Objects of the Bible
The objects
The things the history keeps returning to. An ark, a staff, a lampstand, a cup, a cross.
In a stone workshop, a leatherworker reaches for cord beside a clay lamp, a covered jar and a half-stitched water skin.The garden and the flood
- The tree of lifeNever forbidden, never eaten from, and guarded the moment it mattered.Genesis 2 to 3
- The tree of the knowledge of good and evilOne tree out of a whole garden, and the only thing in the world with a no attached.Genesis 2 to 3
- The flaming swordA guard set at a gate, turning every way, keeping a road rather than closing it.Genesis 3
- The ark of NoahA box with a door and a window, built to float rather than to sail.Genesis 6 to 9
- The dove and the olive leafA bird sent three times, and the smallest possible piece of evidence that the world was back.Genesis 8
- The bow in the cloudA weapon hung up in the sky, pointed away, as the sign of a promise made to everything that breathes.Genesis 9
The fathers
- The altar and the ram in the thicketEverything needed for the sacrifice was carried up the hill except the animal, and the animal was already there.Genesis 22
- The ladder at BethelSet up on the earth and reaching to heaven, with traffic going both ways.Genesis 28
- The well of JacobA hole in the ground with a stone on it, and two of the most consequential conversations in the Bible held beside it.Genesis 29 · John 4
- The coat of many coloursA garment given to one son out of twelve, and returned to his father covered in the blood of a goat.Genesis 37
- The silver cup of JosephPlanted in the youngest brother’s sack to find out whether the others had changed.Genesis 44
Exodus and the covenant
- The burning bushThe fire was not the strange part. The bush still being there was.Exodus 3 to 4
- The staff of MosesA shepherd’s stick he already had in his hand, and he is asked what it is before anything happens to it.Exodus 4 · Exodus 7 · Exodus 14 · Exodus 17
- The Passover lambChosen on the tenth, kept until the fourteenth, and the blood went on the outside of the door where nobody inside could see it.Exodus 12
- The pillar of cloud and fireOne object with two settings, and the text is careful to say it never departed.Exodus 13 · Exodus 14 · Exodus 40
- The mannaThey named it after a question. Manna means what is it, and nobody ever answered.Exodus 16 · Numbers 11
- The water from the rockIt happened twice, forty years apart, and the difference between the two is the reason Moses died outside the land.Exodus 17 · Numbers 20
- The tablets of the covenantThe only thing in Scripture described as written with the finger of God, and it lasted about forty days.Exodus 24 · Exodus 31 · Exodus 32 · Exodus 34
- The golden calfNot a rival god. It was given the right name and the wrong shape, and that turned out to be worse.Exodus 32
- The bronze serpentThe cure was a model of the thing that was killing them, and you had to look at it.Numbers 21 · John 3
The tabernacle
- The tabernacleA building designed to be taken apart, because the people it belonged to were not staying anywhere.Exodus 40 · Leviticus 9 · Numbers 9
- The ark of the covenantA gold-covered box with carrying poles that were never to be taken out, and every disaster around it involves someone treating it as furniture.Exodus 25 · Joshua 3 to 4 · 1 Samuel 4 to 6 · 2 Samuel 6
- The mercy seatA lid, with the law underneath it and blood on top of it once a year.Exodus 25 · Leviticus 16
- The veilA curtain with cherubim woven into it, doing the same job as the ones with the flaming sword.Exodus 26 · Matthew 27
- The bronze altarThe first thing anyone met on walking in, and it was hollow, because it had to be carried.Exodus 27 · Leviticus 1 · Leviticus 9
- The table of the bread of the PresenceTwelve loaves replaced every sabbath, set out in front of a God who does not eat.Exodus 25 · Leviticus 24 · 1 Samuel 21
- The golden lampstandBeaten out of a single talent of gold, and shaped like an almond tree in flower.Exodus 25 · Leviticus 24
- The altar of incenseThe smallest altar, the closest to the veil, and the one thing that was never allowed to carry anything else.Exodus 30 · Leviticus 10 · Luke 1
- The bronze basinMade out of mirrors, and the only furnishing whose measurements are never given.Exodus 30 · Exodus 38
- The ephod and the breastpieceWorking clothes with twelve names cut into stone, so that nobody could go in alone.Exodus 28 · Leviticus 8
- The Urim and ThummimNever described, never explained, and the silence of it is what tells Saul he has run out of time.Exodus 28 · Numbers 27 · 1 Samuel 28
- The rod of Aaron that buddedA dead stick that grew overnight, chosen as an argument because arguments had stopped working.Numbers 17
- The jar of mannaA portion of the one food that rotted if you kept it, kept.Exodus 16
Conquest and kings
- The trumpets of JerichoSeven rams’ horns carried by seven priests, and for six days the only instruction was to keep quiet.Joshua 6
- The scarlet cordThe rope she used to let them out became the mark that let her live, and it stayed in the window.Joshua 2 · Joshua 6
- The fleece of GideonHe asked for a sign, got it, and then asked for the same sign backwards.Judges 6
- The torches and the jarsThree hundred men, and every one of them had both hands full of things that were not weapons.Judges 7
- The sling and the five stonesHe tried on the king’s armour first, walked two steps in it, and took it off.1 Samuel 17
- The sword of GoliathTaken from the man it was made for, kept behind a priest’s ephod, and handed back to a fugitive years later.1 Samuel 17 · 1 Samuel 21
- The harp of DavidIt got him into the palace, and later he was playing it while a spear came at him.1 Samuel 16 · 1 Samuel 18
The temple
- Solomon’s templeSeven years to build, and the prayer at the opening spends most of its length on what to do when it fails.1 Kings 6 · 1 Kings 8 · 2 Chronicles 3 · 2 Chronicles 7
- Jachin and BoazTwo hollow bronze pillars that held nothing up, and were given names anyway.1 Kings 7 · 2 Chronicles 3 · 2 Kings 25
- The bronze seaA washbasin the size of a swimming pool, standing on twelve metal oxen facing out in four directions.1 Kings 7 · 2 Chronicles 4 · 2 Kings 16
- The throne of ivory and goldFourteen lions on six steps, and the text says outright that there was not the like made in any kingdom.1 Kings 10 · 2 Chronicles 9
- The scroll found under JosiahA book turned up during building repairs, and reading it out loud undid three hundred years of practice.2 Kings 22 to 23 · 2 Chronicles 34
- The second templeThe foundation was laid to a sound that was two sounds, and nobody could tell them apart.Ezra 3 · Ezra 6 · Haggai 2 · Zechariah 4
- The temple of HerodForty six years of work, admired out loud by a disciple, and answered with a sentence about stones.John 2 · Matthew 21 · Matthew 24 · Mark 11 · Luke 21
Prophets and exile
- The mantle of ElijahA working coat thrown over a man ploughing, and the only thing left on the ground afterwards.1 Kings 19 · 2 Kings 2
- The chariot of fireIt appears twice, and the second time it was already there and nobody could see it.2 Kings 2 · 2 Kings 6
- The widow’s jar of oilThere are two of them, one that never empties and one that stops only when the borrowed jars run out.1 Kings 17 · 2 Kings 4
- The golden image on the plain of DuraNinety feet high and nine feet wide, which is the wrong proportion for a statue and the right one for a message.Daniel 3
- The fiery furnaceThe answer given before the fire is the part worth reading, and it contains the words but if not.Daniel 3
- The lions’ denThe trap was legal, the king wanted him out, and the law would not let either of them stop it.Daniel 6
- The writing on the wallThree words and a repetition, written on plaster by a hand with nothing attached to it.Daniel 5
- The scroll Ezekiel ateIt was written on both sides with lamentations and mourning and woe, and it tasted like honey.Ezekiel 2 to 3 · Revelation 10
The gospels
- The starIt got them to the right country and then stopped being useful, which is why they had to ask directions.Matthew 2
- The gifts of the magiThree portable valuables handed to a refugee family about to need exactly that.Matthew 2
- The mangerA feeding trough, named three times in twelve verses, and used as the identifying detail for a birth announcement.Luke 2
- The loaves and the fishThe only miracle in all four gospels, and the only one where the leftovers are counted.Matthew 14 · Mark 6 · John 6
- The alabaster jarWorth a year of wages, and the only way to use it was to destroy it.Mark 14 · Luke 7 · John 12
- The bread and the cupA Passover meal with the wrong explanation attached, given while the man who would sell him was still at the table.Matthew 26 · Luke 22 · 1 Corinthians 11
- The basin and the towelThe job belonged to the lowest servant in the house, and there was no servant, so twelve men sat and let each other’s feet stay dirty.John 13
- The crown of thornsPart of a costume. The soldiers made a whole outfit, and the crown is the only piece anyone remembers.Matthew 27 · Mark 15 · John 19
- The crossAn execution device so degrading that Roman writers avoided the word, and within thirty years it was the name of a message.Luke 23 · Mark 8 · 1 Corinthians 1 · Colossians 2
- The seamless robeFour soldiers, four shares, and one garment that could not be divided without ruining it.John 19 · Psalms 22
- The stone and the empty tombThe women set out knowing they could not move it, and worked out the problem on the way.Matthew 28 · Mark 16
- The linen clothsTwo men looked at the same folded cloth and one of them believed because of how it was lying.John 20 · Luke 24 · John 11
The church and the end
- The tongues of fireNot one flame over a room. It parted, and sat on each of them, one at a time.Acts 2
- The armour of GodWritten by a man under guard, describing the equipment of the soldier standing next to him.Ephesians 6
- The scroll and the seven sealsA document nobody was qualified to open, and the only man who wept in Revelation wept about paperwork.Revelation 5 to 6
- The seven trumpetsSeven angels are given trumpets, and then nothing happens until somebody throws a censer at the earth.Revelation 8 to 9
- The bowlsThe trumpets struck a third of everything. These are the same targets again, with the fraction removed.Revelation 15 to 16
- The book of lifeTwo sets of books are opened at the same trial, and only one of them decides anything.Revelation 20 · Philippians 4
- The throne and the sea of glassThe occupant is described entirely by comparison to minerals, and the text never says what he looked like.Revelation 4
- The tree of life restoredThe last two chapters of the Bible give back, item by item, what the first three took away.Revelation 22
