Christians and Jews approach Scripture with different confessions yet a common awe before the God who speaks. Jewish readers receive the Tanakh with the long memory of Israel’s tradition; Christians confess that the same God has acted climactically in Jesus the Messiah and read the Apostolic Writings in continuity with the Law and the Prophets. If our interpretations are to illuminate rather than inflame, we must listen carefully to the text, to one another, and to the God whose faithfulness sustains both covenants. This article models that listening by attending to an easily overlooked verb in a world-shaping verse.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

The Word Tabernacle

Most English translations render John’s clause “made his dwelling among us.” The Greek verb is skēnoō, whose primary sense is to pitch a tent, to camp, to tabernacle. John could have chosen more general verbs for live, oikeō, or remain, menō. He did not. He chose a word that deliberately evokes Israel’s Tabernacle.

The noun family behind skēnoō, skēnē, tent or tabernacle, is the standard Greek term for the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary in the wilderness, Exodus 25 through 40. John is not merely saying, The Word lived near us. He is inviting readers, especially those formed by Torah, to hear the Exodus in his sentence. The God who promised, “Have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them” (Exod. 25:8), has once again drawn near.

Two features of the verse confirm this intertextual signal:

First, John immediately adds, “We have seen his glory,” language that recalls the kavod that filled the Tabernacle so densely “that Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exod. 40:35).

Second, John closes with “full of grace and truth,” a pairing that resonates with God’s self declaration to Moses, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exod. 34:6). In Hebrew, those last two terms are steadfast covenant love and reliable faithfulness. John’s Greek phrase is not accidental. It is a deliberate echo.

A clarification is helpful

The later rabbinic term Shekhinah, from the root to dwell, does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, though the concept of God’s dwelling presence pervades it, for example Exod. 25:8, 29:45 through 46, 40:34 through 35. John’s wording aligns verbally with the Greek tabernacle vocabulary and conceptually with Exodus on God’s glory and indwelling.

The Glory We See and the Character We Meet

John 1:14, heard against the Exodus, plays like a three movement symphony.

Presence, Mishkan. “The Word tabernacled among us.” The wilderness sanctuary signified God’s immediate, communal presence with Israel, guiding by cloud and fire, sanctifying by sacrifice, speaking by revealed instruction. John claims that this very presence has returned in a new mode, not in a tent of woven fabric, but in flesh.

Glory, Kavod. “We have seen his glory.” In Exodus, glory is not mere spectacle. It is holiness made visible, so weighty Moses could not enter. John testifies that the visible radiance of God is now perceptible in the life, mercy, teaching, suffering, and resurrection of Jesus. Consider Paul’s language, “the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ” in 2 Corinthians 4:6.

Covenant Character. “Full of grace and truth.” John’s language harmonizes with Exodus 34:6. He is saying, carefully and reverently, that the covenant character revealed to Moses arrives in person in Jesus. For Christian readers, this is continuity, not cancellation.

The God of Abraham is recognized by the fidelity of His love and faithfulness.

The One and Only Son in Context

John names the Son’s glory as “the glory of the one and only Son.” The Greek term monogenēs, highlights uniqueness, one of a kind, rather than suggesting creaturehood. Whatever nuance one gives this term, John 1:1 through 3 already insists that the Word was with God and was God and that all things came to be through Him. In the Tabernacle frame, the point is that the presence and glory encountered in Jesus are uniquely and definitively the presence and glory of Israel’s God.

Hermeneutics: How We Read, How We Speak

Jewish and Christian communities have developed distinct interpretive habits. Jewish exegesis attends to peshat, the plain sense, while allowing for layered reflection. Christian exegesis confesses that the Law and the Prophets find their goal and fulfillment, in Christ and reads the Apostolic Writings in that light. We should name these differences without mockery and practice intellectual hospitality.

John 1:14 can help. Christians can learn to hear the rhythm of Torah in the Gospel, resisting the temptation to treat the Old Testament as background noise. Jewish readers, even if unconvinced by Christian claims, can recognize the Gospel’s literary fidelity to Israel’s Scriptures, its Exodus grammar and Tabernacle imagery, and thus engage the text on its own terms. Understanding is not surrender. It is a form of brotherly love.

Theological Bearings and Pastoral Wisdom

Read this way, John 1:14 yields several theological bearings:

Incarnation as Indwelling. God’s dwelling is no longer tethered to a tent or temple. It is made tangible in a person. The God who camped in Israel’s midst now walks Israel’s roads. For Christians, this means we do not seek God by pilgrimage to an address, but by turning to a Person, Jesus, who pitched his tent in our neighborhood and, by the Spirit, within us. See John 14:17.

Glory as Self Giving. The glory we behold in Jesus is not merely radiance. It is self emptying love, holiness taking the initiative to redeem, culminating in the cross and vindicated in the resurrection. The Tabernacle’s gravity becomes grace without ceasing to be holy.

Covenant Continuity. Grace and truth does not replace covenant loyalty and love. It translates it. The church’s confession of Jesus is, at its best, a confession of the same God, faithful to His promises to Israel. That should make us humble and guard us from claiming the church replaced Israel.

Guardrails for Speech. Because John’s claim grows from Israel’s Scriptures, Christians should speak of Jesus in ways that honor Jewish dignity and reject antisemitism in all forms. Likewise, affirming Israel’s role in Scripture must never entail dehumanizing any neighbor. Promise and ethics belong together.

Practicing Tabernacle Faith

To move from word study to worship, try two simple practices.

First, read John 1 with Exodus 34 and 40 open. As you hear grace and truth, let covenant loyalty and love ring in your mind. As you hear “we have seen his glory,” remember the glory (kavod) filling the tabernacle (Mishkan). Let the Old Testament color the New.

Second, pray tabernacle prayers.
– “Lord Jesus, set your tent at the center of my day.”
– “Let your glory reorder my desires.”
– “Form your covenant loyalty and love, and your faithful truth, in my speech, my schedule, and my relationships.”

These petitions are not designed to offend. They are the ordinary grammar of monotheistic devotion, presence, glory, covenant faithfulness enacted as mercy and truth.

From Tent to City: The Story’s Horizon

The Bible’s last pages return to John’s vocabulary. “Look, God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them” (Rev. 21:3). The noun is skēnē, tabernacle.

What began as a tent in the wilderness ends as a city radiant with the Lamb’s throne.

“No longer will there be any curse” (Rev. 22:3 through 5). Scripture’s direction is not escape from creation but God with us, ultimately, God among us, forever.

A One Paragraph Conclusion

John 1:14 invites us to see the gospel through a deeply Jewish word picture. The God who pitched his tent among Israel has, for Christians, pitched his tent in Jesus the Messiah. In Him, the presence once localized becomes personal, the glory once unapproachable becomes gracious, the covenant character, walks among us full of grace and truth.

If we let this small verb do its work, Christians will read the New Testament with deeper gratitude for Israel’s Scriptures, and Jewish and Christian readers alike may find a more generous conversation partner across the table of the text. The God of Abraham has drawn near. Our calling is to draw near to Him.

Texts Cited (for further study)

• Exodus 25:8; 29:45–46 — God’s intention to dwell among Israel
• Exodus 34:6 — God’s covenant character (“abounding in love and faithfulness”)
• Exodus 40:34–35 — The glory filling the Tabernacle
• John 1:1–3, 14 — The Word’s deity, incarnation, and tabernacling
• John 14:17 — The Spirit “with you… and… in you”
• 2 Corinthians 4:6 — The knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Christ
• Revelation 21:3; 22:3–5 — God’s dwelling among humanity; the end of the curse

All Scripture quotations are from the Bible, New International Version (NIV).