Jedi Mind Trick

This verse is often used to prove that the bible talks about a spherical earth. I have read somewhere, not sure where, that this could actually be referring to the ecliptic and is therefore about the star signs in the heavens. The bible also talks about Yahweh's abode being in the north... These seem to have astrological significance rather than being about the shape of the earth.

can anyone confirm this?

ETA:
The Ecliptic was thought to be a circle that banded around the dome of the heavens in which the "wanderers" (planets) traveled.

Mageth

I have no doubt that various people make such speculations, if that's what you're getting at with your request to "confirm". Can anyone confirm that those speculations are true? I doubt it, and that includes those that make such speculations.

Jedi Mind Trick

Yeah, it is clear enough that circle does not mean sphere, but I thought the connection with the zodiac might have some basis. I guess the word in the Hebrew means the same as a circle that is inscribed by a compass.

Mageth

http://www.blueletterbible.org/tmp_d...2-4200.html#22

The word used there (chuwg) translated as "upon the circle" in the KJV can mean:

1) circle, circuit, compass
2) (BDB) vault (of the heavens)

http://www.blueletterbible.org/tmp_d...7860-5832.html

To me, the second meaning seems to fit this verse more closely. But I'm no great biblical or Hebrew scholar.

In any case, this verse seems quite poetic, and I think it's not correct to try to read too much into it. To me, it simply means that "Yahweh's up there looking down on us little folks down here".

judge

This probably makes sense as the Zodiac seesm to feature in the thoughts of the ancient hebrews. The signs of the twelve tribes seem to match pretty well with the signs of the zodiac.

John A. Broussard

Since the OT speaks of "corners" of the earth, it seems unlikely that the writers envisioned the earth as being anything but square.

Aquila ka Hecate

Not necessarily.

In many NeoPagan Traditions, the cardinal points of the sacred circle are referred to as 'quarters'.

Also interesting is the contention of Wiccans that the Goddess dwells primarily in the North (in the Northen hemisphere);this is the 'quarter' associated with cold, dark, midnight and earth, the female or yin energies.

As to who got what from whom, I'm not willing to enter that fray.

Terri in Joburg

MagiNoir

All I see here is; He is stretching a dome over the earth. All very cosy to keep all the people (small like insects) safe.

judge

As I understand it the four corners of the earth may refer to the two solistices and equinoxes. As the earth or the world wasa seen in terms of time and space the four corners were corners of time.

MiddleMan

If the Hebrews had wanted to describe a spherical earth they would have been able to describe it without using the word "chuwg". The modern Hebrew word for 'ball', kaddur, is derived from Biblical Hebrew: Isaiah 22:18 'and throw you like a ball (kaddur) into a wide land'…The absence of expressions such as '(kad)dur ha-aretz' (‘ball of the earth’) is supportive of the claim that the Hebrews indeed believed the earth was flat (at least at the time of Isaiah 40:22's writing ).