And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and its height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference.
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Bede
AD 735
“He also made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, completely round.” This molten sea was made as a figure of the laver of salvation in which we are cleansed for the remission of our sins. For priests were washed in it, as the Chronicles assure us; but it is agreed that all the elect are called priests in a typological sense in the Scriptures since they are members of the high priest Jesus Christ. And rightly has Scripture given the name of sea to this vessel, in memory, that is, of the Red Sea in which once, through the destruction of the Egyptians and the deliverance of the people of God, the form of baptism was anticipated, as the apostle explains when he says, “that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all in Moses were baptized in the cloud and in the sea.” Now the sacrament of baptism both requires of us purity of life and promises us the glory of eternal life in the world to come, both of which things are denoted in this bronze sea in...
Brim, in diameter. The circumference was about 30 cubits; for it is not exactly three times as much as the diameter. (Calmet)
The latter is as 7 to 22, with respect to the circumference. But the Scripture takes no notice of trifles. (Menochius)
