Musical proportions in a Jewish portable sanctuary

Debevec, Leon (author)

An architectural reading of biblical texts about the Jewish portable sanctuary, especially the metrical properties of its components, shows the presence of relationships that belong to the family of musical proportions. This paper discusses the question of whether the understood proportions are merely concealed in the dimensional characteristics of the elements of this composite architecture, or whether they are in fact part of its deep structure. The discussion shows that the musical proportions are not just some sort of by-product or curiosity of the defined measurements of the most important parts of the Jewish portable sanctuary, but rather they regulate almost all of its essential design features in a mutual balance.

• Language: English
• Keywords: tabernacle, architecture, compositional analysis, musical proportions
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: TEOF - Theological Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 14.09.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 225-278
• Numbering: Letn. 80, št. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-175343
• UDC: 26-53:78
• ISSN on article: 2335-4127
• DOI: 10.34291/Edinost/80/01/Debevec
• COBISS.SI-ID: 249396739
• Publication date in RUL: 24.10.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Edinost in dialog : revija za ekumensko teologijo in medreligijski dialog
• Publisher: Inštitut za ekumensko teologijo in medreligijski dialog pri Teološki fakulteti Univerze v Ljubljani, Inštitut za ekumensko teologijo in medreligijski dialog pri Teološki fakulteti Univerze v Ljubljani, Inštitut Stanka Janežiča za dogmatično, osnovno in ekumensko teologijo ter religiologijo in dialog, Teološka fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2335-4127
• COBISS.SI-ID: 268194560

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Glasbene proporcije v judovskem prenosnem svetišču

Abstract

Arhitekturno branje bibličnih besedil o judovskem prenosnem svetišču, zlasti merskih lastnosti njegovih sestavin, pokaže navzočnost razmerij, ki spadajo v družino glasbenih proporcij. Problem te razprave je vprašanje, ali so razbrane proporcije zgolj skrite v dimenzijskih značilnostih elementov te sestavljive arhitekture ali pa so v resnici del njene globinske strukture. Razprava pokaže, da glasbene proporcije niso zgolj nekakšen stranski produkt oziroma kurioziteta merskih opredelitev najpomembnejših delov judovskega prenosnega svetišča, temveč da v medsebojni uravnoteženosti uravnavajo domala vse njegove bistvene oblikovne značilnosti.

• Keywords: sveti šotor, arhitektura, kompozicijska analiza, glasbene proporcije

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0068
• Name: Trajnostno oblikovanje kvalitetnega bivalnega okolja