In his
essay, “James and the Gentiles (Acts 15.13-21),” Richard Bauckham argued that
James and the author of Luke-Acts understood the “booth/tent of David” in Amos
9:11 as a referring to the eschatological temple. Here is an excerpt from Bauckham’s essay:
Most likely the exegete understood the σκηνη
Δαυειδ to be the Temple of the
messianic age. This would be a quite natural understanding of the text of the
LXX, which regularly uses σκηνη to render both אהל and משכן with reference to the
tabernacle, and in Tobit 13.11 uses σκηνη of the Temple that will be built
again in Jerusalem in the eschatological age. If, as we shall see is likely,
our exegete consulted the Hebrew text, he could also have found reason for
understanding סכת דויד to be the eschatological Temple. Most other occurrences of סכת in the Hebrew Bible would give no help in
the interpretation of the phrase, but שׂך, which is a
variant of the same word, occurs in Lam. 2.6 with clear reference to the
Temple, while the obscure בסך in Ps. 42.5 was evidently understood by the LXX translator as a
reference to the Temple (LXX Ps. 41.5: εν τοπω σκηνης). Moreover, a reader of
Amos might well connect the סכת דויד in 9.11 with סכות מלככם in 5.26, as the author of CD 7.14-16 did. Though the LXX
translator took the latter phrase (or at least סכוד מלך) in connection with the idolatry
to which the rest of 5.26 refers and translated it την σκηνην του Μολοχ, it
could also be taken in connection with 5.25 as a reference to the tabernacle.
It is noteworthy that the σκηνη of Amos 9.11/Acts
15.16 is both associated with David and to be built by God. Jewish writers
of this period were accustomed to contrast the present Temple, made by human
hands, and the eschatological Temple, which God himself will build. Thus 4QFlor. 1.1-13, which
is a pesher of 2 Sam. 7.10-14, takes the "house" which YHWH will
build (2 Sam. 7.11b) to be the eschatological Temple to which Exod. 15.17
("the sanctuary of YHWH which your hands have established") also refers, and
pointedly omits 2 Sam. 7.13a, which predicts that David's seed, the Messiah,
will "build a house for my name." Such an interpretation of Exod.
15.17 as referring to the eschatological Temple which God will build with
his own hands is also found in the Mekhilta of R. Ishmael. (For the expectation
that God himself will build the eschatological Temple, see also 11QT 29.9-10; 1
Enoch 90.29; Jub. 1:15-17.) Although 4QFlor. evidently thinks it incompatible
with the idea that the Messiah will build the Temple, such a view was not
always taken. Sibylline Oracle 5.414-434 ascribes the building of the
eschatological Temple both to the Messiah (422-423)15 and to God (423-433). The Messiah presumably
acts as God's agent. Even more relevantly for our purposes, Jesus' alleged
prophecy of the destruction and rebuilding of the Temple is quoted in Mark
14.58 in the form: "I will destroy this Temple that is made with hands, and in three
days I will build another not made with hands" (cf. Matt. 26.61; John 2.19).
Here the term αχειροποιητος alludes to the Jewish tradition of interpretation
of Exod. 15.17.16 The eschatological Temple will be built miraculously, by divine action,
but the building is at the same time associated with the Messiah, in accordance
with 2 Sam. 7.13; Zech. 6.12-13. Thus the exegete whose work is embodied in
Acts 15.16-18 may have understood the phrase σκηνη Δαυειδ to mean that God himself will
build the eschatological Temple miraculously through the agency of the Davidic
Messiah, though he may simply have taken it to refer to the Temple of the
messianic age, which God will build when "David" rules God's people (cf. Ezek.
37.24-28). (Richard Bauckham, "James and the Gentiles (Acts 15.13-21)," in Ben Witherington, III,
ed. History, Literature, and Society in
the Book of Acts [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996], 154-84, here, pp. 158-59)
This, of course, has implications for the
Book of Mormon (i.e., the phrase “Temple of Solomon” in 2 Nephi 5). For more,
see:
Amos 9 and "the booth of David"
Elena Butova on Amos 9:11 and the Tabernacle/Booth of David being a Temple Reference
John Anthony Dunne, “David’s Tent as Temple in Amos 9:11-15: Understanding the Epilogue of Amos & Considering Implications for the Unity of the Book,” Westminster Theological Journal 73.2 (Fall 2011): 363-374
