Sangdigger wrote:
: As far as the word CIRCLE in the Scripture at Isa.40:22, the hebrew word translated into english is ARCH, VAULT, COMPASS.
"Arch" and "compass" are alright, but "vault" is not likely, as we will see. The expression "circle of the earth" probably refers simply to the horizon. When one is standing in the middle of a flat plain, it looks as if one is at the center of a large circle. This circle is by definition the horizon.
: ARCH: A CURVED construction.
Correct. But an arch is essentially circular, not spherical, so the word is of no help in trying to show that "sphere" is meant in Isaiah 40:22. Circles and arches have in common that the basic shape is a curve in one dimension.
: VAULT: (n) An ARCHED construction in masonry forming a roof or supporting the true roof. (v) To cover with a vault or ARCHED roof...
A vault is composed of a set of arches alright, but in such a way that the essential one-dimensional character is lost. A vault is basically a set of curves in two dimensions.
: ..Compass:(verb)To move around, to surround, (noun)
So far so good.
: The instument,compass used for determining direction on earths surface, which points to a magnetic north....
This definition is irrelevant to our topic. The meaning of the word "compass" that we are concerned with is something like "make a curved boundary". The drawing instrument called a "compass" is called that because you use it to draw circles.
: 2 out of 3 enlish words used to describe this hebrew word used in Isa. denote a CURVE. While a flat circle is round, it is not ARCHED.
Your logic falls flat here. All spheres are curved and contain circular shapes. But not all curved shapes are spheres and not all curved shapes containing circular shapes are spheres.
Let's see what several good Hebrew references say about the word.
The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon has an entry for the Hebrew word huwg, as a verb: "draw round, make a circle... circle, vault of heavens... Jb 26:10 (cf. Pr 8:27), hath drawn as a circle a bound, etc., of the horizon-line." As a noun, BDB has the entry: "vault;--only of vault of the heavens..." We will come back to this shortly.
Strong's Concordance has for this word, under entries 2328 and 2329: "chuwg: to describe a circle:--compass; a circle:--circle, circuit, compass".
The NIV Exhaustive Concordance has for entry 2553: "hug: circle, horizon, vaulted".
Using the meaning "vault" in Isaiah 40:22 results in gibberish: "... one who is dwelling above the vault of the earth". The meaning "vault" is found in some bible translations in only one place -- Job 22:14:
"He goes about in the vaulted heavens." NIV
However, the King James Version reads:
"He walketh in the circuit of heaven." KJV
So which is a better translation -- "the vault of heaven" or "the circuit of heaven"? To find out about this, and to get a comprehensive general commentary, I consulted the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament by Botterweck and Ringgren (Vol. IV, Eerdmans, 1980, pp. 244-247). Here is what it says for the entry "chugh:
I. Etymology. The root chugh is attested six times in the OT: Isa. 40:22; 44:13; Job 22:14; 26:10; Prov. 8:27; Sir. 43:12 (cf. Sir. 24:5; 1QM 10:13)... Structurally, chugh belongs with the words built on the basic syllable hg, [various derived words are given] ... Most of these appear to incorporate the semantic element of circular movement.The association with chaghagh/chagh or the hg formations in general, the fact that the word appears only in Hebrew and relatively late (exilic period, Deutero-Isaiah), and the highly specialized meaning "circle" or the like in specific contexts all suggest that chugh/mechughah are late secondary developments under the influence of Babylonian technology and cosmology, or are technical terms.
II. Meaning.
1. Witnin its Semantic Field. Within the semantic field of "circles and circular motion," the meaning of chugh exhibits a highly specific profile. In contrast to the usual expressions for "turn, circle, go around, surround," ... and chaghagh, which designates the festival dance and procession, the verb chugh in combination with choq means "describe a circle," i.e., "incise a circular line."
Similarly, there are several words within the semantic field of the noun chugh. The word dor has a wide range of meanings: "ball," "cycle, lifetime, generation" (most frequent), and (as the Addadian loanword duru) "ring, city wall, dwelling," all within the semantic field "turning, enclosure, circumvallation, ball"; ...
Within this semantic field, chugh is distinguished by its specifically geometrical meaning, which can be observed on the one hand from its association with spatial referents (earth, heavens, ocean) and its combination with choq, "(incised) line," and on the other from its connection with mechughah, "compasses." The word thus means "circle, as drawn with compasses."
Next, TDOT comments on "vault":
The often suggested translation "vault (of the heavens)" is therefore probably incorrect, as is the less frequent suggestion "disk (of the earth)." The notion of a "vault" derives from ancient Near Eastern cosmology with its bell-shaped heaven. For chugh this translation cannot really be supported by the parallelism in Job 22:14 ("thick clouds enwrap him"): clouds can also cover the "horizon of the heavens." Furthermore, where does the "walking" take place if not on the level ground (cf. Sir. 24:5)? Isa. 40:22b makes this meaning unlikely in v. 22a. At most, the idea of horizon circles may be attenuated in Job 26:10. In Sir. 43:12, chugh haqqiphah means "describe a proper circle" (said of the rainbow); only the LXX with its circumstantial rendering introduces the "heavens."2. In Translation. To render chugh, the LXX strangely uses the rare word gyros, "ring, circle," used especially for a circular trench around a tree, gyroo, "bend, make round, make a circular trench" (cf. gyrosis). The image conveyed by this word appears to express the classic Babylonian idea of the ring of water surrounding the earth's surface (cf. Sir. 24:5; 43:12 twice, used differently in Prov. 8:27).
Finally, TDOT comments on specific usage:
III. Usage. The use of chugh is characterized by: (1) a typical fixed context; (2) an association with cosmological ideas; and (3) hymnic style.1. Context. Twice chugh is found together with choq (Job 26:10; Prov. 8:27); the interchangeability of the two terms (choq chagh and bechuqo chugh) suggests a fixed idiom meaning "incise a circle," with the aid of the instrument used by the Babylonian carpenter in Isa. 44:13, together with line and seredh ("pencil"?), to sketch out his work. In each of its occurrences, chugh is determined by a genitive (ha'arets, Isa. 40:22; shamayim, Job 22:14) or by the expression "upon the face of the waters/deep" (Job 26:10; Prov. 8:27). In other words, its meaning is limited to the circle of the earth or heavens (the rainbow in Sir. 43:12), i.e., the horizon, in the double sense of the coastline on either side of the primeval river that circles the entire earth and separates it from the realm of the heavens (cf. chugh yammim, 1QM 10:13).
2. Cosmology. This notion of two concentric circular coastlines, that of the earth disk and that of the heavenly mountain island, is directly evident in Babylonian cosmology, as reflected, for example, in the Sippar world map (6th/5th century, with earlier prototypes). According to the inscription, the two circles incised about the earth on the clay tablet designate the "bitter river," the ocean, in which the circular earth lies like an island and beyond which rise the "regions" of the heavenly mountains. In the OT passages, chugh refers to these cosmic circles. This usage presupposes the same cosmological borrowing of a geometrical model as is found in the Babylonian world map. There must be some kind of dependence, since the notion of two horizon circles -- especially in mountainous Palestine -- presumably does not derive from empirical observation.
3. Creation Hymns. In the OT, the ideas associated with the horizon circles are integrated with the belief in creation. At least four of the five occurrences are in creation hymns (Prov. 8:27; Isa. 40:22; Job 26:10; Sir. 43:12; cf. 1QM 10:13; Job 22:14 close to hymnic style). The process of creation is addressed in Job 26:10; Prov. 8:27; Sir. 43:12, the relationship between the Creator and his creation in Isa. 40:22 and Job 22:14 (cf. Sir. 24:5). The vivid technical and cosmological imagery suggested by chugh stands each of the passages in good stead. The hymnic fragment recorded in Isa. 40:22ff. extols him "who sits above the circle of the earth," which he himself laid out (with compasses), over which he stretched the heavens like curtains, like a tent; within this circle he set plants as in a bed (v. 24), i.e., the inhabitants of the earth, who appear to him, the Creator, like "grasshoppers" (kachaghabhim, v. 22). Job 22:14 criticizes the expression of resignation that God the Creator "walks on the circle of the heavens" (cf. Sir. 24:5), i.e., stays beyond the river, in the heavenly regions, seeing but not judging (vv. 13f.). Job 26:10 and Prov. 8:27 recount the creation of the world. In Prov. 8:27, chugh appears in the context of "establishing the heavens" (vv. 27f.) and refers to the circular foundation of the heavenly horizon in contrast to tebhel 'erets (vv. 26,31; chuq in vv. 27,29). The verb chugh in Job 26:10 (cf. v. 11) probably refers to the same heavenly circle, which, as the boundary of the water, serves also as the boundary between light and darkness. Finally, Sir. 43:12 links chugh with the rainbow, as though drawn with compasses, and thus goes beyond the narrower limits of the other occurrences.
So at the very least, given the above material, Isaiah 40:22 cannot be used to claim that the ancient Jews knew that the earth is a sphere. Indeed, the available evidence is strongly in favor of the view that they thought the earth was a flat, circular disk bounded by "the circle of the earth" and "the circle of the heavens", i.e., the horizon.
: I remember hearing or reading somewhere that Columbus(?) or one of the great explorers, argued that the world was indeed round and not flat, and that he derived this belief from the bible. Maybe someone else could elaborate on this.
Columbus certainly thought that the earth was a ball, but he did not get it from the Bible. The notion was common in the Europe of his day among educated people. It was known to some of the ancients as far back as the Sumerians. The Greeks certainly knew it, and one even measured the size of the earth to within about 10% of the true value. Columbus actually made a grievous but quite understandable error: Knowing that the earth was a sphere, and that sailors since time immemorial had been reaching the Orient by sailing east, it was a no-brainer that he could reach the Orient by sailing far enough west. His error was in not knowing that the American continents were in the middle, and in not knowing the huge size of the Pacific Ocean. He thought that the earth is about half of its true size. A good read on this is Inventing the Flat Earth by Jeffrey Burton Russell.
AlanF