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Struggling with OT death counts
Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 2:57 am
by Ian
The number of deaths in the Syrian conflict til now is only somewhere in excess of 100,000. This is after many months and using modern weaponry.
In many parts of the Old Testament figures are given for the number of deaths in a given conflict. For example, 2 Chronicles 13 v 17:
Then Abijah and his people struck them with a great slaughter; so five hundred thousand choice men of Israel fell slain.
It is easy for me to believe the account of the parting of the Red Sea and even the story of the drawing of the animals to the ark. But I struggle with these figures. How is it possible? Any input would be much appreciated.
Re: Struggling with OT death counts
Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 1:33 pm
by mattrose
One possibility (certainly not the only explanation) is that there is a translation issue with the term 'thousand.' I frequently come across in (even conservative) commentaries the possibility that the word could be translated as 'military units' instead of 'thousand.' Then they speculate about how many might be in a unit. If there is merit to this suggestion, it could make a big difference. 500 military units could be a lot less people than 500 thousand people if I unit was, for example, 100 men (500,000 vs. 50,000).
Re: Struggling with OT death counts
Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 2:31 pm
by Paidion
Yes, that is what lexicons say of the Hebrew word "eleph", Matt. But the Septuagint translation renders the Hebrew word as "χιλιας", which can mean only "thousand".
Also, "eleph" occurs 391 times in the Old Testament, and all translations seem to render it as "thousand' in every instance.
Re: Struggling with OT death counts
Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 2:41 pm
by steve7150
It is easy for me to believe the account of the parting of the Red Sea
It is? Because in Ex 12.37 it says 600K men fled Egypt which comes to over 2 million people.
Re: Struggling with OT death counts
Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 3:35 pm
by Ian
well if the Lord can part the Red Sea for one second he can part it for one day, or whatever, Steve. I just have difficulty visualising half a million deaths by sword in one battle. If those men had been instantly taken out by sudden and God-induced heart attacks on the battlefield it would be more believable to me.
Re: Struggling with OT death counts
Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 1:18 am
by TheEditor
Greetings,
I have come across this before and I don't personally have a dog in the fight. It may be a translation issue which some feel is also at play with the Israelite sojourn (let'ts face it, if there were 2 million leaving Egypt, it might be more than a little logistically difficult leaving a camp of 2 million every time you had to to ease nature). However, as far as battles; when I was leaving the JWs one factoid I came across was that, despite what I was taught about more people dieing in warfare in the "last days" of the 20th century than any other time in history, this simply isn't true. Case in point, Napolean lost 400,000 men in his campaign in Russia, that lasted less than a month. And they had no "modern weapons".
Regards, Brenden.