"... Ancient interpreters found this a remarkable idea—one that sounded even more remarkable in the Septuagint, where the (somewhat ambiguous) word translated above as 'pattern' came out rather less ambiguously as 'model' or 'prototype.' It seemed, in other words, as if God had shown Moses some actual thing after which the tabernacle was to be shaped ... But what could that thing have been? It was unlikely that God had brought down to Mt. Sinai a miniature scale-model of the future tabernacle. However, long-established tradition held that somewhere in heaven—to which, according to one understanding, Moses had ascended on Mt. Sinai—was a great, celestial sanctuary. This idea, as already mentioned, had ancient roots. The prophet Isaiah had seen in a vision God 'sitting upon a throne high and lifted up' (Isaiah 6:1), and this may indeed refer to God's throne in the heavenly sanctuary. The very stars in the sky, according to this same ancient conceit, are actually part of an angelic choir or cadre of heavenly priests who serve God in the celestial sanctuary. Later writers sometimes bear witness to these same ideas ... ..."

Kugel, James L. The Bible as it Was (p. 418) Harvard University Press, 1998