Hermeneutical principle 4A, we will focus on passages in the Bible dealing with the structure of the earth and ancient geography. Please turn to Page 32 in the class handouts. Ancient geographical feature Number 1. Ancient people believed that the earth is immoveable, for example, Psalm 93, 1 states the world is firmly established; it cannot move. Of course, this makes perfect sense from an ancient phenomenological perspective. Do you feel the earth moving? I don't. But we are in fact spinning at a 1,000 miles an hour on our axis and going around the sun at 70,000 miles an hour. Ancient geographical feature Number 2. According to the Bible, the earth is set on foundations and this is stated 20 times in Scripture. For example, we read in Psalm 104 verse 5, God set the earth on its foundations. It can never be moved. To think that the Earth is on foundations was reasonable because again, we don't feel the earth moving. The next feature regarding to the structure of the Earth is one that is quite unusual for us today. Ancient Near Eastern people believed that the Earth was surrounded by a circumferential sea. However, this is a very logical notion from an ancient phenomenological perspective. This idea emerged because of two phenomenon. First, the visual impact of the horizon gave the impression that the boundary of the world was circular and second travelers in the ancient Near East eventually came to a sea. If we consider the geography of the ancient Near East, we can appreciate how ancient people in this region believed the end of the Earth was at a shoreline. In the West, there was the Mediterranean Sea, to the North the Black and Caspian seas, to the East the Persian Gulf and to the South the Arabian and Red Seas. To the surprise of many Christians, the creation of the circumferential sea actually appears in the Bible. Must be pointed out that there are creation accounts in scripture outside of Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. For example, in the Job 26 creation account, verse 10 reads, God inscribed a circle on the surface of the waters. Similarly, in the Proverbs 8 creation account in verse 27, it states, God inscribed a circle on the surface of the deep. To understand these verses, we need to remember Genesis 1-2. This is the opening scene in the Bible where water covered the earth. In Job 26 and Proverbs 8, God begins creating the world by outlining the outer boundary of the circumferential sea at the horizon. In order to get a fuller understanding of the Bible, we need to read scripture within it's ancient context and the academic discipline of historical criticism does exactly that. Historical criticism refers to the use of Ancient Near Eastern literature like that in Egypt and Mesopotamia. To understand the Bible within its historical context. For example, the circumferential sea was the geography of the day 2,500 years ago as seen in the Babylonian World Map from the 6th century BC BCE. You'll also notice that according to this map, the earth is circular, which is our next ancient geographical feature. The ancient idea of a circular Earth appears explicitly in the Bible. Isaiah 40:22 states, God sits enthroned above the circle of the earth. Christians often claimed that this verse refers to the spherical outline of the Earth from the perspective of outer space. In this way, it is used as proof that the Bible has modern science. But this way of using the Bible is known as proof-texts hermeneutics. It involves tearing one verse out of it's context and manipulating it to mean something never intended by the author. For example, this is similar to sound bite political reporting on TV in which the words of a person are twisted to mean something he or she never intended. But with Isaiah 40:22, we need to read the entire verse and just not part of it. Here it is, God sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and it's people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in. For Isaiah, The universe is like a tent with a dome canopy overhead and a flat floor below, and this is characteristic of the three tier universe. Please turn to page 33 in the handouts for the next geographical feature. According to the Bible, the Earth has ends. This is stated 50 times in scripture as seen with the expression, the 'Ends of the Earth'. For example, in Matthew 12:42, Jesus states, the Queen of the South, that is the Queen of Sheba, will rise of the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For she came from the ends of the Earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom. Please return to the map of the Ancient Near East on page 32 of the handouts. Sheba, is in the South West corner of the Arabian Peninsula. For the Queen of Sheba to come to Israel was indeed coming from the Ends of the Earth according to an ancient phenomenological perspective. A very fascinating aspect of ancient geography is that ancient people believed that the Earth has an underworld. In the Old Testament, this region is called "sheol", and it appears 65 times. For example, in Amos 9:2 God states," Though they dig down to the depths of "sheol", from there my hand will take them. Though they climb up to the heavens, from there I will bring them down". Clearly, the reference to digging down to "sheol" is indicative that "sheol" is below the surface of the ground inside the Earth. In the New Testament, the underworld is often called "hades". This Greek term appears about 20 times. Here is an example in Luke 10:15 where Jesus states, " And you, the town of Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No, you will go down to hades". Again, this verse makes perfect sense in a three-tier universe with heaven overhead and the underworld below the surface of the Earth. As we noted earlier in the course, the underworld and subterranean world is also called "katachthonions". In Philippians 2:10, the Apostle Paul writes, "At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, number one in heaven and number two on Earth and number three in the "katachthonion". We also noted previously that the Greek term "katachthonion" is made up of the preposition "kata", meaning down, and "cathoneos", which refers to the underworld. Our seventh and final ancient geographical feature is the notion that the Earth is flat. It's important to point out that there is no passage in scripture that directly states the Earth is flat. However, from an ancient phenomenological perspective, the Earth does look flat from an elevated position like the top of a mountain. For example, the flat Earth is clearly implied in scripture. Matthew 4:8 says that the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. Can one see the Chinese or indigenous people in America from a mountain in the Middle East? No. This verse only makes sense if the world is flat. The closer examination of the Earth and ancient geography in the Bible. Let me introduce what I term is the Earth- Dearth argument. If scientific concordism were true, and if God intended to reveal scientific facts ahead of time, then I think it's reasonable to expect God to reveal the shape of the Earth, for example, by comparing the Earth to an orange or a ball, etc. But the Greek noun "ge", that means Earthen lamb, appears 250 times in the New Testament, and it is never referred to as a sphere or a ball. Similarly, the Hebrew noun "eres" meaning Earth and land, is found 2500 times in the Old Testament, and it is never referred to as a sphere or a ball. Therefore, there is a dearth that is, a lack of verses in the Bible referring to the Earth is being satirical, and for me, this indicates that God never intended to reveal scientific facts and scripture ahead of time. End of episode.
