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 Chron. iii. 15.
And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits.—1 Kings vii. 16.
The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the chapiter upon it was brass: and the height of the chapiter three cubits; and the wreathen work, and pomegranates upon the chapiter round about, all of brass: and like unto these had the second pillar with wreathen work.—2 Kings xxv. 11.
The discrepancy as to the height of the pillars as given in the book of Kings and in Chronicles is to be reconciled by supposing that in the book of Kings the pillars are spoken of separately, and that in Chronicles their aggregate height is calculated; and the reason that in this latter book their united height is placed at 35 cubits, instead of 36, which would be the double of 18, is because they are there measured as they appear with the chapiters upon them. Now half a cubit of each pillar was concealed in what Dr. Lightfoot calls "the hole of the chapiter," that is, half a cubit's depth of the lower edge of the chapiter covered the top of the pillar, making each pillar apparently only 17½ cubits high, or the two, 35 cubits, as laid down in the book of Chronicles.
In a similar way we reconcile the difference as to the height of the chapiters. In 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles the chapiters are said to be five cubits high, while in 2 Kings their height is described as being only three cubits. But it will be noticed that it immediately follows in the same place, that "there was a wreathen work and pomegranates upon the chapiter round about." Now this expression is conclusive that the height of the chapiters was estimated exclusive and independent of the wreathen work round about them, which was two cubits more, and this added to the three cubits of the chapiter proper, will make the five cubits spoken of in all other parts of Scripture.[1]
- ↑ A cubit was 21 inches. The height of each pillar in English measure was (1 feet 6 inches, and its diameter 7 feet. The height of each chapiter was 8 feet 9 inches, giving a total height of 40 feet 3 inches. The height of the shaft being only four diameters and a half, the pillars bore no resemblance to any of the modern orders of architecture, but were rather an imitation of the massive style of the Egyptians, the lilies on the chapiters being probably an exact copy of the lotus of the Nile, which was a frequent ornamentation among that people.
