The Math of Solomon’s Sea

Back in high school, I heard one student mocking another for saying that the Bible indicated that pi was 3.0. It turned out that he was quoting from the dimensions of the “sea” in Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 7:23-26 and 2 Chronicles 4:2-5): the perimeter was 30 cubits and the diameter was 10 cubits— obviously pi was 3.0.

A check of Geisler & Howe’s The Big Book of Bible Difficulties shows only this “solution”: “This is not an error…the scripture simply provides a reasonable approximation. The rounding of numbers or the reporting of approximate values or measurements was a common practice in ancient times when exact scientific calculations were not used.”

What the student failed to allow for was the thickness of the rim— a handbreadth. The solution is simple if we allow an inside perimeter and an outside diameter. This may seem an odd way to measure, but the perimeter may actually have been taken from the mould rather than the bath or sea itself. And we can use the true value of pi.