Ed Walsh
Puritan Board Senior
Greetings,
I am a civil construction estimator by trade, so these lines of reasoning often come to mind. I have to admit that I am occasionally baffled by numbers in the Bible, and 2 Chronicles 7:5 was on my reading schedule this morning. How are we to take facts as I present this one below? I am not saying I disbelieve the information as much as I don't know how to understand this and like accounts. Can I get some help here?
Consider and please fact-check my numbers.
2 Chronicles 7:4 [ESV] sais, "King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God."
Verse 8 says, "for the dedication of the altar they observed seven days"
In my calculations below I will assume 7 x 24 hour days, although I doubt that the sacrifices were performed 'round the clock.
The number of sacrifices was 142,000
Assuming an average weight for oxen at 1,000 pounds and a sheep 200 pounds.
That's 11,000 tons of oxen and 12,000 tons of sheep or 23,000 tons of sacrifices, which equals 46,000,000 lbs.
Notes of interest: It would also take about 100± football fields to contain the living animals. Solomon's Temple was only a little over 1/3 of an acre. If each animal had a seat in Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia Eagles), they would fill the stadium twice with a few left standing.
I am aware that there must have been many priests working and probably many simultaneous sacrifices, but...
Consider also how fast each animal was sacrificed. Remember I am using 24 hour days.
That's 142,000 animals ÷ 7 days ÷ 24 hours ÷ 60 minutes =14.1 sacrifices per minute, which is one sacrifice every 4.3 seconds. (or, every 2.15 seconds each if a 12 hour day is assumed)
Consider also the sheer volume of blood.
46 million lbs with approximately 8% of body weight being blood yields 3,680,000 pounds of blood, or 441,200± gallons of blood. I have a 26' above ground pool which holds about 1,220 gallons. The sacrifices would fill about 362 pools like mine.
2 Chronicles 7:7 does say that they were overloaded with sacrifices, "Then Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord, for there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to contain the burnt offering, the grain offering and the fat."
There is a possible solution in verse one which says, "Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house."
I am a civil construction estimator by trade, so these lines of reasoning often come to mind. I have to admit that I am occasionally baffled by numbers in the Bible, and 2 Chronicles 7:5 was on my reading schedule this morning. How are we to take facts as I present this one below? I am not saying I disbelieve the information as much as I don't know how to understand this and like accounts. Can I get some help here?
Consider and please fact-check my numbers.
2 Chronicles 7:4 [ESV] sais, "King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God."
Verse 8 says, "for the dedication of the altar they observed seven days"
In my calculations below I will assume 7 x 24 hour days, although I doubt that the sacrifices were performed 'round the clock.
The number of sacrifices was 142,000
Assuming an average weight for oxen at 1,000 pounds and a sheep 200 pounds.
That's 11,000 tons of oxen and 12,000 tons of sheep or 23,000 tons of sacrifices, which equals 46,000,000 lbs.
Notes of interest: It would also take about 100± football fields to contain the living animals. Solomon's Temple was only a little over 1/3 of an acre. If each animal had a seat in Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia Eagles), they would fill the stadium twice with a few left standing.
I am aware that there must have been many priests working and probably many simultaneous sacrifices, but...
Consider also how fast each animal was sacrificed. Remember I am using 24 hour days.
That's 142,000 animals ÷ 7 days ÷ 24 hours ÷ 60 minutes =14.1 sacrifices per minute, which is one sacrifice every 4.3 seconds. (or, every 2.15 seconds each if a 12 hour day is assumed)
Consider also the sheer volume of blood.
46 million lbs with approximately 8% of body weight being blood yields 3,680,000 pounds of blood, or 441,200± gallons of blood. I have a 26' above ground pool which holds about 1,220 gallons. The sacrifices would fill about 362 pools like mine.
2 Chronicles 7:7 does say that they were overloaded with sacrifices, "Then Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord, for there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to contain the burnt offering, the grain offering and the fat."
There is a possible solution in verse one which says, "Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house."