Again, the Bible is not a textbook on Cosmology or Astronomy.
However, from a few scanty tidbits of Scripture and a conviction that
Mesopotamian astronomy is the norm for Hebrew views on this subject, Liberal scholars
today assume that the worldview of the Old Testament was that of a flat
earth in a geocentric universe.
1,2 Their assumption of the
flat earth is from Isa 11:12 which speaks of the "four corners of the
earth" as well as Isa 44:24 which speaks of God who "...stretched out
the heavens , who spread out the earth by myself...." Now in regards to
the expression, "the four corners of the earth," Willis says this:
The expression four corners of the earth (vs. 12; cf.
Job 37:3; Rev 7:1) do not reflect an ancient notion that the earth was
flat and the shape of a square or rectangle. Deuteronomy 22:12
speaks of the four corners of a cloak, and Ezekiel 7:2 of the four
corners of the land of Israel, but in neither case is it implied that
the biblical writer thought that the cloak or the land of Israel was
square or rectangular. This is simply an idiomatic expression
meaning "entirety."3
Therefore, there seems to be a rush on the Liberals' part to assume such
phrases imply an ancient Hebrew belief in a flat earth. Rather,
Isaiah 40:22 appears to imply that the earth is indeed not only "circular," but
also a substantial three dimensional object. The Hebrew word
chug in this verse can mean either "circle" or
"vault," but two highly acclaimed Hebrew-English Lexicons prefer the
meaning of "vault" for
chug in Isaiah 40:22.
4,5
Contrary to this, most of the English translators choose "circle."
However, TMSG has "God sits high above the round ball of the earth" and
DRB has "It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth", both
trying to capture something of the three dimensional nature of this
Hebrew word.
If indeed the meaning is that of a globe (as would also be implied in
Luke 17:34-36), then we have here some scientific foreknowledge of a
substantial nature. Now concerning the date of writing Isaiah,
conservative scholars, staying with the understanding of the ancients,
date the ministry of Isaiah from 740-700 (or even 680) BC. Of
course those unwilling to believe in predictive prophecy (Liberal
theologians) rather choose a date after Cyrus in 536 BC, since Isaiah
prophesied about this ruler by name (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1-7). That is
their way of destroying the power of predictive prophecy. However, they
have no manuscript evidence for this, and certainly there was never a
hint of this found in the Jewish writers before Christ or in the Church
Fathers living and writing after the apostles to suggest an
author other than the historical Isaiah of the 8th century BC.
In addition, there are 21 passages in Isaiah that are attributed
directly to "Isaiah" in the New Testament (7 in Isa 1-39, 12 in Isa
40-55, and 2 from Isa 56-66), and the strongest of these is found in
John 12:38-41 where John specifically attributes Isa 53:1 and 6:9 both
to Isaiah.
6
According to Wikipedia, the earliest date documenting the concept of a
round earth is in the 6th century BC:
The concept of a spherical earth dates back to around the 6th century
BCE in ancient Greek philosophy. It remained a matter of
philosophical speculation until the 3rd century BCE when Hellenistic
astronomy established the spherical shape of the earth as a physical
given.7
However, it would appear that Isaiah predates the Greeks by 200 years in
knowing the earth was round. How? Well, God told him, or at least that
is what the Bible says.
In addition to the thought in Isaiah that the earth was spherical, we
also find in Job 26:7 the suggestion that the earth is completely
unsupported in space:
7“He stretches out the north over empty space
And
hangs the earth on nothing. Job 26:7 (NASB95)
Now is it uncertain when Job was written. It nicely describes the
milieu of the patriarchs, such as Abraham, who lived about 1800 BC.
However, opinions abound about when it was actually written. The
Talmud says Job was written by Moses,
8 or about 1440 BC.
Others think it was put into its current form in the 5th to 6th
centuries BC. I am more inclined to honor the opinion of the
Talmud on the subject. But the point is that here is a shocking
statement from antiquity about the earth not being held up or hung up on
anything, and we find it in Job.
Lynne S. Wilcox, M.D., M.P.H, wrote an interesting article in which she
summarized the mythology of the ages to answer the question, "Who Holds
Up the World?" This is what she found:
From earliest human history, people have created myths that depict the
sacred and at times terrible responsibility of supporting the world.
Although these myths vary from culture to culture--and the entities
charged with the awesome responsibility of holding up the earth range
from deities to animals to the elements--the underlying purpose of all
of them is to assure people of the world's stability and order. In
the Haudenosaunee (i.e., Six Nations or Iroquois), Hindu, and Gabrielino
Indian religions, turtles and tortoises support the earth. The
indigenous Japanese Ainu people describe the world as a vast ocean
resting on the backbone of a trout that creates the surging of the tides
each day by sucking in the ocean and spewing it out. In other
mythologies, a single entity is responsible for carrying the heavy
burden of the world. In Greek mythology, for example, Atlas was
forced to support the earth after fighting unsuccessfully against Zeus,
the leader of the Olympian gods. Hercules came to Atlas and
requested that he obtain the Hesperides' golden apples. Atlas
agreed on the condition that Hercules would support the earth while he
was away. Atlas had no intention of accepting his eternal burden
again, but Hercules tricked him into taking it back.9
Hinduism is called by some the oldest living religion, and the roots of
that religion may have began during the post-flood times that were
characterized by a deterioration of monotheism back into polytheism. If
so, we have two very different ancient views of earth. Job said that
the Lord "hangs the earth on nothing." However, all the other ancient
writings seem to attribute this to someone or something holding up the
earth. Could this be "scientific
foreknowledge" in the Bible? I am inclined to think so. I have tried to
find documentation going back further, but I cannot find anything
earlier than Job with the true concept of the earth floating in space.
What about Job's statement that God "...stretches out the north over
empty space...."? Walter Sullivan published an article in the New
York Times on October 2, 1981 entitled, "Vast Hole in Space Appears to
Defy Theories." You can read the article at the link indicated in
the ENDNOTES.
10 Now it appears that scientists prefer
to consider these as "Molecular Clouds," and these bar our view of the
stars behind such clouds. Take a look at Molecular Cloud Barnard
68 from NASA at the following link in the ENDNOTES.
11
My point is that the perception of a lack of stars is certainly possible
with these phenomena, and may well be what Job was writing about.
Clearly, some of these holes are large enough be seen by the naked eye.
If so, we have another example of scientific foreknowledge.
