ContradictionsReading order 269Bible context 1 min read
How high were the pillars?
Kings gives an eighteen-cubit height for each pillar, while Chronicles gives thirty-five cubits and separately describes five-cubit capitals.
- 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.
Corresponding pillar dimensions disagree even if the thirty-five-cubit description is interpreted as a combined length.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Each bronze pillar is eighteen cubits high
For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about.
1 Kings 7:15
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:1 Kings 7
The two pillars are described as thirty-five cubits high
Also he made before the house two pillars of thirty and five cubits high, and the chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.
2 Chronicles 3:15
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:2 Chronicles 3