Articles
- Impact of the Bible
- The cultural influence of the Bible and Christianity in England
- Bible in English culture, The
- English Bible Translations
- Influence of the Book of Common Prayer on the English language
- A history of the church in England
- Culture and sung Christian worship
- Famous stories from the Bible
- Literary titles from the Bible
- Common Sayings from the Bible
- Big ideas from the Bible
- Adoption
- Angels
- Anger
- Anointing
- Apocalypse, Revelation, the End Times, the Second Coming
- Armour
- Ascent and descent
- Atonement and sacrifice
- Babel, language and comprehension
- Baptism
- Betrayal
- Blood
- Bread
- Bride and marriage
- Cain and Abel
- Christians
- City and countryside
- Cleansing
- Clothing
- Community, church, the body of Christ
- Covenant
- Creation, creativity, image of God
- Cross, crucifixion
- Curtain/veil
- Darkness
- Death and resurrection
- Desert and wilderness
- Devils
- Donkey, ass
- Doubt and faith
- Dove
- Dreams, visions and prophecy
- Earth, clay, dust
- Exile
- Feasting and fasting
- Fire
- Forgiveness, mercy and grace
- Fruit, pruning
- Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, 'Second Adam'
- Gateway, door
- Goats
- Grass and wild flowers
- Harvesting
- Heaven
- Hell
- Incarnation (nativity)
- Inheritance and heirs
- Jewels and precious metals
- Jews, Hebrews, Children of Israel, Israelites
- Journey of faith, Exodus, pilgrims and sojourners
- Judgement
- Justice
- Kingship
- Last Supper, communion, eucharist, mass
- Light
- Lion
- Lost, seeking, finding, rescue
- Messiah, Christ, Jesus
- Miracles
- Mission, evangelism, conversion
- Moses
- Music
- Names
- Noah and the flood
- Numbers in the Bible
- Parables
- Parents and children
- Passover
- Path, way
- Patriarchs
- Peace
- Penitence, repentance, penance
- Poverty and wealth
- Prayer
- Promised Land, Diaspora, Zionism
- Psalms
- Rabbi, Pharisee, teacher of the law
- Redemption, salvation
- Rest
- Rock and stone
- Salt
- Seed, sowing
- Serpent, Devil, Satan, Beast
- Servant-hood, obedience and authority
- Sheep, shepherd and lamb
- Sin
- Slavery
- Soul
- Temple, tabernacle
- Temptation
- Ten Commandments, The
- Trees
- Trinity, Holy Spirit
- Vine, vineyard
- Water
- Weeds, chaff, briar, thorn
- Wisdom and foolishness
- Women in the Bible
- Word of God
- Work and idleness
- Investigating the Bible
- Literary allusions to the Bible
- Pilgrimage in literature
- Biblical style in poetry
- Biblical imagery in metaphysical poetry
- Bible/Literature intertextuality
- The cultural influence of the Bible and Christianity in England
Curtain/veil
Separation – and reconciliation
The effects of the Fall
Before the Fall of humanity, Genesis depicts God and humankind having unimpeded interaction with each other. After the Fall, the picture is one of Adam and Eve seeking to hide/cover themselves from God’s sight. The Creator and his creatures were now divided by the existence of human [sin3]. In the Old Testament this is symbol-ised by a curtain or veil.
Tabernacle and Temple
The tabernacle was the portable dwelling place of God’s glory while the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness. It was essentially a tent, constructed of lavish curtains ac-cording to exacting requirements Exodus 26:1-7. A cube-shaped inner compartment, the ‘Holy of Holies’, contained the Ark of the Covenant and was considered the dwelling place of God Exodus 26:31-33. It was separated from the rest of the Holy Place by a veil and was only to be entered once a year by the High Priest Leviticus 16:15-34, Hebrews 9:6-7.
Once Israel settled in the land of Canaan and made Jerusalem their capital, Solomon built the Temple to be the fixed dwelling place of God’s glory 2 Chronicles 3:1-8. It was designed on similar principles to the tabernacle, including a huge, heavy curtain to separate the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place 2 Chronicles 3:14. No one, other than the High Priest, was allowed to enter (and then only on the Day of Atonement).
Torn curtain
Despite the Temple being rebuilt over the centuries, there was always a thick curtain symboli-cally dividing humanity from the presence of God. This was still the case in the lifetime of Jesus (in first century Palestine), as recorded in the New Testament. However, the gospels record that, at the moment of Jesus’ death on a cross, the Temple curtain was torn in two Matthew 27:50-51. Christians understand this to signify the end of the separation between God and humans: faith in Jesus means that believers are once more enabled to approach God:
Hebrews 10:19-20 ESVUK
As a consequence, Christian hope frees them to enter ‘within the veil’ Hebrews 6:19-20.
Paul draws on the same imagery when he describes the message of Christ’s salvation as being ‘veiled’ to unbelievers: blinded to the truth about Jesus, they remain separated from God 2 Corinthians 4:3-4.
Glory
Partly the veil is also to protect humans for the force of God’s holiness (as, for example, God warns Aaron in Leviticus 16:2). Following the Fall, only a few people in the Bible are capable of speaking ‘face to face’ with God. The Old Testament leader Moses was one of them, but whenever Moses returned from meeting with God his face glowed so radiantly that the people were afraid to look at him Exodus 34:29-30. So after communicating God’s commandments to the Israelites covered his face with a veil again until his next encounter Exodus 34:31-35.
Paul draws a comparison between Moses’ veil and the idea that the non-Christian Jews are reading the law with metaphorically veiled hearts 2 Corinthians 3:15. Only in Jesus, he says, is the veil lifted so that there is a ‘face to face’ encounter with God in Christ 2 Corinthians 3:16.
2 Corinthians 3:18 ESVUK
Curtain/veil in literature
- Crashaw’s Hymn in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament draws on biblical veil imagery
- Percy Bysshe Shelley’s sonnet Lift Not the Painted Veil (1824) explores the risks associated with delving beyond the superficialities of life in search of truth. Its final lines contain an al-lusion to the Preacher of Ecclesiastes
- The 1924 novel The Painted Veil (W. Somerset Maugham) is named after Shelley’s sonnet. It tells the story of the wife of a medical doctor living in the midst of epidemic, as she faces up to the reality of her character and that of the men in her life.
- Helen Spalding’s poem Curtain (1942) describes the painful separation of two lovers during World War II.
- In The Curtain by Hayden Carruth (1996) a curtain of snow creates a separation between the couple in their peaceful home and the violence and suffering of the wider world.
Other
- René Magritte’s 1928 painting The Lovers depicts two people with entirely shrouded heads sharing a kiss. It has been interpreted as signifying the impossibility of truly knowing even those with whom we are most intimate.
Related topics
- Big ideas: Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, 'Second Adam'; Cross, crucifixion; Messiah, Christ, Jesus; Moses; Temple, tabernacle
- Famous stories from the Bible: Adam and Eve/Creation; Jesus, his death and resurrection
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The Creation; Fall of humankind and universal or original sin; Noah and the Flood; the call of Abraham (start of salvation history), followed by the stories of the other patriarchs, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.
Big ideas: Creation; Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve; Cain and Abel; Noah and the Flood; Patriarchs
Famous stories from the Bible: Adam and Eve / Creation; Noah's Ark; Abraham
Rather disjointed and bleak collection of thoughts and sayings about life; attributed to Solomon; conclusions are that life without God is futile and empty, the cycles of nature and history are constantly repeating themselves and that 'There is nothing new under the sun'
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