The Atheist's Book of Bible Stories - Ch. 3 - The Numbers of the Book (page 2)

luna2

Welcome to the board skunkie!

I'm enjoying this too. Most interesting and entertaining, RunningMan.

Brilliant. 35 years of wondering whether the bible was literally true, and it never occurred to me to test it with simple math. Well, its probably not that simple, so I'll accept your calculations while I enjoy my jack and coke.

patio34

Mucho gracias, RunningMan! I've sent you a pm with a request. Thanks a million!

Scully said:

If 183,000 people really worked for seven years to build a 2,552 square foot temple, they must have worked at a snail’s pace. It appears that government workers haven't changed at all over the millennia.

I resemble that remark!

Pat

Jeffro

What a surprise that the Watchtower index doesn't turn up any results for most of these problematic verses!

Black Sheep

I'm really enjoying your bible stories. Great stuff. I'd love a copy of the book please.

You have a PM

Thanks

Chris

peacefulpete

thanks for the thread, good stuff.

Here's a few links for more on the temple in light of history : House of gold , Hiram built Solomon's temple.

Here's a few more math issues.: math problem, Chapter 04 ,

hooberus

James Holding has posted an online response to "The Numbers of the Book"

http://www.tektonics.org/lp/otnumbersagain.html

Narkissos

From Hooberus' link:

what we have here is Sol's entire offering to supply the Temple cultus for an extended period of time, well beyond the festival. Titanich also complains about the "economic impact" this would have had on Israel, but if they were not all killed at once, and kept reproducing, this amounts to an economic boon for the average Israeli as Solomon redistributes his own wealth.

Too bad Holding doesn't explain how the verb zbch, "to sacrifice," can actually mean "not to sacrifice"...

Apologists do not read the Bible texts anymore, they are too busy writing their own paratext to make them consistent.

ezekiel3

In line with Nark here is another quote:

This would indeed be quite the supermarket, but a few things are being read wrong from the get-go. First of all, a homer is not 10 bushels, but just over 5 bushels. Second, while this passage can be read as referring to the quail being three feet deep on the ground, the grammar can also be read as indicating that this was the height at which the birds were flying when they were caught or knocked down. Finally, the group that gathered, "the people," does not refer to the entire nation of Israel; it may refer to a group of any size. In this case, the size of the group that gathered quail is indicated implicitly by verses 23-24, which refers to the plague that followed and that "they buried the people that lusted" -- who were these people? According to 11:4, it was the "mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting" and incited "the children of Israel" to complain about the lack of meat. So then, how many quail were there? It can't be said without knowing the exact number of the mixed multitude, but there is certainly no reason to go bellowing about numbers like 29 trillion. (Quail were known to produce huge flocks, though: Pliny tells of a boat that sank because of the number of quail that alighted on it.)

Now can we get back to a serious discussion how exactly how tall the beanstalk was??

stillajwexelder

What a great read - and I though Hooberus might comment on this thread

The Atheist's Book of Bible Stories - Ch. 3 - The Numbers of the Book