While many may disparage the SAB for its attacks on Biblical literalism, some things cannot be disputed about it, that clearly show the human nature of the book. Some things throw the whole idea of a unified work into disorder. A classic example from the SAB is the comparison of 1 Kings 4:26 and 2 Chronicles 9:25
"And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots." - 1 Kings 4:26
"And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots." - 2 Chronicles 9:25
Based on their similarity, it would seem reasonable to assume that both 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles share at least one common source. The obvious typo, however, between four thousand and forty thousand, seems very much like a human error.
Other human errors between 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles:
- 1 King 5:16 and 2 Chronicles 2:18 (number of overseers)
- 1 King 7:15 and 2 Chron 3:15 (height of pillars)
- 1 King 7:25 and 2 Chron 4:5 (number of baths)
- 1 King 9:23 and 2 Chron 8:10 (number of officers)
- 1 King 9:27-8 and 2 Chron 8:18 (amount of gold from Hiram)
- 1 King 15:2 and 2 Chron 13:1-2 (maternal grandfather of Abijam)
- 1 King 16:6-8 and 2 Chron 16:1 (when Baasha died)
Between just these two books, there are these several glaring contradictions that deal with numbers alone. While both these books seem to be based on a similar story, the number of mathematical errors show the all too human source of these tales. It is as though the story was passed down for a number of generations, then recorded by two separate people. The SAB makes finding differences like this relatively simple, despite its seeming flaws.