Most manuscripts—especially the Masoretic Text—records that 50,070 men were killed. Only a few manuscripts record that 70 were killed. Which is true?
70 men were killed. The 50,070 number is definitely a transmission error. Archer writes, “Note that the alphabetic system of numerical notation needed only a few dots above or below to multiply by one thousand; thus the letter nun with two dots above it would signify 50,000."[] Therefore, we can see that it would be easy to introduce a scribal error here.
James is an elder at Dwell Community Church, where he teaches classes in theology, apologetics, and weekly Bible studies.
