thread: Do You Think The Bible is Literal or Allegorical

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  1. #12
    Registered User

    Mar 2007
    6,900

    Where does it say the earth is flat? I thought the bible said the earth was round. Hmm...now let me see if I can find where it says that.

    The Bible described the shape of the earth centuries before people thought that the earth was spherical.

    1. Isaiah 40:22
      It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
      And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
      Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
      And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

    The word translated 'circle' here is the Hebrew word chuwg which is also translated 'circuit', or 'compass' (depending on the context). That is, it indicates something spherical, rounded, or arched not something that is flat or square.
    The book of Isaiah was written sometime between 740 and 680 BC. This is at least 300 years before Aristotle suggested that the earth might be a sphere in this book On the Heavens.
    Anyways, that's getting off topic again and it's not really worth arguing about as my faith makes me have a different view of things. Although I do see the Bible as a great bit of historical literature, it is also the basis of my faith and I believe that it is God's word and he had a hand in writing it and deciding what would be included in it. So I wouldn't disagree with anything written in it anyway.
    Last edited by Heaven; September 20th, 2008 at 02:18 PM.