Sure, and 1 Kings 7 says the value of pi is 3. Even in those days people would have understood a fraction like 3 parts in 10 for the land/water ratio of the earth's surface. Nice of the deity to provide a measurement that's wrong by 16 percent. He could have used thirds and been even more inaccurate.
Are you measuring the land mass from high tide or low tide? Are you including land that is covered by fresh water and/or ice? The verse the 1/4 comes from is for the inhabitable parts of the earth.
It appears the rest of the description was important enough to round the numbers off. You probably also dispute He gave us the circumference of the earth if you used the right formula.
Re:8:13:
And I beheld,
and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven,
saying with a loud voice,
Woe,
woe,
woe,
to
the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels,
which are yet to sound!
Proverb:8:31:
Rejoicing in
the habitable part of his earth;
and my delights were with the sons of men.
The Basic Idea
Assuming that all thirteen strips of land are the same width, or rather, assuming that Ezekiel's small-scale representation was intended to represent thirteen strips of land of the same width, we have a map that from top to bottom is:
13 x 25,000 cubits = 325,000 cubits.
Now we are ready for our calculations.
Perhaps the simplest way to put it is this: If we enlarge Ezekiel's map till Ezekiel's city is the size of Revelation's New Jerusalem, then Ezekiel's map encircles the globe.
The proportion of Ezekiel's city to Revelation's New Jerusalem is the same as that of Ezekiel's map to the earth's circumference:
Ezekiel's Map / Ezekiel's City * Revelation's City = Earth's Circumference
Calculations a Bit Off
Let's first use the furlong that most references tend to use, the English furlong of 660 feet. Since the New Jerusalem is 3,000 furlongs to a side,
660 ft. x 3,000 furlongs / (5,280 feet / mi.) = 375 mi. (603.49 km)
Now we plug in the 4,500-cubit length of Ezekiel's city and the theoretical 325,000-cubit length of Ezekiel's map:
325,000 cu. / 4,500 cu. * 375 mi. = 27,083 mi. (43,585 km)
This amounts to an error of just under +9%, which is close enough to be intriguing.
Calculations Right On
Since the apostle John didn't live in England, he never heard of the English furlong. Instead, he used the Roman furlong. The author has found three different measurements for the Roman furlong: 606.25 feet, 606.5 feet, and 606.84 feet.
Using a furlong of 606.25 feet:
606.25 ft. x 3,000 furlongs / (5,280 feet / mi.) = 344.46 mi. (554.34 km)
325,000 / 4,500 * 344.46 mi. = 24,878 mi. (40,036 km)
This result is .071% more than the polar circumference and .098% less than the equatorial circumference.
Using a furlong of 606.5 feet:
606.5 ft. x 3,000 furlongs / (5,280 feet / mi.) = 344.6 mi. (554.56 km)
325,000 / 4,500 * 344.6 mi. = 24,888 mi. (40,052 km)
This result is .112% more than the polar circumference and .057% less than the equatorial circumference.
Using a furlong of 606.84 feet:
606.84 ft. x 3,000 furlongs / (5,280 feet / mi.) = 344.80 mi. (554.89)
325,000 / 4,500 * 344.80 mi. = 24,902 mi. (40,075 km)
This result is .170% more than the polar circumference and .0001% more than the equatorial circumference.
These extremely small margins of error make the subject more than just intriguing.
The Size of the Temple
We can use the same ratios to calculate the size of the Holy Place and Most Holy Place. Ezekiel's Holy Place was 20 by 40 cubits, and his Most Holy Place was 20 by 20 cubits (Ezek. 41:2, 4).
Since exact precision isn't all that important, we'll just use the furlong of 606.5 ft. We must make two calculations, one for 20 cubits and the other for 40 cubits:
20 / 4,500 * 344.6 mi. = 1.53 mi.
40 / 4,500 * 344.6 mi. = 3.06 mi.
It is quite possible, therefore, that the heavenly temple which will be outside the New Jerusalem will have a Holy Place about 3 by 1.5 miles, and a Most Holy Place about 1.5 miles square. No wonder the structure can accommodate millions of worshippers.
Ezekiel's City: Calculating the Earth's Circumference