Allen wrote:
<< The idea that the writers of the Bible believed in a flat earth as it is
thought other ancients believed is strictly your interpretation of the
Bible. (Well not just yours alone, for others believe this fable too.) As
you say, and I believe it too, the Bible is not a scientific document. I
does, however, record reliable observations of the natural world. It does
not matter whether they had the same understanding of nature we have or not.
While it may be interesting to try to see what the ancients thought, that
does not mean that it is correct. It does not mean that that is the only
way to understand the texts and descriptions is they way it is thought they
did. It is entirely valid to take their descriptions and interpret them
within current understandings.>>
There are a number of biblical texts indicating that the earth was thought of
as flat (Seely, "The geographical meaning of 'earth' and 'seas' in Gen 1:10"
in the Westminster Theological Journal 59 (1997) 231-55.) The historical
evidence is that everyone in the time of Moses believed it was flat. If you
are going to come up with a different interpretation, you need to produce
_evidence_ . Given the strong historical probabilities against the Hebrews
having a different definition of the word "earth" than a flat disc (when used
universally), the burden of proof is on anyone denying that "earth" in the OT
refers to a flat earth.
The OT does record reliable observations of the natural world; but, it also
records false conclusions drawn from those observations, such as that the sky
is solid or that the hare chews the cud like a cow.
Paul
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