![]() By Nikk Effingham Apr 28, 2018, 11:40am EDT A hot, flat stretch of our indubitably round Earth near Dallol. Heller (16) Mitchell First (17) New Books (75) Other (14) Out-of-Print Seforim (36) Pesach (28) Plagiarism (25) Purim (17) R. Psychology How to argue with flat-earthers But not necessarily convince them. The Bible remains the only holy book for which we can say that it contains no provable errors or contradictions.Auction (21) Besamim Rosh (10) Bezalel Naor (14) Bibliographical Oddities (76) Bibliographies (19) Book Reviews (131) Book Week (15) Censorship (57) Chaim Sunitsky (9) Chanukah (17) Customs (51) Daniel Sperber (8) Dan Rabinowitz (9) Edward Reichman (13) Eliezer Brodt (222) Eli Genauer (25) Elliott Horowitz (12) Ezra Brand (13) Golem (8) Hasidism (11) Herem (10) Historical Haggadah (22) Historical Oddities (50) Illustrated Seforim (16) Literary Forgery (15) Making of a Godol (8) Marc B. While it would be an overinterpretation to conclude that these texts explicitly teach that Earth is a sphere, nowhere in the Bible do we find any text saying that Earth is flat. The irony of choosing Job 38:5, 12-14, Isaiah 11:12, 40:22, and Revelation 7:1, 20:7 to sustain the claim that the Bible is a flat-earth book is that these biblical texts better fit a spherical Earth than they do a flat Earth. The taking shape like clay under a seal would apply to either a disk or a sphere and may be saying more about Earth’s rotation or its manufacture than its actual shape. Job 38:12-14 refers to the dawn seizing “the edges of the earth” and Earth taking “shape like clay under a seal.” What is interesting here is that for a sphericalĮarth the arrival of dawn first shows up at the most distant horizon, end, or edge of the point of view of a human at a fixed point upon Earth’s surface. Also, it is customary to measure the diameter of a sphere with a straightedge ruler. The passage in Job 38:5 referring to Earth states, “Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?” The inference made by those claiming that the Bible is a flat-earth book is that the “measuring line” is a straight line which would be suitable for measuring a flat disk but not a sphere. As the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament points out, the Hebrew word for “corners” used in Isaiah 11:12, kanap, in most of its appearances in the Old Testament is used figuratively. It is clear from an examination of the context for all three of these passages that the most distant parts of Earth is the intent implied by the use of the idiom, the four corners of the earth. The Isaiah 11:12 and Revelation 7:1, 20:7 verses all refer to the “four corners of the earth.” However, even today, astronomers, physicists, and educated people around the world recognize and use the “four corners of the earth” as phenomenalogical language referring to the most distant parts of Earth from the standpoint of an observer at a specific location on Earth. It is worth noting that only a sphere always looks like a circle when seen from above. Vaccinations for COVID-19 implant microchips to track people. Vaccines have mostly been a benefit to human health. COVID dangers have been exaggerated by scientists Climate change is happening now, caused mainly by human activities. The relevant part of Isaiah 40:22, referring to God, states, “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers.” Whether the “circle of the earth” refers to a human on Earth or God looking down on Earth from above, in both cases the phrase would be consistent with a spherically shaped Earth. Humans evolved from earlier forms of life, over millions of years. Of these passages, the most cited is Isaiah 40:22. The biblical texts most often cited in the claim that the Bible teaches a flat Earth are Job 38:5, 12-14, Isaiah 11:12, 40:22, and Revelation 7:1, 20:7. Both ancient Greek and Egyptian astronomers pointed to the semi-circular shadow of Earth on the Moon during lunar eclipses as evidence for the sphericity of Earth. Eratosthenes in the 3 rd century BC used the sunlight lines at summer solstice in wells at different latitudes to determine the diameter of Earth to 1% precision. However, documented mentions of a spherical Earth by Greek philosophers date back to the 6 th century BC. Aristotle writing in the 4 th century BC cited this evidence as proof that Earth is spherical. The fact that at different locations on Earth different stellar constellations are seen and they are seen at different orientations was sufficient to persuade ancient peoples that they were living on a spherical body. My answer: First of all, the idea that the Bible promotes a flat-earth doctrine presupposes that people living 2–3 thousand years ago lacked the capacity to determine the true shape of Earth. Question of the week: How can one refute the claim made by atheists, skeptics, and even some Christians that the Bible is a flat-earth book?
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