Earthling
David Henson
It is often suggested, among unbelievers, that the writers of the Bible at 1 Kings 7:23 and 2 Chronicles 4:2, where the molten sea, which is circular, in the courtyard of Solomon's temple, was, in fact, ten cubits from the brim to brim and "it took a line of thirty cubits to circle all around it" can not be mathematically correct because it is impossible to have any circle with these two values.
It's crucial to recognize that the decimal point didn't exist at that time and so it would have been pointless (pun intended) to refer to it that way. Bible commentator Christian Wordsworth said: "Up to the time of Archimedes [third century B.C.E.], the circumference of a circle was always measured in straight lines by the radius; and Hiram would naturally describe the sea as thirty cubits round, measuring it, as was then invariably the practice, by its radius, or semi diameter, of five cubits, which being applied six times round the perimeter, or 'brim,' would give the thirty cubits stated. There was evidently no intention in the passage but to give the dimensions of the Sea, in the usual language that every one would understand, measuring the circumference in the way in which all skilled workers, like Hiram, did measure circles at that time. He, of course, must however have known perfectly well, that as the polygonal hexagon thus inscribed by the radius was thirty cubits, the actual curved circumference would be somewhat more."
Using reason and research over baseless speculation of the skeptic the Bible student knows that the molten sea was 10 cubits, or 15 feet in diameter and it took a line of 30 cubits, or 45 feet to encompass it. A ratio, by the way, of three was adequate for the sake of record at that time.
It's crucial to recognize that the decimal point didn't exist at that time and so it would have been pointless (pun intended) to refer to it that way. Bible commentator Christian Wordsworth said: "Up to the time of Archimedes [third century B.C.E.], the circumference of a circle was always measured in straight lines by the radius; and Hiram would naturally describe the sea as thirty cubits round, measuring it, as was then invariably the practice, by its radius, or semi diameter, of five cubits, which being applied six times round the perimeter, or 'brim,' would give the thirty cubits stated. There was evidently no intention in the passage but to give the dimensions of the Sea, in the usual language that every one would understand, measuring the circumference in the way in which all skilled workers, like Hiram, did measure circles at that time. He, of course, must however have known perfectly well, that as the polygonal hexagon thus inscribed by the radius was thirty cubits, the actual curved circumference would be somewhat more."
Using reason and research over baseless speculation of the skeptic the Bible student knows that the molten sea was 10 cubits, or 15 feet in diameter and it took a line of 30 cubits, or 45 feet to encompass it. A ratio, by the way, of three was adequate for the sake of record at that time.