State Superintendent of Schools Ryan Walters is eager to inject religion into the public schools. He has mandated the introduction of the Bible into every classroom. Some teachers in Oklahoma have begun assembling a collection of helpful lessons. Of course, as they show, you can integrate local places into your lessons. If you have some ideas, please pass them along.

For you teachers in Oklahoma, beginning this fall:  This was posted on Facebook. Walters has become the butt of jokes nationwide. 

Hallelujah! Thank you to my creative friends for all these great Biblical math problems. They’ll really help the Oklahoma school superintendent’s goal of inserting biblical content into math and science! I’ve collected a multitude of the problems into one post for ease of reading:

1) Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3). If he lay with one wife or concubine every night at the Mayo Hotel or The Skirvin but took off one day per week for rest, how many days would it take him to lay with all of his wives and concubines? 

2) David captured the foreskins of 200 Philistines (1 Samuel 18:27). If David split those foreskins into baskets of 40 foreskins each, how many baskets would he need? That is the math. The science problem to solve: Since he ‘captured’ them, how did the foreskins run from David?

3) The prophet Elisha summoned two she-bears to kill 42 children after they mocked him for being bald (2 Kings 2:24) One she-bear mauled twice as many children as the other she-bear. How many kids did each she-bear maul? (Use fractions) (Courtesy of Margo Evans)

4) Jael killed General Sisera by driving a tent peg into his skull. (Judges 4:21) If Jael could hammer 1.5 inch per blow and the peg was 9 inches long, how many blows would she need to drive the peg all the way in? (Courtesy of Julie Brady Murdoch)

5) Moses parted the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21). If he moved the water in the Red Sea at 1,000 cubic liters per second, how long would it take him to part the Hudson River / Deep Fork River? (Courtesy of Lynn Nesmith) 

6) There are 8.7 million animal species on Earth. If Noah took two of each of them onto the ark (substitute the Blue Whale in Catoosa) how many square cubits of space were required to accommodate all 17.4 million passengers? (Courtesy of Todd Kreisman) 

7) Elijah killed 450 prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:40). If it took him one minute to lethally inject / kill each pagan prophet, how long would it take him expressed in hours (Courtesy of James Frese)

8) Adam and Eve had two sons. One killed the other. So where did all the people come from? 
Rephrase question as: So where did all the people in McCurtain County come from?  (Courtesy of Hilary Dumitrescu)

9) Jezebel was thrown from a window off the Devon Tower or atop the Golden Driller) and died (2 Kings 9:33). If the window was 30 feet high, and she fell at a rate of 16 feet per second squared due to gravity, how many seconds did it take for her to reach the ground? (Use the formula \ (s = \frac {1}{2}gt^2 \), where \( s \) is the distance, \( g \) is the acceleration due to gravity, and \( t \) is the time in seconds). (Courtesy of Dana Kienzle) 

ALSO, I have started to craft an introduction to the Biblical Math book. Something like: The Bible and mathematics make a perfect match. Just consider the name of the Bible’s fourth book: Numbers. So, students of Oklahoma go forth and multiply (and add, and subtract, and divide). Once again, thank you all for your help in this project for the students of Oklahoma!