Does the Bible teach that the world is square?

Question

Revelation 7:1-
John speaks here of the "four corners of the earth", which implies that the earth is square. But the modern science teaches that it is round.
Is this a mistake in the Bible?

Tell me your thoughts.

Answer 1

The Bible tells us that the earth is a sphere. The four corners refer to north, south, east, and west.

This is a good explanation from a web site:

Some Bible critics have claimed that Revelation 7:1 assumes a flat earth since the verse refers to angels standing at the "four corners" of the earth. Actually, the reference is to the cardinal directions: north, south, east, and west. Similar terminology is often used today when we speak of the sun's rising and setting, even though the earth, not the sun, is doing the moving. Bible writers used the "language of appearance," just as people always have. Without it, the intended message would be awkward at best and probably not understood clearly. [DD]

In the Old Testament, Job 26:7 explains that the earth is suspended in space, the obvious comparison being with the spherical sun and moon. [DD]

A literal translation of Job 26:10 is "He described a circle upon the face of the waters, until the day and night come to an end." A spherical earth is also described in Isaiah 40:21-22 - "the circle of the earth."

Proverbs 8:27 also suggests a round earth by use of the word circle (e.g., New King James Bible and New American Standard Bible). If you are overlooking the ocean, the horizon appears as a circle. This circle on the horizon is described in Job 26:10. The circle on the face of the waters is one of the proofs that the Greeks used for a spherical earth. Yet here it is recorded in Job, ages before the Greeks discovered it. Job 26:10 indicates that where light terminates, darkness begins. This suggests day and night on a spherical globe. [JSM]

The Hebrew record is the oldest, because Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible. Historians generally [wrongly] credit the Greeks with being the first to suggest a spherical earth. In the sixth century B.C., Pythagoras suggested a spherical earth. [JSM]

Eratosthenes of Alexandria (circa 276 to 194 or 192 B.C.) calcuated the circumference of the earth "within 50 miles of the present estimate." [Encyclopedia Brittanica]

The Greeks also drew meridians and parallels. They identified such areas as the poles, equator, and tropics. This spherical earth concept did not prevail; the Romans drew the earth as a flat disk with oceans around it. [JSM]

The round shape of our planet was a conclusion easily drawn by watching ships disappear over the horizon and also by observing eclipse shadows, and we can assume that such information was well known to New Testament writers. Earth's spherical shape was, of course, also understood by Christopher Columbus. [DD]

The implication of a round earth is seen in the book of Luke, where Jesus described his return, Luke 17:31. Jesus said, "In that day," then in verse 34, "In that night." This is an allusion to light on one side of the globe and darkness on the other simultaneously. [JSM]

"When the Bible touches on scientific subjects, it is entirely accurate." [DD]
Source(s):
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/e...

Answer 2

Let's see: Rev 7.1After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.

Clearly you have no idea what this verse is talking about. You are focusing on an idiom that means very where. What about the fifth angel from the East?

Find another book of the bible, maybe one you can belief.

Answer 3

No, actually, thousands of years before Columbus set out to sail around the world, Isaiah knew the world was a sphere and said --

"Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers."
--Isaiah 40:21&22

see, the CIRCLE of the earth, what you have to remember about revelations, is that it is written about what John saw in a vision, and things in visions are not always literal, for example, in Gen 37 Joseph saw a vision of grain bowing down to grain, but it ment that his brothers would bow to him.

Answer 4

We still today talk about the "four corners of the world..." and going to "the ends of the Earth..." It's simply a reference to the four cardinal directions (i.e. north, south, east, and west).

FYI In Isaiah 40:22, the Earth is described as a "circle," but the word used there carries the meaning of a sphere.

So to answer your question, no it's not a mistake.

Answer 5

I guess he could have written "over the entire earth" and you would be less critical, but without going back to original text and seeing what the original word was and how it was written in relation to the rest of the sentence, I cannot explain this fully.

Just rememeber that much writing in the bible is done for the reader just to understand the whole story, not picking it apart word by word or phrase.

John was given the task of writing about something that he had never seen before, and much of what he saw, he had no words to explain, so he used words that he knew to describe things that he did not know.

Much like giving you a computer and telling you that you have to describe it using only words and items known to the people of that age and time. It would be difficult at best.

Even our own great great grandparents who lived 200 years ago, would be in awe of the things they would see now, if we could somehow bring them back. Imagine bringing George Washington into todays america and having him go back to his own time and describe what he saw to people who had never seen these things. A difficult task at best.

Answer 6

Nope.

The fact that we refer today to the four major directions (north,south,east, west) does not mean that we think the earth is square -- same with the verse above.

The fact that we say the sun rose in the east at 538am does not mean that we think the sun rises in the sky (rather than the earth rotating)...

These are idioms which are to understood as such based on linguistic and cultural understanding.

Cordially,
John

Answer 7

No---This is what the prophet Isaiah said regarding the earth: "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."
Revelation uses symbolic language. Even today, people use that phrase; four corners of the earth. It is not to be taken literally.

Answer 8

Actually the bible states that the world is round. The four corners of the earth is still used today to we call them hemispheres.

Answer 9

The four corners of the earth simply means all of it, no , the bible doest teach the earth is square.

Answer 10

Now you are learning how to discern Spiritual Thing's. If GOD said the EARTH had four-corner's, then it does, in the Spiritual REALM. The BIBLE is a Spiritual Book First, then Physical Book. GOD has Secret's. The Kingdom of GOD is Invisible and undergird's the Physical REALM. Think of Parallel Universe's. GOD's Kingdom, make's possible and control's the Physical REALM. Ditto......