In study of the scriptures, even during the time of Jesus, there are some questions that are far more loaded than they need to be. Think back to when the Sadducees asked Jesus in Matthew 22 about marriage in the resurrection: After a woman is widowed seven times, which man will be her husband in the resurrection? This was clearly not a simple this or that question, yet the Sadducees posed it as a way to trick Jesus. His answer: it’s not like that. And the response: the people were astonished.
To ask what the Bible teaches on the shape of the earth is analogous to questioning marriage in the resurrection or the number of angels that could dance on the head of a pin. It’s just not a question that’s close to the central concerns of the Bible.
When it comes to the shape of the Earth, sources outside Scripture give us a unanimous answer (spoiler alert: multiple sources of scientific proof show that the Earth is round)—and the answer does not affect our relationship with the Lord. However, for the sake of human curiosity and for those who are puzzled by what the Bible seems to say on this topic, let’s examine the question “Does the Bible say the earth is flat?”—with the caveat that it’s not such a simple question as we might think. You might even find yourself astonished by the end.
“To ask what the Bible teaches on the shape of the earth is analogous to questioning marriage in the resurrection or the number of angels that could dance on the head of a pin.”
First, as with most questions of Scripture, we must remember that 1) this is a collection of ancient texts, 2) the texts are in translation which can incorporate different cultural understandings, 3) the texts are divinely inspired, meaning they encapsulate divine explanation through human expression, and 4) several passages in these texts are better understood as literary than literal. All of these factors, especially when dealing with a question of science, impact our understanding of the answer.
So, for example, many ancient cultures had an understanding of basic astronomical principles. Scripture speaks of earth in space (Job 26:7), planets (2 Kings 23:5), stars and constellations (Isaiah 13:10), and of course the sun (Psalm 19:6) and moon (Psalm 104:19). There are also atmospheric descriptions, such as the concept of a sky overhead (Deuteronomy 4:39), water above and water beneath (Genesis 1:7), and levels of atmosphere (1 Kings 8:27).
But the writing of these topics is not complete. Similar to how God explains to Job that there is no need to divulge every detail of creation, we must understand that the descriptions of cosmological principles in Scripture are limited by the language of the writers, their understandings, and their observations. Even just recently, my Chinese husband asked me why English users say the sun sets. “Sets on what? Like, it gets put down on a surface somewhere?” he joked. It appears from our perspective that the sun goes down below the horizon, when in reality, it is going around to the other side of the earth (or rather, our earth is spinning and orbiting in relation to it). Our language does not fully encapsulate the truth of what is actually happening.
“Our language does not fully encapsulate the truth of what is actually happening.”
Though there are no mentions of the earth being spherical, there are several instances of the earth and geographical aspects of earth being described as circular or on a circuit, Isaiah 40:22a (ESV) probably being the most well-known: “It is he who sits above the circle of the earth.…” The Hebrew word for circle or circuit used here is חוּג (pronounced chug). Other times that chug and its word forms are used to describe the earth, water, or sky include Job 22:14 (the circle of heaven), Job 26:10 (a circle on the surface of the waters), and Proverbs 8:27 (the circle of the deep).
Interestingly, one verb form of chug, חָגַג, or chagag, means to reel to and fro or even dance or make a pilgrimage. Though this form is never used in Scripture to describe the earth—it instead describes people, as in Psalm 107:27 and 1 Samuel 30:16—the concept of the earth dancing in space as it rotates is a beautiful image.
The word that is used to describe the circuit of the sun is from נָקַף, naqaph, often translated as “encompass” or “encircle,” though when it’s referring to the cycle of the sun, it’s translated as “circuit,” “cycle,” “season,” or “revolution,” as in Psalm 19:6, Exodus 34:22, 1 Samuel 1:10, and 2 Chronicles 24:23. Ecclesiastes 1:6 describes the wind on a circuit around the earth as well, using the Hebrew word סָבִיב, or sabib/sabibah, translated as “circuit” or “surrounding.” This word is used often, over 300 times in the Old Testament, but not in many cases as a description for the earth, except in the case of describing terrain or surrounding areas.
“Though there are no mentions of the earth being spherical, there are several instances of the earth and geographical aspects of earth being described as circular or on a circuit.”
And yet still, there are also instances of verses describing the earth that use “flat” language. Several passages such as Isaiah 5:26, Isaiah 11:12, Isaiah 24:16, Jeremiah 49:36, Job 37:3, Job 38:13, Ezekiel 7:2, and Daniel 9:27 describe “corners” of the earth or sky, using the Hebrew word כָּנָף, or kanaph, translated as “corner,” “wing,” and “edge.” There are about fourteen instances in the Old Testament of the word אָ֫פֶס, ephes, which is often translated as “the ends of the earth,” as seen in Psalm 22:27, Proverbs 30:4, Deuteronomy 33:17, 1 Samuel 2:10, Micah 5:4, Jeremiah 16:19, Isaiah 52:10, and Zechariah 9:10. The word סוֹף, or soph, is also translated as “the ends of the earth” or even forever and can be found in a few instances in Daniel (4:11 and 4:22).
In the New Testament, Acts 1:8 and Acts 13:47 also have the concept of “ends of the earth,” using the Greek word ἔσχατος, eschatos, from which we get our word “echo” in English. It is sometimes translated as “uttermost” or “remotest” in addition to “end” or “ends.” Revelation 7:1 and 20:8 both describe “corners of the earth” with the Greek word γωνία, or gonia.
There are other earth-related concepts described that are ambiguous as to the shape of the earth, such as the foundation of the earth (Job 38:4, 2 Samuel 22:16, Psalm 104:5) or its “firm establishment” (1 Chronicles 16:30, Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10), both of which might imply a setting atop something else or simply a gravitational pull. The concept of levels of atmosphere over the earth could be applicable for either a sphere or a flat surface, settling in concentric circles or stacked on top of each other, respectively.
“There are other earth-related concepts described that are ambiguous as to the shape of the earth, such as the foundation of the earth or its ‘firm establishment.'”
Psalm 19:4-6 even mentions both a circular nature of the earth and the edges of the earth in the same breath, saying that the sun runs a circuit around the earth and shines on all the edges of the land!
In the New Testament, Jesus says in Matthew 23:15 that the Pharisees “travel over land and sea,” using the Greek word περιάγω, periago, which can mean “compass.” Sometimes the word is translated “travel around,” implying the concept of a round earth, and yet sometimes it is translated “travel across,” implying a flat earth. Psalm 103:12 has the well-known verse that describes the distance between people and their forgiven sins as being separated “as far as the east is from the west.” Someone who believes in a flat earth could argue these are the farthest points on the flat surface, while someone who believes the earth is round could make the point that east and west will never actually touch because of the spherical shape of the earth, thus describing a more metaphorical separation.
Either way, the point is the same regardless of the shape of the earth: when God forgives our sins, they are metaphorically far away from us.
In short, the language is simply not clear one way or the other. Arguments could be made on both sides, when looking at the text alone. I believe this is where God expects us to use our common sense, wisdom, and extrabiblical resources such as scientific observation.
“I believe this is where God expects us to use our common sense, wisdom, and extrabiblical resources such as scientific observation.”
Along this note, it’s important to notice one thing: nearly all of the passages I’ve referenced are from poetic or prophetic texts. Both genres often use highly metaphorical language which is not meant to be taken literally (but rather, literarily). And again, the writers are using human language to express divine ideas and concepts beyond human observation or understanding—especially during the ancient times. “The ends of the earth,” for example, are meant to express remoteness or separation—not actual edges of land.
In the time of biblical writings, according to Peloubet’s Bible Dictionary, “there seem to be traces of the same ideas as prevailed among the Greeks, that the world was a disk, Isaiah 40:22, bordered by the ocean, with Jerusalem as its centre, like Delphi as the navel, or, according to another view, the highest point of the world” (“Earth,” page 157). If this was the understanding at the time, then the ambiguous language makes sense. The writers believed earth to be round and flat, like a wheel—and in fact, Ezekiel 1:15-16 and 10:9-13 even detail a vision of “the wheel of the earth.” The language, therefore, reflects the people’s understanding.[1]
So does the Bible imply the Earth is flat? Yes. But it also implies it is circular. And sometimes it says both at the same time. And oftentimes it does so poetically, in hopes of helping humans understand higher concepts through limited language–which was written thousands of years ago by multiple people in various languages across diverse cultures and places. It’s a wonder we get a little glimpse into how they even understood the shape of the earth at all.
“So does the Bible imply the Earth is flat? Yes. But it also implies it is circular. And sometimes it says both at the same time.”
The writing of Scripture is beautifully complex and, when it comes to questions that are not at the heart of our faith, the answers are often not a simple yes or no.
[1] This perspective need not compromise one’s conviction that the Bible is without error. For example, the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy states, “In inspiration, God utilized the culture and conventions of his penman’s milieu, a milieu that God controls in His sovereign providence; it is misinterpretation to imagine otherwise. So history must be treated as history, poetry as poetry, hyperbole and metaphor as hyperbole and metaphor, generalization and approximation as what they are, and so forth. Differences between literary conventions in Bible times and in ours must also be observed: since, for instance, non-chronological narration and imprecise citation were conventional and acceptable and violated no expectations in those days, we must not regard these things as faults when we find them in Bible writers. When total precision of a particular kind was not expected nor aimed at, it is no error not to have achieved it. Scripture is inerrant, not in the sense of being absolutely precise by modern standards, but in the sense of making good its claims and achieving that measure of focused truth at which its authors aimed.”
