14 What is the value of pi in the Bible?
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This article is from the Bible FAQ, by Michael Paul Johnson mpj@ebible.org with numerous contributions by others.
14 What is the value of pi in the Bible?
This is kind of a trivial question, but it seems to surface
quite often. Pi (the ratio of the circumference to the diameter
of a circle) is really not given in the Bible. There is a pair
of references that seem at first glance to indicate that this
value is 3, but a closer reading shows that it really doesn't.
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. Under its brim gourds went around
encircling it ten to a cubit, completely surrounding the sea;
the gourds were in two rows, cast with the rest. It stood on
twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing
south, and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of
them, and all their rear parts turned inward. It was a
handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup,
as a lily blossom; it could hold two thousand baths. - 1 Kings
7:23-26 (NASB)
2 Chronicles 4:2-5 is similar, describing the same temple
furnishing. Since the "sea" was flared "like a lily blossom",
the diameter measurement was made "from brim to brim," but the
circumference measurement was probably a direct measurement made
below the flared brim. If you paid attention in geometry class,
you could compute the amount of the flare of the brim to be
about (10-(30/3.1416 ))/2 = 0.225 cubits (about a handbreadth)
on each side. Construction of a scale model using these
dimensions and description is left as an exercise for the
reader.
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