2 Chronicles 7:1–3
Fire from heaven at the dedication
Chronicles says fire came down from heaven and consumed the offerings when Solomon finished praying. 1 Kings 8 has no fire. A difference between parallel accounts; all copies of each book agree.
Disputed addition: some witnesses include it, some do not
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ includes the disputed words · ✕ does not include them · ❝ quotes part of them · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
Every witness, in order
Kings
1 Kings 8:54–55 (parallel account, Masoretic Text)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex, quoted here in English.
when Solomon had made an end of praying… he arose… And he stood, and blessed all the congregation
No fire.
Composed c. 4th century BC (debated)
Original Chronicles
No original survives.
Translated c. 2nd century BC
Septuagint, 2 Paraleipomena (library text: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
Contains the fire. One Greek text (Vaticanus type) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
וְהָאֵשׁ יָרְדָה מֵהַשָּׁמַיִם וַתֹּאכַל הָעֹלָה
and the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering
What changed, and why
The fire connects the temple to the tabernacle (Leviticus 9:24) and to Ornan's altar (1 Chronicles 21:26). That Kings lacks it is a literary difference, not a deletion from manuscripts.
What the evidence shows
- Only Chronicles has the fire at Solomon's dedication.
Sources
Related lessons
- Fire, Dedication and Warning →Fire comes down from heaven and consumes the offerings; the glory fills the house; the people bow with faces to the pavement. Solomon dedicates the temple with 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. God appears to him by night: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
- Temple Worship, Priests and Law across the Centuries →Chronicles measures every king by the temple: whether he repaired or neglected it, kept its feasts, honored its priests and Levites, and sought God there. Following the temple through the book shows a cycle of neglect and renewal, and the growing role of Levites, singers and teachers of the law.