I am currently reading through 1 Kings. Today I was mulling over chapter 7 and in particular wondering what 'the sea' is that is mentioned in verse 23. Of course wanting to study the passage well and understand I looked to the trusty(?) internet to get an idea. What I found astonished me.
There is a whole theory that the Bible has been proved to be false because when you look at the ratio of the seas diameter to it's circumference, the result is not pi but 3!!! Pi being calculated by dividing the circumference by the diameter.
To counter this there are several apologetic websites (the best of which I have linked here) that argue the fact that cubits were not precise readings, with decimal places, they were in fact the measurement between a man's elbow and his fingertips.
I couldn't help but find this a little amusing that people so want the bible to be objectionable that they will scour the words to find these sort of alleged imperfections.
2 comments:
It is of course a fairly good approximation, and reflects that they were perhaps not so detail obsessed as we can be...
"wood for the trees"
ahhh, pi. one reason why they wouldnt get quite the right measurements is that theyre also assuming the earth is a sphere, but the earth is not a sphere - its wider than it is tall. so your radii/diameters/circumferences will be totally different depending on where on the earth you start measuring from.
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