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NASB | 1 Kings 7:23 ¶ Now he made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Kings 7:23 ¶ Now he made the Sea (basin) of cast metal, ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, five cubits high and thirty cubits in circumference. [Ex 30:17-21; 2 Chr 4:6] |
Bible Question: Bible critics use 1Ki 7:23 to argue that the bible has errors. The ratio of the stated circumfrence and diameter do not equal pi. Any insights? |
Bible Answer: Some people have suggested that the passage in 1st Kings 7 gives the Jewish (or even God's) estimation of Pi to be 3. There are several very good books out there on the history of Pi that indicate the Bible gives the value of Pi as 3. In their minds this is a blemish on the Bible. But the notion just won't stick. The passages quoted are not describing Pi, but the Sea constructed during the time of Solomon. 1st Kings 7:23 (and retold in 2nd Chronicles 4:2) relates: "He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it." Since thirty cubits divided by ten cubits equals three, some think this implies the Bible says Pi equals three. I have heard that some ancient rabbis taught that Pi equals three. If they did, they got that 'knowledge' from their own mathematical misunderstanding and not from God's word. This is like asking someone their age. Then when they answer (and most people answer with just the years; not months, days, etc.), saying "Happy Birthday." Just because someone says they are 26, does not mean today is their 26th birthday. Absolute precision is not expected for every question. The two chapters where this story is related do not represent engineering documents for the construction of this sea (a large ceremonial tub, by the way), which would require great precision. Rather, they are descriptions given for those who would read about this later. As a mathematician, I would assume the diameter and circumference given were rounded to the nearest cubit. The concept of decimals is only about four hundred years old. For these ancients to describe the parts of a cubit would not be as easy as it would be for us. They would have to mention a secondary unit also, such as a handbreadth which is used to describe the thickness of the Sea in 1st Kings 7:26. If the diameter and circumference are rounded to the nearest whole cubit, can the numbers given work? Yes. A diameter of ten cubits would represent 9.5 to 10.5 cubits and a circumference of thirty cubits would represent 29.5 to 30.5 cubits. Knowing Pi as we do today, we find that if the diameter were from 9.5 to about 9.71, then the circumference would be about 29.8 to 30.5, both dimensions falling within the rounding we expect. Copyright 2001 members.aol.com/biblepuzle |