Skeptics take issue and say that either God didn't know the value for "pi" (3.1415927....) or else it proves that the Bible was written by men, and at the time they had no understanding of the relationship of :

The following is an exact possible solution:

1 Kings 7:23 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. (NASB)

Skeptics and non-believers, along with many who think the Bible is well worth studying, read the above verse and think to themselves that this is nonsense. Everyone who has completed High School knows that the circumference of a circle is "pi x diameter" or "pi x 2 x radius". So if the circumference were 30 cubits, and the diameter were 10 cubits, then the ancient value of pi was 3.0, which is not very good.

What I want the reader to think about is whether the text tells you inside diameter or outside diameter, and whether the circumference given is inside circumference or outside circumference?

To get the full picture, we need to know the thickness of the large cast metal container, and that's shown a few verses down in 1 Kings 7:26.

1 Kings 7:26 And it was a handbreath thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom; it could hold 2000 baths.

The following graphic from a top view, shows what it would look like, although I am leaving off the fluting of the top of the brim. The thickness of the metal tub or sea was a handbreath.

We all understand that there was fluting outward at the top, like a teacup, but we don't know how far down it started curving outwards. Likewise, the bottom of the sea probably was not abruptly a 90 degree corner, but was probably rounded. While these points would make the analysis more correct, we can ignore them for the purposes of this problem concerning the value of "pi".

The mistake that people make when reading 1 Kings 7:23, is to assume that the value of 10 cubits is the inside diameter, and 30 cubits is the inside circumference; or they assume that both are the outside parameters.

Let's take a look at the situation where 10 cubits is the outside diameter, and 30 cubits is the inside circumference.

First, what is a cubit? 1 cubit = 18 inches (distance from elbow to fingertip)

Since I consider myself an average size man, I measured my own handbreath and it is slightly over 4 inches. I have a good engineering ruler with hundreths of an inch, and my handbreath is ~4.05 inches.

Let's compare our calculated value of 3.1414 to the real value of "pi", which is 3.1415927. Actually, the parameters given in 1 Kings 7:23-26 gives a direct value for "pi" that is within 2 parts in 10,000. I would call that fairly accurate.

Since the outside diameter of the sea is 10 cubits, what is the inside diameter?

And, since the inside circumference is 30 cubits, what is the outside circumference?

Mystery Solved, the ancient people did have an understanding of PI. In fact, there is no way other than as done in the scriptures, where someone can give two even measurements of the sea and do it with economy of language (using the figures of 30 and 10 cubits to describe all the measurements of the molten sea).

New Subject: The text above mentions 2000 baths; and how many gallons are in the sea? And how many gallons in 1 bath?

First, a couple of liquid measurements to ease the calculations:

1 US gallon = 231 cubic inches = 3.7856 liters

1 cubic cubit = 18 x 18 x 18 = 5832 cubic inches = 25.24675 gallons

From the above scriptures, we know now that the inside circumference of the molten sea at the Temple of Solomon was 30 cubits, and the depth was 5 cubits. The area of a circle is = pi x radius squared, and the volume of the sea = area of the circle x depth.

therefore, 2000 baths = 358.0989 cubic cubits = (358.0989 x 25.24675) gallons = 9040.8 gallons