Expert: Brian Thompson - 6/19/2006

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One thing about the Old Testament that has always bothered me. Not the supernatural events-the possibility of supernatural intervention cannot conceivably be estimated by human reason(though the liklihood of a given miracle story might be because of one's knowledge of the circumstances or the witnesses).
Nor is it the creation story-the Darwinists havn't gone anywhere proving themselves despite their claim: and even if they did so, the Bible doesn't claim they were created fully formed. It could be merely the gene programs were created and it is not necessary to interpret Genisis 2 as coming directly after Genisis 1. There could of course not possibly be "ape-man": either it would have a soul in which case it would be a hairy man, or it would not in which case it would be an ape.
What troubles me is the large numbers given in the history accounts. In one it is declared that the King of Israel attacked the king of Judah with an army of 800,000.
Yet as an amateur historian I know perfectly well that it would in fact be impossible even to feed so many before the invention of railroads. They would simply have eaten the countryside dry then starved. Even more actually taking them on a campaign-there was no way they could have controlled them.
One explanation I read is that the Hebrew for thousand in the original is a vague number means roughly "clan", "detachment", or "band" rather than "ten to the third power". That doesn't explain such things as Adino the Eznite who is claimed to have slain 800 men in one day in a passage where no implication of supernatural intervention seems to be recorded.
I realize that faith goes beyond reason. But faith also includes reason(otherwise there would be no point in having seminaries to begin with). Thus I would be interesting in hearing an explanation.   


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without debating the pros and cons, the Bible tells us some interesting truths about ourselves, things that could no have been know, for example God knits us together in our mother's womb,this conforms with the definition of DNA. as to numbers, israel was about 1.5 million men at the time of the Red sea crossing easily one of the largest nations on Earth at that time. They were slowly deminished and conquered by their neighbouds because of thier disobedience and failure to keep the covenant.

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The question was not primarily about the absoulute population but on the ability to field
such large numbers under normal circumstances. Even Herodatus only claims a million for the Great King on the Greek campaign.

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Hi Jason

We know very little about those times excepting what is given to us in the Bible. If we read the account of David we know that the family was responsible for feeding the soldiers. Each man would have taken his own food and campaigns would have been short. We don't often see large armies taken far from their homes and certainly not in the case of Israel which largely confined it's activities to it's own territory. The territory we are speaking of is relatively small if difficult country. We also know that Moses set up a system of command and administration, and that would have been retained. Any modern army has its captains over tens and captains over one hundred and captains over one thousand and they certainly would have been controlled within their clan and tribal groups, but they also would have had every able bodied man from boys of thirteen up, so we have to think on a different scale. What is apparent about numbers is the decline from the Red Sea crossing to the times of the Babylonian invasion. Think about Gaza today, there are over one million people there in that tiny space so the numbers are possible..

My explanation is I take the Bible by faith and I don't try to dissect it. So far all our digging has only confirmed what the Bible says so if it is acurate about one fact why should it not be accurate about another
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My explanation is I take the Bible by faith and I don't try to dissect it.

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Sir, I must protest, that is not only Fidest and Tautalogical but it is insulting. I could have heard that at my church. My asking questions does
not necessarily mean I am impious.

Answer
Jason
the question is lost in the thread if you still have a question please let me know but even if translations have mixed up the meanining the number of Israelites was large relative  to the eqyptians and seen as at threat somewhat like the palistians and the Isrealies today. Israel was an extremely fertile place and is so today the result of volcanic soils. I'm sorry you are insulted but from what base does your problem come. Jewish. I am not jewish but christian therefore I take the New Testament as a guide as to what your church teaches I am not responsible for what they do not teach