Who Built the Ark of the Covenant?

[BL2KTN]

Who built the Ark of the Covenant? Exodus says that Bezalel built the ark at the command of Yahweh... but Deuteronomy says Moses built the ark.

Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood —two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. He overlaid it with pure gold, both inside and out, and made a gold molding around it. He cast four gold rings for it and fastened them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. Then he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold. And he inserted the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry it. -- Exodus 37:1-5
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At that time the Lord said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.”

So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. The Lord wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, as the Lord commanded me, and they are there now. -- Deuteronomy 10:1-5

 

[Joshua260]

My boss is always taking credit for my work!

 

[ViaCrucis]

I think it's often regarded that Deuteronomy is a later text from the rest of the Pentateuch. As such my instinct would be to assume that the older text is the more accurate of the two.

But I obviously am not an expert on that subject, and as such that's simply my instinct, and could of course be mistaken.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[football5680]

Bezalel is the individual who actually crafted it, Moses is the one who ordered it to be made so both can have the creation attributed to them.

A parallel to this would be King Solomon and the creation of the temple. I doubt King Solomon was doing any of the work but because he commanded the temple to be built, we can say he built the temple.

 

[dcalling]

football5680 is most likely correct, but can we get some of our Jewish friends to verify?

 

[lesliedellow]

Did you even try to defeat your own argument, before inviting other people to do it for you?