On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 11:26:12 -0800, John Ings
wrote:
The key to an alternative reading of the verse 1 Kings 7:23 is to be
found in the very ancient Hebrew tradition (see, e.g., [Britannica
1985], [Banon 1987, pp. 52, 53]) to differently write (spell) and read
some words of the Bible; the reading version is usually regarded as a
correct one (in particular, it is always correct from the point of
view of the Hebrew grammar, and this is why it could be easily either
remembered or reconstructed from the written version), whereas the
written version slightly deviates from the correct spelling. (Another
approach, involving the comparison between written forms of the same
words in 1 Kings 7:23 and Chronicles 4:2 is cited in [Posamentiern,
Gordan 1984]; see more about this version of the exegesis in 4).
1 Kings 7:23 Then he made the molten sea; it was round, ten cubits
from brim to brim, and five cubits high. A line of thirty cubits would
encircle it completely.
7:26 Its thickness was a handbreadth; its brim was made like the brim
of a cup, like the flower of a lily; it held two thousand baths.
2 Chonicles 4:2Then he made the molten sea; it was round, ten cubits
from rim to rim, and five cubits high. A line of thirty cubits would
encircle it completely.
4:5 Its thickness was a handbreadth; its rim was made like the rim of
a cup, like the flower of a lily; it held three thousand baths.
The letters of the Hebrew alphabets were traditionly used (well before
the building of the First Temple [Guitel 1975]) for numerical purposes
and, thus, have had numerical values . Using these values, one can
calculate values of words (as sums of values of letters, but also in
several other, less obvious and/or more involved ways); these methods
became later known as gematria [Michael Munk 1983, p. 163],
[Britannica 1985]. Here are the standard numerical equivalents of the
letters of the Hebrew alphabet: cm = cmti8 scaled 0
Aleph=1, Beth=2, Gimel=3, Daled=4, Hea=5, Vav=6, Zain=7, CHet=8,
Tet=9, Yod=10, Caf=20, Lammed=30, Mem=40, Noon=50, Samech=60,
Aiin=70, Pea=80, TSadik=90, Qof=100, Reish=200, Shin=300, Tav=400.
In particular, the numerical equivalent of the written version
,``QVH'', is Qof+Vav+Hea=100+6+5=111, whereas the numerical equivalent
of the reading version, ``QV'', is Qof+Vav=106.
Using these numerical equivalents, one defines as follows:
[...] (1)
Thus the Hebrew pi = 3.1415094
(1)See http://www.math.ubc.ca/people/facult...l/bpi/bpi.html
for math calculations whose formulas I can't reproduce in a newsgroup
post.
Ok.. nice try.. but irrelevant.. the dimensions are the same as I
have posted in the past.. the History of the Jews doesn't matter
except for Cliffy's little swipes at the Jews and the claims Cliffy
makes that the Jews taught that PI = 3.000... which of course they did
not.. hmm..
Later,
Mike
Cliff's Homework for this year: Cliff's bowl has a 10 unit/inch
outside diameter and a 30 unit/inch outer circumference and a 5
unit/inch depth. The diameters have a .005 inch tolerance. And no
Virginia PI does not equal 3.00000. So how does Cliff make this bowl?