Solomon’s Bronze Sea: A Celestial Apsu

In the heart of the First Temple precinct was an enormous bronze sea, decorated with two rows of gourds, that is said to have contained around 12,000 gallons of water:

^{מלכים א ז:כג} וַיַּעַשׂ אֶת הַיָּם מוּצָק עֶשֶׂר בָּאַמָּה מִשְּׂפָתוֹ עַד שְׂפָתוֹ עָגֹל סָבִיב וְחָמֵשׁ בָּאַמָּה קוֹמָתוֹ (וקוה) [וְקָו] שְׁלֹשִׁים בָּאַמָּה יָסֹב אֹתוֹ סָבִיב. ^ז:כד וּפְקָעִים מִתַּחַת לִשְׂפָתוֹ סָבִיב סֹבְבִים אֹתוֹ עֶשֶׂר בָּאַמָּה מַקִּפִים אֶת הַיָּם סָבִיב שְׁנֵי טוּרִים הַפְּקָעִים יְצֻקִים בִּיצֻקָתוֹ.... ^ז:כו וְעׇבְיוֹ טֶפַח וּשְׂפָתוֹ כְּמַעֲשֵׂה שְׂפַת כּוֹס פֶּרַח שׁוֹשָׁן אַלְפַּיִם בַּת יָכִיל.

^{1 Kgs 7:23} Then he made the molten sea, 10 cubits across from brim to brim, completely round; it was 5 cubits high, and it measured 30 cubits in circumference. ^7:24 There were gourds below the brim completely encircling it—ten to a cubit, encircling the tank; the gourds were in two rows, cast in one piece with it…. ^7:26 It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like that of a cup, like the petals of a lily. Its capacity was 2,000 baths.^[1]

The Bible never explains exactly what this bronze sea was, and how it was filled and replenished—water sitting in the open-air courtyard under the scorching sun would evaporate. The 3^rd century C.E. Rabbi Joshua ben Levi suggested that the sea was fed by a water duct or canal:

^{ירושלמי יומא ג:ח} א"ר יהושע בן לוי: "אמת המים היתה מושכת לו מעיטם והיו רגלי שבדרום פחותין כרימונים."

^{j. Yoma 3:8} Rabbi Joshua son of Levi said: “a water canal, that draws from the (pool of) Etam. And the water would exit from the feet of the southernmost bull (upon which the pool stood), which had openings the size of pomegranates.”^[2]

What was the purpose of this bronze sea? The book of Chronicles—which says that the capacity was actually 3,000 baths (2 Chron 4:5)—claims that וְהַיָּם לְרׇחְצָה לַכֹּהֲנִים בּוֹ “the sea served the priests for washing” (2 Chron 4:6). This is enough water to cleanse a veritable army of priests, far more than would have been necessary for the needs of the Jerusalem priesthood.^[3]

The book of Kings, in contrast, never says what the purpose of this sea was. Moreover, surrounding this sea were ten large bronze lavers, which could also be used for washing and purification (1 Kgs 7:37),^[4] begging the question of why the Temple would need such a large, central pool.

ANE Temple Water Basins

Ancient Near Eastern temples also included a large water basin, called an apsû (more on this name below).^[5] For example, one text notes how the gods “Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar are represented (on the boundary stone) before the apsu.”^[6] The area where this basin stood was known as the bīt apsi, “the house of the water basin,” as one text states: “in the bit apsi, where they determine the fate.”^[7]

The temple of Sîn the moon god, in Harran, known É.ḪÚL.ḪÚL “House of Rejoicing,” also held an apsû. We also know that one of the functionaries of another temple of the Moon god, this one at Ur—as in of the Chaldees—was a pašišu-priest of the apsû.^[8]

While this water basin may have been used for washing, its name derives from an ancient Near Eastern creation myth.

The Watery Depths of the Apsu

In an ancient Babylonian legend of creation, Enuma eliš,^[9] which narrates the ascendence of Marduk to king of the gods, the universe begins with two very special watery beings: one masculine (Apsu) and one feminine (Tiamat), which contained the seeds of all somethings that were to be. The story begins:

When skies above were not yet named, nor earth below pronounced by name, Apsu, the first one, their begetter, and maker Tiamat, who bore them all, had mixed their waters together… ^[10]

The mixing of Apsû and Tiamat’s waters are the source from which everything else in creation was formed. As the story continues, the first generations of gods begin to grow inside Tiamat, and the noise they make is so disturbing to her mate, Apsû, that he plots together with his vizier Mummu to destroy them. Tiamat objects to this, but Mummu and Apsû ignore her, plotting the destruction of the gods, but…

Ea, who knows everything, found out their plot, made for himself a design of everything, and laid it out correctly, made it cleverly, his pure spell was superb. He recited it and it still the waters, he poured sleep upon him so that he was sleeping soundly, put Apsû to sleep, drenched him with sleep….

He held Apsû down and slew him, tied up Mummu and laid him across him. He set up his dwelling on top of Apsû… then he rested very quietly inside his private quarters and named them Apsû and assigned chapels, founded his own residence there.

Thus, the Apsû becomes the place where the gods dwell and where their temples are built.^[11] The cosmic water of the Apsû also continued to exist at the edges of creation:

Celestial Apsû, the “waters above the heavens,” a substrate in which stars and planets floated.

Terrestrial Apsû, the “waters under the earth,”, represented by aquafers (referred to as underground rivers) and other subterranean bodies of water.

According to Sumerian legend, both the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers drank via an underground channel from the fountains of Dilmun (=Bahrain)^[12] and then flowed back into Enki/Ea’s apsû.^[13] The omnipresence of this terrestrial apsû under the mountain chains that ringed the fertile crescent and off the coasts gave rise to the idea of the World Encircling River that connected these bodies of water to one another, and via the Hamrin Mountains to the celestial apsû.^[14]

Various Mesopotamian gods were connected with the apsû either because they were specifically associated with terrestrial water, like Enki/Ea—as we saw in Enuma Elish—or because they were planetary divinities like the moon god Sîn, who travels across the celestial apsû in a boat.^[15] Thus, it was common to include a physical representation of the apsû in their temples.

Israel’s Connection to the Apsu

Israelite cosmology was in some conversation with Mesopotamian cosmology. The connection with Genesis 1 is obvious: Tehom (Tiamat) which the Latin Vulgate renders as Abyss (=apsû), is already present before creation and used as the raw material for that creation.^[16] Moreover, Elohim divides between the waters, with some of the primordial waters placed in the heavens and the rest on earth:

^{בראשית א:ו} וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים יְהִי רָקִיעַ בְּתוֹךְ הַמָּיִם וִיהִי מַבְדִּיל בֵּין מַיִם לָמָיִם. ^א:ז וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים אֶת הָרָקִיעַ וַיַּבְדֵּל בֵּין הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר מִתַּחַת לָרָקִיעַ וּבֵין הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר מֵעַל לָרָקִיעַ וַיְהִי כֵן.

^{Gen 1:6} God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water, that it may separate water from water.” ^1:7 God made the expanse, and it separated the water that was below the expanse from the water that was above the expanse. And it was so.

While the Book of Kings is mute about the significance of the bronze sea, it is likely that it represents the “waters above the heavens,” the residue of the original raw material for creation, just as its ancient Near Eastern counterparts do. This would explain the giant size of the bronze sea.

In Israelite religion, YHWH—who was merged with the (Canaanite) deity El in Israelite consciousness—took the place of all other Levantine creator deities, and thus, had control of the celestial apsû, symbolically demonstrated by the building of an apsû in the Temple precincts.^[17] Such waters will have been pure to the highest degree of purity, a perfect medium for ensuring maximal purity for the priests of the Temple in Jerusalem.

The Twelve Bulls

The bronze sea rested on the backs of 12 bulls, with three positioned in each of the four cardinal directions:

^{מלכים א ז:כה} עֹמֵד עַל שְׁנֵי עָשָׂר בָּקָר שְׁלֹשָׁה פֹנִים צָפוֹנָה וּשְׁלֹשָׁה פֹנִים יָמָּה וּשְׁלֹשָׁה פֹּנִים נֶגְבָּה וּשְׁלֹשָׁה פֹּנִים מִזְרָחָה וְהַיָּם עֲלֵיהֶם מִלְמָעְלָה וְכׇל אֲחֹרֵיהֶם בָּיְתָה.

^{1 Kgs 7:25} It stood upon twelve bulls: three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east, with the tank resting upon them; their haunches were all turned inward.

In his commentary on Kings, the Dutch scholar Martin J. Mulder (1923–1994) suggested that the 12 oxen, as arranged, represent the Zodiac.^[18] This explanation, however, does not hold for a First Temple structure since the twelve-sign zodiac only appears in the Neo-Babylonian period (6^th cent. B.C.E.). Instead, the twelve oxen likely represented the twelve-month year, and each month had its associated constellations. (Mesopotamian astrologers had been marking constellations since the 3^rd millennium B.C.E.) This would work well with image of stars and planets swimming in the celestial waters of the apsû.

According to Kings, these bulls were eventually removed by King Ahaz, who needed their copper to pay the king of Assyria:

^{מלכים ב טז:יז} וַיְקַצֵּץ הַמֶּלֶךְ אָחָז אֶת הַמִּסְגְּרוֹת הַמְּכוֹנֹת וַיָּסַר מֵעֲלֵיהֶם ואת אֶת הַכִּיֹּר וְאֶת הַיָּם הוֹרִד מֵעַל הַבָּקָר הַנְּחֹשֶׁת אֲשֶׁר תַּחְתֶּיהָ וַיִּתֵּן אֹתוֹ עַל מַרְצֶפֶת אֲבָנִים. ^טז:יח ...מִפְּנֵי מֶלֶךְ אַשּׁוּר.

^{2 Kgs 16:17} King Ahaz cut off the insets—the laver stands—and removed the lavers from them.^[19] He also removed the tank from the bronze oxen that supported it and set it on a stone pavement— ^16:18 …on account of the king of Assyria.

The Destruction of the Bronze Sea

A passage in the book of Jeremiah implies that the bronze sea survived until the very end of the First Temple period:

^{ירמיה כז:יט} כִּי כֹה אָמַר יְ־הֹוָה צְבָאוֹת אֶל הָעַמֻּדִים וְעַל הַיָּם וְעַל הַמְּכֹנוֹת וְעַל יֶתֶר הַכֵּלִים הַנּוֹתָרִים בָּעִיר הַזֹּאת. ^כז:כ אֲשֶׁר לֹא לְקָחָם נְבוּכַדְנֶאצַּר מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל בַּגְלוֹתוֹ אֶת יְכׇנְיָה (יכוניה) בֶן יְהוֹיָקִים מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה מִירוּשָׁלַ͏ִם בָּבֶלָה וְאֵת כׇּל חֹרֵי יְהוּדָה וִירוּשָׁלָ͏ִם... ^כז:כב בָּבֶלָה יוּבָאוּ וְשָׁמָּה יִהְיוּ עַד יוֹם פׇּקְדִי אֹתָם נְאֻם יְ־הֹוָה וְהַעֲלִיתִים וַהֲשִׁיבֹתִים אֶל הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה.

^{Jer 27:19} For thus said YHWH of Hosts concerning the columns, the sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels remaining in this city, ^27:20 which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon did not take when he exiled King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem… ^27:22 “They shall be brought to Babylon, and there they shall remain, until I take note of them—declares YHWH of Hosts—and bring them up and restore them to this place.”

And Nebuchadnezzar does indeed take apart the bronze sea upon Jerusalem’s destruction following the rebellion (586 B.C.E.):

^{מלכים ב כה:יג יג} וְאֶת עַמּוּדֵי הַנְּחֹשֶׁת אֲשֶׁר בֵּית יְ־הֹוָה וְאֶת הַמְּכֹנוֹת וְאֶת יָם הַנְּחֹשֶׁת אֲשֶׁר בְּבֵית יְ־הֹוָה שִׁבְּרוּ כַשְׂדִּים וַיִּשְׂאוּ אֶת נְחֻשְׁתָּם בָּבֶלָה.

^{2 Kgs 25:13} The Chaldeans broke up the bronze columns of the House of YHWH, the stands, and the bronze sea that was in the House of YHWH; and they carried the bronze away to Babylon.

The Jerusalem Temple and Its Apsû Are Lamented in an Akkadian Tablet

A treatise on natural science (RA 62 52), written in Akkadian cuneiform in ca. 4^th cent. B.C.E. Babylonia, lays out parallels between Mesopotamian and Hellenistic beliefs.^[20] At one point, it refers to the Judean deity YHWH (u-a-ia-e), who, this text claims, is known as “heaven and earth, mountain, sea, and wind”—in other words, the god of all things.^[21] The name YHWH, spelled here u-a-ia-e corresponds to a magical name variously rendered in Hellenistic magical papyri from Egypt as eioiae, eiaeioiae, and even ioeeoaeieaiaiaieea.

The owner of this text, Nabû-šum-lišir, was actually a priest of Nergal, the Mesopotamian god of war and death.^[22] Whether or not Nabû-šum-lišir was of Judean descent, he is syncretizing YHWH with Nergal, as the ultimate creator God here.^[23] The tablet continues by lamenting the destruction of a temple and its apsû:

^{RA 62 52.22–23} The enemy has desecrated the representation of the apsû; fire has consumed the temple (and) it has been heaped up like a pile of ashes.^[24]

This line is copied from a well-known lament, originally composed for the city of Eridu, which had been pillaged and its people slain or carried off into captivity, and its temple, with its apsû desecrated.^[25] Referencing the lament here, after mentioning YHWH as the secret being behind the universe, implies that the lament was reappropriated to refer to Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and its apsû.^[26]