In the Shadow of God: Beseleel's Tabernacle and the Temple the Spirit Builds
Old Testament: Exodus 31:2-5
Behold, I have called by name Beseleel the son of Uri the son of Hur of the tribe of Juda, And I have filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom and understanding, and knowledge in all manner of work. To devise whatsoever may be artificially made of gold, and silver, and brass, Of marble, and precious stones, and variety of wood.
Old Testament, also: Exodus 40:32
The cloud covered the tabernacle of the testimony, and the glory of the Lord filled it.
New Testament: Acts 2:2, 4; 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ... And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost ... According to the grace of God that is given to me, as a wise architect, I have laid the foundation; and another buildeth thereon. ... For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid; which is Christ Jesus. ... Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
The connection
When God gave Moses the pattern of the tabernacle, He named the man who would build it: "Behold, I have called by name Beseleel ... And I have filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom and understanding, and knowledge in all manner of work" (Exodus 31:2-3). Beseleel's name is read "in the shadow of God", and he built to "the pattern, that was shewn thee in the mount" (25:40), a tabernacle that Hebrews calls "the example and shadow of heavenly things" (Hebrews 8:5). God then filled the work as He had filled its maker: "The cloud covered the tabernacle of the testimony, and the glory of the Lord filled it" (Exodus 40:32). God filled the builder first, and then the building. At Pentecost the two fillings became one. A sound from heaven "filled the whole house where they were sitting ... And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:2, 4). The Spirit filled the house and the builders at once, because the builders were now the house, "the temple of God" (1 Corinthians 3:16). St Paul takes Beseleel's trade for his own, "as a wise architect, I have laid the foundation" (3:10), and the only foundation is Christ (3:11). The materials Paul names, "gold, silver, precious stones, wood" (3:12), are Beseleel's. St Gregory Nazianzen, preaching on Pentecost, counts "The spirit of Knowledge filling Bezaleel, the Master-builder of the Tabernacle" among the Spirit's works before that day, then turns to Joel's promise of the Spirit poured out on all flesh. St Cyril of Jerusalem teaches that the Holy Ghost "was sent forth when the Tabernacle was in making". The Church's builders inherit the title: St Gregory calls St Basil "a second Bezaleel, an architect of the Divine tabernacle". The Catechism calls the Church the building of God, into which we are built as living stones (CCC 756).
Moral sense
Beseleel's skill did not begin at Sinai. God says, "I have put wisdom in the heart of every skillful man" (Exodus 31:6); He filled men who could already work. The gold came out of Egypt, and Origen writes that the ark, the mercy seat and the cherubim were made from Egyptian gold, which "the Hebrews, guided by the wisdom of God, used for God's service." While Moses was still on the mountain receiving the pattern, the same gold became a calf (Exodus 32:4). A gift learned anywhere can be given to God. What it serves decides whether it builds a tabernacle or an idol, and "the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is" (1 Corinthians 3:13). Even the women's mirrors went into the work: the laver where the priests were washed was made "of the mirrors of the women that watch at the door of the tabernacle" (Exodus 38:8). What they had used to look at themselves became the place of cleansing.
Anagogical sense
The tabernacle was a shadow, and shadows give way. Abraham "looked for a city that hath foundations; whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:10), and John hears it announced: "Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and he will dwell with them" (Apocalypse 21:3). In that city John sees no temple, "For the Lord God Almighty is the temple thereof, and the Lamb" (21:22). St John Chrysostom says of the altar Christians now serve, "Bezaleel built it not, nor any other but God Himself; not of stones, but ... of reasonable souls." The last builder is God, and He builds with His people.
The Fathers
St Gregory Nazianzen, On Pentecost (Oration XLI) 13: "The spirit of Knowledge filling Bezaleel, the Master-builder of the Tabernacle". St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture XVI 27: the Holy Ghost "was sent forth when the Tabernacle was in making, and filled with wisdom the wise-hearted men who were with Bezaleel." St Gregory Nazianzen, Funeral Oration on St Basil: "a second Bezaleel, an architect of the Divine tabernacle, applying every material and art to the work". Origen, Letter to Gregory: "from the things which the children of Israel took from the Egyptians the vessels in the holy of holies were made ... the ark with its lid, and the Cherubim, and the mercy-seat". St John Chrysostom, Homilies on 2 Corinthians XX: "Bezaleel built it not, nor any other but God Himself; not of stones, but of a material brighter than the heaven, of reasonable souls."
Warrant
Patristic. St Gregory Nazianzen sets the Spirit's filling of Beseleel among the works that prepared for Pentecost (On Pentecost, Oration XLI.13), and St Cyril of Jerusalem names the Spirit's work in the making of the tabernacle (Catechetical Lecture XVI.27). St Gregory gives the Church's builders Beseleel's title, calling St Basil "a second Bezaleel" (Funeral Oration on St Basil) and asking in a letter for "the spirit of a Bezaleel, the wise Master builder" (Letter XIX), where the English gives him St Paul's title from 1 Corinthians 3:10. Checked in the Greek: the Septuagint of Exodus 31:3-4 has eneplesa auton pneuma theion sophias, I filled him with a divine spirit of wisdom, and architektonesai, to be master builder, and 35:32 has architektonein and architektonias; St Paul calls himself sophos architekton, a wise master builder (1 Corinthians 3:10), and names chryson, argyron, lithous timious, xyla (3:12), the gold, silver, stones and wood of Exodus 31:4-5. Exodus 40:32 (40:28 in the Septuagint) has doxes kyriou eplesthe he skene, the tent was filled with the glory of the Lord, and Acts 2:2 has eplerosen holon ton oikon, it filled the whole house. The mirrors of Exodus 38:8 stand at 38:26 in the Septuagint. The entry is Dunk's: he asked for it after asking whether Beseleel understood what he was building and whether his craft came before his devotion.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 756.
The verses
Exodus 31:2 · Exodus 31:3 · Exodus 31:4 · Exodus 31:5 · Exodus 40:32 · Acts 2:2 · Acts 2:4 · 1 Corinthians 3:10 · 1 Corinthians 3:11 · 1 Corinthians 3:16
