People sometimes make the argument that there is a mathematical error in the Bible, which proves that the Bible cannot be completely correct. But that argument doesn’t work. Here’s why:
In 1 Kings 7:23-26, the craftsman Hiram of Tyre makes a “molten sea” for King Solomon. It was round and ten cubits in diameter. And “thirty cubits did compass it round about” (1 Kings 7:23). There is an argument that this is mathematically impossible. The circumference of a circle is pi (3.1415) times the diameter of the circle, so if the diameter is ten cubits, then the circumference would have to be a little more than thirty-one cubits. However, keep in mind that the only unit of measurement we have is a cubit. If we assume that the diameter is somewhere between 9.5 cubits and about 9.7 cubits, then we can do our calculation and round everything to the nearest whole cubit. Then a circle with a diameter of a little less than ten really does have a circumference of around thirty, when rounded to the nearest whole number. Everything turns out to be mathematically correct after all.