1 Reyes 7:23

23 Luego Huram fundió un enorme tazón redondo, que medía cuatro metros y medio de borde a borde, llamado el Mar. Tenía dos metros con treinta centímetros de profundidad y cerca de catorce metros de circunferencia.

1 Reyes 7:23 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 7:23

And he made a molten sea
A large vessel made of molten brass, which, because of the great quantity of water it held, is called a sea; as it was usual with the Jews to call a large collection of waters a sea, as the sea of Tiberius and Galilee. This was made by the man of Tyre, as the pillars, by the order of Solomon, and answered to the brasen laver in the tabernacle, only larger than that; and was not only for the priests to wash their hands and feet in, but to dip upon occasion, and by the Jews ^F16 is expressly said to be a dipping place for the priests, see ( 2 Chronicles 4:6 ) ,

ten cubits from the one brim to the other:
which was the diameter of it: it was round all about; spherical or circular; not as an hemisphere, as Josephus ^F17, and Procopius Gazaeus, but rather cylindrical:

and his height was five cubits;
from the bottom of it, not including the pedestal of oxen on which it stood:

and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about;
this was the circumference of it; which answers to the diameter of ten cubits, or near it, a round number being given not strictly mathematical.

(Sceptics have ridiculed the Bible for saying that the mathematical constant (p) is 3 instead of the more precise 3.14159. (This number is an "irrational number" and needs an infinite number digits to specify it exactly.) Two explanations for the apparent lack of precision in the measurement are given.

1) The circumference given may be for the inside circumference and the diameter may be the diameter including the thickness of the rim. This would yield a very accurate mathematical result for the inside circumference of thirty cubits. The outside circumference would be about 31.4 cubits giving a rim thickness of four inches or an hand breadth agreeing with ( 1 Kings 7:26 ) .

2) In ( 1 Kings 7:26 ) we read the vessel "was wrought like the brim of a cup." That is the brim on the top of the vessel was wider than the main part of the vessel. The diameter would be given for the brim. If the brim or lip extended about four inches past the main body of the vessel then the outside circumference of the main part of the vessel would be exactly thirty cubits.

In each case the mathematical ratio for circumference of the circle is (p) d, where "d" is the diameter and (p) is the number 3.14159 ..... For a more complete discussion on this see the article by Russel Grigg. {r}. Editor.)

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 T. Hieros, Yema, fol. 41. 1
F17 Antiqu. l. 8. c. 3. sect 5.
F18 "Does the Bible say pi equals 3.0?", Russell Greg, page 24, "Ex Nihil", March-May Issue, Vol. 17. No. 2., Creation Science Foundation Ltd. Brisbane, Australia.

1 Reyes 7:23 In-Context

21 Huram puso las columnas a la entrada del templo, una hacia el sur y la otra hacia el norte. A la del sur la llamó Jaquín, y a la del norte, Boaz.

22 Los capiteles de las columnas tenían forma de lirios. Así quedó terminado el trabajo de las columnas.

23 Luego Huram fundió un enorme tazón redondo, que medía cuatro metros y medio de borde a borde, llamado el Mar. Tenía dos metros con treinta centímetros de profundidad y cerca de catorce metros de circunferencia.

24 Por debajo del borde, estaba rodeado por dos hileras de calabazas decorativas. Había unas veinte calabazas por cada treinta centímetros
de la circunferencia, que se habían fundido como parte del tazón.

25 El Mar estaba colocado sobre una base formada por doce bueyes de bronce
que miraban hacia fuera. Tres miraban hacia el norte, tres hacia el occidente, tres hacia el sur y tres hacia el oriente; y el Mar estaba asentado sobre ellos.