Insights from the Ancient Tabernacle: A conversation with Josh Matson

In this conversation, Josh walks us through the pattern of the ancient tabernacle and Solomon’s temple, helping us begin to understand what temple worship and sacrifice looked like for the ancient Israelites. Gaining an understanding of what the temple experience was like anciently has really helped to enrich my relationship with our modern temple. I was struck by both the similarities and the differences in how we relate to the temple today. Josh breaks down the various types of sacrificial rites the Israelites performed and shows how they are more similar to our modern law of sacrifice than we might expect.

These were people who faced the same challenge we face today: how to move beyond outward performance and truly offer our whole heart and soul to the Lord. Josh teaches that, in the end, the only thing we can really offer God is our will. God invites us into the experience of sacrifice and repentance—a journey that both transforms and liberates, a journey back to Eden. And all that is needed to begin is our desire

Joshua M. Matson is an assistant professor in the Department of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University, with an appointment to the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. His published work has focused on the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Hebrew Bible (particularly the Old Testament Minor Prophets), ancient and modern manuscript studies, and the Jewish context of the Greek New Testament. He is the editor for the book of Haggai for the Society of Biblical Literature Hebrew Bible Critical Edition and is a member of the editorial board for the BYU New Testament Commentary Series. He is a former researcher for the Scripta Qumranica Electronica project and an Orion Center for Dead Sea Scrolls Research Fellow at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. A former Religious Educator with Seminaries and Institutes of Religion, Josh and his wife Erin are the parents of four children and reside in Santaquin, Utah.

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