I have a copy of _History of the Jewish Nation_ by Alfred Edersheim.
He is a Messianic Jew from the end of the 19th century best known for
his classic work _The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah_.
He discusses the thoughts of the Jewish Rabbinical leaders as recorded
in a very large extra-Biblical source known as the Talmud. This work
is a bit late, spanning a time of composition from about 100 BC (The
Midrash) to about 500 AD (The Gemara in the Babylonian Talmud).
Pages 352-361 of _History of the Jewish Nation_ is on the topic of
Scientific Knowledge. Here are a few excerpts:
"Various speculations were propounded as to the size of the earth and its
place in the universe, and the different ways in which first the centre
and then the sides of it were formed; while in one passage the earth
surrounded by sea is compared to a ball in a dish [Jer. Ab. Sar. iii. 42c]
The thickness of the crust of the earth was computed by some at 1000
cubits [Succa 53b]....The Talmud recounts the planets by name as Cochab
(the star) for Mercury; Nogah (splendor) for Venus; Maadim (red) for
Mars; Zedek (righteousness) for Jupiter; Sabbatai (Sabbath star) for
Saturn....Besides the seven circles of the planets, other two were
enumerated, of which one is called that of the stars, being a sphere
which contains the stars, the other that which contains the whole
universe. The twelve constellations of the Zodiac were in the ninth
orbit of stars [Ber. 32b; Pes. 94b]."
Anyone with a copy of Steven Hawkings _A Brief History of Time_ may
wish to compare this with the cosmology of Ptolemy detailed on page 3.
This shows a spherical (!) earth at the center of 8 concentric shells
containing, in order, the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, and finally the sphere of the "fixed stars."
I am NOT suggesting that Biblical cosmologies were derived from pagan
sources. Rather, I am arguing that secular Jewish speculation accepted
current scientific cosmologies of the Greek and Babylonians which were
NOT flat-earth as naive 19th century skeptics would have us believe and
saw no conflict with Biblical revelation well before the Copernican
revolution.
-jpt
--John P. Turnbull (jpt@ccfadm.eeg.ccf.org)Cleveland Clinic FoundationDept. of Neurology, Section of Neurological ComputingM52-119500 Euclid Ave.Cleveland Ohio 44195Telephone (216) 444-8041; FAX (216) 444-9401