Veil of the Temple

A pair of thick curtains about eighteen inches apart that hung at the entrance of the Holy of Holies (or Most Holy Place in some versions of the Bible) in the temple. The veil hid the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat from the view of the people.

The curtains were woven with blue, purple, and scarlet thread with pictures of cherubim worked into them. In the early days, no one could go behind the veil except the priests. behind the veil, and even he could go only once a year—on the Day of Atonement. At Jesus’s death, the veil in the temple was ripped by a miracle from top to bottom. This act showed that because of Jesus’s death, all people could now come into God’s presence by faith in Jesus.