What Does Exodus 26:31 Mean?

The inner veil (parokhet) separates the holy place from the holy of holies: the most theologically significant dividing curtain in the tabernacle. Made of blue, purple, and scarlet yarns with fine twisted linen, with cherubim woven into it, the veil is the tabernacle's most sacred textile after the inner covering itself. The cherubim on the veil replicate the cherubim on the inner covering curtains and on the mercy seat: the entire approach to the divine presence is marked by cherubim imagery: the creatures who guard the divine throne-space appear at every point where the holiness boundary intensifies.

The four-color textile vocabulary of the veil (blue, purple, scarlet, white linen) is the tabernacle's signature priestly-and-sacred color combination. This same color combination appears in the high priest's ephod (28:6), the breastpiece (28:15), the priestly sash (28:39), and the tabernacle's entrance-screen (verse 36). The four-color vocabulary identifies sacred and priestly objects within the tabernacle complex: anything made of blue-purple-scarlet-white belongs to the innermost sacred sphere. The color combination is the visual shorthand for "this belongs to the holy."

Matthew 27:51's "the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom" at Christ's death is the new covenant's most dramatic engagement with the tabernacle's inner veil.

The parokhet that separated the holy of holies throughout Israel's worship history, limiting access to one person, one day per year, is torn at the moment of Christ's death, signaling the end of the separation it maintained. Hebrews 10:19-20 interprets the torn veil directly: "we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh." The veil is Christ's body; its tearing is his sacrificial death that opens the way into the Holy of Holies for all who come to God through him.