Talk:Isaiah 40

Circle of the Earth and Earth as a sphere in verse 22
Verse 22 is often cited as a proof text for a Biblical doctrine of the Earth as a sphere. There are obvious difficulties with this interpretation: The text, interpreted literally, is about a circle and of the Earth. It does not use a word for sphere' which is available in Biblical Hebrew. It does not say that the circle is the Earth. The standard cosmology of the Ancient Near East, which standard commentators ascribe to the Bible, is of a flat Earth. And, last of all, as mentioned in introducton to this article, Deutro-Isaiah dates from the 6th century, roughly contemporaneous with Pythagoras, to whom the idea of the Earth as a sphere is commonly attributed. I do not want to imagine, without any evidence, any connecton between Pythagoras and Babylonian astrology, but this as a proof-text does not predate Pythgoras. Anyway, my first reaction is that Wikipedia shuld not to mention all of this as just baseless speculation. As I have done for these many years. And, then there is the need to dig up the needed confirmation - I don't want to be guilty of "orignial research". But, on the other hand, we do hear of this baseless speculation often enough. If there is any reason to spend any effort on debunking this? Or should it be left to the debunking sites? I sort of hope that the consensus is, "forget it". TomS TDotO (talk) 13:51, 28 February 2019 (UTC)


 * To address your concern, I would like to suggest the following addition to verse 22. JohnThorne (talk) 22:32, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

Verse 22
 * It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth,
 * and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers;
 * that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain,
 * and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. (KJV)

Westermann notes the similarity of parts of this verse to other Bible verses: verse 22a vs. b and verse 22b vs. b. This verse contains several rare words – such as, doq ("curtain"), and , mathach ("spread, stretch"), which are only found here, as well as , chug ("circle"), which are only found in a few other verses  –  suggesting “well-defined, distinctive traditions.”
 * "Circle" (of the earth): is translated from the Hebrew word, , which also denotes "horizon, circuit, vault of the heavens." It can refer to the full circuit – the seen and unseen halves –  of the stars across the dome of the sky, or the vault of heaven  extending “in a half-circle from horizon to horizon”, or a circular observable horizon (cf. ; ), to emphasize the range of God’s authority “over everything the eye can see in every direction, even to the distant ends of the earth,” but not necessarily refer to the “circular nature of the earth.” Rashi mentions an expression with the same root in  (“and with a compass (וּבַמְּחוּגָה)”) to view this word as a “circle” (as made by a compass).