PROPOSIZIONE, PANI della.—Twelve ritual loaves offered to God every Sabbath on a special table in the Holy Place, where they remained throughout the week.
They are called lēhem pāniem, “bread of the face” or of the presence (Ex. 25:30; I Sam. 21:7, etc.), because they were placed before God; lēhem tāmīdh, “perpetual bread” (Num. 4:7); lēhem gādheh, “holy bread” (I Sam. 21:5, 7); after the Exile, also lēhem ham-ma'ārehheth, “bread of the pile” (I Par. 9:32; 23:29; Neh. 10:33), on account of the arrangement on the table. The Greek versions have, indiscriminately: ἄρτοι τοῦ προσώπου (I Sam. 21:6; Neh. 10:33; Aquila, more servilely: προσώπων), ἄρτοι ἐνώπων (Ex. 25:30), οἱ ἄρτοι οἱ προσεύμενοι (ibid. 39:18 [36]), more often ἄρτοι τῆς προσθέσεως (ibid. 40:21; I Sam. 21:6; I Par. 9:32; 23:29, etc.; cf. Mt. 12:4, etc.; panes propositionis of the Vulgate, with an inversion of the terms in Hebr. 9:2).
The p. della p. were, at least in the later period, unleavened (Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Iud., III, 6, 6; Mēnāhōth, V, 1); for each one, two-tenths of an ephah (about seven and a half litres) of fine flour were used (Lev. 24:5; sifted eleven times, according to Mēnāhōth, VI, 7); after the Exile they were made at the expense of the Temple treasury (Neh. 10:33), in a special room (Tāmīdh, III, 3; Middōth, I, 6), by designated Levites (I Par. 9:32), in the form of cakes one fingerbreadth thick, turned upward at the lateral ends. They were arranged on the table (Ex. 25:25-30) in two piles of six, raised one above the other by means of a kind of cage of golden wires. Frankincense of the purest quality was also offered with the loaves (Lev. 24:7; Siphra', fol. 263, 1; the Septuagint adds: “salt”). The loaves from the preceding week had to be consumed by the priests in the holy place. In the case of I Sam. 21:1-6, on account of the grave necessity of David and his retinue (cf. Mt. 12:4; Mt. 2:26; Lc. 6:4), Achimelech requires a minimum of legal purity. The p. della p. are not (contrary to Kennedy) a survival of a pre-Mosaic religion that would have provided food for the deity. The superiority and spiritual character of this rite are evident from the fact that the p. della p. were simply presented to God and did not disappear, as in other cults, in a mysterious manner. The law made no mystery of the matter (Lev. 24:9). The number twelve has been associated with the months
of the year or with the signs of the zodiac, rather than with the tribes of Israel.
The rite of the p. della p. continued until A.D. 70 (I Mach. 4:51; II Mach. 1:8; 10:3; Hebr. 9:2).