He made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in shape. Its height was five cubits; and a line of thirty cubits encircled it.
The mathematical constant pi equals exactly 3.
Mathematics
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The cited passage
What current science says
Pi has been known to be greater than 3 since at least ancient Babylon and Egypt, thousands of years ago. The Babylonians used 3.125 and the Egyptians approximated it at about 3.16. Rounding pi to 3 introduces a 4.5% error — if you used it to build a circular swimming pool 10 meters across, your edge would be off by about 1.4 meters. We've now calculated pi to over 100 trillion digits, and it never stops or repeats.
What the text says
This comes from 1 Kings 7:23. The text describes a circular basin 10 cubits across with a circumference of 30 cubits — which gives a ratio of exactly 3, not the actual value of pi (3.14159...).
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.