science in the Bible?

Question

is there evidence of scientific theories in the Bible. i once read in scripture where it referred to the "circle of the earth"....i can't find it again, though! i thought that was interesting, because it was written long before people knew the earth was round...is there anything else like this?

Answer 1

We really can't look to the Bible for scientific matters.

Answer 2

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.

Proverbs 8:27 also suggests a round earth by use of the word circle. 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.

Answer 3

This, like many other claims of scientific accuracy in the bible, is dubious at best.

From http://www.bibleandscience.com/bible/books/genesis/genesis1_circleearth.htm
"The phrase of Isaiah 40:22, "the circle of the earth" is very controversial. There are five main views of this phrase. The first interpretation says that the word "circle" means "sphere" indicating that the earth is a sphere. This view seems most unlikely since we have all ready seen that the Hebrew word gh means "circle," and it seems very remote that it means "sphere" because of the context, and there is a better Hebrew word for "sphere," rwd. In Isaiah 22:18 the word rwd is translated "ball." If the LXX translators understood gh as "sphere," they would have used the Greek word sfairoeides. Plugging the meaning of "sphere" into every passage that gh occurs will result in awkward interpretations.

The second interpretation is that the earth is a round flat disk. Although the ancient world thought the earth was round and flat, this phrase seems to refer to the shape the vaulted heavens above the earth from which the inhabitants look like grasshoppers.

The third view, which is set forth by Seybold, is that "circle" refers to the ring of the ocean that surrounds the earth. This is mainly based on the supposed meaning of the word guros used in the LXX for gwj.

The fourth interpretation is that "circle" refers to the vault like sky over the earth. This seems to be partly right as well as the next view where "circle" refers to the horizon. It may be best to combine theses two views so that "circle" refers to the circle of the horizon that arches up over the earth. From the top of this dome God looks down to see the inhabitants on earth as small as grasshoppers. In the later part of this same verse (Isa.40:22) the heavens are described like a curtain and a tent. There seems to be a descriptive parallelism of the heavens in this poetic verse."

The problem with literally interpreting the bible, in addition to the consideration that it WAS written by man, not God (I'm certain that an omnipotent God could have written it Himself, like he supposedly did with the Ten Commandments), is that the wording is vague, contradictory, and subject to nummerous translational errors.

A paper plate is a circle. A basketball is a sphere. The earth is more like a sphere than a circle, as noted from the quoted text above, and there is a perfectly adequate word for sphere in Hebrew.

Due to the numerous contradictions found in the bible, it is impossible, or inevitable, that the bible would get things right. There are numerous texts that suggest that the earth is flat. If the earth were flat, biblical apologists would be claiming victory by quoting only those texts which support the earth being flat, instead of spherical. The essential flatness of the earth's surface is required by verses like Daniel 4:10-11. In Daniel, the king “saw a tree of great height at the centre of the earth...reaching with its top to the sky and visible to the earth's farthest bounds.” If the earth were flat, a sufficiently tall tree would be visible to “the earth's farthest bounds,” but this is impossible on a spherical earth. Likewise, in describing the temptation of Jesus by Satan, Matthew 4:8 says, “Once again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world [cosmos] in their glory.” Obviously, this would be possible only if the earth were flat. The same is true of Revelation 1:7: “Behold, he is coming with the clouds! Every eye shall see him...”

Likewise, there are verses in the bible that refer to the "four corners of the earth." This suggests that the earth is a square (Not to be confused with a cube, which has 8 corners). For those who aren't aware, spheres do not have corners. If the earth had been square, then the apologists would claim victory with this scripture and ignore the other contradictory verses, or allow for a more loose interpretation for them.

Apparently, the bible is to be strictly interpreted literally, especially in Genesis, except when it suits them to take into account figures of speech.

Biblical literalists treat science like a prostitute. When it agrees with their dogma, they raise their fists in victorious celebration. When it conflicts with their narrow view of the world, they cry about conspiracies and start quoting scripture about how unwise it is to be wise, and how the wise will be made into fools.

El Chistoso

Answer 4

Remember a circle is not a sphere. The authors of the OT were definitely Flat Earthers. The bible also says the earth has four corners that sit on four pillars. Don't look for science in the bible. The bible also says a rabbit chews its cud, a bat is a bird of the air, and insects have four legs.

These all contradict what we know to be true.

Answer 5

Isaiah 40:22
[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:

Answer 6

Isaiah 40:22 [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:

Answer 7

The Bible noted that the earth is a sphere and sits on "nothing" more than 2800 years ago!

Isaiah 40:22
It is [God] who sits* above the sphere** of the earth

Job 26:7
He stretches out the north over the empty place, and hangs the earth upon nothing.

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.

Eratosthenes of Alexandria (circa 276 to 194 or 192 B.C.) calculated the circumference of the earth "within 50 miles of the present estimate."

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*Hebrew "yashab" - meaning dwells or inhabits. dwells above the circle of the earth - ie inhabits the heavens.

**Hebrew "khoog" - meaning circle in 2 dimensions and sphere in 3 dimensions. Note: a flat disk wheel (owphan) or circle (cabiyb) are used elsewhere in scripture, but are not sphere (khoog).

Answer 8

It goes on to say that God sits at the top and can see the whole thing. That is a flat circle not a sphere.

EVERYONE who read it without science decided that it said it was flat. Now you want to revise that because you know that it is wrong.

"When one reads Bibles, one is less surprised at what the Deity knows than at what He doesn't know."
-- Mark Twain

Answer 9

Isaiah 40:22...yes there is more but let's not be Muslims the proof of God is in his revelation not revealed by Science.
Edit ot peien the word cirlcle translates also to sphere the word is the same word.

Answer 10

Not true, it was discovered by Eratosthenes several hundred years BEFORE the bible. He was Greek and the stories in the bible are before the Greeks, maybe a few of the old testament ones are pretty old too.