Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire For Christians,non-Christians & Atheists

Lol I was waiting for this comeback ...

Now if the Bible is written totally from an earth based observatory perspective where did the idea of circle come from? How would they know it to be circular? Would it not be easier understood from an earth based perspective as square?
Isaiah 11:12 "And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Whether a circle or a sphere, the writing cannot be based on a purely human perspective--there is evidence of divine guidance and a description from a divine vantage point above the earth. How did the writer know the earth would appear as a circle from this high vantage point?

Next let's notice what all is being described in this verse i.e. the full context?

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:

The earth is described as a circle with the heavens like the dome-like canopy of a tent over them. Now we are clearly creating a 3 dimensional perspective of the scene being described. So with a 3-dimensional image where a dome-like canopy encompasses the circle of the earth the imagery is more spherical than pancake. From the vantage point of where God sits above the circle of the earth--the combined look of the heavens and earth is both spherical as a globe and/or circular as a disc.The vantage point is from far away because humanity is comparatively illustrated as grasshoppers--an idiom for being minuscule. Does the earth look circular from a distance--yes. Does it also appear spherical when you consider the heavens as a tented vault over it--yes. Could it be that both perspectives are being given from a human author under deivine guidance describing something he never saw from above the earth--yes very obviously.

Common definition of Hebrew Chuwg: circle, compass,

Can Chuwg also mean sphere?

Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon: H2329: "חוּג m. a circle, sphere, used of the arch or vault of the sky, Pro.8:27; Job 22:14; of the world, Isa.40:22."

Douay-Rheims Bible translated from the ancient Latin Vulgate. When Jerome translated the Hebrew into Latin he used the word globe. This was long before science would have told him to use globe--but he did on the basis of the Hebrew definition and the 3D context being described.

It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts: he that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in

Henry Morris Study Bible,

Quote:
“40:22 circle of the earth. Hebrew khug, translated “compassed” in Job 26:10 and “compass” in Proverbs 8:27. All three, in context, clearly refer to the spherical shape of the earth.
40:22 stretcheth out the heavens. This phrase is possibly a reference to the expanding universe, as envisioned by modern astronomers. There are numerous references in Scripture to the “stretching-out” or “spreading-out” of the heavens (space) when God created the universe. See, for example, Job 9:8; Psalm 104:2; Isaiah 42:5; 44:24; 51:13; Jeremiah 10:12. Alternatively, the “heavens” referred to here may refer simply to the atmospheric heavens, spread out like a curtain or “tent to dwell in” around a circle of the earth. This atmospheric “tent”, refracting and spreading light over the hemisphere, is sharply distinct from the darkness outside.”

How was the Bible understood by some scholars in the ancient church?

Here is 4th century Bishop Ambrose giving a reading from Isaiah 40:22.

Quote:
"And further on: 'Who sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts, who stretcheth out the heavens as an arch?' Who, then, ventures to put his knowledge in the same plane with that of God?” (St.Ambrose, "Hexameron" The Fathers Of The Church series translated by John J. Savage, p.231).


Enduring Word commentary:
Isaiah uses an interesting phrase when he describes God as the one who sits above the circle of the earth. How could Isaiah possibly know that the earth’s shape was a circle? He probably didn’t know; but the LORD who spoke through Isaiah did know!

iv. Every once in a while, unlearned critics talk as if Bible believing people are members of the “Flat Earth Society” – people so out of touch with real science that they still insist the earth is flat. In response, we should be reminded that Augustine, perhaps the greatest of the church fathers, who lived about a thousand years before Columbus, professed that the earth was round, not flat. As well, in the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas, the most profound and prolific of medieval theologians, observed that the spherical shape of the earth could be empirically demonstrated. All they did was agree with Isaiah: It is He who sits above the circle of the earth.

Hmm ... looks like some Christians were clued into the concept of a spherical earth before science could conclusively prove it.