"According to the pattern" occur in just a few texts from the Bible, namely Ex 25.40, Acts 7.44, and Heb 8.5 (however, only here in the KJV). The latter two texts are citations or allusions to the Ex 25 text.
(Phil 3.17, which is sometimes pulled into the conversation, looks like an echo of the Ex 25 passage in the NIV but this is merely sloppy translating. The KJV's "Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample" is much closer to the original. More literally, still would be "as you have us (as) example." The only connection with the Exodus text is the word typos; therefore, in the end, there is no literary connection between Phil 3.7 and Ex 25.40).
The originating text, Exodus 25.40, reads, “And see that you make them according to the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain” (NRSV). It serves as a transition between chapters 25 and 26 each which contains a long list of instructions regarding the making of furnishings of the tabernacle.
In these chapters, God gives Moses very detailed instructions regarding the making of the tabernacle and its furnishings, as in Exodus 25.34–36:
On the lampstand itself there shall be four cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with its calyxes and petals. There shall be a calyx of one piece with it under the first pair of branches, a calyx of one piece with it under the next pair of branches, and a calyx of one piece with it under the last pair of branches—so for the six branches that go out of the lampstand. Their calyxes and their branches shall be of one piece with it, the whole of it one hammered piece of pure gold (NRSV).Read contextually, this is not the pattern but a narrative about how to follow the pattern Moses has seen on the mount. These instructions are not the pattern that Moses was to follow exactly but an account of Moses being given the pattern. This is a fine, but important distinction. Moses did not pass on the "pattern" but instead monitored the process whereby the pattern which only he saw on the mount became the tabernacle and its furnishings.
In other words, "the pattern" generated these types of instructions. Observe that it has nothing to do with liturgical practices, the priest's clothing, their qualifications, or other important facets of the levitical priesthood; it dealt explicitly (and contextually) with making the furnishings for the tabernacle, as in Ex 25.9: “Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.” Again, in this text, it is the tabernacle and furnishings that are under discussion. Nothing else comes under the stricture "to make according to the pattern." I do not deny that God has expectations, some very exacting in other matters, but not everything God commands are based on some "pattern."
The word translated "pattern" (tavnit) in Hebrews occurs in other OT texts for things made from a model or pattern, as with an altar in 2 Kg 16.10:
Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria. He saw an altar in Damascus and sent to Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar, with detailed plans for its construction.and the temple in 1 Chron 28.11, 12:
Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms and the place of atonement. He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the LORD and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things. He gave him instructions for the divisions of the priests and Levites, and for all the work of serving in the temple of the LORD, as well as for all the articles to be used in its service.or concerning the cherubim in the Holy of Holies as recorded in 1 Chron 28.18b-19:
[David] also gave [Solomon] the plan for the chariot, that is, the cherubim of gold that spread their wings and shelter the ark of the covenant of the LORD. “All this,” David said, “I have in writing from the hand of the LORD upon me, and he gave me understanding in all the details of the plan."Several observations from these texts are in order. First, God did have a pattern for some things in which he expects people to follow to the detail. However, in all of the texts so far, it was not the task of everyman, but leaders who were privy to divine revelation. Second, while the biblical narrative speaks of the "plan" that was to be followed very carefully, it does not reveal the content of the plan in details that could be repeated by anyone reading only the biblical text to make any of the items. Simply put, we don't have the plans, we have a narrative telling us there was a plan. Third, as deficient as the fairly elaborate details are in the OT, the NT rarely offers the same level of detail in describing Christian worship. The passages dealing with worship gatherings in 1 Cor are the exceptions.
For the sake completeness, all of the OT texts containing the Hebrew word are these: Ex 25.9, 40; Deut 4.16–18; Josh 22.28; 2 Kings 16.10; Is 44.13; Ezek 8.3, 10; 10.8; Psa 106.20; 144.12; and 1 Chr 28.11–12, 18–19. In some of these texts, the word is equivalent with image or idol.
Now I turn to the NT citations of the Ex 25 passage. Acts 7.44 reads,
Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.Stephen's citation of the Exodus passage underscores the divine origin of the tabernacle which will only heighten Stephen's point that God does not live in man-made temples, including the tabernacle and the temple in Jerusalem. However, Stephen is not calling on anyone to do anything "according to the pattern." It is merely part of his historical retelling of the exodus story as found in Ex 25 and 26.
The citation of the Exodus text in Hebrews is a bit more intriguing. It reads within its immediate context:
Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. (Hebrews 8.3–6 NIV)The interpretation that views this text as saying that God has a divine pattern for the church today he expects humans to follow completely is simply not reading the text. The text makes no such point and actually works against any such idiosyncratic understanding.
In the larger context, the Hebrews writer is establishing that Jesus is a different kind of high priest from the ones who descend from Levi. The logic of this text is as follows:
Every priest needs something to offer. However, if Jesus was serving on earth, he would not be a priest since there are already those connected with temple doing that. This "sanctuary" is merely a "copy and shadow" of what is in heaven. (Now the Hebrew writers cites Ex 25.40 to support this relationship between shadow and reality). The tabernacle (or even the temple) is not the real sanctuary; according to the Hebrews writer heaven is! Not the church as patternists would have it.The Hebrews writer is arguing that the tabernacle and its furnishings, the very things made according to the pattern, has been superseded in Jesus. For example, Hebrews 8:1-2 says it this way:
The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.”The sanctuary or tabernacle here is not the church, but heaven where Jesus offered himself to God. In none of these "according to the pattern" texts is there anything for God's people to do today. In order to create that relationship, patternist will seek to tie in others texts using the Greek word typos (which was used to translate the Hebrews word in the LXX and is used with several different connotations in the NT). However, those texts have no connection whatsoever with the way it is used in Acts 7.44 or Hebrews 8.5. Since there are only 14 verses that use this word, I have listed them with the word typos highlighted in red in the corresponding translation.
In the Gospel of John, the word signifies the "marks" left by the nails in Jesus' hands.
So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” (John 20.25 NIV)In Acts, the word applies both the idols the Israelites once made as well as the pattern after which Moses was to build the tabernacle and furnishings. It can also refer to the model on which a letter is copied.
You have lifted up the shrine of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.In Romans, typos can refer to how Adam was a model of the man to come, that is Jesus. In this way, the word is used much the same way as the earthly tabernacle prefigures the heavenly one. However, in the case of Romans 6.17, the "form" of teaching refers to the content of that teaching.
Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. (Acts 7.43–44 NIV)
He wrote a letter as follows: (Acts 23.25 NIV)
Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.In 1 Corinthians, the ancient Israelites serve as an example not be be followed:
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. (Romans 5.14; 6.17 NIV)
Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. (1 Cor 10.6 NIV)In the remaining texts in the New Testament where the word occurs, typos has a consistent usage refering to the kind of examples people set for others to follow.
Join with others in following my example (symmimetai), brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. (Phil 3.17)
And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.” (1 Thess 1.7)
We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. (2 Thess 3.9)
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. (1 Tim 4.12)
In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness (Titus 2.7)
… not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. (1 Pet 5.3)In final analysis, I don't disagree that there is a pattern to be followed. My contention is that patternists choose the wrong pattern and then pour their prooftexting scriptures into their pattern and, what's worse, they seek to impose their understandings on the consciences of others.
In my next piece, I plan to explore more positively, what the pattern of the New Testament really is.
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