Refused

All,

Need some help. I've serached the forums for a thread that mentioned the use of the Hebrew word for circle in the OT. Does anyone remember that thread? I thought the word referenced Iasiah 40:22 wasn't actually sphere, but "circle."

I have a friend who is saying that the Bible does actually say the earth is round and not flat, so I'm just trying to get my facts straight before I reply.

Any help is appreciated

- Refused

Secular Pinoy

Try this article.

Jack the Bodiless

That's right, the word used is "circle", not "sphere". The authors of the Bible were flat-Earthers.

Apparently your friend is repeating some rather shoddy apologetics. Other Christian apologists (those who know what the Bible actually says) admit that the correct translation is "circle", but use the excuse that "the Hebrews had no word for sphere". They did, however, have a word for "ball" (dure).

But, from the context, Hebrew flat-Earth cosmology is obvious. They believed the Earth was flat and covered by a solid dome, the Firmament, to which the stars were attached. Hence, Isiah 40:22 "It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in". A vacuum filled with distant stars can't be spread out like a tent, and tents are pitched on flat ground: the verse doesn't say "wrapped around the Earth like a shroud".

This cosmological model is used right through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation:
The apologist answer is that these falling stars were meteors, but this obviously doesn't fit: one-third of the stars in the sky (attached to the Firmament dome) are knocked off.

Refused

Thanks for the replies guys.

"dure" was the word I was trying to remember.

- Refused

CX

Actually the bible and the cosmology of the peoples at that time said that the earth was round AND flat. A disk with a hard dome over it containing the stars.

Peter Kirby

As found in the New American Bible, St. Joseph edition (seen here before).



best,
Peter Kirby

lpetrich

Biblical cosmology is discussed in detail in The Flat-Earth Bible, by Robert Schadewald.

The Bible's writers had little interest in cosmological questions, so we are forced to rely on what are essentially offhand comments. But the writers of the noncanonical book 1 Enoch went into a lot of detail, and it's clearly a fleshed-out version of the Bible's cosmological comments.

mark9950

To them the earth SEEMED flat,and they had no way to prove otherwise at that time.

There poses the question,since we know for a fact the earth is a three dimensional circle or ball (there is a hebrew word for ball) was the bible written by man or the all creator God?

Answer: The bible was written by man not God,a god or gods,by the word of man and what they perceived of many things.

You can also see my old tread of the contraversy of the bibles flat earth.

http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.p...threadid=51960

Hawkingfan

They could have travelled along the surface of the earth in any direction continuously and never have fallen off, and would eventually come back to the same spot. They could have noticed the earth's round shadow on the moon during a lunar eclipse. They could have noticed the north star appearing lower in the sky the farther south you went. They could have noticed that you see the ship's mast before the hull when it approaches and vice versa. They could have considered the spherical shapes of the sun, moon, and the planets would also suggest that the earth is spherical also. Plenty of ancient cultures knew the earth was spherical. Like the Greeks. But there should be no excuse for the Christians, who supposedly worshipped an omnipotent god who indirectly told them about the nature of the universe in his "word". There should be no mistake in their understanding of the universe.

mark9950

I wander why no one ever wrote or even tried what you suggested back then in the bible?

Or were those scrolls supressed by the flat earthers?

Did they believe that they would tempt their lord they God?