biblical observations II: god LOVES to barbecue especially in july

i'm back again with another bible post (see my first here). why? because the bible is funny. also, i like math and since i'm STILL reading to book, Numbers (i remind you, this is my bathroom reading), there are some numbers i think are interesting. this post related to the burnt offerings. i'm not sure of the best way to format this, so i'll just go with my gut. oh yeah, be prepared... this is going to get long, but stay with it. you don't have to read the details of everything, but i'm gonna tally everything up at the end and convert it into REAL units. THAT will be interesting.

but first some notes and clarifications. all this data comes from Numbers 29-30. for some reason, the biblical people didn't know how to reduce fractions, so often times you see things like 2/10 of a such-and-such. also, the ephah is not precisely known. depending on the text, it varies from 5-9 gallons (dry), but we will be conservative and use 5 gallons per ephah. 1 hin = 1 gallon, and all sacrifices should be animals in their first year and with no blemishes. i have to make an assumption as the oil and wine offerings aren't explicit in anything past the daily offer, so i'll assume for every 1/10 ephah of flour, they mix 1/4 hin of oil and 1/4 hin of wine is alotted per lamb unless otherwise explicitly stated in the text. i also noted that god likes to barbecue on july.

for those of you who don't want the details, just the breakdown, click here to go the the analysis.

(A) the daily offering

• 2 lambs
• 2/10 ephah of flour
• 2/4 hin of fine pressed oil
• 1/2 hin of wine (1/4 hin per lamb)

(B) the sabbath offering

• 2 lambs
• 2/10 ephah flour
• 1/2 hin oil
• 1/2 hin wine

(C) the monthly offering

• 2 bulls
• 1 ram
• 7 lambs
• 1 goat
• 6/10 ephah of flour for the bulls
• 2/10 ephah of flour for the ram
• and 7/10 ephah of flour for the lambs
• 6/4 hin of oil for the bulls
• 2/4 hin of oil for the ram
• 7/4 hin of oil for the lambs
• 1 hin of wine for the bulls
• 1/3 hin of wine for the ram
• 7/4 hin of wine for the lambs

(D) feast of weeks (the first harvest)

• 2 bulls
• 1 ram
• 7 lambs
• 1 goat
• 6/10 ephah of flour for the bulls
• 2/10 ephah of flour for the ram
• 7/10 ephah of flour for the lambs
• 6/4 hin of oil for the bulls
• 2/4 hin of oil for the ram
• 7/4 hin of oil for the lambs
• 1 hin of wine for the bulls
• 1/3 hin of wine for the ram
• 7/4 hin of wine for the lambs

(E) feast of trumpets (1 july)

• 1 bull
• 1 ram
• 7 lambs
• 1 goat
• 3/10 ephah of flour for the bull
• 2/10 ephah of flour for the ram
• 7/10 ephah of flour for the lambs
• 6/4 hin of oil for the bulls
• 2/4 hin of oil for the ram
• 7/4 hin of oil for the lambs
• 1/2 hin of wine for the bulls
• 1/3 hin of wine for the ram
• 7/4 hin of wine for the lambs

(F) passover (14 january for 7 days)

• 2 bulls
• 1 ram
• 7 lambs
• 1 goat
• 6/10 ephah of flour for the bulls
• 2/10 ephah of flour for the ram
• 7/10 ephah of flour for the lambs
• 6/4 hin of oil for the bulls
• 2/4 hin of oil for the ram
• 7/4 hin of oil for the lambs
• 1 hin of wine for the bulls
• 1/3 hin of wine for the ram
• 7/4 hin of wine for the lambs

(G) day of atonement (10 july)

• 1 bull
• 1 ram
• 7 lambs
• 1 goat
• 3/10 ephah of flour for the bull
• 2/10 ephah of flour for the ram
• 7/10 ephah of flour for the lambs
• 6/4 hin of oil for the bulls
• 2/4 hin of oil for the ram
• 7/4 hin of oil for the lambs
• 7/4 hin of wine for the lambs

(H) feast of the tabernacle (15 july for 8 days)
day 1:

• 13 bulls
• 2 rams
• 14 lambs
• 1 goat
• 39/10 ephah of flour for the bulls
• 4/10 ephah of flour for the ram
• 14/10 ephah of flour for the lambs
• 78/4 hin of oil for the bulls
• 4/4 hin of oil for the ram
• 14/4 hin of oil for the lambs
• 13/2 hin of wine for the bulls
• 2/3 hin of wine for the ram
• 14/4 hin of wine for the lambs

day 2:

• 12 bulls
• 2 rams
• 14 lambs
• 1 goat
• 36/10 ephah of flour for the bulls
• 4/10 ephah of flour for the ram
• 14/10 ephah of flour for the lambs
• 72/4 hin of oil for the bulls
• 4/4 hin of oil for the ram
• 14/4 hin of oil for the lambs
• 12/2 hin of wine for the bulls
• 2/3 hin of wine for the ram
• 14/4 hin of wine for the lambs

day 3:

• 11 bulls
• 2 rams
• 14 lambs
• 1 goat
• 33/10 ephah of flour for the bulls
• 4/10 ephah of flour for the ram
• 14/10 ephah of flour for the lambs
• 66/4 hin of oil for the bulls
• 4/4 hin of oil for the ram
• 14/4 hin of oil for the lambs
• 11/2 hin of wine for the bulls
• 2/3 hin of wine for the ram
• 14/4 hin of wine for the lambs

day 4:

• 10 bulls
• 2 rams
• 14 lambs
• 1 goat
• 30/10 ephah of flour for the bulls
• 4/10 ephah of flour for the ram
• 14/10 ephah of flour for the lambs
• 60/4 hin of oil for the bulls
• 4/4 hin of oil for the ram
• 14/4 hin of oil for the lambs
• 10/2 hin of wine for the bulls
• 2/3 hin of wine for the ram
• 14/4 hin of wine for the lambs

day 5:

• 9 bulls
• 2 rams
• 14 lambs
• 1 goat
• 27/10 ephah of flour for the bulls
• 4/10 ephah of flour for the ram
• 14/10 ephah of flour for the lambs
• 54/4 hin of oil for the bulls
• 4/4 hin of oil for the ram
• 14/4 hin of oil for the lambs
• 9/2 hin of wine for the bulls
• 2/3 hin of wine for the ram
• 14/4 hin of wine for the lambs

day 6:

• 8 bulls
• 2 rams
• 14 lambs
• 1 goat
• 24/10 ephah of flour for the bulls
• 4/10 ephah of flour for the ram
• 14/10 ephah of flour for the lambs
• 48/4 hin of oil for the bulls
• 4/4 hin of oil for the ram
• 14/4 hin of oil for the lambs
• 8/2 hin of wine for the bulls
• 2/3 hin of wine for the ram
• 14/4 hin of wine for the lambs

day 7:

• 7 bulls
• 2 rams
• 14 lambs
• 1 goat
• 21/10 ephah of flour for the bulls
• 4/10 ephah of flour for the ram
• 14/10 ephah of flour for the lambs
• 42/4 hin of oil for the bulls
• 4/4 hin of oil for the ram
• 14/4 hin of oil for the lambs
• 7/2 hin of wine for the bulls
• 2/3 hin of wine for the ram
• 14/4 hin of wine for the lambs

day 8:

• 1 bull
• 1 ram
• 7 lambs
• 1 goat
• 3/10 ephah of flour for the bulls
• 2/10 ephah of flour for the ram
• 7/10 ephah of flour for the lambs
• 3/4 hin of oil for the bulls
• 2/4 hin of oil for the ram
• 7/4 hin of oil for the lambs
• 1/2 hin of wine for the bulls
• 1/3 hin of wine for the ram
• 7/4 hin of wine for the lambs

and now for the math. we are told that no matter if it is a special holiday or whatnot, you always do your standard sacrifices (daily, sabbath, monthly) in conjunction with any special holiday (feast of week, passover, etc.), so the equation to determine how many sacrificed were made in a year is fairly simple:
365A + 52B + 12C + D + E + 7F + G + ΣH
(Σ being the symbol for summation since H varies with time).

this turns out to be an ASTOUNDING amount of WASTED meat, wine, oil, and flour that could've been given to the ethiopians.

final annual tally:

• 113 bulls
• 37 rams
• 1093 lambs
• 30 goats
• 150.60 gallons (dry) of flour
• 376.50 gallons (wet) of oil
• 341.96 gallons (wet) of wine

now what is that in real life terms? bull and lamb stats from here and here.

assuming you get 500 lbs (8000 oz) of meat from a 1200 lb bull, and a typical portion is 10 ounces, that is 800 steaks/bull multiplied by 113 bulls in a year, so that's 90,400 steaks in a year. 3 steaks a day means ~30,000 people fed for a year from the cows alone.

for the lambs, we'll assume 60 lbs (960 oz) per lamb times 1093 lambs, 10 oz lambsteaks = 104928 steaks, and that is another nearly 35,000 people fed for a year.

i found some sketchy stats on meat goats and estimated about 38 lbs/goat. 30 goats is 13,440 oz = 1344 steaks, so about 550 fed for a year on goats.

i can't find stats on rams, so bear with me. i'll have to estimate they are bigger than lambs but probably more sinew and gristle, so i'll say you get the same amount of meat. i think i'm erring low on this, but it works. so 960 oz * 37 rams / 10 oz steaks / 3 meals per day = 1184 people fed for a year.

i'm not even going into the wine, oil and flour. those are side dishes. and i'm guessing vegetarians were few and far between back then (again i could be wrong).

so for their god, israel sacrificed enough food to feed almost 67,000 people FOR A WHOLE YEAR. but hey, when your god likes the smell of a barbecue, you bring out the grill.

if you wanna see the details, go here. thanks for your time, hope you like the analysis.