Guide
The Showbread Ritual in the Second Temple
1st–3rd Centuries
Restricted
Twelve loaves, sometimes called the “bread of the presence” or “showbread,” were placed on a gold-plated table in the Temple every Sabbath, to remain there at all times (Exodus 25:30; Leviticus 24:5–9). The loaves were arranged in two rows of six, which Philo explains as symbolic of the twelve months of the year, divided into two equinoxes. The Mishnah elaborates on how and when the bread was prepared and arranged on the table.
Related Primary Sources
Primary Source
Philo on the Showbread
But on each seventh day loaves are exposed on the holy table equal in number to the months of the year in two layers of six each, each layer corresponding to the equinoxes. For there are two equinoxes…
Primary Source
The Mishnah on the Showbread
5. The table was ten [handbreadths] in length and five [handbreadths] in width. The showbread was ten [handbreadths] in length and five [handbreadths] in width. [The priest] would place the length [of…