(Bronze Basin) / (Sea of Brass)

Created Date: 5-May-2016
Was there a scriptural error on dimension?

Last Updated: 26-May-2020
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 Sections
 

1 Purpose
2 Points to Jesus Christ
3 Error on the Dimensions?

Bronze in the scriptures is a symbol of Judgment.    This is why bronze was used in the Bronze Basin and many other scriptures such as description of the Resurrected Jesus Christ's feet as where He goes will be in Righteousness.

The significance is also conveyed in the meaning of the Bronze Serpent which Jesus Christ explains in John 3:14 discussed in this topic.
 

Revelation 2:18 These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
John 3:14

Son of Man Title of Jesus Christ		 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up

Purpose

The Bronze Basin, often called the Sea of Brass or Laver of Brass, was a basin that was located between the Temple and the Alter.  It held water for washing of the Levite Priests before and after all Priestly duties.  If a Priest did not perform the ritual ordained washing, then the Priest would die.

It was used during the Exodus wilderness wonderings and also during the times that there was a Temple in Jerusalem.

Exodus 30:17-21 17 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, 18 Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and the base thereof of brass, whereat to wash. And thou shalt put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. 19 And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat: 20 when they go into the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire unto Jehovah. 21 So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.

After its first construction, Moses performed a commencement procedure one-time only which involved washing of Aaron and Aaron's sons which included an anointing blessing of them from that point going forward to use the Bronze Basin.

Exodus 40:11-16 11 And thou shalt anoint the laver and its base, and sanctify it. 12 And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tent of meeting, and shalt wash them with water. 13 And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments; and thou shalt anoint him, and sanctify him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office. 14 And thou shalt bring his sons, and put coats upon them; 15 and thou shalt anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office: and their anointing shall be to them for an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations. 16 Thus did Moses: according to all that Jehovah commanded him, so did he.

Points to Jesus Christ

The entirety of the scriptures, Old and New Testament, point to Jesus Christ countless ways in the forms of symbolism, types and models.  The washing of the Bronze Basin was a continuously required ritual that was part of the sacrifice and covering of sins in the Old Testament. 

Jesus Christ was the final payment for the sins of world to give Salvation for those who would ask Jesus Christ to be their Savior.  The washing in the New Testament was symbolized by the water baptism that John the Baptist started and was carried on by the Disciples.  The scripture also instructs us to receive the cleansing of ourselves through the daily washing by the Word of God.

Water in the Old Testament period was also used as a process of cleansing of the people.  It was considered the first step in removing of sinful idol worship and other actions that were contrary to the way of living for God.

Ezekiel 36:25-27 25 And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them.
Ephesians 5:25-26 25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; 26 that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,
John 15:3 Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you.
Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience: and having our body washed with pure water,
John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.
Revelation 22:1 And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb,

Was There a Dimensional Error in the Scriptures?

There are some old publications citing an error dealing with the sea of brass in 1 Kings 7:23 and also in 2 Chronicles 4:2 

1 Kings 7:23 And 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.
2 Chronicles 4:2 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.

where there is a perceived problem because of the circumference given is mathematically incorrect.  A circle's circumference is calculated by using the Greek character "Pi" factor which has a value of 3.14159265358979->.  The decimal digits are never ending and have been measured out to over 1,000,000 digits as of the last known experiments in 2020.  Most usage of Pi is done with a finite number of decimal digits.   Notice that the scriptural notation is giving a round number without the decimals which is the supposed error.

Some very good analysis has been done in this area and here are two points to consider:

  1. The "sea of brass" referenced in these scriptures, is unknown whether the dimensions were based on the inside of the basin or the outside which includes the thickness of the vessel and is described as a "handbreath" in 1 Kings 7:26.
     
    1 Kings 7:24 And under the brim of it round about there were knops which did compass it, for ten cubits, compassing the sea round about: the knops were in two rows, cast when it was cast.
    1 Kings 7:26 And it was a handbreadth thick: and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it held two thousand baths.

    This is estimated to be around 3.5 inches thick.  Additionally, the top of the basin was fashioned as a brim and turned outward as described in 1 Kings 7:24 which would make the outside area larger and thus the inner diameter less, around the thirty cubits.  Note that there is many examples today, when dealing with measurements, which we do not hold to exact preciseness such as the 24 hour day is really 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds.

  2. There is a spelling error in the Hebrew on the scripture references. 
    (a) The Hebrew for circumference is "qav" but in the source text it is spelt "qaveh". 
    (b) When the Hebrew scribes found variations, problems or possible errors, they could possibly put a notation in the margins which is called a "Kethiv" where the notation is called "qere". 
    (c) Often these types of Kethiv were regarded to be a "remez" which means a hint of something deeper to be understood from the scripture. 

    From notes on this taken from a Chuck Missler's article:
     
    Numerical Values The Hebrew alphabet is alphanumeric: each Hebrew letter also has a numerical value and can be used as a number. The q has a value of 100; the v has a value of 6; thus, the normal spelling would yield a numerical value of 106. The addition of the h, with a value of 5, increases the numerical value to 111. This indicates an adjustment of the ratio 111/106, or 31.41509433962 cubits. Assuming that a cubit was 1.5 ft.,3 this 15-foot-wide bowl would have had a circumference of 47.12388980385 feet.

    This Hebrew "code" results in 47.12264150943 feet, or an error of less than 15 thousandths of an inch! (This error is 15 times better than the 22/7 estimate that we were accustomed to using in school!) How did they accomplish this? This accuracy would seem to vastly exceed the precision of their instrumentation. How would they know this? How was it encoded into the text?

Therefore, the scriptural measurements are highly accurate.  There is not an "error" in the scripture.

As also noted in the Chuck Missler article, there is a controversy on who was the first historical group to use numerical values for their language's letters.  Popular information given in many educational sources often state, as if it is a fact, that the Hebrews took this from the Greeks. 

The problem with so much of the World's education system dealing with History and Evolution is it is always changing.  The valid grievance is it should not be stated it is a fact when it can't be proven and is only a speculation or a theory. 

In the example of the Hebrew text, there is old manuscripts that date back hundreds of years before the Greeks became a world power entering into the Middle East so the rhetorical question could be asked is what was the catalyst for Hebrew taking on the same numerical value concepts from the Greeks?  It is the opinion of most Biblical Scholars that Israel used letters for numerical values way before the Greeks.

What to read next?

See: (a) Time and Time Travel, (b) Time Domains, (c) Kingdom of God, (d) Singularity and the Big Bang Theories, (e) E=mc²,  (f) Ten Dimensions of the Universe, (g) Age of the Earth, Periods that Developed Life, Heavens, (h) Gap Theory of Genesis 1:2 - Earth formless for billions of years