Steve wrote:
<< Galileo had continued on the work of Copernicus' revival of a heliocentric
theory of the solar system (planets orbiting the sun). The Roman Catholic
curia interpreted heliocentrism as a direct assault on its doctrines.
Therefore, when Galileo produced several observational evidences for the
heliocentric theory, he established himself as an enemy of the Church. The
scriptures in question were Psalms 93:1, 104:5 and Ecc 1:4-5, all seeming to
express the immovability of the Earth. Galileo pointed out that regardless
of how the earth moves, an Earth-bound frame of reference always generates
an immovable Earth. Galileo noted that all three Bible passages speak from
an Earth-bound point of view. He was emphasizing how essential it is to
establish the frame of reference when conducting any scientific or
exegetical inquiry.
>>
These along with the Joshua reference are indeed the primary Scriptures the
Church used against Galileo; and the Church was not mistaken in its exegesis.
Within their historical context, these scriptures are all speaking of the
literal immovability of the earth. In OT times the earth was conceived of by
ANE peoples as a flat disc, with the sun moving over the earth during the day
and then under the earth, or perhaps into the earth during the night. As
Whybray says in his commentary on Eccl 1:5: "After it has set in the west it
returns swiftly by an underground route (the earth being regarded as a flat
disc) to the east where it is to rise again-a cosmological concept shared by
a number of ancient peoples."
The error of the Church was not its exegesis, but its failure to realize that
the purpose of Scripture is not to reveal science, and that Scripture is
regularly accommodated to the science of the times.
Paul S.
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