Monday, January 30, 2012

What is meant by"two ends of the earth" and "four corners of the earth" in the bible? Earth is flat?

I'm not mocking Chrsitianity. I'm trying to be a good Christian and been reading the bible to learn more about my faith, but i'm a very analytical person so if I read something that doesn't seem to make sense I will ask about it.

Does anyone knows what the bible meant by these verses about ends of earth, immovable earth set on pillars and the four corners of earth?What is meant by"two ends of the earth" and "four corners of the earth" in the bible? Earth is flat?
The four corners are not physical corners - they're directions. North south east and west.
When the Bible says the ends of the world it means all the world... since the world is a circle it has no physical end... so we are to neer stop ministering

Like gimzani said the four corners are not physical

never says its flat

God would know... He created the world

Its a parable in itself

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What is meant by"two ends of the earth" and "four corners of the earth" in the bible? Earth is flat?
For those who said isiah 40:22 proves the earth is round, BS!

First of all, a circle is not a ball or sphere or an egg-shaped object. A circle is a flat round surface, similar to flat rectangular, or square, or triangular surfaces. So if the Bible claims that the Earth is a circle, then this is still bogus because the earth is obviously not a flat surface.

We have two conditions here:

1- Isaiah 40:22 is claiming that the Earth is a flat circle.

2- Isaiah 40:22 is claiming that the Earth has a circle above it.

If we were to take condition #1, then we are left with a clear and irrefutable contradiction between Isaiah 40:22 and some of the Bible's verses that mentioned corners of the earth, because a flat circle doesn't have "four corners", and ironically in either case, we still have a scientifically false claim about the Earth's shape.

IF we were to take condition #2, then it doesn't prove that the Earth is an egg-shaped figure, and Isaiah 40:22 surely becomes irrelevant to this subject.

One thing is for sure clear, and that is Isaiah 40:22 is obviously ambiguous and not clear if we wish to prove from it that the Earth is not flat and is egg-shaped. If we look at what the entire Bible says about the shape of the Earth as the Roman Catholic Church did in the past, then we would reach the same conclusion they reached, and that is: The Earth is Flat!
1) What is meant by"two ends of the earth" and "four corners of the earth" in the bible? Earth is flat?



Well, have you really never heard anyone use either of these phrases? Did that person believe that the Earth was flat?



Second: let's pretend that these phrases are meant literally. How could that possibly lead you to believe that the author thought that the Earth was flat? Are flat things the only things with two ends or four corners? Aren't flat things the most unlikely of all things having two edges and/or 4 corners? Isn't nearly everything in nature with either 2 ends or 4 corners not at all flat?



Jim, http://www.bible-reviews.comWhat is meant by"two ends of the earth" and "four corners of the earth" in the bible? Earth is flat?
"Two ends of the earth" is not in my Bible. Reference, please, if you have one. Corners and pillars are metaphorical language. Not everything in the Bible is meant to be taken literally. If you pray for discernment, you will know what is and what is not to be taken literally.
This simply meant the totality of the Earth. All of it.



It does not mean that the Earth is flat for Isaiah mentioned that it was a circle:

(Isaiah 40:22) 22?There is One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth, .?.?.



These are some of the things that I like about the Bible. Even before modern science proved the earth was round, the Bible had already mentioned it. The same with the Earth being suspended over nothing in space:

(Job 26:7) ?7?He is stretching out the north over the empty place, Hanging the earth upon nothing;



It took the science till last century to go to space and look at the circle of the earth hanging over nothing as the Bible mentions.



Well I hope this helped...
Corners could refer to compass points... the four basic directions. Ends of the earth could be referring to the edges of the known world at the time, or could just mean the furthest reaches, like today, when someone says they went to the far ends of the earth.



Isaiah called the world a globe or sphere (erroneously translated in some versions as circle).



Edit for dreamstuff: I'm a Hebrew teacher. I know the word means sphere. Sorry you don't agree.
I'm sure that those verses aren't referring to the Earth being flat, however there are other verses that do say the Earth is flat.



1 Chronicles 16:30: “He has fixed the earth firm, immovable.”



Dreamstuff gave you this link:

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/febible.ht…
The people who wrote the bible thought it was flat:

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/febible.ht…



P.S. gotta love the lying for jesus regarding the hebrew word for a circle. It does NOT mean a sphere.



Oh, and circles are two-dimensional shapes. It appears not everybody knows that.
These are just terms from antiquity that people understood to mean....the entire world.



The book of Isaiah (40:22) states that "God is enthrowned above the CIRCLE of the earth." This was written around 700 b.c....LONG before science (or anyone else for that matter) believed that the earth was round.
The verses to which you are referring in Revelation 7:1 are meant to be symbolic. Most of Revelation is symbolic and yet very real.
Yes, as the bible was written by man in the 1500bc-200ad period, the earth was considered flat.
reference?





and if it's from psalms or revelation, it obviously doesn't count. unless you want to count the other figurative language in those books (trees clapping, mountains leaping, etc.)
It means the whole world. Nowhere in the Bible does it state that the earth is flat.
The PEOPLE who wrote the Bible are not nearly as infallible as they imagine their God to be...
ever heard of a metaphor? the bible is a piece of literature.
the bible is written by imperfect man.
it is called an anthropomorphism....

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