Bible Inconsistencies

Solomon’s Temple

1 Kings 6:2 The temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high.

This is roughly ninety feet long by thirty feet wide by 60 feet height (i.e. about 30 meters long x 10 meters wide x 15 meters height)

1 Kings 5:15-16: Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stone cutters in the hills, as well as thirty-three hundred foremen who supervised the project and directed the workmen.

Why were 153,300 people required to build such a small structure ?

1 Kings 6:38 In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it.

Why did it take 7 years to construct?

1 Chronicles 22:14 I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the LORD a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone. And you may add to them.

Over 7 million pounds of gold and 75 million pounds of silver were required to construct this small structure.

Compare this with Solomon's income:

1 Kings 10:14: 14Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, 15besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land.

All these for a house built with stones and timber.

1 Kings 5:17-18: 17At the king’s command they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones. 18So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the men of Gebal did the cutting and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house.

1 Chronicles 22:14: ...and wood and stone. And you may add to them.

24,000 supervisors and 6,000 officials and judges were employed to manage it.

1 Chronicles 23:2-6: 2David^a assembled all the leaders of Israel and the priests and the Levites. 3The Levites, thirty years old and upward, were numbered, and the total was 38,000 men. 4“Twenty-four thousand of these,” David said,^b“shall have charge of the work in the house of the LORD, 6,000 shall be officers and judges, 54,000 gatekeepers, and 4,000 shall offer praises to the LORD with the instruments that I have made for praise.” 6And David organized them in divisions corresponding to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

Solomon’s Sacrifice

2 Chronicles 7:5 And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand head of cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the people dedicated the temple of God.

2 Chronicles 7:8-9 So Solomon observed the festival at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him—a vast assembly, people from Lebo [a] Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt. On the eighth day they held an assembly, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the festival for seven days more.

That’s 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep in a single week. That’s about 850 animals an hour, 14 every minute.

King Solomon’s Wisdom

1 Kings 10:24, 2 Chronicles 9:23: The whole world sought an audience with Solomon to hear his wisdom.

King Ahaz's Age

2 Kings 16:2, 20, 18:1-2: Ahaz was thirty-six years old when he died. His twenty-five-year-old son Hezekiah succeeded him. Thus Ahaz was a ten or eleven year old father.

Jewish Population

2 Chronicles 13:3: Abijah sent 400,000 men into battle against Jeroboam's 800,000 men. This is a total of 1,200,000 men, all of them Jews. (Note: Assuming one additional woman per man of fighting age, plus two persons per man [either older persons or children] would put the Jewish population of the surrounding area at a minimum of 4,800,000 persons; hardly feasible.)

2 Chronicles 13:17: 500,000 Israelites are slain in a single battle. (Note: This is more than were lost in any single battle of World War II, and even exceeds the number of deaths that resulted from the dropping of the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.)

Isaiah's Prophecy about moon and sun

26The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.

Note: This has never happened, and will not happen in the future because the Gospels told us that during the second coming of the Messiah the both sun and moon will not give their lights (MT 24:29 "...and the moon shall not give her light", Isaiah 13:10 "...and the moon shall not cause her light to shine")

7th day or 10th day?

And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month…Nebuzaradan…came…unto Jerusalem… —2 Kings 25:8

…in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month…came Nebuzaradan…into Jerusalem… —Jeremiah 52:12