{"id":18190,"date":"2020-01-10T16:06:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T22:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=18190"},"modified":"2020-01-10T16:08:17","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T22:08:17","slug":"did-solomons-sea-hold-2000-baths-or-over-3000-baths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-solomons-sea-hold-2000-baths-or-over-3000-baths\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Solomon&#8217;s Sea hold 2,000 baths or over 3,000 baths?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Did Solomon build a facility containing 2,000 baths (I Kings 7:26), or over 3,000 baths (II Chronicles 4:5)?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>Now he made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference. Under its brim gourds went around encircling it ten to a cubit, completely surrounding the sea; the gourds were in two rows, cast with the rest. It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of them, and all their rear parts turned inward. It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom; it could hold two thousand baths<\/em>&#8221; (I Kings 7:23-26).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>Also he made the cast metal sea, ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits and its circumference thirty cubits. Now figures like oxen were under it and all around it, ten cubits, entirely encircling the sea. The oxen were in two rows, cast in one piece. It stood on twelve oxen, three facing the north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of them and all their hindquarters turned inwards. It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom; it could hold 3,000 baths<\/em>&#8221; (II Chronicles 4:2-5).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>First, we must note that &#8220;baths&#8221; here refers to a measurement of volume. One bath was approximately equal to 5.8 gallons. So the question is whether the Sea held 11,600 gallons or 17,400 gallons.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>II Chronicles could be referring to the Sea&#8217;s capacity and I Kings could be referring to how much water was typically kept in the Sea<\/li>\n<li>There is an indication that a dry volume bath was smaller than the liquid volume bath used in ancient Israel. In the <em>Targum<\/em>, it says, &#8220;It received three thousand baths of dry measure, and held two thousand of liquid measure.&#8221; Some suspect that during the Babylonian captivity, the smaller volume bath became commonly used and II Chronicles was written at the end of the Babylonian captivity while I Kings was written before the captivity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Did Solomon build a facility containing 2,000 baths (I Kings 7:26), or over 3,000 baths (II Chronicles 4:5)? Answer: &#8220;Now he made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference. Under its brim gourds went around encircling&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[568,793],"class_list":["post-18190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-accuracy-of-the-bible","tag-apparent-contradictions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40660,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-bible-mathematically-wrong-in-i-kings-723\/","url_meta":{"origin":18190,"position":0},"title":"Is the Bible mathematically wrong in I Kings 7:23?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is the Bible mathematically wrong in I Kings 7:23? If the diameter of the laver is 10 cubits, then shouldn't the circumference be 31 cubits? Answer: \"And he made the Sea of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was completely round. Its height was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/scan0016-9-300x245.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4044,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-was-the-sea-of-bronze\/","url_meta":{"origin":18190,"position":1},"title":"What was the Sea of Bronze?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is the Sea Of Bronze? Answer: One of the furnishings in the tabernacle and the temple was a laver to hold water so that God's requirements for the priests to wash before doing certain ceremonies could be done. \"You shall also make a laver of bronze, with its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/scan0002-300x211.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":31029,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-goliath-six-cubits-and-a-span-or-four-cubits-and-a-span\/","url_meta":{"origin":18190,"position":2},"title":"Was Goliath six cubits and a span or four cubits and a span?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The King James Bible reports the giant Goliath as \"six cubits and a span\" in height - over nine feet tall, (over 2.75 m) (I Samuel 17:4), but the Septuagint,\u00a0a Greek Bible, also gives Goliath's height as \"four cubits and a span\" (~2.00 m). So by the interpretation which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16191,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-meant-by-the-measure-of-a-man-that-is-of-an-angel\/","url_meta":{"origin":18190,"position":3},"title":"What is meant by &#8220;the measure of a man, that is, of an angel?&#8221;","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Revelation 21:17, what is meant by the phrase, \"measure of a man, that is, of an angel\"? Answer: \"Then he measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel\" (Revelation 21:17). John is trying to give us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56215,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-first-ancient-mariner\/","url_meta":{"origin":18190,"position":4},"title":"The First &#8220;Ancient Mariner&#8221;","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dillard Thurman in Gospel Minutes, May 8, 1964 The original story of \"The Ancient Mariner\" was written several centuries before \"The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner\" was added to our literature. The story of Noah and the Ark is loved and appreciated by multitudes who have never gone to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/ancientMariner_filtered-236x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9015,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-elijah-send-the-servant-back-seven-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":18190,"position":5},"title":"Why did Elijah send the servant back seven times?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Did Elijah pray seven times or was he putting his servant through a test of faith for rain? (I Kings 18:41-45) Answer: \"Now Elijah said to Ahab, \"Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower.\" So Ahab went up to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}