When we think of Egypt, we often visualize pyramids, the Nile River, the Sphinx, and the Hebrew exodus. When Bill and I had the pleasure to visit Egypt and take a Nile River cruise this past March and April, what do you think was the main saying the passengers repeated for each day? “What’s today’s temple?” We saw different ancient temples daily and the Egyptologist (our tour guide) kept implying correlations to the Old Testament tabernacle and to Christianity.
The Egyptian temples that we visited had been built from 4000-5000 BC to as late as AD 50. In one of the latest ones, in Edfu, Egypt, built between 237 to 57 BC, our guide repeatedly told us about the priest’s procedure to become pure before entering into the god or goddesses’ presence, for example, in this case, Horus, the avenging falcon god. The priest had to pluck off all his hair and immerse himself in water. Like many other temples, this temple had in the deepest room a holy of holies. In these Egyptian temples, only priests were allowed inside the entire temple.
You may remember that the Israelite tabernacle (or tent of meeting), and the later temples, also had a holy of holies. The Hebrew tabernacle (constructed ca. 1450 BC during the Exodus from Egypt)[1] had a court, a holy place, and, behind a curtain, a holy of holies. Only the high priest could enter the holy of holies once a year to seek the forgiveness of sins for himself, his family, and all of Israel. He had to make animal sacrifices, bathe in water, and wear a sacred tunic. Inside the holy of holies was the ark of the covenant with two carved cherubims, and later the Ten Commandments and other symbols of God’s historic presence in their lives (Exod. 37:1-9; Lev. 16; Heb. 9:1-5). However, all the people were allowed in the court and could see the offerings in the holy place and participate in prayer.
Of course, the pagan temples revered many mythic gods and goddesses, while the Israelites worshiped only one living God, not represented by any statue or form. Moses is very firm in Deuteronomy 4 when he warns the Hebrews: “Since you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, watch yourselves closely, so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. And when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven” (4:15-19 NRSV). Many ancients were conscious of the powers all around them and personified them into a variety of creatures and personages, while missing the Great Power behind them all, the living God who loved them dearly.
What we learned in our travel to these temples is that God has placed in people across many ages and nations the desire to be accepted, purified, and assisted by the Creator of the world. Both the pagan and Jewish believers through their liturgy had been presupposing the great holiness of the Deity. Even the pagans had recognized that some separation existed between God and humanity.
However, a key change occurred in the first century, recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. When Jesus finally breathed his last, “behold the curtain of the sanctuary [in Jerusalem] was torn in two, from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split” (Matt. 27:50-51). Jesus had fully purified and justified humans before God, now, God’s Spirit could no longer be contained behind a curtain or division. This phenomenal gift can only be embraced if Jesus is trusted to enable each believer to become acceptable to the great pure sovereign Lord of the universe.
Jesus has freed humanity! After Christianity came to Egypt, no more temples came to be built because the Christians taught that the holy of holies had transferred from a place for select high priests now to a presence among everyday believers. All of us are one body, which is the holy place of the Holy Spirit among us (1 Cor. 6:19). All repentant believers become justified but must then maintain out of gratitude their holiness in thought and action. We are not justified by our actions but by God’s grace to seek to become mature priestly followers of the crucified and risen Messiah (1 Pet. 2:5-6).
Yet, how many of us still envision the “holy of holies” to be the pulpit and the person preaching to us is the “high priest” and the sanctuary seats the “holy place”? We forget that where two or three of us gather together (Matt. 18:20) we now have God’s holy and moveable temple or tent because the triune God is with us.
Aída
[1] 1450 BC is the traditional date for the Exodus according to Samuel J. Schultz, The Old Testament Speaks, 4th ed. (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990), 49. A fragmentary hieroglyphic inscription contains possibly the first mention of “Israel.” “Does the Merneptah Stele Contain the First Mention of Israel?” Biblical History Daily, May 20, 2025. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/does-the-merneptah-stele-contain-the-first-mention-of-israel. The Merneptah Stele was inscribed by King Merneptah 1213-1203 BC.
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