Abulensis asserts (in this ch. 18, q. 1) [that] the tabernacle [was] placed at Shiloh in some great house — just as afterward at Jerusalem in the Solomonic temple. For otherwise, by rains,
(col. 1177)
[…continued from col. 1176.] winds, and the other injuries of the air, [it] would have been exposed [to them]. But [that it was] rather under the open sky, enclosed in no house, is truer. First: because thus, in the wilderness, [it] had been for almost all the thirty-nine years, and again at Gilgal for several years — concerning which above, and again below. Secondly: because, by [its] whole construction, and by the skins (which Trebellius, I think, calls “tent-[cloths]”), [it] was sufficiently fortified against all the force of rains, winds, and the other storms. Thirdly: so [it was] still in David’s time, when he deliberated about building the temple (2 Sam. 7:2). For he said to Nathan the Prophet: “Dost thou see that I dwell in a house of cedar, and the ark of God is placed in the midst of skins [curtains]?” Fourthly: of a house and roof, by which the tabernacle might either be contained or be covered, [there is] nowhere any mention — as I argued (q. 4) also against the Jews. Fifthly: that house [would have been] either ancient, or newly built recently for that use. If ancient, [then] the most sacred shrine of God would have had to be enclosed by the profane structure of a Canaanite man, [and] protected against the storms by a profane roof. Would God will this? would he bear [it]? When this tabernacle of God was not yet made, Moses had erected another for himself (Exod. 33); and because the people was defiled with sin, he willed [it] to be cut off from the enclosure of the camp — but far from them, easily to a thousand cubits (as is gathered from the analogy of Num. 35:5) — to be set apart. How, then, would the Lord have willed — in the profane lodging of a Gentile man and a profane Canaanite — to stay not for one or another day, or year, but constantly to dwell and remain for very many [years]? But if the house was new, [it] was built either before the tabernacle was brought there, or afterward. Whichever [it] be, [it is] only wonderful [that] there is, in the whole of scripture, silence about so great, and so new and religious, a building. So accurately, so one-by-one, all [the things] which pertained to the roof, sides, and bases of this tabernacle had the Lord once prescribed [and] Moses described (Exod. ch. 25): how [is there] nowhere any idea, trace, [or] outline of this [other] shrine? Under the open sky, therefore, the tabernacle stood at Shiloh, not in any house.