Christian Pure

What Was the Showbread in the Bible? The Bread of the Presence and Its Table

Christian Pure Team

·

Published

Summary

  • The showbread, which modern translations call the bread of the Presence, was twelve loaves set out on a gold-covered table in the tabernacle and later the temple (Exodus 25:30; Leviticus 24:5–6).
  • Its Hebrew name, lechem panim, means bread of the face or presence, and “shewbread” was William Tyndale’s English word in 1530.
  • The table was acacia wood overlaid with gold, about 3 feet long, and it stood on the north side of the Holy Place, outside the veil (Exodus 25:23–28; 40:22).
  • Every Sabbath the priests set out fresh loaves with frankincense on each pile and ate the old loaves in a holy place (Leviticus 24:7–9).
  • David and his men ate the showbread at Nob (1 Samuel 21:1–6), and Jesus told that story when his disciples were accused of breaking the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1–4; Mark 2:25–27).
  • Antiochus took the second temple’s table (1 Maccabees 1:22), and Josephus lists a golden table among the spoils Rome carried off after AD 70.

The showbread was twelve loaves set out every week on a gold-covered table in the tabernacle, and later in the temple, in the presence of God. Modern translations call it the bread of the Presence. Every Sabbath the priests laid out fresh loaves and ate the old ones in a holy place (Leviticus 24:8–9). Its Hebrew name tells us what it was for. This was bread of the face, laid out week after week before God himself. Yet the best-known…

Continue reading with a subscription

Get unlimited access to all our premium content and exclusive features.

Subscribe now

Enjoy unlimited access, cancel anytime.

Bibliography (Click to show)
  • Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version (Exodus 25:30; 40:22–23; Leviticus 24:5–9; Numbers 4:7; 1 Samuel 21:4, 6; Matthew 12:4; Mark 2:26, 27; 1 Kings 7:48; 1 Chronicles 9:32; 2 Chronicles 4:19; 13:11; John 6:35; Hebrews 9:2). Other passages described: Exodus 25:23–29; 26:35; 30:6; 1 Samuel 21:1–3, 5; 22:20; Matthew 12:1–3; Mark 2:23–25; Luke 6:4; 2 Chronicles 13:4. https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/English-Standard-Version-ESV-Bible/
  • Exodus 25:30 in the King James Version (“shewbread”) and the New King James Version (“showbread”). https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+25%3A30&version=KJV;NKJV
  • 1 Maccabees 1:20–22; 4:36, 49–51, Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Maccabees+1%3A20-23&version=RSVCE
  • “Shewbread,” Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/shewbread
  • Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, book 7, chapter 5, sections 5 and 7, translated by William Whiston. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-7.html
  • “Cubit,” Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/cubit

Responses

Leave a Reply

RedditWhatsApp
Share to...
CopyLinkedInMastodonPinterestPrintRedditSMSThreadsWhatsAppBlueskyVK