Job 26:7 Scientific Fact, Lucky Guess, Divine Revelation Or Theory Without Material Evidence?
Job 26:7 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
7He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.
Must people back then and for many years to come believed the earth laid on it’s back against something, back in that day many thought a giant turtle, camel etc…
This is the only ancient text i have found or can remember that states the earth stands alone in space. What are your thoughts?
Tags: 267, Fact, Job, lucky, Scientific
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Vague rambling, mostly inaccurate. If you take this literally, you have to take it ALL literally, and the north isn’t stretched, the earth doesn’t “hang”, and space is not “nothing”.
If this is meant to suggest that the authors of the Bible knew something that others didn’t know - something that was later verified - it falls far short.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
I really hate to bust your bubble, but many Biblical scholars think that Job was a Ugaritic text reconfigured into the Israelite text because they liked it’s message about people trying to find justification and fault with God…
And no, I’m not suggesting that the writers of the Ugaritic text were somehow scientifically savvy beyond their times…it’s hardly a revelation that the earth was simliar to the moon, which “hung on nothing” to anybody that looked up at the night sky.
So if you want the Bible (or any ancient religious text) to be considered for an entry in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, you’ll need to find more than one simple sentence to get it there…
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
I’m sorry, but I think it was a lucky guess. You gotta be right sometimes, eh?
Edit: In my anthropology studies, I have come across documentation of numerous primitive cultures who knew the earth was a round sphere. How did they know? Well, for one thing, there are eclipses. And as someone else stated, they can see that the sun and moon are both round, so it stands to reason that earth would be, too. Taken as a whole, however, the ancient books of the Old Testament are wrong about the particulars of the universe far more than they are right, so I’m going to go with lucky guess here.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
While I believe the Bible to be the inspired word of God, the book of Job is written in poetic language and is not intended to convey scientific information about the universe. So it could be that God gave the author uncommon understanding that was incorporated into that passage or it could be that people looked up in the sky and saw the moon and the stars and figured out that the earth was also hanging in some type of larger continuum.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
it is a divine revelation and not only that! pls read:Isa.40:22,2 peter 3:10, Ps.8:6, is.43:16, Job 36:27, Amos 9:6, Ecc 1:6-7, Jer 33:22, Isa 40:12 and 1Cor.15;39 and many more. in fact, archeology and science produced an overwhelming proofs and a lot of facts that reveals and discover truth that can also reffer in the bible so clearly. The bible is more than a mere religious documents written by men
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
To be honest, I’d call this a lucky guess. The reason for that is that it talks about the earth “hanging” and doesn’t show an actual understanding that the earth is rotating and orbiting the sun.
In other words, like other “scientific” facts in holy texts it sorta is right but not enough to show that the actual creator of the universe would have inspired it.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
It’s a divine revelation; 2Timothy 3:16.
Like these verses:
Job 26:8 He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them.
Ecc 1:7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Try reading the works of Pythagoras (ancient Greece) or Aryabhata (Ancient India). Both knew that the Earth was spherical and didn’t need to be supported on anything, and both were alive at around the same time that Job was written.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
But the earth doesn’t hang in nothing - that is a really stupid way to represent what is actually going on. And besides, they also thought it was a flat disc.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Other verses say the earth is flat, set up on pillars, and has four corners. Some verses say the sky (the heavens) is a solid dome (firmament) over the earth.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Actually, that wasn’t a new idea back then. Other civilizations thought the world was not flat and not suspended on anything.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
It still doesn’t jibe with the part where Satan takes Jesus to a mountaintop and they are able to see the entirety of a spherical planet…
I always say: Even a broken clock is right twice a day…
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
He was obviously listening when God spoke to him & others
were not.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
divine revelation
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Fairy tale nonsense. You can give it any signification you want dear…
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
science only proves the Bible being true.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
4400 years later…..and people still don’t believe what God said.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
As the astronauts have shown us in pictures when they look back at the earth from the spaceship, it looks as if the earth is hanging on nothing. And we have seen this picture time and time again. What a beautiful way to explain the earth “hangeth the earth upon nothing.”
When the Bible says the heavens are stretched out like a curtain, that is also a fact. At times they are far away and at times they come closer - such as Mars. Comets are another example. And there are many in the universe. What a beautiful, simple way to explain the universe.
The Bible says God upholds it all by the power of His Word.
“Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things;
by whom also he made the worlds.
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and UPHOLDING ALL THINGS BY THE WORD OF HIS POWER, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
I like where the Bible tells us that in the latter days that the Jews, Israel, will return to their land on wings of eagles. What a beautiful way to describe an airplane.
God reveals through various means, such as visions, dreams, poetry, sermons, face-to-face conversations, tablets of stone, miracles, parables, inner compulsion, history, angels and especial the person of Christ Jesus.
Can you stop and think how hard it would be for someone in 586 BC to describe seeing the earth hanging on nothing or an airplane in the air. God’s prophets often described and put into words visions and dreams that God gave unto them.
Honestly, to me, they did a beautiful job of putting it all into writing. The Bible is truly inspired by a living God.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Scientifically sound statements. Some 3,500 years ago, the Bible stated that the earth is hanging “upon nothing.” (Job 26:7) In the eighth century B.C.E., Isaiah clearly referred to “the circle [or, sphere] of the earth.” (Isaiah 40:22) A spherical earth held in empty space without any visible or physical means of support—does not that description sound remarkably modern?
Written about 1500 B.C.E., the Mosaic Law (found in the first five books of the Bible) contained sound laws regarding quarantining of the sick, treatment of dead bodies, and disposal of waste.—Leviticus 13:1-5; Numbers 19:1-13; Deuteronomy 23:13, 14.
Partly as a result of turning powerful telescopes toward the heavens, scientists have concluded that the universe had a sudden “birth.” Not all scientists like the implications of this explanation. One professor noted: “A universe that began seems to demand a first cause; for who could imagine such an effect without a sufficient cause?” Yet, long before telescopes, the very first verse of the Bible plainly stated: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”—Genesis 1:1.
Even though it is an ancient book and touches on many subjects, the Bible contains no scientific inaccuracies. Does not such a book merit, at the very least, our consideration?