Objects of the Bible
The objects
The things the story keeps returning to. An ark, a staff, a lampstand, a cup, a cross.
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
