An Altar with No Steps

Between the exodus and the construction of the altar for the tabernacle (see Ex. 27:1–8; 38:1–7), the Israelites needed to construct temporary altars where they could worship God by offering their sacrifices. Exodus 20:24–25 features directions regarding the construction of these altars, which could be made out of only earth or unhewn stone. In today’s passage, we find instruction for how these altars were to be approached.

In the ancient Near East, altars were frequently elevated such that one had to ascend steps in order to perform the rituals. This made it easier for crowds to see the priest doing his duties in offering up sacrifices. But the Israelites were not to elevate their altars, as verse 26 tells us. The people could not “go up by steps,” and if there were no steps, the altar could be constructed only at ground level.

God gives the reason that altars were not to be elevated: “that your nakedness be not exposed on it.” In Moses’ day and afterward, the Israelites wore robes but did not typically have an equivalent to what we call underwear today. Thus, going up the steps to an elevated altar might expose one’s genitals to those nearby. With altars built without steps, exposure of the priest’s nakedness was prevented.

Certainly, the desire to keep others from seeing a worshiper’s private parts is connected to the Bible’s general concern for modesty (see, e.g., 1 Tim. 2:9). Yet more is going on here. Ancient Near Eastern peoples usually included sexual rituals in their worship of other gods. Pagans would visit cult prostitutes, believing that having sex in a worship setting could increase the fertility of their crops and livestock. In the worship of the one true God, however, sex acts are strictly forbidden. There were to be no cult prostitutes in Israel (Deut. 23:17). For obvious reasons, preventing the exposure of genitals in Israel’s worship seems to be connected to the ban on sexual activity in worship.

Later, God would give specific directions for the priestly garments, which included linen undergarments that would prevent the exposure of the priests’ sex organs and thus made it acceptable to have an elevated altar with steps (Ex. 28:42–43; see Ezek. 43:17). At this point, however, such garments did not exist, so altars could not be elevated. Forbidding steps up to an altar would, as John Calvin comments, “induce the Israelites to conduct themselves most purely and most chastely in the exercises of religion.”