Verse 5
And after these things I saw, and the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:
The temple of the tabernacle of the testimony ... "John is here seeing this picture, not in terms of the Jewish temple, but in terms of the ancient tabernacle."[32] In this, he joins so much of the rest of the New Testament in absolutely ignoring and bypassing the Jewish temple. "This phrase, tabernacle of the testimony is found in only one other place in the New Testament (Acts 7:44),"[33] where it occurs in the address of Stephen. One of the most significant things in the New Testament is this absolute bypassing of the Jewish temple by New Testament writers. The author of Hebrews is another conspicuous example. We have commented upon this extensively in this series: Commentary on Acts, pp. 142ff, Commentary on Mark, pp. 272ff, Commentary on 1Corinthians, pp. 50ff, and Commentary on 1Peter, pp. 192ff. It was the ancient tabernacle, not the Jewish temple, that was made like the pattern God showed to Moses.
[32] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 121.
[33] Martin Rist, op. cit., p. 479.
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