The TNIV and the world's largest building

Just when I thought my study of the TNIV was finished, I came across something in Ezekiel that I really thought I should comment on--because in this case, I believe the TNIV deserves at least some credit for excellence in translation. I'm sorry I can't supply a link to the passage at tniv.info; the old site appears to have been taken off-line by biblica.com.

First of all, let me acknowledge that the Masoretic text in Ezekiel 40-47 appears to have some problems. In 40:44, for example, a room by the East Gate faces North. Funny, because it's in opposition to a room by the North Gate that faces South. I'm forced to go with the Septuagint on this one, which has a South room opening to the North, across from the North room that opens toward the South. The NIV/TNIV, as it turns out, came to the same conclusion. Pretty much the same problem occurs again in 42:4-13, with identical resolution.

Of the textual changes made by the CBT in this passage, I'm comfortable saying at first glance that they were for the better. The defects in the Masoretic Text are obvious, as are the CBT's solutions--that is, until we get to the dimensions of the Temple in 42:16-20.

I'll give the passage in several different versions, to show the difficulty:

MT (as translated by Young):
He hath measured the east side with the measuring-reed, 500 reeds, with the measuring-reed round about.
He hath measured the north side, 500 reeds, with the measuring reed round about.
The south side he hath measured, 500 reeds, with the measuring-reed.
He hath turned round unto the west side, he hath measured 500 reeds with the measuring-reed.
At the four sides he hath measured it, a wall to it all round about, the length 500, and the breadth 500, to separate between the holy and the profane place.

KJV:
He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about.
He measured the north side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about.
He measured the south side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed.
He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.
He measured it by the four sides: it had a wall round about, five hundred reeds long, and five hundred broad, to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place.
[KJV footnote has “Heb.: wind” for ‘side’ in v. 16, but it’s actually the same in all five verses.]

Septuagint (as translated by Brenton)
And he stood behind the gate looking eastward, and measured 500 with the measuring reed.
And he turned to the north and measured in front of the north, 500 with the measuring reed.
And he turned to the sea, and measured in front of the sea, 500 with the measuring reed.
And he turned to the south, and measured in front of the south side, 500 with the measuring reed.
The four sides to the same reed, and he marked out the house and the circumference of the parts round about, 500 eastward, and a breadth of 500 cubits, to make a division between the sanctuary and the outer wall, to the design of the house.

TNIV:
He measured the east side with the measuring rod; it was five hundred cubits [Footnote: Septuagint; Hebrew rods].
He measured the north side; it was five hundred cubits [Footnote: Septuagint; Hebrew rods] by the measuring rod.
He measured the south side; it was five hundred cubits [Footnote: Septuagint; Hebrew rods] by the measuring rod.
Then he turned to the west side and measured; it was five hundred cubits [Footnote: Septuagint; Hebrew rods] by the measuring rod.
So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall around it, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to separate the holy from the common.
[Footnote: Five hundred cubits equal about 850 feet or about 260 meters]

To begin with, there are a couple of problems with the TNIV figures. Five Hundred Cubits, as defined in the note at 40:5, comes out to about 875 feet, not 850. The conversion factor apparently being used in chapter 42 is 20.4 rather than 21 inches. The note at 40:5 yields a 20-inch cubit as calculated for the length of the rod, yet claims to be using a figure of 21 inches! The standard of precision waffles around a bit too much for comfort.

Secondly, there’s a huge difference in the area of the temple court between the Hebrew and Greek texts; the figures differ by a factor of thirty-six. Is it 500 cubits (875 feet) or 500 reeds (almost a mile) square? The latter seems incredible (almost three times the size of the entire city of Old Jerusalem), the former quite reasonable (about half the size of the current Temple Mount). The answer lies in resolving the textual problem, but it wasn’t handled very well by the TNIV notes.

The TNIV correctly notes that in vv. 16, 17, 18, and 19 that the Hebrew text reads ‘rods’ (except that the word is actually 'reeds'). However, its claim that the Greek version reads ‘cubits’ in those verses appears to be false. Furthermore, there is no explicit textual support in either language for reading either 'reeds' or 'cubits' twice in v. 20. The Septuagint only mentions ‘cubits’ one time, for the last measurement in v. 20. The other five uses are contextually supplied on that sole basis. Furthermore, in one of my editions of the Masoretic Text, even the Hebrew reads ‘cubits’. I’ll have to investigate that further, but it should have been mentioned if the textual support in the Hebrew was at least as explicit as that in the Greek.*

In the matter of directions and measurements, I tend to agree with the TNIV translation for this passage, but the way it is defended in the notes only leads to confusion.

*UPDATE to add: Apparently it's a marginal reading in the MT v. 16. "Kethib" reads 'five cubits reeds' and "Qere" reads 'five hundred reeds'. There is no reading of 'five hundred cubits' in printed editions of either language, margin or text, for v. 17-19. Therefore the textual decision had to be made on the basis of internal rather than external evidence. And despite its claims to conservatism, the TNIV changes the meaning of the Masoretic Text, even without adequate support from the Septuagint, in a way that is characteristic of rationalism--not faith. The KJV speaks of the World's Largest Building; in the TNIV, it has been shrunk down to a size, we suspect, commensurate with the faith of the translators.