Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/245

Rh twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof. Also he made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and the height thereof was five cubits; and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about. And under it was the similitude of oxen, which did

1 Kin. vii. It is impossible therefore to say whether the Chronicler derives the measurements he here gives from a text of Kin. which did contain a description of the brasen altar, or from the altar of the Temple of his own period. The latter is more probable. Some scholars consider it possible that at first Solomon's Temple contained no artificial altar, the sacrifices being offered on the great natural rock which is now covered by the famous building popularly known as the Mosque of Omar (properly "The Dome of the Rock").

The great altar was probably a flat oblong expanse, the highest of a series of terraces, of which the base measurement is given by the Chronicler—cp. the description of Ezekiel's altar (Ezek. xliii. 13 ff.).

2—5 (= 1 Kin. vii. 23—26).&emsp;

2. he made the molten sea] Render, he made the sea of molten metal. The "sea" or great laver was a well-known feature in temples (cp. Rev. iv. 6), and, originally at least, is likely to have had religious significance, as a symbol of Jehovah's power over the seas and the rain, or over the primeval Deep upon which His might was exercised in the creation of the world (Gen. i.; Ps. xxiv. 2). For the Chronicler's view of its purpose, see ver. 6.

ten cubits from brim to brim and a line of thirty cubits compassed it] The mathematical inaccuracy in the measurements here given—10in diameter, 30 in circumference—has often been pointed out. But the literal Heb. is "ten with the cubit and thirty with the cubit," and F. C. Burkitt in a communication to the Cambridge Review for May 13, 1914 offers an interesting vindication of the phrase. He writes " What the verse says about the circumference of the 'sea' is that they stretched a string round it, and when they laid the string out flat they had to go thirty times with the cubit, i.e. a man had to put his elbow down thirty times before he got to the end." [The distance from the point of the elbow to the tip of the longest finger is 1 cubit.] "No doubt the last time he put his elbow down the string came short: in other words, the 'sea' was nine-and-a-bittock across and twenty-nine-and-a-bittock round. As a matter of fact, if a circle be 9 ft. 6 in. across, it is just over 29 ft. 10 in. round. Such a circle I think would be described in Heb. as 'ten with the foot-rule' across and 'thirty with the foot-rule' in circumference."

a line of thirty cubits compassed it] i.e. it was thirty cubits in circumference.

3. under it was the similitude of oxen] This reading has the support