Skin

Skin appears in scripture as a boundary that is at once a covering for the body, a material for covering sacred space, and a surface where disease becomes visible. The same word patterns the first garment given to humanity, the outer layer of the wilderness tabernacle, and the priestly examinations that diagnosed bodily corruption.

The First Covering

The earliest mention of skin in scripture is a divine provision after the fall: "And [the Speech of] Yahweh God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins, and clothed them" (Gen 3:21). The garment is given, not made by the wearers, and it consists of the skins of other creatures.

Skins for the Tabernacle

Skin recurs as a building material for the wilderness sanctuary. Among the offerings called for at Sinai are "rams' skins dyed red, and sealskins, and acacia wood" (Ex 25:5), and the same items are listed again when the offering is actually brought (Ex 35:7). These hides form the outermost layers of the tent: "And you will make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of sealskins above" (Ex 26:14), an instruction realized when "he made a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of sealskins above" (Ex 36:19). The completed inventory similarly notes "the covering of rams' skins dyed red, and the covering of sealskins, and the veil of the screen" (Ex 39:34).

When the tabernacle moves, sealskin is the protective wrap for its furnishings. The ark is wrapped with "a covering of sealskin" beneath a cloth of blue (Num 4:6), and the priests "spread on them a cloth of scarlet, and cover the same with a covering of sealskin, and will put in its poles" (Num 4:8). The lampstand and its accessories go "inside a covering of sealskin" (Num 4:10); the golden altar is covered with "a covering of sealskin" (Num 4:11); the vessels of ministry are wrapped "with a covering of sealskin" (Num 4:12); the bronze altar receives the same treatment, with "a covering of sealskin" laid over its tools (Num 4:14). The Gershonite duty in transit is to "bear the curtains of the tabernacle, and the tent of meeting, its covering, and the covering of sealskin that is above on it, and the screen for the door of the tent of meeting" (Num 4:25).

Skin as Adornment

Skin can be a mark of dignity rather than mere protection. In Ezekiel's allegory of Yahweh's care for Jerusalem, sealskin is named alongside fine linen and silk: "I clothed you also with embroidered work, and put sandals on you with sealskin, and I girded you about with fine linen, and covered you with silk" (Eze 16:10). The same material that wrapped the holy things is applied as honored footwear.

Diseases of the Skin

The Levitical instructions treat skin as a diagnostic surface. A priest is to inspect bright spots: "And when a man or a woman has in the skin of the flesh bright spots, even white bright spots; then the priest will look; and see if the bright spots in the skin of their flesh are of a dull white, it is a tetter, it has broken out in the skin; he is clean" (Lev 13:38-39). Not every visible blemish is uncleanness; the priest's careful look distinguishes a benign tetter from a defiling disease.

Skin diseases also figure as covenant sanction. The list of curses for disobedience includes the threat that "[The Speech of] Yahweh will strike you with the boil of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can't be healed" (Deut 28:27). Job's lament over his own affliction makes the same surface vivid: "My flesh is clothed with the maggot and clods of dust; My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh" (Job 7:5).