Bible Cosmology

[Suzy]

I have found this interesting article on Bible cosmology: http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/febible.htm

 

The part about the Book of Enoch is interesting too:

 

The importance of 1 Enoch is poorly appreciated outside the scholarly community. Comparison of its text with New Testament books reveals that many Enochian doctrines were taken over by early Christians. E. Isaac writes:

 

There is little doubt that 1 Enoch was influential in molding New Testament doctrines concerning the nature of the Messiah, the Son of Man, the messianic kingdom, demonology, the future, resurrection, final judgment, the whole eschatological theater, and symbolism. No wonder, therefore, that the book was highly regarded by many of the apostolic and Church Fathers [1986, 10].

 

 

First Enoch influenced Matthew, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, and several other New Testament books. The punishment of the fallen angels described in 2 Peter seems to come directly from 1 Enoch, as does much of the imagery (or even wording) in Revelation. The Epistle of Jude contains the most dramatic evidence of its influence when it castigates enemies of religion as follows:

 

It was to them that Enoch, the seventh in descent from Adam, directed his prophecy when he said: I saw the Lord come with his myriads of angels, to bring all men to judgment and to convict all the godless of all the godless deeds they had committed, and of all the defiant words which godless sinners had spoken against him (Jude 14- 15).

 

The inner quote, 1 Enoch 1:9, is found in the original Hebrew on a recently-published Qumran fragment [shanks, 1987, 18]. By attributing prophecy to Enoch, Jude confers inspired status upon the book.

 

First Enoch is important for another reason. Unlike the canonical books of the Bible, which (in my view) were never meant to teach science, sections of 1 Enoch were intended to describe the natural world. The narrator sometimes sounds like a 2nd century B.C. Carl Sagan explaining the heavens and earth to the admiring masses. The Enochian cosmology is precisely the flat-earth cosmology previously derived from the canonical books.

 

 

The Ends of the Earth

 

The angel Uriel guided Enoch in most of his travels. They made several trips to the ends of the earth, where the dome of heaven came down to the surface. For instance, Enoch says:

 

I went to the extreme ends of the earth and saw there huge beasts, each different from the other and different birds (also) differing from one another in appearance, beauty, and voice. And to the east of those beasts, I saw the ultimate ends of the earth which rests on the heaven. And the gates of heaven were open, and I saw how the stars of heaven come out...(1 Enoch 33:1-2).

 

(The sharp-eyed reader will note what I suspect is an editing error in the Isaac translation. The earth resting on the heaven makes no sense. R. H. Charles has whereon the heaven rests.)

 

Again, Enoch says, I went in the direction of the north, to the extreme ends of the earth, and there at the extreme end of the whole world I saw a great and glorious seat. There (also) I saw three open gates of heaven; when it blows cold, hail, frost, snow, dew, and rain, through each one of the (gates) the winds proceed in the northwesterly direction (1 Enoch 34:1-2). This accords well with Jeremiah 51:16 which says, he brings up the mist from the ends of the earth, he opens rifts for the rain and brings the wind out of his storehouses. In subsequent chapters, Enoch journeys to the extreme ends of the earth in the west, south, and east. In each place he saw three more open gates of heaven.

 

There were other things to be seen at the ends of the earth. Earlier, we deferred discussion of the King James version of Job 26:7, He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. On several occasions when Enoch and the angel are out beyond the dome of heaven, Enoch comments that there is nothing above or below. For instance, And I came to an empty place. And I saw (there) neither a heaven above nor an earth below, but a chaotic and terrible place (1 Enoch 21:1-2). Could this be the kind of nothingness referred to in Job?

 

An angel also showed Enoch the storerooms of the winds (18:1) and the cornerstone of the earth (18:2).

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

From their geographical and historical context, one would expect the ancient Hebrews to have a flat-earth cosmology. Indeed, from the very beginning, ultra-orthodox Christians have been flat-earthers, arguing that to believe otherwise is to deny the literal truth of the Bible. The flat-earth implications of the Bible were rediscovered and popularized by English-speaking Christians in the mid-19th century. Liberal scriptural scholars later derived the same view. Thus, students with remarkably disparate points of view independently concluded that the ancient Hebrews had a flat-earth cosmology, often deriving this view from scripture alone. Their conclusions were dramatically confirmed by the rediscovery of 1 Enoch.

 

 

[bornagainathiest]

Conclusion

 

From their geographical and historical context, one would expect the ancient Hebrews to have a flat-earth cosmology. Indeed, from the very beginning, ultra-orthodox Christians have been flat-earthers, arguing that to believe otherwise is to deny the literal truth of the Bible. The flat-earth implications of the Bible were rediscovered and popularized by English-speaking Christians in the mid-19th century. Liberal scriptural scholars later derived the same view. Thus, students with remarkably disparate points of view independently concluded that the ancient Hebrews had a flat-earth cosmology, often deriving this view from scripture alone. Their conclusions were dramatically confirmed by the rediscovery of 1 Enoch.

 

 

Hi Suzy!

 

As an amateur astronomer and an Ex-Christian, your post caught my attention.

 

Have you seen these?

I've cited short passages from each.

 

http://www.geocentricity.com

(This site is devoted to the historical relationship between the Bible and astronomy. It assumes that whenever the two are at variance, it is always astronomy—that is, our "reading" of the "Book of Nature," not our reading of the Holy Bible—that is wrong.)

 

http://www.fixedearth.com (***ALL False Science is held together by the weak, Bible-bashing, vulnerable Copernican Lie of a Rotating, Orbiting Earth***)

 

http://galileowaswrong.blogspot.com

(* Robert Sungenis holds to the Geocentric cosmological view of the universe in accordance with the literal, infallible, and inspired Word of God which, according to Providentissimus Deus by Pope Leo XIII, is inerrant in all matters.)

 

Now please compare them with these.

 

http://en.wikipedia....ki/Erastothenes

He observed, reasoned and then calculated the circumference of the spherical Earth to within 2% of it's true value.

 

http://galileoandein...es/gkastr1.html

Here's how!

 

http://galileoandein...res/thales.html

A quote from a follower of Hippocrates.

"It seems to me that the disease called sacred … has a natural cause, just as other diseases have. Men think it divine merely because they do not understand it. But if they called everything divine that they did not understand, there would be no end of divine things! … If you watch these fellows treating the disease, you see them use all kinds of incantations and magic—but they are also very careful in regulating diet. Now if food makes the disease better or worse, how can they say it is the gods who do this? … It does not really matter whether you call such things divine or not. In Nature, all things are alike in this, in that they can be traced to preceding causes."

Please note that this was written, circa 400 B.C.

 

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Sad, isn't it Suzy?

 

Over 2,250 years after Erastothenes, some 'True Believers' are still in literalistic bondage to the absolute and unquestionable 'truth' of the Bible!

 

BAA.

[Suzy]

 

What about this one? http://theflatearthsociety.org/cms/

 

Their forum has more than 25000 members: http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/

 

 

[bornagainathiest]

 

What about this one? http://theflatearthsociety.org/cms/

 

Their forum has more than 25000 members: http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/

 

Yep, Suzy!

 

Tho' as I understand it, Flat-Earthers simply co-opt the Bible to support their eccentric world-view. I don't think they want a 2-D home-world, purely out of devotion to a Christian belief system. That said, here's some goodies from their Flat Earth Wiki site.

 

"The Sun

The sun is a sphere. It has a diameter of 32 miles and is located approximately 3000 miles above the surface of the earth."

 

"The Moon

The moon is a sphere. It has a diameter of 32 miles and is located approximately 3000 miles above the surface of the earth."

The Planets

 

Rotoundity

 

Q. If the planets are round, why isn't the earth?

 

A. The earth is not a planet.

 

Size and Magnitude

 

Q. How big are the planets in the FE model?

 

A. Pretty small.

 

Notice how these statements must be taken as truth? Sounds a lot like a religion to me. Don't bother about evidence or testing these claims - just BELIEVE!!!

 

Lastly, why would anyone want to trade in the beauty and magnificence of this...

 

http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/screen/opo0428b.jpg

 

and this...

 

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0702/pillars5_hst_big.jpg

 

and this...

 

http://www.2desktop.com/wallpapers/The_Blue_Marble_Western_Hemisphere_6709_1024_768.jpg

 

...for crap like this?

 

http://homepage.mac.com/kvmagruder/hsci/images/flatEarth.jpg (Yes! That's the 32 mile wide Sun and Moon orbiting 3,000 miles above the northern hub of our flat home planet! )

 

Beats me!

 

BAA.

[Guest Babylonian Dream]

Technically, the earth is a giant floating table. Flat on the surface and is held up by its foundations, and has 4 corners.