Does the bible say the earth is Flat?

The answer to this is important to creationists, as you would assume it would need to say the earth is round and not flat for them to be able to say they truly take the bible literally, unless they decide to join the Flat Earth Society.
So does the bible say the earth is round or Flat?

Verses
My favorite verse about this is Isaiah 40:22:
“Isa 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:”

I will get to why this supports a Flat Earth later, however first I want to explain why its my Favorite.
Its my favorite because it hasn’t been brushed off like other verses have. Often verses that refer to “the four corners” of the earth are brushed off as being a non literal descriptive way to talk, or another way of saying the Four directions. However, Isa 40:22 is often used in an attempt to support a spherical earth, so we know they are not brushing it off.

AIG says, “it is clear from such passages as Isaiah 40:22 that the Bible implies it is spherical.”
http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/1138.asp
And
Christian Answers Says, “A spherical earth is also described in Isaiah 40:21-22 - "the circle of the earth." “
http://christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-c015.html

So as we can see, both biblical literalist groups, accept this verse as being literal.

About Isaiah 40:22
and why it says the earth is Flat.

“Isa 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:”

The Strongs Definition of the Hebrew word used for “circle” is,

“Chuwg: 1) circle, circuit, compass”
http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/words.pl?word=02329&page=1

The definition of a Circle is:
“Circle:
1. A plane curve everywhere equidistant from a given fixed point, the center.
2. A planar region bounded by a circle.
3. Something, such as a ring, shaped like such a plane curve.
4. A circular course, circuit, or orbit: a satellite's circle around the earth.“
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=circle

So As you can see, a Circle is Not a sphere. Its a bounding region, and it outlines a flat, 2D object, a disk. This fits the early Hebrew ideas of a Flat earth with heaven spread out like a dome or a tent over it. It is pretty hard to spread the heavens out like a tent over a sphere. The three definitions of chuwg all fit well with each other.
Duwr could have been used, which has this definition:

“duwr:
1) ball, circle
a) circle
b) ball”
http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/words.pl?word=01754&page=1

A Ball often being a sphere like object and a much better description of the earth.

Other Support

An interesting Commentary on another verse that uses Chuwg, suggests that the originally belief was that the earth was flat. It also supports that the ancient hebrew believed the earth was flat.:

Proverb 8:27
“27. when he set . . . depth--marked out the circle, according to the popular idea of the earth, as circular, surrounded by depths on which the visible concave heavens rested.”
-Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
http://blueletterbible.org/Comm/jfb/Pro/Pro008.html

Matthew 4:8 supports a flat earth,

“Mat 4:8   Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;”

It is impossible to see All the kingdoms of the world from a single mountain, on a spherical earth, however it is possible on a flat earth. So this again, supports a flat earth.

Here is a picture of "The Ancient Hebrew Conception of the Universe (from Robinson, 1913, p. 13)"
The book of Enoch describes how the shape of the earth was thought of in those days.
Cosmas, a 500AD monk, wrote a book titled "Topographia Christiana" in which he uses the bible to try and debunk the pagan idea of a spherical earth

Arguments against Isa 40:22

There are a couple arguments against Isa 40:22 saying the earth is flat.

1) There is no Hebrew word for Sphere so circle was used instead.

Response: this defense still falsifies the claim that Isa 40:22 really means sphere, the interpretation that supposed "literalists" have taken. However it is interesting that the Hebrew word used, fits so well with the beliefs at that time. Maybe they did not need a word for sphere, since a flat circle was what they ment.

2) Duwr does not mean sphere because of its different usage in other verses.

Response: You can see other words in the bible that seem to have different meanings depending on the context. However, a ball like object is still much more sphere like than a circle. Thus I would assume that they would want to use a word that better described the shape of the earth. Especially since it was then believed the earth was a flat circle, if they truly wanted to say different, then it would have been smart to stay away from words that meant Flat Circle, and go with words that meant a 3d object, like a ball.

Conclusion
Most likely the earth was believed to be flat in those days and so it was written that way. This doesn't mean much for people that don't take the bible literaly. Afterall, the bible was also used at one point to defend the geocentric model, yet the heliocentric model prevailing didn't hurt christianity or the bible any.
To biblical literalists this means a bit more. A Flat earth appears to have more literal scripture backing than a 6000 year old earth. The belief of a 6000 year old earth has come about from back tracking geneologies and other events in the bible and is an error prone, man made interpretation of the bible, something that literalists claim to avoid by taking the bible literally. Thus holding onto the belief that the earth is 6000 years old because the bible says it is, yet denying a flat earth or the possibility that the bible says the earth is flat, is contradictory.

-Ari

Last Update 5/30/04

©03 Ari

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