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Exodus 27 · a question people ask

Exodus 20 asks for an altar of earth or uncut stone. Why is this one wood and bronze?

Interpretation

Both commands are in Exodus. "You shall make an altar of earth for me" (20:24), and "If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stones" (20:25). Here: "You shall make the altar of acacia wood" (27:1) and "overlay it with bronze" (27:2). The text doesn't explain how the two fit. Later, after this altar was made (38:1-2), Moses commands an altar "of uncut stones" on Mount Ebal (Deuteronomy 27:4-6), and Joshua builds it "as it is written in the book of the law of Moses" (Joshua 8:30-31). Chapter 27 doesn't say whether anything filled the hollow altar. Readers put the two commands together in more than one way.

How Christians read it

Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.

Two kinds of altar

Those who hold this view read 20:24 as speaking of altars "in every place where I record my name", and chapter 27 as the one altar for the tabernacle court, made "as it has been shown you on the mountain" (27:8). Both kinds go on side by side: the stone altar on Mount Ebal is built after the bronze one (Deuteronomy 27:5-6; Joshua 8:30-31).

Exodus 20:24 · Exodus 27:8 · Deuteronomy 27:5-6 · Joshua 8:30-31

A frame to be filled

Those who hold this view notice "You shall make it hollow with planks" (27:8) and read the altar as a frame that was filled with earth or stones where it stood, so that the rule of 20:24-25 was kept.

Exodus 20:24-25 · Exodus 27:8

The verses

“You shall make an altar of earth for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you. If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stones; for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it.”
Exodus 20:24-25 · World English Bible
““You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long, and five cubits wide. The altar shall be square. Its height shall be three cubits. You shall make its horns on its four corners. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. You shall overlay it with bronze.”
Exodus 27:1-2 · World English Bible
“He made the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood. It was square. Its length was five cubits, its width was five cubits, and its height was three cubits. He made its horns on its four corners. Its horns were of one piece with it, and he overlaid it with bronze.”
Exodus 38:1-2 · World English Bible
“It shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall coat them with plaster. There you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You shall not use any iron tool on them. You shall build the LORD your God’s altar of uncut stones. You shall offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God.”
Deuteronomy 27:4-6 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Exodus 27

Exodus 27: The altar and the lamp

The altar of the court was built to travel, with rings and poles, and had horns "of one piece with it" (27:2). The first time the World English Bible names the Tent of Meeting, Aaron and his sons are keeping a lamp burning with oil the people brought (27:20-21). Where priests offered "day by day", Hebrews says Jesus "offered one sacrifice for sins forever" (Hebrews 10:11-12).

In Favor, questions like this come up right where they arise as you read, with the Hebrew and Greek behind the words and how the chapter leads to Jesus.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions