What is the significance of March 14th?

In 7th grade, my math teacher told a bad joke:

A Pie maker’s son got home from school. He asked his son’ what he learned today. The son said “πr²” (pie r squared). The Pie maker got very concerned about what they teach in school and said, “No son, pie are round”.

Of course the Pie makers son was talking about the area of a circle being found using the formula:

Area = π * r²

The answer to the significance of March 14th is March is the 3rd month, so it looks like Pi (π).

Now in 8th grade, I was listening to the Math teacher, taking notes and totaly absorbed in “math”. The teacher was saying historical representations of Pi, then I almost fell out of my seat when he said that the Bible said Pi was 3. I mean no one talks about the Bible in school, let alone Math.

I came home, checked some Bible references I had and found nothing. I told my Dad (a pastor) and said, where is Pi in the Bible? He had no clue. Over the years I asked some of my uncles that were pastors, they had no idea. Over the years, I asked Oregon Bible College professors, they never heard of Pi in the Bible either.

Then one day over once I was out of college, I happened to run into Pi again, and thought back to the Bible question. But unlike when I had the question earlier, I now had Google. Google told me it was:

1 King 7:23

Then he made the sea of cast metal. It was round, ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference.

So:

Area = π * r²

circumference is pi * diameter

A circumference of 30 divided by 10 = 3

I found out there is apparently a big debate if Christians should always use 3 for pi, since that is what the Bible said it was….

Critics say the Bible is clearly wrong.

But there is a key a bit later:

1 Kings 7:26 NASB

And it was a hand width thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom; it could hold two thousand baths.

Brim to Brim measurement means they used the outside, but the circumference was probably from the inside which easily accounts for the difference, and we see the Bible is still accurate.

And we have no idea what precision they were using or if they were rounding. After all this was not a text about math, but about the majesty of the temple.

Even so:

Proverbs 30:5 NASB

Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

God’s word is accurate, and my 7th grade math teacher was not.