Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

George:

How far back does “modern” understanding of the universe go? We have
ancient sources, well into BC, that considered the earth to be a sphere, a
mere speck in the vastness of space. On what basis would you say that
Isaiah may have not had that understanding? In particular, Ptolemy didn’t
propose a new idea of the universe’s vastness when he tried to measure the
diameter of the earth by using the difference in the length of shadows at
different places at the same time, as the sun is so far away that the sun’s
rays would be for all practical purposes parallel.

So what I am saying is that we cannot rule out that “sphere” was meant in
Isaiah 40:22 and Proverbs 8:27. In fact, the Isaiah verse reads better as a
sphere.

Be careful not to do the medieval error of taking Hebrew terminology, and
understanding it according to Greek thought patterns. Many times ancient
Hebrews used nouns to refer to functional equivalents of what was pictured
by the nouns, not static objects as was done in Greek philosophy. It was
the misreading of the text by the medievalists that gave rise to the
medieval cosmology, which is still trotted out as “Biblical cosmology” when
it never was Biblical cosmology.

See http://www.wikinfo.org/Multilingual/index.php/Hebrew_thought

Also don’t make the mistake of thinking that these different ways of
looking at the world are related to the languages, they aren’t. A good
example is the New Testament, written in Greek, but using Hebrew thought.

Job 22:14 talked about the “sphere” of the heavens.

Also, from the same root, “lathe” found in Isaiah 44:13 and the verb to go
around in circles Psalm 107:27.

Karl W. Randolph.

On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 2:51 AM, George Athas 
<George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>wrote:

> In response to something Karl wrote (see below):
>
> In both Isa 40.22 and Prov 8.27, the word חוג does not mean 'sphere'. It
> simply indicates a circle. The use of the verb form in Job 26.10 shows that
> is something that can be traced on a flat surface. Ergo, we can't read
> modern cosmology back into the biblical texts.
>
>
> GEORGE ATHAS
> Dean of Research,
> Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)
> Sydney, Australia
>
>
> From: K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com<mailto:kwrandolph AT gmail.com>>
> Date: Saturday, 18 August 2012 8:33 AM
> To: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu<mailto:if AT math.bu.edu>>
> Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> >>
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] GALGAL and TALTAL
>
> As far as I can tell, GLGL גלגל is used only as a place name, never
> referring to an object in Tanakh. The word for “wheel” is )PN אפן found in
> places like Exodus 15:25. The word for “circle”, “circular” or “sphere” is
> KhWG חוג found in places like Isaiah 40:22 and Proverbs 8:27.
>
> By the way, Gilgal, the camping place, was down in the valley near Jericho,
> not up in the nearby hills.
>
> Karl W. Randolph.