>We first meet the Hebrew word 'eretz' in Gn.1:1. It certainly means
>planet Earth there, wouldn't you agree?
The one thing we can be sure of from the historical and biblical context is
that 'eretz' in Gn 1:1 does NOT mean "planet Earth" William Tanner showed
that the word "earth" in the Bible never means Planet Earth ["'Planet Earth'?
or 'Land'?" in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 49 (June, 97)
111-115]. He worked mostly from the Greek language and historical sources.
In my own paper, working from anthropological, historical, biblical and
linguistic (mainly Hebrew) data ["The geographical meaning of 'earth' and
'seas' in Gen 1:10" in the Westminster Theological Journal 59 (1997) 231-55]
I showed that when the word 'eretz' is used in the OT in a universal sense,
its meaning is a flat circular disc floating upon an ocean.
The theological doctrine of creation found in Gen 1:1 can and should be
applied to planet Earth, but, it is the theology which is the revelation in
Gen 1, not the definition of the "Earth."
If Gen 1 is "VCR history" as seen and revealed by God rather than an
accommodation to the views of the times, Christians are bound to believe in a
flat earth floating upon an ocean beneath a solid sky. When will the
literalists be consistent and either affirm the biblical description of the
earth and the universe or stop implying that they are the serious Christians
and those who do not accept the Bible literally are not?
Paul S.