Rebuttal needed for brand new JW apolagetic

by inkling 4 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  inkling

  Ok, this comes from p15 of the feb 2008 WT: ---- What was the size of the molten sea at Solomon's temple? The account at 1 Kings 7: 26 refers to the sea as containing
  "two thousand bath measures" of water used by the priests, whereas the parallel account at 2 Chronicles 4:5 speaks of it as containing "three thousand bath measures." This has led to the claim that the difference is the result of a scribal error in the Chronicles account. However, the New World Translation helps us understand how these two texts can be harmonized. First Kings 7:26 reads: "Two thousand bath measures were what it would contain." Notice that 2 Chronicles 4:5 says: "As a receptacle, three thousand bath measures were what it could contain." So 2 Chronicles 4:5 refers to the maximum capacity of the temple basin, what it could contain, whereas 1 Kings 7:26 states the quantity of water that was usually put into the temple basin. In other words, it was never filled to maximum capacity. It appears that it was customarily filled to only two thirds of its capacity. ---- This just seems dodgy to me.... Any resident Hebrew scholars? Here are the relevant verses in the Hebrew interlinear:
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  nvrgnbk

  deleted
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  JosephMalik

  inkling

  Really nice the way you did that. But wait, I found an answer.
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  JosephMalik

  inkling,

  The commentary on 2Ch 4:5 written by Jamieson, Fausset and Brown states:

  3. Two rows of oxen were cast, when it was cast—The meaning is, that the circular basin and the brazen oxen

  which supported it were all of one piece, being east in one and the same mould. There is a difference in the

  accounts given of the capacity of this basin, for while in #1Ki 7:26 it is said that two thousand baths of water

  could be contained in it, in this passage no less than three thousand are stated. It has been suggested that

  there is here a statement not merely of the quantity of water which the basin held, but that also which was

  necessary to work it, to keep it flowing as a fountain; that which was required to fill both it and its accompaniments.

  In support of this view, it may be remarked that different words are employed: the one in #1Ki 7:26 rendered

  contained; the two here rendered, received and held. There was a difference between receiving and holding.

  When the basin played as a fountain, and all its parts were filled for that purpose, the latter, together with

  the sea itself, received three thousand baths; but the sea exclusively held only two thousand baths, when

  its contents were restricted to those of the circular basin. It received and held three thousand baths

  [CALMET, Fragments].

  Joseph
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  inkling

  thank you, this is helpful.

  [inkling]