most Important Symbol of Judaism*

The biblical sources relate that the menorah and the “And you shall make a table of acacia wood; two cubits showbread table are two of the holy vessels located in shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a the Jerusalem Temple. Their location in the Tabernacle half its height. You shall overlay it with pure gold, and was in the center of the tent, with the menorah oppo- make a moulding of gold around it. And you shall make site the showbread table (Hachlili 2001: 171–191; Weiss around it a frame a handbreadth wide, and make a mould- 2007b:381). The menorah was placed in front of the paro- ing of gold around the frame. And you shall make for it chet (veil) to the south and against the table. four rings of gold, and fasten the rings to the four corners “And you shall set the table outside the veil, and the of its four legs … And you shall make its plates and dishes menorah on the south side of the Tabernacle opposite for incense, and its flagons and bowls with which to pour the table; and you shall put the table on the north side” libations; of pure gold you shall make them. And you on the table לחם הפנים Ex. 26.35); “And he put the menorah in the Tent of Meeting, shall set the bread of the presence) opposite the table on the south side of the Tabernacle, before me always.” and set up the lamps before God” (Ex. 40.24–25). In later sources, the menorah in the Tabernacle is des The description of the bread is elaborated in Leviticus cribed as placed opposite the showbread table; between 24:5–6: them stood the incense altar, in the middle of the sanctu- חלות ary. Josephus (Ant. 3. 144–146; War 5.216) puts the location “And you shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes in the Tabernacle thus: “Facing the table, near the south of it; two lengths of an ephah shall be in each cake. And wall, stood a candelabrum of cast gold, hollow, and of the you shall set them in two rows, six in a row, upon the table weight of a hundred minae”. of pure gold”. BT Yoma 33b likewise reports, “For it was taught: the table was to the north two and one half cubits away from the wall, Numbers 4.7 describes: the candlestick was to the south, two and one half cubits שלחן לחם away from the wall, the altar stood in the exact middle, “And over the table of the bread of the presence they shall spread a cloth of blue, and put upon it the הפנים extending somewhat outward … And the candlestick over against the table; it is required that they see each other”. plates, the dishes for incense, the bowls, and the flagons also לחם התמיד Later sources thus show that the tabernacle tradition for the drink offering; the bread regularly was preserved; the menorah’s location was beside the shall be on it.” south wall of the Temple hall, opposite the showbread table placed next to the north wall, and the incense altar The different biblical designations and attributes assigned stood between them in the middle of the sanctuary. to the table are noteworthy: ‘Presence table’, ‘pure table’, ‘setting-forth table’ (II Chron. 29:18). Also the bread has various names: ‘the bread of presence’, ‘the bread regu- 1 The Showbread Table larly’, and ‘setting-forth bread’ or ‘row bread’ (I Chron 23:29). The golden showbread table was one of the three most A description of the showbread table appears also in important Tabernacle and Temple vessels placed inside Josephus in Antiquities 3. 139–141, which mentions that the sanctuary, and is described in Exodus 25:23–30: the table is ‘like those at Delphi’, namely a table similar to the then fashionable mensae delphicae, a three-legged round table (Yarden 1991: 74–75). But this does not match * Published here with changes and additional illustrations of the arti- cle: Hachlili R. 2016 ‘Why Did the Menorah and Not The Showbread the biblical description in Ex. 25, which gives the mea- Table Evolve Into the Most Important Symbol of Judaism? In Jewish surements of a rectangular table. Art in Its Late Antique Context. Edited by U. Leibner and C. Hezser. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck: 189–212.

1.1 The Showbread Table and Menorah as Depicted shown (Fig. 1.1) on the early series of the type two incense on Items in the Second Temple Period cups are depicted at the bottom of the coin (Goldstein and The importance assigned to the showbread table is evident Fontanille 2013: 57, Fig. 2). These are the only Jewish coins as it appears together with the menorah, on several finds with these symbols of the Temple vessels. The traditional from the second half of the first century BCE (Hachlili view is that they may have been issued during the siege on 2001: 41–50). Jerusalem in 37 BCE, at the end of Mattathias Antigonus (1) The first dated depictions of the seven-armed meno- reign, and the depictions of the menorah and the show- rah and the showbread table appear on the poorly exe- bread table on the coins of Mattathias Antigonus would cuted and rare bronze coins of the last Hasmonean king, have been intended to highlight his status as a High Priest Mattathius Antigonus (40–37 BCE; Hachlili (2001) IS1–3; and Jewish king. D1.1; Figs. II-1, 2). The motifs on these coins consist of A different view is now expressed by Goldstein and the menorah on the reverse and the showbread table Fontanille (2013: 59, 62, 69–70) who maintain that these on the obverse. The legends on the coins appear both in coins “have been struck at the beginning of his reign … Hebrew and Greek; Mattathias Antigonus is referred to that it was an inaugural issue, celebrating Antigonus’ as “High Priest” in Hebrew on the obverse, and “King” in installation as high priest together with his appointment Greek on the reverse (Meshorer 2001: 54–56). The meno- as king by the Parthians … and to solidify his hold on the rah is rendered in a stylized form, with seven arms and high priesthood”. a flaring base (but see Sperber [1965:143], who suggests (2) A graffito on two plaster fragments (25.5 × 15 cm.) that the base supported three small legs). showing the three ritual vessels (Fig. 1.2) were found The showbread table is a rectangular, four-legged table; in Area A, strata 5–4, in a fill between two floors of an the two groups of six loaves sitting on the tabletop are Herodian building of the 1st century CE in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem (Avigad 1983: 147–149, Fig. 154; Habas 2003: 329–332, Photos 12.1, 12.2). The graffito shows a seven-armed menorah schematically incised on the left, with traces of two additional designs—the Temple altar on the upper part and the showbread table below. The menorah (ca. 20 cm.) has a triangular-conical base, a short stem, and tall round, U shaped arms, topped with light fittings in the shape of triangles, and it is decorated with an alternating astragal pattern of ovals and pairs of lines, apparently representing the ‘knob and flower’. Left of the menorah base are some lines that Barag (1994b:277– 8) suggested that it refers to the stone with three steps that the priest stood on to prepare the lamps (M Tamid 3:9). The showbread table (ca. 9.5 high, 7.8 cm wide) is incised as a simple rectangular box with two long corner sides on small thin legs (see also the interpretations by Barag 1994a, b). The altar is fragmentary engraved as a square box with two small corner horns; as it is a two- dimensional schematic design it might resemble four horns, according to the biblical description in Ex 27:1–2. (3) The best-known and most famous of the early depictions of the seven-branched menorah and the showbread table (and the earliest in the Diaspora) with a pair of trumpets rendered on it, is found on the relief panel of the triumphal Arch of Titus in Rome (Fig. 1.3). It shows the vessels carried in the procession by pairs of bearers and was probably erected in 81 CE during the reign of Domitian. These are renderings of the actual sacred ves- Figure 1.1 Mattathius Antigonus coins. sels from the Temple in Jerusalem that were carried off