A Stone, A Cross, A Veil

The stone table. The cross. The temple veil.

The Stone Table was a great slab of rock supported on four smaller rocks, located in central Narnia. It had symbols and characters carved into it, the White Witch claimed they described the rules of the Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time. During the White Witch's winter revolution, she bound Aslan to the stone table and executed him using her stone knife. Susan and Lucy spent that night keeping a vigil at the Table over Aslan's body. At dawn when they witnessed Aslan's resurrection, the Table split in two right down the middle. This may have been because the Deep Magic, inscribed in the Stone Table, was reversed by Aslan's sacrifice, according to the rules of the Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time.

The cross was 2 beams of wood crossed at the middle, towards the top. It stood on a hill outside the city. Christ was killed by being nailed to the cross and left to die. When Christ died it atoned for all the sins of all the nations, from the dawn of time to the end of the earth. Only thru the blood payment of Christ can we ever hope to be welcomed into the kingdom of God. 

The veil was what separated the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle from the priest and people that worshiped there. Only once a year, one man, the High Priest, could enter the Holy of Holies and make a sacrifice for all the sins of the nation. The Holy of Holies was where God dwelt. Of course, God is everywhere, and he can't be confined to a certian room, it was just a way for God to be nearer to us. The veil separaed God in all his glory and power from people. It was symbolic of the separation between man and God caused by sin. No one but the High Preist could enter.



Stone Table can be regarded as symbolizing the Mosaic law of the Old Testament. Just as Mosaic law, written on stone tablets, promised inflexible punishment for sin; so the Deep Magic written on the Stone Table said that for every treachery the Witch had the right to a kill. Just as Jesus transcended the rule of Mosaic law by dying on the Cross, allowing forgiveness of sins; so Aslan transcended the rule of the Deep Magic by dying on the Stone Table, allowing the forgiveness of Edmund's treachery. This is symbolized by the stone table cracking.

The cracking of the Stone Table into two pieces also is symbolic of tearing of the Veil of the Temple of Jerusalem. According to the Bible, the instant Jesus died, an earthquake occurred. Matthew 27:50-51 "And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split."

The Temple's Veil, which itself symbolized the separation of God and humans, was torn in two. The Veil would have been around 60 feet tall and 4 inches thick. This symbolized that Jesus successfully atoned for the sins of Mankind and that God and Man would no longer be separate, in the same way that Edmund no longer was separated from Aslan, His friendship, and those in communion with Aslan.