How rich was Solomon and where did it came from? i.e. how much gold and silver did he use to built the temple? How big was the temple? (size and volume?) compare the two. Check the gold production between 1492 and 1700 in Spain as compared to the absolute deplorable state of the mineral deposits in Israel and compare it the world power Egypt....... Use the bible text and do the math.
When Solomon built the temple he used iron, silver and gold. 1 Chron 22:14. A talent of gold was 34,2 kilo's with a density of 19.2 kilo's per liter.
100.000 talents of gold* 34,2 kilo's = 3.420.000 kilo's = 176.288 liter (1000 liter = 1m³) 176 m³ ...... = 5 * 5 * 5 meters of solid gold. or clothed walls with a thickness of 2 mm = 0,002 m * 20 meters high * 4400 meters long.
In current dollars that would be:
120,636,949.867632 * gold price per Oz. Comex Gold price: 1,608 = $ 194 billion. That almost equals the amount of all home owners in the US to maintain, alter their houses in 2005.
Or to put it into perspective: The below item had a modest costs of only 1.5 billion.
Israel/ Palestine is to poor on resources. So these had to be imported. The bible handbook says this amount of gold is 3x the amount of gold produced in the period: 1492 - 1700 by Spain (this includes the complete sacking of all Inca and Aztec temples stacked with gold)
1,000,000 talents of silver * 34.2 = 34,200,000 kilo's.....I don't even want to go into this. This 3,100 m³ is more than the volume of the temple itself.
1,206,369,498.67632 Oz * $ 28.74 = 34.671 billion
So, not counting the stone and masonry, transport, labor, the expensive wood from the Lebanon: the initial costs is about 270 billion $ is today's currency and value.
Now that is a stimulus package avant la lettre.
But to break it really down:
Topping the list is another Las Vegas structure, Wynn Las Vegas. Built in 2005, the building comes with a stunning $2.7 billion price tag. It is the world’s most expensive resort. There’s even a Ferrari-Maserati dealership on site. It’s famous nightclub, Tryst, has a towering waterfall and its own lake.
Ok. For the sake of argument. Let's try another. Surely the later stories are more believable and exact, right?
Point number 4:
How many animals were slaughtered at the dedication of the temple? What does that mean in logistical terms? How to get those animals there in Jerusalem. How to dispose of the less desirable items? What would you need to burn such an amount of carcasses? How did the Nazis try to solve that puzzle? Read the bible text and do the math.
Solomon sacrificed 2,000 oxen and 120 thousand sheep..........well rather massacred them in just 7 days. In 7 days they were able to burn 142,000 carcasses and disposed of the dirty stuff. 7 days * 24 hours a day = 168 hours. 845 carcasses per hour. That would indicate the complete burning of a carcass every 4 seconds.................
This is taken from: http://www.strategy-ec.co.uk about burning of carcasses along the lines of European regulations when the mad cows disease struck:
Intervention Costs:
Equipment Hire of machinery and equipment.
Consumables To destroy 250 carcasses the following are required; 250 railway sleepers, 250 bales of straw, 6.250 kg of kindling wood, 50.750 kg of coal, 1 gallon of diesel oil per metre length of pyre.
Operator time Time to prepare pyres varies with the machinery and workforce available. Pyres burn continuously for 2 to 3 days.
Just imagine those Jerusalem nike wearing sheepherders doing this ... So, where the EU had pyres burning for say 2.5 days for 250 carcasses, they did it in 4 seconds. Miracle! right?
Here's something about the waste: every 1000 kilo's of animal produces about 350 kilo of ash. Say an average sheep weighs 40 kilo. 120,000 sheep would therefore yield: 120,000 * 40 = 4,800,000 / 1,000 kilo * 350 = 1,680,000 kilo's of ash. Let's assume a density of 636 kg per m³. = 2,641 m³ .......... Let's imagine a hill with a base of 20 by 20 meters. It would be 60 meters high!
