About or Approximately
Farrell Till jftill@midwest.net
Thu, 29 Oct 1998 14:47:06 -0800 (00909722826, 2.2.32.19981029224706.0088fe98@midwest.net)
At 01:54 AM 10/29/98 -0500, achillesz@usa.net wrote:
>>XIANA
>> So, why didn't God
>>> just dedicate an infinitely large book just to tell us the
>>comparatively
>>> unimportant information of the circumference a pool. The truth is
>>that
>>> anywhere you chose to terminate pi you are introducing an
>>inaccuracy. 3 is
>>> fine for an approximation, especially if it is something reasonable
>>picky like
>>> the circumference of a pool.
>>
>>BRYCE
>> Actually, using the word 'approximately' would have better served
>>the author, while saving on paper. But the text makes no indication
>>of an approximation.
>>[note: I'm still about fifty messages behind, so I apologize if
>>someone has beaten me to the punch.]
>ACHILLES
>Not only that, but the "approximate" dimensions, rounded to the nearest
>integer (the hebrew number system was based on integers correct?) would
>have been (correct me if I am wrong) either "about 9" by "about 30" or else
>"about 10" by "about 31" no? Considering a cubit is around a foot and a
>half, half a cubit is a noticeable difference. Leads one to suspect the sea
>was a figment of the writers imagination, for if it had existed either
>1)the difference in the actual measurements and the ones recorded would
>have been glaringly noticeable or 2)it would have had to have been a very
>obvious example of an elipse, not a circle.
>
>
TILL
If the writer had said "about thirty," that would certainly not have been
without precedent in the "inspired" text. Here are some places where
approximations were expressed.
>Joshua 3:2 At the end of three days the officers went through the camp
>3 and commanded the people, "When you see the ark of the covenant of
Yahweh your God being carried by the levitical priests, then you shall set
out from your place. Follow it,
>4 so that you may know the way you should go, for you have not passed this
way before. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, a distance of
ABOUT two thousand cubits; do not come any nearer to it."
>
>Joshua 4:13 ABOUT forty thousand armed for war crossed over before Yahweh
to the plains of Jericho for battle.
>
>Joshua 7:5 The men of Ai killed ABOUT thirty-six of them, chasing them
from outside the gate as far as Shebarim and killing them on the slope. The
hearts of the people melted and turned to water.
>
>1 Samuel 9:22 Then Samuel took Saul and his servant-boy and brought them
into the hall, and gave them a place at the head of those who had been
invited, of whom there were about thirty.
>
I could fill several pages with other examples, but these are sufficient to
show that stating an approximation was very common in the Bible, so I can
see no reason why a writer inspired by an omniscient, omnipotent deity would
not have known that the circumference of a circle 10 cubits in diameter
wasn't exactly 30 cubits. This would have been an appropriate place for the
word "about" to be used.
On the other hand, I have long looked upon passages like those above as
evidence that biblical writers were not inspired by an omniscient,
omnipotent deity, for if such an entity were verbally guiding the writer of
Joshua, he would have known the exact number of men killed at Ai. Why,
then, wouldn't he have stated the exact number, since it was such a low
figure anyway? Had there been 2,987 men killed at Ai, we could understand
why an inspired writer may have rounded off the number to 3,000, but "about
thirty-six"? Why state such low casualties in approximations? Why not say
that 35 or 38, or whatever the exact number was, were killed? The same, of
course, would have been true of the number of people present at the banquet
in 1 Samuel 9:22. If there were 29 in attendance, then why not say 29? If
there were 32, then why not say 32? In my opinion, such approximations as
these give away that the writers were not inspired by an omniscient,
omnipotent deity.
Can you imagine the fear in the Levites following the ark in compliance with
Joshua's instructions in Joshua 3:4? Knowing the petulance of their god
Yahweh who was likely to kill anyone who dared to violate any of his
restrictions concerning "holy objects," I can see them walking behind the
ark constantly wondering aloud to one another, "Hey, are we ABOUT two
thousand cubits behind the ark?"
Farrell Till
Skepticism, Inc.
jftill@midwest.net