Where in the old testament is there a refrence to the number pi?

(ii) Provide some evidence demonstrating a particular ancient culture's understanding of pi as a constant.

Example: "Also, he made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and five cubits the height thereof; and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about." - from the Old Testament of the Bible: 1 Kings 7:23 & 2 Chronicles 4:2

That is cool, I never looked at that one that way before mozart. But the example of pi that I know of is not the one that you mentioned.

Beth Peor. Beth is translated "house of," and the first three letters of the last portion, peh, ayin, vaw could very easily be transliterated as "pi." Hence, "house of pi."

intresting SR. Didn't think of that before. I'll give a hint. It's a city that takes three days to walk all the way around it, and one day to walk to the center of the city from the edge, what city is it, and where is it mentioned?

Clarification requested:
Since pi is the ratio of circumference to diameter (not radius) of a circle, perhaps you mean it takes a day's walk from edge to edge through the center?

Are we talking about Ninevah? Jonah 3:3

Yes Jenny, that is what I was refering to and you are correct!

I don't want to be the Devil's advocate,Leppi, but this site claims that the wall around the city of Nineveh was a little over 12 km, in other words about 7.5--8 miles long.

Three days seem to be very slow. Can you clarify?

http://ebible.org/bible/web/Jonah.htm

This site has a copy of the book of Jonah, and look at 3:3 as Jenny mentioned. Thier are different explinations of the passage one of which says, It's a city that takes three days to walk all the way around it, and one day to walk to the center of the city from the edge,

"and one day to walk to the center of the city from the edge"--Leppi


Well then,as mentioned by Professor, that would make a "radius" not "diameter" where is "pi" represented?

Leppi:

I followed your link to the passage in question and found this:

quote:

---

3:3 ...Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across. 3:4 Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out...

---

I'm no Talmudic scholar or Biblical expert, but this English translation doesn't say anything about walking around the city, nor is there any hint of walking from its edge to its center. I would conclude simply that Jonah took a day to walk about one third of the way across the city.

So what are we talkig about, and what has this to do with pi?

At any rate, the cited passage certainly does not imply a clearly wrong value for pi as does, say, 1 Kings 7:23, already cited by mozart56.

Returning to the original question of pi and the Bible: I consulted two popular books on the history of pi: The Joy of Pi by David Blatner (Walker Publishing, 1997); and A History of Pi by Petr Beckmann (St. Martin's Press, 1971).

Index entries for "Bible" or "Biblical" in either book cite the two passages (which are essentially the same) in Mozart's post above. Nothing about Jonah or Nineveh.

According to Blatner (p.12):

"This passage...was probably written around the sixth century B.C.E....and it has troubled mathematicians and scholars for years because it is so far from the truth. Every imaginable explanation for the discrepancy has been proposed..."

And quoting Beckmann (p.15):

"The Book of Kings was edited by the ancient Jews as a religious work aout 550 B.C., but its sources date back several centuries. At that time, pi was already known to a considerably better accuracy, but evidently not to the editors of the Bible. The Jewish Talmud, which is essentially a commentary on the Old Testament, was published about 500 A.D. Even at this late date it also states 'that which in circumference is three hands broad is one hand broad.'"

And Beckmann again (p.76):

"Crudely ignoring the description 'round in compass,' the dogmatic commentators of the Bible in Germany in the 18th century...claimed that the molten sea must have been hexagonal."