ContradictionsReading order 270Bible context 1 min read
What was the volume of the molten sea?
Matching descriptions of the basin's thickness and rim give different liquid capacities, two thousand and three thousand baths.
- Textual conflict
- Direct contradiction
- The quoted passages make incompatible claims about the same subject under the same conditions. Little additional inference is needed.
- Importance
- Incidental
- A small detail with little effect on the wider account.
Matching descriptions of the same bronze basin give two thousand versus three thousand baths without stated different measurement conditions.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
The bronze basin contains two thousand baths
And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.
1 Kings 7:26
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:1 Kings 7
The bronze basin receives and holds three thousand baths
And the thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.
2 Chronicles 4:5
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:2 Chronicles 4