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LXX Exodus

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 40

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 On the first day of the first month, at the new moon, you shall set up the tabernacle of witness, 3 and you shall place in it the ark of the testimony, and shall cover the ark with the veil, 4 and you shall bring in the table and shall set forth that which is to be set forth on it; and you shall bring in the candlestick and place its lamps on it. 5 And you shall place the golden altar, to burn incense before the ark; and you shall put a covering of a veil on the door of the tabernacle of witness. 6 And you shall put the altar of burnt offerings by the doors of the tabernacle of witness, 7  8 and you shall set up the tabernacle all around, and you shall hallow all that belongs to it all around. 9 And you shall take the anointing oil, and shall anoint the tabernacle, and all things in it; and shall sanctify it, and all its furniture, and it shall be holy. 10 And you shall anoint the altar of burnt offerings, and all its furniture; and you shall hallow the altar, and the altar shall be most holy. 11  12 And you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the doors of the tabernacle of witness, and you shall wash them with water. 13 And you shall put on Aaron the holy garments, and you shall anoint him, and you shall sanctify him, and he shall minister to me as priest. 14 And you shall bring up his sons, and shall put tunics on them. 15 And you shall anoint them as you anointed their father, and they shall minister to me as priests; and it shall be that they shall have an everlasting anointing of priesthood, throughout their generations. 16 And Moses did all things whatever the Lord commanded him, so he did. 17 And it happened in the first month, in the second year after their going forth out of Egypt, at the new moon, that the tabernacle was set up. 18 And Moses set up the tabernacle, and put on the capitals, and put the bars into their places, and set up the posts. 19 And he stretched out the curtains over the tabernacle, and put the veil of the tabernacle on it above as the Lord commanded Moses. 20 And he took the testimonies, and put them into the ark; and he put the carrying poles under the ark. 21 And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and put on it the covering of the veil, and covered the ark of the testimony, as the Lord commanded Moses. 22 And he put the table in the tabernacle of witness, on the north side outside the veil of the tabernacle. 23 And he put on it the show bread before the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses. 24 And he put the candlestick into the tabernacle of witness, on the side of the tabernacle toward the south. 25 And he put on it its lamps before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 26 And he put the golden altar in the tabernacle of witness before the veil; 27 and he burnt on it incense of composition, as the Lord commanded Moses. 28  29 And he put the altar of the burnt offerings by the doors of the tabernacle. 30  31  32  33 And he set up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar; and Moses accomplished all the works. 34 And the cloud covered the tabernacle of witness,⁠ and the tabernacle was filled with the glory of the Lord. 35 And Moses was not able to enter into the tabernacle of testimony, because the cloud overshadowed it,⁠ and the tabernacle was filled with the glory of the Lord.⁠ 36 And when the cloud went up from the tabernacle, the children of Israel prepared to depart with their baggage. 37 And if the cloud did not go up, they did not prepare to depart, till the day when the cloud went up. 38 For a cloud was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night before all Israel, in all their journeyings.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Exodus 40:35 and Luke 1:35

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

Luke echoes Exodus 40 by using “overshadow,” first used for the cloud covering the tabernacle. In Exodus it highlights God’s presence and Luke applies the same image to Mary, saying the power of God overshadows her.
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Passages

LXX Exodus 40:35

Septuagint
33 And he set up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar; and Moses accomplished all the works. 34 And the cloud covered the tabernacle of witness, and the tabernacle was filled with the glory of the Lord. 35 And Moses was not able to enter into the tabernacle of testimony, because the cloud overshadowed it, and the tabernacle was filled with the glory of the Lord.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Exodus

Luke 1:35

New Testament
34 Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I have not been intimate with a man?” 35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God. 36 “And look, your relative Elizabeth has also become pregnant with a son in her old age—although she was called barren, she is now in her sixth month!
75–85 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Luke

References

"... Many of the exegetes (Lyonnet, Sahlin, Hebert, Laurentin) who think that Luke portrayed Mary as the Daughter of Zion also find the symbolism of Mary as the Ark of the Covenant or as the Tabernacle of divine glory. The key to this symbolism is 1:35: 'Power from the Most High will overshadow [episkiazein] you.' I have shown above that this clause and its parallel ('The Holy Spirit will come upon you') represent the language of early christology, echoing phrases used in Gospel ministry accounts of the baptism and the transfiguration. Yet the cloud of divine presence that overshadows at the transfiguration is set against the background of Peter's offer to build tabernacles for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah (Luke 9:34-35). This reminds us that episkiazein, 'to overshadow' (along with skiazein, 'to shadow') was used to describe how the cloud of God's glory cast a shadow upon the Tabernacle in the wilderness (Exodus 40:35; Numbers 9:18,22). Indeed, the verb for overshadow and shadow described several forms of the divine presence in the OT, e.g., the cloud overshadowing the renewed Mount Zion and its festal assemblies (Isaiah 4:5); the cloud overshadowing the Israelites when they departed from the desert camp (Numbers 10:34); God overshadowing His chosen ones (Deuteronomy 33:12; Psalm 91:4); and the winged cherubim overshadowing the mercy seat or top of the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:20; 1 Chronicles 28:18) ..."
Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1979), 327.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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LXX Exodus 40:35 and Luke 1:35

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