The main diagonal of a 2.5 cu x 1.5 cu x 1.5 cu (45"x27"x27") rectangular prism would be 59.02", or just shy of 5 feet.
Now, I realize that that doesn’t include the diameter of the staff which requires a little bit more math than I feel like doing right now.
However, we can easily look at the 2-dimensional case, i.e. placing the staff on the floor of the Ark. In this case, the diagonal is 52.48". If we assume a 2" wide staff, the longest staff that would fit in this rectangle would be 50.72" long.
I would be surprised if the maximum length in the 3-d case were less than 55" or at least a 4½ foot staff for Aaron. Notwithstanding that we’ve already decided that the Ark didn’t contain these items…
Sigh. Yes, I considered the fact that it could be squeezed in, from upper right corner to lower left corner. I concluded that would be inelegant; these would be holy relics, after all, they wouldn’t just be forced into a cumbersome position.
However, that’s all gratuitous; the text from the book of Kings is quite clear.
Also, placing a rigid object along the long diagonal of a box will seriously restrict your ability to place anything else in same box, such as, say, a set of stone tablets.
Not really. If the staff was on the bottom, the other stuff could be placed on top of it. The ark was 1.5 cubits high. True, the tablets may not balance well, but they’d probably fit.
My argument was that the arrangement would be possible but inelegant, and therefore not likely. Holy objects tend to be arranged neatly, not just crammed in because they could fit.
However, all that was an aside. The basics were that the Hebrew text of the Bible is quite clear that NOTHING was in the Ark other than the stone tablets. The staff and jar of manna were BESIDE the Ark. The other arguments (about the manna rotting and the staff not fitting) were just me trying to argue logic in an area that is inherently not logical.
I accept chastisement for speculation and won’t do it again.
I suddenly have visions of Mel Brooks trying to fit in the stone tablets in the Ark of the covenant. “Damn! this second table just won’t fit, so we’ll have to break off the end of it. Ten commandments is a nice round number anyway.”
