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Warning: This post contains math! I know not everyone loves math like I do, so consider yourself warned. But, you ask, this post is titled “Straw Man,” right? What does that have to do with math? Bear with me and you’ll see.

In 1 Kings 7, the furnishings King Solomon’s temple are being described. In verses 23, there is a detailed description of an item called the Sea. The Sea is a large basin used as a bath to purify the priests. This verse states: “He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it.” A cubit is the length of the forearm, from the elbow to the wrist. Here’s where the math comes in.

The formula for the circumference of a circle (the distance around the outside) is the constant pi times the diameter (how far straight across), so c=(pi)x(d). If we put the numbers given in the passage in for the circumference (30 cubits) and the diameter (10 cubits), we would find out that pi is 3. What’s the problem here? Well, the constant pi has been mathematically determined to be about 3.14. That may not seem like a huge discrepancy, but it is in the world of mathematics.

Some people could take this discrepancy and say that because the math doesn’t work out exactly right, the Bible cannot be true or cannot be inspired by God. That is an example of a straw man argument - misrepresenting your opponent’s position.

I do believe the Bible is Truth and is fully inspired by God, so I would account for the discrepancy with rounding, and the fact that a cubit is not an exact unit of measure, like an inch or a centimeter, since it depends on the person’s forearm who is doing the measuring. They didn’t exactly have tape measures or laser measurement tools back in 587 B.C.!

The reason this is a straw man argument is because when discussing the legitimacy of the Bible, this is not a valid point and it misrepresents that position. Saying that the entire Bible is not true because this one verse calculates pi as 3 instead of 3.14 is a distorted argument. This discrepancy is not one of the main points that the Bible is making, thus using this misrepresents the Bible as an entire book and it’s message.

Be aware of straw man arguments that can come up, because they have a tendency to blow a minute detail out of proportion, or distort the facts in some way. Especially when discussing the Bible, remember to look at the big picture of the message of the Scriptures and don’t get hung up on the value of pi.