Kent makes a 6-minute presentation to the assembly on Wednesday evening, 2009 March 18.
Last Updated on Sunday, 22 March 2009 22:56
Six Flags Retreat
Written by Administrator
Wednesday, 30 April 2008 10:18
Six Flags retreat. Attending members will meet at the church building at 7:30.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 22 July 2009 20:47
Devotional at the Bonners'
Written by Administrator
Sunday, 29 June 2008 19:12
Devotional at the Bonners, Friday evening, 25 June 2009, starting at 6pm. Be there!
Last Updated on Thursday, 25 June 2009 12:49
Solomon's Molten Sea and the value of Pi
Written by Administrator
Wednesday, 30 April 2008 09:59
Difficulty
Here's how one writer put it:
Geometry class escapes religious fundamentalist scrutiny, too, as a careful reading of Second Kings reveals. The circular altar in Solomon's temple, we're told, is nine cubits in diameter and 27 cubits around the rim. Except that makes Pi an even three-point-zero instead of 3.1416. Oops.
Response
Interesting. I just used the Debian program "bible-kjv" to search for "cubits" and "nine", and found no hits. Vaguely remembering the story, I searched for "sea" and "cubits", and found the story I believe you're referencing.
It's not in Second Kings. It's in 1 Kings 7:23ff, and 2 Chronicles 4:2ff.
It's not 9 and 27 cubits. It's 10 and 30.
It's not a circular altar. It's a circular "molten sea".
And perhaps the most significant issue; this sea had a "brim", like a cup, which was as wide as a hand (1 Kings 7:26). The measurement of the circumference was done by a line (v. 2). I suspect that most people running a string around a huge cup would place the string just under the brim. So, assuming a hand is 4 inches wide, and a cubit is 18 inches, we have 540 / 172 = 3.1395...; that's pretty close to Pi, well within the margin of error for hand-size, or string-stretch, etc.
Last Updated on Friday, 20 March 2009 18:11
Biblical Water Tunnel Found
Written by Kent West
Saturday, 15 November 2008 08:40
According to the Jerusalem Post, the "gutter" or "water shaft" ("tsinor" in the article) mentioned in 2 Samuel 5:6-8 has been found by archaeologists. Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig, said that oil lamps from the end of the First Temple period were found in the tunnel. Mazar has also previously found "remnants of a wall from the prophet Nehemiah in the area, and two seal impressions belonging to ministers of King Zedekiah".
