Rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

 Nehemiah was an Israelite

Israelite

According to the Bible the Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the monarchic period .The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew ישראל...

, circa

Circa

Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...

 AD 150

150

Year 150 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Squilla and Vetus...

 (during the Tannaim

Tannaim

The Tannaim were the Rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah, from approximately 70-200 CE. The period of the Tannaim, also referred to as the Mishnaic period, lasted about 130 years...

 era).

He is attributed as the author of the Mishnat ha-Middot

Mishnat ha-Middot

The Mishnat ha-Middot is considered the earliest known Hebrew treatise on geometry. The treatise was discovered in the Munich Library by Moritz Steinschneider, who dated it between 800 and 1200 C.E. Hermann Schapira argued the treatise dates from an earlier period and Solomon Gandz conjectured...

(ca. AD 150), making it the earliest known Hebrew text on geometry

Geometry

Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....

, although other historians assign to a later period by an unknown author. The Mishnat ha-Middot argues against the common belief that the Bible defines the geometric

Geometry

Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....

 ratio π (pi) as being exactly equal to 3, based on the description in 1 Kings 7:23 (and 2 Chronicles 4:2) of the great bowl situated outside the Temple of Jerusalem

Temple in Jerusalem

The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...

 as having a diameter of 10 cubit

Cubit

The cubit is a traditional unit of length, based on the length of the forearm. Cubits of various lengths were employed in many parts of the world in Antiquity, in the Middle Ages and into Early Modern Times....

s and a circumference of 30 cubits. He maintained that the diameter

Diameter

In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints are on the circle. The diameters are the longest chords of the circle...

 of the bowl was measured from the outside brim, while the circumference

Circumference

The circumference is the distance around a closed curve. Circumference is a special perimeter.-Circumference of a circle:The circumference of a circle is the length around it....

 was measured along the inner brim, which with a brim that is one handbreadth wide (as described in 1 Kings 7:24 and 2 Chronicles 4:3) yields a ratio from the circular rim closer to the actual value of π.