What Is the Holy of Holies?

Understanding Hebrews 9:3-4, Exodus 26:33-34, Leviticus 16:2, Matthew 27:51

The Holy of Holies — in Hebrew, Qodesh HaQodashim, literally 'the Holy of Holies' or 'the Most Holy Place' — was the innermost sanctum of Israel's worship center. First in the wilderness tabernacle and later in the Jerusalem temple, this small, dark room represented the most concentrated point of God's presence on earth. Its design, restrictions, and ultimate destruction tell the story of humanity's relationship with God — separation, mediation, and the radical access made possible through Christ.

Design and contents

God gave Moses detailed instructions for the tabernacle on Mount Sinai (Exodus 25-31). The structure had three zones of increasing holiness:

The Outer Court — open to all Israelites, where sacrifices were offered on the bronze altar and priests washed at the bronze basin.

The Holy Place — accessible only to priests, containing the golden lampstand (menorah), the table of showbread, and the altar of incense.

The Holy of Holies — separated from the Holy Place by a thick curtain (the veil), accessible only to the high priest, once a year.

The Holy of Holies in the tabernacle was a perfect cube — 10 cubits in each dimension (roughly 15 feet on each side). Solomon's temple enlarged it to 20 cubits per side (about 30 feet), also a perfect cube (1 Kings 6:20). The cubic shape was deliberate: in ancient symbolism, a cube represented perfection and completeness. Notably, the New Jerusalem in Revelation is also described as a perfect cube (Revelation 21:16) — suggesting that the entire redeemed creation will be what the Holy of Holies was in miniature: a space filled with God's unmediated presence.

The room contained one primary object: the Ark of the Covenant. This gold-covered wooden chest held the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, a jar of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded (Hebrews 9:4). The lid of the Ark was called the 'mercy seat' (kapporet), flanked by two golden cherubim whose wings stretched over the top. God said: 'There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you' (Exodus 25:22).

The mercy seat was the most sacred spot on earth — the precise location where heaven and earth intersected, where God's presence rested in a visible form called the Shekinah glory.

The veil

The curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was no ordinary fabric. Exodus 26:31-33 describes it as made of 'blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim woven into it by a skilled worker.' Jewish tradition held that the veil in Herod's temple was about 60 feet high, 30 feet wide, and a handbreadth thick (roughly 4 inches). It was reportedly so heavy that it required 300 priests to handle it.

The veil served a dual purpose: it protected the people from God's consuming holiness and it symbolized the barrier between sinful humanity and a holy God. The cherubim woven into the fabric recalled the cherubim stationed at the entrance to Eden after the Fall (Genesis 3:24) — the same angels guarding the way to God's presence.

The Day of Atonement — Yom Kippur

Only one person could enter the Holy of Holies: the high priest. Only on one day: the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the tenth day of the seventh month (Leviticus 16). Only with blood: the blood of a bull for his own sins and the blood of a goat for the sins of the people.

The Leviticus 16 ritual was elaborate and terrifying:

The high priest had to bathe and put on special white linen garments — not his ornate priestly robes. He entered God's presence stripped of rank, dressed in humility.

He brought a censer full of burning coals and incense so that 'the smoke of the incense will conceal the mercy seat above the tablets of the covenant law, so that he will not die' (Leviticus 16:13). Even the high priest could not look directly at the mercy seat — the incense cloud shielded him from the full intensity of God's presence.

He sprinkled the blood of the bull on and before the mercy seat — seven times — to atone for his own sins and his household's sins (16:14).

Then he slaughtered the goat for the people's sin offering and sprinkled its blood on the mercy seat, making atonement 'because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been' (16:16).

No one else could be in the tent of meeting during this entire process (16:17). The high priest was utterly alone with God.

Rabbinic tradition (not biblical text) records that later high priests tied a rope to their ankle before entering, so they could be pulled out if they died in God's presence — no one else was permitted to enter to retrieve the body. Whether historically accurate or not, the tradition captures the genuine terror of approaching the Holy of Holies.

Solomon's temple and Herod's temple

Solomon built the first permanent temple in Jerusalem around 960 BC, following the tabernacle's design but on a grander scale. The Holy of Holies was overlaid with pure gold (1 Kings 6:20-22) and contained two massive cherubim made of olive wood, each 15 feet tall, with wings spanning the entire width of the room (1 Kings 6:23-28). When the Ark was placed inside and the priests withdrew, 'the cloud filled the temple of the LORD. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple' (1 Kings 8:10-11).

The Babylonians destroyed Solomon's temple in 586 BC. The Ark of the Covenant was lost — its fate remains one of history's great mysteries. When the second temple was built (completed 516 BC) and later expanded by Herod the Great, the Holy of Holies was an empty room. No Ark. No mercy seat. No visible Shekinah glory. The holiest place on earth was vacant — waiting.

The tearing of the veil — Matthew 27:51

When Jesus died on the cross, something extraordinary happened: 'At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom' (Matthew 27:51). The direction — top to bottom — indicates this was God's act, not human. The thick, massive curtain that had separated humanity from God's presence for over a millennium was ripped open.

The author of Hebrews interpreted this event with stunning clarity: 'Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body...let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings' (Hebrews 10:19-22).

The veil was Jesus' body. His death tore the barrier. The way into God's presence — once restricted to one man, one day per year, with animal blood — was now open to all people, at all times, through the blood of Christ. The entire sacrificial system that the Holy of Holies represented was fulfilled and superseded in a single moment.

Why the Holy of Holies matters

The Holy of Holies tells the gospel story in architectural form. Humanity was made for God's presence (Eden). Sin created separation (the veil). A mediator was needed (the high priest). Blood was required (the sacrifice). And ultimately, the barrier was destroyed (the cross). Every element of the tabernacle and temple pointed forward to Christ — the true High Priest who entered 'the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands' and 'did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption' (Hebrews 9:11-12).

The promise of the Holy of Holies is that God desires to dwell with His people — not at a distance, not behind a curtain, but face to face. The New Jerusalem completes what the Holy of Holies began: a perfect cube, the entire city, with 'no temple in it, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple' (Revelation 21:22). The room that once confined God's presence to a small space gives way to a reality where God's presence fills everything.