Job 26:7 “Earth is hanged upon nothing”—proof of inspiration?

by Ireneus 11 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Ireneus

  JWs has been saying Bible is authored by God because Job 26:7 says: “Earth is being hanged upon nothing.” And this verse in combination with Isaiah 40:22 which says “God resides above the circle of earth” implies that earth is spherical and remains unsupported from above or from beneath. Thus, Bible contains the knowledge which science confirmed later.
  

  However, recent understanding of science is that the whole visible part of the universe is only 4%, and the visible exists because of the invisible 96%-- “dark matter 26%” and “dark energy 70%”--which is a fifth and previously unknown type of fundamental force called quintessence, which fills the universe like a fluid serving as a support to the visible universe.

  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/dark-matter/

  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4760730/Huge-map-cosmos-reveals-dark-matter.html

  It would then mean that Job 26:7 cannot be used the way JWs do. Job was simply implying that earth was not touching the sky, not as a truth revealed even before the scientists could know.
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  truth_b_known

  Don't forget that a "circle" as Earth is describes is a flat, 2 dimensional shape. Job did not use words such as "globe," "sphere," or "ball." Job, if he really existed, was a flat-earther.
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  waton

  The text could be thought of as not being the result of observation, in a way correct, but that does not apply by extension to the majority of the texts in the bible.

  The speaker was comparing his tendency to fall toward the centre of the earth (which he would not know) with the fact that the earth apparently did not. The writer thought that the major attractor is the earth, not the Sun above during daytime. He did not know that the Earth circles the sun, and

  by gravity would have a tendency to "fall" up to it. As it is, it is the energy of motion that balances the gravity. A pull out ward. The Earth hangs on energy. Energy is not nothing.

  If there were more bible texts like that we would have food for thought. Even Genesis 1:1 is wrong, 1 or 2 out of ~30 000 is not a good record. not inspirational.

  PS. The writer had it all wrong. The danger for the Earth is not to fall down, but up toward the sun. It needs not to be hung from a sky hook to keep from falling, but pulled down, outward. Unless you are writing in the dark, at night.
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  ttdtt

  And by the way - the Earth is a sphere not a circle.

  You would think god would have been able to inspire more precise language.

  Why is god always using ambiguous language all the time?
  Now if he had told Job that E = mc2 I would have been impressed.
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  steve2

  A coin is a circle - flat as a pancake.
  
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  charonsdog

  I have thought for a long time that the GB and WTS have always fallen into the trap of reasoning from a strictly Eurocentric point of view. Archaeology and anthropology have shown that many advanced civilizations existed in the past before being wiped out, either by disease or warfare. Is it not possible that around the time of the writing of these scriptures that there were civilizations that had figured out that the Earth was a globe, and that it revolved in space around the sun? It's not like Galileo and Magellan were the FIRST to figure this out. They simply had the luxury of being part of the civilization that endured and wrote the history books.
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  cofty

  Biblical cosmology...

  
  
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  waton

  Biblical cosmology...

  That is a terrible illustration. It gives the firmament not just compression, but the tensile strength to hang the earth and lower appendages on "Nothing" , and in the process declare the H of Heavens and heavens above as the "nothing" that the earth hangs on. hang on here! Atheist alert!
  
  
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  ttdtt

  Cofty - Looks like Asgard to me.

  I dont see Thor though?
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  Crazyguy

  There is roughly 60 verses in the Bible that imply the earth is flat.