The Earth round. Did you know the Bible taught that before it was proved by science?

[STAC]

Long before mankind in general accepted that the earth was round, the Bible declared: “[God] is stretching out the north over the empty place, hanging the earth upon nothing.” (Job 26:7) The Bible reveals that “there is One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth,” (Isaiah 40:22). Only God, the Creator, could have provided this detail.
The original-language word translated “circle” at Isaiah 40:22 also is rendered “sphere.” Certain Bible translations read, “the globe of the earth” (Douay Version) and “the round earth.”—Moffatt.

[Gavin R]

That the Douay version translates this as 'globe' should come as no surprise, as this version was translated in the 16th century, after it had been proved that the Earth already was a globe.
Nonetheless, even though educated people in the ancient world knew the world was a sphere, most people (including Jews) thought that the world was round, but flat, like a disk. For the Jews the sky was a big brass bowl with holes in it that let the celestial fire through, which we saw as stars.
The Bible is absolutely full of errors. For instance the brass pool in the Temple is called round, but its dimensions ignore the property of pi. Noah's Ark is impossibly small for the task it was set out to do, and there are hundreds of other errors.

[akexyaya]

no i didnt know that... thanks for 2 points

[hypno_toad1]

Response:

1. The passage saying the earth is round is Isaiah 40:22:

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

This passage may reasonably be interpreted as referring to a flat circular earth with the heavens forming a dome above it. Such an interpretation is consistent with other passages of the Bible which refer to a solid firmament (Gen. 1:6-20, 7:11; Ezekiel 1:22-26; Job 9:8, 22:14, etc.). It is also consistent with the cosmology common in neighboring cultures.

Isaiah 11:12 refers to the "four quarters of the earth", but we do not take that as indicative of the earth's shape.

2. The shape of the earth may already have been known in Isaiah's time. Ancient astronomers could determine that the earth was round by observing its circular shadow move across the moon during lunar eclipses. There is some suggestion that the Egyptians knew of the earth's spherical size and shape around 2550 B.C.E. (more than a thousand years before Moses). The Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who was born in 532 B.C.E., defended the spherical theory on the basis of observations he had made of the shape of the sun and moon (Uotila 1984). If this information was known by educated Greeks and Egyptians during biblical times, its use by Isaiah is nothing special.

The versions you mention 1582 Rheims New Testament and 1609 Douay Old Testament postdate the discovery of the new world and the general knowledge that the world is round.

[llordlloyd]

What a shame the CHURCH executed people for saying the earth was round... just as today the CHURCH ignores the word of the Bible in pursuit of its leaders' financial and power hunger.

Now, about the incest and rape committed by the most Godly founders of your great religion....

[Nicole H]

wow when did you find this out!

[awesome girl]

wow, i'm impressed that someone has verses to back up their information for ONCE!!
Thanks! I'll put that under my belt!

[Fallout]

Yes I did.
So whats your question?