| Shea,
Schwantes and Hasel97
find difficulty in linking the “evening-morning” (`ereb-boqer)
of Dn. 8:14 with the daily burnt offering associated with the sanctuary
service in Leviticus and Numbers. They seem to agree that “the biblical
references to that practice always refer to it as taking place in the
morning and the evening, never in the evening and the morning.”98
The following discussion will demonstrate that the specific “evening-morning”
sequence, not a morning-evening sequence, applies to “the continual (hattamid)
burnt offering.”
The biblical evidence is clear
that the “daily burnt offering” consisted of two male lambs, one to be
offered in the morning and the other lamp to be offered “between the
evenings” or twilight (Ex. 29:39; Num. 28:4).99
The phraseology employed always mentions the morning before the evening
offering. A cursory survey of the pertinent texts concerning the daily
burnt offering appear to suggest that the morning offering preceded
the evening offering100
(“one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall
offer between the evenings; Num. 29:39). However it should be observed
that the singular nature of the expression in Dn. 8:14, “evening-morning,”
contravenes the key texts describing the “law of the burnt offering”
in Ex. 29:38-46 and Num. 28:1-8 in which boqer (morning) is
singular but `ereb is in the dual state (ha`arbayim), the
evenings. The linguistic analogy to `ereb-boqer in Dn. 8:14 is not
exact.
Moreover, as Shea has correctly
observed, the singular and unique expression “evening-morning” in Dn.
8:14 exhibits a near perfect analogy to Jehovah’s command to tend the
lampstand “from evening to morning” continually (tamid) in Ex.
27:21 and Lev. 24:3-4. The unique expression “from evening until morning”
(me`ereb `ad-boqer) strongly suggests a complete worship cycle or
sequence which commenced at evening and continued until morning through
the day. For example, Aaron was instructed to set up or initiate (`ala)
the lamps and burn incense on the golden altar at evening and every
morning he again was to burn incense on the altar while he tended the
lamps (Ex. 30:7-8). Thus, worship was continuous, commencing at evening,
continuing through the rest of the night with the burning lamps, and it
was reinvigorated by tending the lamps and burning incense in the morning
for the remainder of the day until evening when it commenced again with
the lighting of the golden lampstand.
Furthermore, this same
evening-morning sequence or cycle of worship is also exhibited with “the
daily burnt offering.” The very first instruction of the law of the
burnt offering Jehovah gave to Moses specifically directed that the burnt
offering, a male lamb, was to be on the hearth or consuming fire “all
night until the morning” (kal-halaylah `ad-habboqer) and the fire
was to be kept burning (Lev. 6:9). The phrase, “all night until
morning” is essentially equivalent to the phrase “from evening
until morning” in terms of a cyclic sequence with a definitive
initiation point. Thus, a clear signal is given at the beginning of the
instructions in Lev. 6:9 concerning the law of the burnt offering that the
daily burnt offering cycle commenced at evening with the offering of the
first of the two lambs (one in the morning and another lamb in between the
evenings as stated in Ex. 29:39 and Num. 28:4). The relation of the
commencement (evening) and re-initiation (morning) sequence to the “evening-morning”
sequence is reinforced in the subsequent instructions of the law of the
burnt offering. Thus in the morning (boqer) the priest was to was
to lift up the ashes of the burnt offering which the fire consumed and
place them beside the altar and then carry them outside the camp
(6:10-11). The priest was to keep the fire burning by adding wood on the
altar morning by morning which was followed by laying the second
male lamb on it in the morning to burn as incense with the fat of the
peace offering during the day (6:12). A continual (tamid) fire
burned on the altar yielding a sweet aroma during the worship cycle (“evening-morning”)
of the daily burnt offering.
Shea, Hasel and Schwantes
seemingly overlook the “evening-morning” commencement/ re-initiation
sequence of the daily burnt offering articulated in Lev. 6:8-13 and focus
on the two offerings, one in the morning and the other lamb in the
evening.101 “The
universal preference for the formula day and night reflects” as
Schwantes quotes J. B. Segal’s remarks “`the ordinary course of human
behavior. It is at dawn that man begins the active work of the day, and,
for that reason, a phrase current in man’s mouth is day and night.’”102
The “natural” listing of the two sacrifices (morning and evening)
which is in harmony with natural human daily behavior is misinterpreted as
an explanation of the biblical worship cycle of commencement and
re-initiation (evening-morning) repeatedly stated in Leviticus and
Numbers.103 It should
be noted that the same apparent anomaly exists with the lighting of the
lampstand. The “evening-morning” cyclic sequence is specified in Ex.
27:31 & Lev. 24:1-4, but the common behavioral language of “morning
and evening” is used in Ex. 30:7-8.
The preceding discussion clearly
establishes the linkage of the expression “evening-morning” with the
Hebrew cultus of the daily burnt offering and in particular with hattamid
in Dn. 8:14 both of which are linked with a “sweet aroma” to Jehovah.
The daily burnt offering is described repeatedly in the cultic worship
setting of Leviticus and Numbers. Since the activity of the 2300 year
vision including hattamid of Dn. 8:13 is of counterfeit origin (“until
when the vision: the daily and the transgression which desolates to give
both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled”), it may be concluded
that the answer in Dn. 8:14 encompassing the 2300 “evening-morning” is
likewise of a counterfeit nature. Therefore, the 2300 “evening-morning”
constitute 2300 prophetic days of counterfeit worship cycles resulting in
a continuous counterfeit sweet aroma to Jehovah.
8.2.2
The Continually Burning Lamps |