σκηνη (skænæ)

σκηνη (skænæ; tent, hut, booth, tabernacle, portable-shrine), e.g. the portable shrine of M*oloch in Acts 7.43 according to Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words, p. 1115). Continuing the idolatrous perceptions understood among the Hellenist audience of these Hellenist Greek redactors and copiers, σκηνη is rendered confusingly for both משכן (Mish·kan′ ; the portable "Tent of Meeting," used by "Moshëh" in the Sinai, and סכה (sukâh; a hut, shack). This confusion is encompassed, and propagated, in the English term "tabernacle," but confusion is undesirable and σκηνη cannot be mapped back into Hebrew.

The verb is σκηνοω (skeino·o; to erect a portable-shrine) and related cognates compound the confusion. As James Parkes has demonstrated (The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue), the Greek-speaking redactor of the 3^rd-4^th century probably related to this text in his own idolatrous perspective, entirely alien to Torâh from which משכן derived.

The משכן in the heavens is built of n^әphashot (corrupted to "souls") of Torâh-observant Jews and geirim. A prayer in the Yemenite prayer book teaches: As it is written [Y^әsha·yâh′ u 54.13], All of בניך (bân·a′ yikh; your sons-children) are students of ha-Sheim, and great is the peace of בניך. Don't call them [merely] בניך (bân·â′ yikh; your sons) but, rather, בוניך (bo·nâ′ yikh; your builders).

סכות (Sukot), plural of סכה (Sukah), on the other hand, are huts erected for the חג (khag; pilgrimage) of Sukot, commonly corrupted to "tabernacles."

משכן and סכה aren't synonymous and shouldn't be confused. Moreover, it's clear from the confusion in the Greek that the Greek-speaking Hellenist-Christian redactors of these early extant copies were relating to these issues as ναος (naos; an inner-shrine) in contrast to a σκηνη (skænæ; portable-shrine) with no awareness of the distinction between משכן and סכה—i.e. theirs was a gentile idolatrous perspective, not the Torâh-Judaic perspective of the purported author of Apocalypse.

There seems little choice but to understand σκηνη (skænæ) as "portable-shrine." Consistency dictates that its complementary term, ναος (naos; see notes at Unv. 3.12), then be translated as "inner-shrine."