Molten Sea

The fact that it was a wash basin which was too large to enter from above lends to the idea that water would likely have flowed from it down into a subcontainer beneath.

[dubious – discuss] The "molten sea" was made of brass or bronze, which Solomon had taken from the captured cities of Hadarezer, the king of Zobah (1 Chronicles 18:8).

The depth of the sea was five ells, corresponding to the distance of five hundred years' journey between heaven and earth.

[9] The size and shape of this laver are not mentioned anywhere in the Bible, and nor are those of its stand, unlike the case for the Molten Sea.

[10] Solomon is described by the Book of Chronicles as having constructed a special platform in his Temple, for him to use during the opening ceremony.

It must be remembered that all direct and plain references to baptism have been deleted from the Old Testament (1 Nephi 13) and that the word baptize is of Greek origin.

[14]Every temple of the LDS Church contains a baptismal font on twelve oxen which is modeled after the molten sea.

This is consistent with the practice in Babylonian mathematics at the time (6th century BC), but it has given rise to debate within rabbinical Judaism from an early period due to the concern that the biblical text might here be inaccurate.

[15] Rabbi Max Munk pointed to the fact that the word for measuring line in the respective verses (1 Kings 7:23, 2 Chronicles 4:2) is written in two different ways, as קוה and קו.

And if this number, the relation of these two measuring tapes, is multiplied with Solomon's simple pi of 3, the result reads: 3.1416, the value of π accurate to four digits.