Holy of Holies

The Holy of Holies (Hebrew qōdeš haqqŏdāšîm, Most Holy Place) was the innermost chamber of the tabernacle and later the temple, separated from the outer Holy Place by a heavy veil or curtain. It was a perfect cube—ten cubits in each dimension in the tabernacle, twenty cubits in the temple—and was left in total darkness. No natural light entered, and no one except the high priest was permitted to enter, and he only once a year on the Day of Atonement with blood for the atonement of the nation's sins.

The ark of the covenant with its golden mercy seat stood within the Holy of Holies, and the cherubim spread their wings over the mercy seat, between which the divine presence (šekînâ) dwelt. The veil separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was torn in two from top to bottom at the moment of Christ's death (Matthew 27:51), an event interpreted by the Epistle to the Hebrews as the opening of direct access to God through Christ's priestly sacrifice. The Holy of Holies is thus both the paradigmatic space of divine dwelling in the old covenant and the type of the heavenly sanctuary where Christ ministers as eternal high priest.