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iblical narrative themes and images: representation, origin, and meaning 85
ינשה שבכה תאו ‘and the other lamb’; a black twohandled
jar has the Hebrew inscription ןמש ‘oil’;
below it is a square container with the Hebrew
inscription תלס ‘fine flour’, shown as a triangular
heap of chequered pattern. At the lower left two
trumpets are identified by the Hebrew inscription
תורצוצח ‘trumpets’.
These depictions on the left panels of bands 3
and 4 illustrate the daily sacrifice based on the biblical
description of the Consecration of the Tabernacle
in Ex. 29: 39-40 and Numb. 28: 4-5:
Offer one ram at dawn and the second between
dusk and dark. With the first lamb offer a tenth
of an epha of flour mixed with a quarter of a hin
of pure oil of pounded olives, and a drink-offering
of a quarter of a hin of wine. (Ex.29: 39-40)
Only the names and labels necessary to explain
the depiction were taken from this biblical text;
all the daily offerings—the bull, two lambs, flour
and oil—are mentioned; only the wine is missing.
The two trumpets are not mentioned in this
biblical description. However, Weiss and Netzer
(1996: 22; Weiss 2000: 25, 93) record an interpretation
to Num. 10: 10 in the Midrash (Sifrei Zuta,
Beha‘alotekha 10: 10) which links the blowing of
the two trumpets to the daily sacrifice and possibly
reflects the practices at the Second Temple
period.
A similar depiction, interpreted as the Consecration
of the Tabernacle and Its Priest, is portrayed
on panel WB2 of the Dura Europos Synagogue
wall painting (Kraeling 1979: 123-131; Hachlili
1998: 117-18, fig. III-12, pl. III-11).
The interior of a sanctuary at Dura appears in
the upper part of the panel. It is a modest structure
with gabled roof and columns (fig. IV-19b).
The Ark of the Covenant stands inside the sanctuary
and in front of a veil; in front of the sanctuary
a seven-branched menorah, is flanked by two thymiateria
or candlesticks. Green and pink curtains
hang on the upper panel to the right and left.
Aaron the High Priest in ceremonial dress stands
next to the sanctuary. He is designated by a Greek
inscription Аρωn Aaron. A sacrificial animal lies
on top of an altar to the left. Three figures stand
at each end of the composition, wearing Iranian
dress and holding short curved trumpets in their
right hands. A figure at the lower left of the scene
grasps the horns of a humped red heifer in his left
hand and holds a long-handled ax in his right.
At the lower right, two sacrificial animals, a ram
and a bullock, are shown. The lower part of the
panel portrays a wall of dressed stones, with three
closed doors surmounted with conch-decorated
arches. The central door is larger than the two
side ones, and has a green-pink curtain hanging
in front of it.
This scene is generally interpreted as the Consecration
of the Tabernacle and Its Priest (Exodus
29; Numbers 7). Goodenough (1964, X: 19-26)
contends that it presents the ‘Open Mystic’ Temple
of the priests; Renov (1970: 67-72) assumes that
the scene is a view of Herod’s Temple from the
Nicanor Gate (but see Avi-Yonah ibid.: 73-74).
The Dura scene has some additional details (Weiss
and Netzer 1996: 23) such as the blowing of the
trumpets (Num. 10: 1-3) and perhaps the burning
of the red heifer (Num. 19). Similar scenes
of Aaron and offerings appear on the Byzantine
Basilewsky pyxis, now in the Hermitage Museum,
and on the Christian manuscripts of the Octateuchs
and the Ashburnham Pentateuch (Weiss
2005: 83-5, figs. 27-29).
The central panel of Band 4 contains the Shewbread
Table (Weiss and Netzer 1996: 24-25; Weiss
2005: 95-101), a round, three-legged table (which
is unlike the biblical description of a four-legged
table in Ex. 25: 23-30; 37: 10-16) covered by a
cloth (described in Num. 4: 7) decorated with
four criss-cross circles in its corners and fringes
on its ends (pl. IV.7; fig. IV-20a). Twelve round
loaves (some destroyed) are placed on the table
arranged in three rows: three loaves in the top
and bottom rows and six in the middle, which
differs from the biblical record: ‘and bake twelve
cakes… place them upon the pure table…in two
rows, six to a row’ (Lev. 24: 6). At either end of
the table are two vessels with long handles; they
correspond to the description of censers holding
frankincense (Weiss and Netzer 1996: 24) that
was used in the Tabernacle and the Temple as
cited in the Tosefta (Menahot 11: 15).
This tripod table has several comparisons
(Hachlili 2001: 233-239, fig. V-13, pl. II-38): a
table rendered on the 4th-century Samaritan synagogue
mosaic at el-Hirbeh shown together with a
menorah and a sanctuary (pl. II.3a) (Magen 1993b:
71; Hachlili 2001: 238, 264-266, Figs. V-13e,g,
VII-1). The table is a round X-crossed tripod type
with eight loaves and vessels set in two rows on
it. This form also possibly has its origin in earlier
bronze tables from Cyprus (Hachlili 2001:
Fig. V-13d) and is similar to Roman tripod tables.
A simple two-legged table with two piles on it
is rendered on a Samaritan clay lamp (Sussman