From: PASAlist@aol.com
Date: Wed Dec 18 2002 - 01:47:35 EST
Peter wrote,
<<The verb "chug" is used in Job 26:10 for "marking (a
circle?)", "He (God) marks out bounds on the face of the waters for a
boundary between light and darkness" (and the only way a circular
"boundary between light and darkness" "on the face of the waters" can be
understood is to have a spherical earth, not a flat one!)>>
The ancients with their belief in a flat earth had no problem making the
horizon, which is a circular, the boundary between light and darkness. The
sun simply comes up over the horizon to give light, and goes back down below
the horizon to give darkness, going from west to east beneath the earth at
night to come up again in the morning. As it is written, Ecclesiastes 1:5
"The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth
down, and hasteth to its place where it ariseth."
<< And Job 26:7 says, "He spreads out the northern [skies] over empty space;
he
suspends the earth over nothing" (NIV), or "spreading-out north over
empty-space suspending earth over not what" (Kohlenberger Interlinear).
How one is to fit this into a three-storey cosmology eludes me, whatever
the precise meaning of the mysterious terms used. >>
The verse is not as clear as it could be; but, it is quite compatible with a
flat earth. The flat earth was understood to be "founded" upon the sea Psa
24:2. This raised the question which was also raised in other societies that
believed a flat earth was floating on the sea, How can the earth stay on top
of the water? that is, why doesn't it sink? Some societies answered the
question by saying a turtle or fish were under the earth supporting it.
Others said it was suspended by ropes or a cable which came down from the
solid sky. It is not clear which view Job is rejecting, but his answer is
that nothing supports it, whether from above or below. It is kept from
sinking solely by God's power. This is not a novel interpretation of the
verse. It is found in the ancient Targum to Job, which reads, "He erects the
earth over the waters without anything to support it." This same
understanding is found in the Fourth Book of Ezra or II Esdras *(Latin
ending) 16:58 which reads, "He has confined the sea in the midst of the
waters and by his word he has suspended the earth over the water."
[See The Targum of Job, The Targum of Proverbs, The Targum of Qohelet
(Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1991) 62; Cf. N. H. Tur-Sinai, The
Book of Job (Jerusalem: Kiryath Sepher, 1967) 381; II Enoch 47:5 as
translated by F. I. Andersen in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha I (Garden
City: Doubleday, 1983) 174; Cf. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews 1
(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1968) 59
<<Nor can we validly claim they believed it to be flat. And even if they
did, the biblical texts they wrote don't require a flat-earth
interpretation.>>
How then can a sphere be "founded" upon the seas (Psalm 24:2)? The Hebrew
word "to found" (yasad) which is used in Ps 24:2 means to lay down a
foundational base for a building or wall (I Kgs 5:17 [31]; 7:10; 16:34; Ezra
3:10-12) or to set something upon a foundational base (Cant 5:15; Ps 104:5).
In either case the object founded sets directly upon the object upon which it
is founded. It is easy to see the ancient Near Eastern view of a flat earth
founded on the sea in Psalm 24:2. I think a flat earth _is_ required. I do
not see how a spherical earth can be said to be setting directly upon the sea
as a foundation.
<<Does the Bible teach a flat earth, as your argumentation suggests, or
does it teach a spherical earth? I think it does neither. But what _is_
formulated in the Bible is _at least_ as easily harmonized (compatible)
with the latter view as with the former. But this fact is often swamped
by the penetrance of the falsely so-called "assured results" of the
historical-critical method.>.
The understanding of earth in the OT as flat is derived as it should be from
the grammar and the biblical and historical context. A flat earth fits
various passages in the OT like a hand to a glove. Not because the Bible
teaches a flat earth, but because God has accommodated his revelation to the
science of the times. The reason some reject this is because they have an
ultimate commitment to a particular view of inspiration which simply will not
allow the Bible to say such things.
Paul
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