“After weaning him, she took him up with her, along with three young bulls, a bushel of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of Adonai in Shiloh, even though he was just a child. After the bull had been slaughtered, the child was brought to ‘Eli;and she said, “My lord, as sure as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here near you, praying to Adonai.”-1 Samuel 1:24-26
Alrighty, today I wanna issue out the final death blow to those idiot scholars who say Hannah brought a 3-year old bull instead of 3 bulls to sacrifice at Shiloh…
And let me be clear, the reason I’m calling these scholars idiots is because they completely ignore the Torah-based evidence which I think STRONGLY supports the plain reading of the text that there were three bulls and NOT one.
Ya feel me?
Okay, let’s get on with it.
So we’re told that a “bushel of flour” was brought as the required MINCHAH or grain offering.
Recall from our studies in Leviticus that the OLAH and the MINCHAH were always offered up together as a pair.
In addition, even though the Complete Jewish Bible says a “bushel of flour”, the original Hebrew here is an EPHAH of flour.
Now I dunno if you’re aware of this homies, but one EPHAH is a whopping HUGE amount of flour!
My point is it’s WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much for just one bull sacrifice.
See, the Torah requires different amounts of flour depending on which animal is sacrificed.
According to the Law of Moses, a bull was to be sacrificed with no less than 3/10ths of an EPHAH of flour…
Which means 3 bulls at minimum would require 9/10ths of an EPHAH.
This means one full EPHAH of flour would be close to the perfect amount needed for the sacrifice of 3 bulls.
Are you catching what I’m laying down here?
The amount of flour that Hannah brought fits perfectly with 3 bulls and NOT one 3-year old bull.
Are ya feeling me?
Now some folks will point out that since the word “bull” in verse 25 is in the singular form, it’s proof that she only brought one bull.
I’m like what in the heck are you talking about?
Honestly, I don’t see how that’s evidence of anything.
Verse 25 is referring to the 3rd bull!
The context isn’t about the whole family traveling up to Shiloh for the festival.
The context is Hannah bringing Samuel to Eli after she fulfilled the conditions of her vow.
And the final act before releasing Samuel to the priesthood was her performing the vow offering…
Which was the THIRD BULL!
There’s no contradiction anywhere.
Alrighty, that does it for today.
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