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TABERNACLES, FEAST OF

The final and greatest feast of the Israelite agricultural year, one of three annual pilgrimage festivals (Exod. 23:14-19; 34:22-24; Lev. 23:33-36, 39-43; Num. 29:12-38; Deut. 16:16-17; 31:9-13). It specifically celebrated the harvest of grapes and olives and the end of the harvest season in general. The Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths) is called Sukkot(h) (or Succoth) in Hebrew (2 Chr. 8:13). The OT also refers to it as the Festival of Ingathering (Exod. 23:16; 34:22), the Feast of the Lord (Lev. 23:39, 41), or the “appointed feast” (Lam. 2:6, 7; Hos. 12:9) or even simply “the feast” (1 Kgs. 8:2, 65; 12:32).

Tabernacles shared a number of elements with other vintage feasts of the region. The Greeks and Romans of the 1st century c.e. saw similarities to their own feast for Dionysus/Bacchus (Tacitus Hist. 5.5; Plutarch Quaest. Cov. 4.6.671 D-E), and scholars have speculated on this feast’s relationship to the Babylonian New Year celebration.

The Feast of Tabernacles was to be held after the harvest (Deut. 16:13; Lev. 23:39), on the 15th through the 22nd of Nissan, the seventh month (Sept.-Oct.; Lev. 23:34; Num. 29:12-38). It followed two other celebrations, the New Year (1st of Nissan) and the Day of Atonement (10th of Nissan).

The Feast of Tabernacles was a time of celebration. The seven-day feast began and ended with a special sabbath. The work of harvest completed, the people were to rest, rejoice (Lev. 23:39-40), and to eat and drink (cf. Deut. 14:22-26, a tithe of their annual crops). Celebrants were to construct temporary shelters, the “tabernacles” or “booths,” in which to eat and sleep during the feast (Neh. 8:14-17), reminding them of Yahweh’s protection during the wilderness wanderings (Lev. 23:42, 43). The priests offered special sacrifices, including a unique one of a descending number of bulls each day (beginning with 13 the first day and concluding with seven the final day, a total of 71) (Num. 29:13-38). Every seventh year during Tabernacles the entire Law was to be read (Deut. 31:10-11).

Postexilic observances included the lighting of giant menorahs in the temple courtyard, all-night dancing to flutes by torchlight, dawn processions ending with libations of water and wine at the bronze altar, prayers for rain and resurrection of the dead, the priests marching around the altar and the people carrying fruit and waving palm branches (m. Sukk.). When the high priest Alexander Jannaeus (ca. 100 b.c.e.) refused to offer the libations properly, troops called to quell the ensuing riot left 6000 people dead (Josephus Ant. 13.372-73).

Tabernacles came to be tied to Jewish hopes for a Davidic messiah and national independence. Judas Maccabees used the feast as a model for his celebration of the rededication of the Jerusalem altar in 164 b.c.e. (1 Macc. 4:54-59), the first celebration of Hannukah (2 Macc. 1:1-36). Elements of the Tabernacles celebration figure in Jesus’ triumphal entry and crucifixion (Mark 11:1-11 par.), reflecting the people’s longing for Jewish independence (cf. quotation from the Great Hallel, Ps. 118:25-26; the title Son of David, Matt. 21:9). The leaders of both Jewish revolts against Rome (66-70 and 132-135 c.e.) also used symbols and slogans from the feast.

Only the Fourth Gospel mentions a celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles itself (John 7:2), with Jesus referring to himself as the living water, perhaps a reference to the high priest performing the dawn water libation.

Some scholars have argued that this “Feast of the Lord” was the origin of the concept of the “Day of the Lord,” a major theme in the Hebrew prophets and the NT (note extensive use of harvest as an image of the end of time; e.g., Matt. 9:37-38; 13:39; John 4:35; Rom. 1:13; Rev. 14:15).

Bibliography. J. A. Draper, “The Heavenly Feast of Tabernacles: Revelation 7.1-17,” JSNT 19 (1983): 133-47; W. Harrelson, “The Celebration of the Feast of Booths according to Zech xiv,16-21,” in Religions in Antiquity, ed. J. Neusner. NumenSup 14 (Leiden, 1968), 88-96; N. Hillyer, “First Peter and the Feast of Tabernacles,” TynBul 21 (1970); 39-70; G. H. MacRae, “The Meaning and Evolution of the Feast of Tabernacles,” CBQ 22 (1960): 251-76; J. C. de Moor, New Year with Canaanites and Israelites, 2 vols. (Kampen, 1972); H. N. Richardson, “Skt (Amos 9:11): ‘Booth’ or ‘Succoth’?” JBL 92 (1973): 375-81; H. Ulfgard, Feast and Future: Revelation 7:9-17 and the Feast of Tabernacles. ConBNT 22 (Lund, 1989).

Timothy P. Jenney

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TABERNACLES, FEAST OF

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)