And he made the Sea of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; [it was] completely round. Its height [was] five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. 1 Kings 7:23The object described above was a round bowl to be used in the first Jewish temple. King Solomon hired Hiram, a Phoenician, to design and supervise the building of temple and the instruments used within. The critique is that the circumference and diameter given in 1 King 7:23 does not equal Pi (3.14) but instead equals 3 and is therefore inaccurate. The logic is that if there are errors in the bible how can it be trusted?
First let me say I'm terrible when it comes to math, so I'm not going to do some fancy calculations. Others have claimed to have worked it out to 3.14 so I'll leave that to them. Instead I'll point out a few observations on the matter:
*Hiram was just a man and was therefore capable of making mistakes. To err is human.
*Measurements were not standardized back then. The length of a cubit varied greatly.
*Precise measurements were rarely needed back then like they are now.
In conclusion there's no reason why a bowl's ratio needed to be exactly 3.14. It's a trivial matter at best and has no bearing on more important theological issues.
