Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Lira,

> As far as I know, tamid is used in the Bible not only for the burnt
> offerings, but for all the continual rituals of the sanctuary. It refers,
> for instance, to the "continual burnt-offering" (Ex. 29:42) and to the
> "perpetual incense" (Ex. 30:8). However, it also refers to something which
> was not renewed every morning and evening, and not even daily, but weekly,
> as is the case of the "continual bread"  (Num. 4:7). That's why I can't see
> tamid and ereb-boqer as synonymous.
> In the case of the regular burnt-offering, it is in fact often referred to
> as the burnt offering of the morning and the evening. But, in this case, the
> order is always morning-evening and not evening-morning.

HH: I agree with Eduard that tamid in Dan 8:13 implies that daily 
burnt offering. I think most commentaries would agree with him, too. 
Accepting what you say about the regular burnt-offering elsewhere 
being referred to in terms of morning first and then evening, I don't 
think that must ruin Eduard's hypothesis, because the angel may be 
making a wordplay between the tamid in verse 13 and the duration of 
the temple's desecration in verse 14. Yes "evening morning" suggests 
a day, and so the passage of time, but it also suggests the two times 
daily when the tamid was offered. So the problem still remains. Was 
it 2,300 evenings and mornings, or 2,300 days? Others have noted that 
the historical fulfillment, taking the natural interpretation of this 
passage as speaking of temple desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes, 
corresponds to a period more like 1,500 days. So this favors the 
interpretation that the angel was making a wordplay. Evening and 
morning will pass enough times that 2,300 offerings of the tamid will 
be missed.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard