John W Burgeson wrote:
> I just ran across an interesting article on "pi in the Bible.'
>
> It is at
>
> http://www.math.ubc.ca/people/faculty/israel/bpi/bpi.html
>
> Warning -- it is "scholarly" and not easy reading.
>
This is indeed interesting & scholarly but there's a huge
logical jump involved. Essentially the argument is that in I Kg.7:23
the Masoretic text has the word QVH, "line", but it's to be read QV.
(There are a number of examples of this in the Hebrew Bible. On this
see the footnote in _Biblia Hebraica_.) Now the numerical value of QVH
= 100 + 6 + 5 = 111 while that of QV = 100 + 6 = 106. The ratio of the
these is 111/106 = 1.04717, and if you multiply this by the value of pi
gotten from a straightforward reading, 3, you get 3.1415, which is a
good approximation.
OK - but WHY are the two numerical values to be combined in this
way & multiplied by 3?
The authors of this article don't attempt to give a reason. (At least I
didn't see one in my quick reading.) Absent some rationale for this, I
can't see the result as anything more than a coincidence.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy
"The Science-Theology Dialogue"
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