17Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, "Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth's vine, because its grapes are ripe." 19The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God's wrath. 20They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses' bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.
I was curious when I read this verse a while back.. I thought to myself 'How many people would it take to fill a hole 200 miles long 5 feet deep with blood.?' I began to do the mathematical conclusions on a scrap piece of paper. Before I give you the information, here are two concerns I have
1) My calculations are by no means exact so If you see the need for correction, let me know.
2) This is not a prophetic interpretation.
That being said, Here is what I came up with:
1,600 stadia roughly equals 200 miles
A horses bridle is a measurement meaning approx. 5 feet.
200 miles
5 feet
A slight problem arises. we know that the distance is 200 miles long and 5 feet deep. what we don't know is how wide the pool of blood is. To overcome this problem, I'll give you several calculations based on different widths.
An average human body (150 pounds) has 5.5 quarts of blood
There are 29.92 quarts in a cubic foot
That means that it takes 5.44 people to fill a cubic foot with blood. (calculation= 29.92/5.5)
Still with me?
There are 6080 feet in a mile. So in 200 miles there are 1216000 feet. (Calculation= 6080 * 200)
5 feet
1,216,000 feet
6,080,000 cubic feet if the 200 miles were only 1 foot wide.
