Read more: wiki.answers.com/Q/What_did_the_temple_curtain_that_was_torn_when_Jesus_died_look_like#ixzz1KeFV6500The Temple curtain situated between the holy and the holy of holies was 10 meters by 20. Its thickness was approximately 8 centimeters. That would make the weight approximately between **4 to 6 tons **depending on the materiel used. In fact the Talmud teaches us that it took some 300 priest to carry it to its place.
My field of interest is also this curtain.I found this article decribing the curtain;
wiki.answers.com/Q/What_did_the_temple_curtain_that_was_torn_when_Jesus_died_look_like&isLookUp=1.
Is there any other information confirming it’s size?
Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah:
The Veils before the Most Holy Place were 40 cubits (60 feet) long, and 20 (30 feet) wide, of the thickness of the palm of the hand, and wrought in 72 squares, which were joined together; and these Veils were so heavy, that, in the exaggerated language of the time, it needed 300 priests to manipulate each. If the Veil was at all such as is described in the Talmud, it could not have been rent in twain by a mere earthquake or the fall of the lintel, although its composition in squares fastened together might explain, how the rent might be as described in the Gospel. (online reference)
Maurice Henry Harris, Hebraic Literature: Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala (M. Walter Dunne, 1901):
Three hundred priests were told off to draw the veil (of the Temple) aside; for it is taught that Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel declared in the name of Rabbi Shimon the Sagan (or high priest’s substitute), that the thickness of the veil was a handbreadth. It was woven of seventy-two cords, and each cord consisted of twenty-four strands. It was forty cubits long and twenty wide. Eighty-two myriads of damsels worked at it, and two such veils were made every year. When it became soiled, it took three hundred priests to immerse and cleanse it. Chullin (Harris, pp. 195-95)
We construct negative air chambers for mold remediation (to contain mold spores) with heavy mil - plastic sheeting. It’s surprising how much air pressure exists between outer and inner chambers.The only veracious record is in Josephus.
And it is big. About eighty feet high and twenty or so feet wide. But just for practical reasons it was probably made of the lightest stuff around. Probably more on the lines of a large flag than a thick woolen tapestry.
Just on a practical standpoint, looking at the Temple structure, when the outer doors were opened - wind would blow into that structure with great force. If the curtain was thin in structure it would in effect become a sail, fill with wind, and expose the Holy of Holies.It was woven of seventy-two cords, and each cord consisted of twenty-four strands.
Only the High Priest was allowed into the Holy of Holies and then only once a year on Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement to apply blood to the Ark. A rope was even attached to his body so that he could be pulled out from behind the veil should he die or collapse while in the Holy of Holies.(The veil) barred all but the High Priest from the presence of God, but when it was torn in two at the death of Jesus of Nazareth (see Mark 15:38), access to God was made available to all who come through him.” cbumgardner.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/the-thickness-of-the-temple-veil/
The prophet, being warned by God, commanded that the tabernacle and the ark should accompany him, till he came forth to the mountain where Moses went up and saw the inheritance of God.
And when Jeremias came thither he found a hollow cave and he carried in thither the tabernacle and the ark and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door. Then some of them that followed him, came up to mark the place; but they could not find it. And when Jeremias perceived it, he blamed them saying:
“The place shall be unknown, till God gather together the congregation of the people and receive them to mercy. And then the Lord will shew these things, and the majesty of the Lord shall appear, and there shall be a cloud as it was also shewed to Moses, and he shewed it when Solomon prayed that the place might be sanctified to the great God.”
(2 Maccabees 2:4-8)
A prophecy of the coming fulfillment of the Messiah; baby Jesus in the womb of Mary.
Actually, despite common knowledge purporting that the Temple veil was rather thick, references to such is found originally (and only) in later rabbinic literature, and even then, the context is clearly speaking about examples of hyperbolic language used in rabbinic commentary.I found this online; I had always understood it was enormous and thick, not just a thin gauzy thing. These seem to confirm that.
Actually, that’s just an urban legend, and a widely-repeated one. We have no contemporary and later sources (not even Josephus or rabbinic literature!) which state something to such effect. The first mention we have of a rope being tied around the high priest’s body or ankle is from the Kabbalistic work Zohar (13th century AD).Only the High Priest was allowed into the Holy of Holies and then only once a year on Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement to apply blood to the Ark. A rope was even attached to his body so that he could be pulled out from behind the veil should he die or collapse while in the Holy of Holies.
We don’t know about that. The Ark, along with other important items, are not listed among the cultic vessels looted by the Babylonians (1 Kings 24-25); so what naturally follows is it could have disappeared at that point or earlier. What became of it? We don’t know.An interesting side point - I have to wonder what the High Priest was doing during the 2nd Temple Period - on the Day of Atonement. From what I’ve read, the Ark of the Covenant was not in the Temple. It has been hidden around the time of the Maccabees.