Noah Primeval (Chronicles of the Nephilim) (33 page)

“The ends of the earth” is a common phrase, occurring over fifty times throughout the Scriptures that means more than just “remote lands,” but rather includes the notion of the very physical end of the whole earth all around before the cosmic waters that hem it in. Here are just a few of the verses that indicate this circular land mass bounded by seas as the entire earth:

Isa. 41:9

You whom I took from
the ends of the earth
, and called from
its farthest corners

Psa. 65:5

O God of our salvation, the hope of
all
the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas

Zech. 9:10

His rule shall be
from sea to sea
, and from the River
to the ends of the earth
.

Mark 13:27

And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from
the four winds
, from
the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven
.

Acts 13:47

‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to
the ends of the earth
.’

Job 28:24

For he looks to
the ends of the earth
and sees
everything under the heavens
.

Remember that Mesopotamian phrase, “circle of the earth” that meant a flat disc terra firma? Well, it’s in the Bible, too. “It is he who sits above
the circle of the earth
, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers” (Isa. 40:22). Some have tried to say that the Hebrew word for “circle” could mean
sphere
, but it does not. The Hebrew word used here (
ḥûg
) could however refer to a vaulted dome that covers the visible circular horizon, which would be more accurate to say, “above the vault of the earth.”
[88]
If Isaiah had wanted to say the earth was a sphere he would have used another word that he used in a previous chapter (22:18) for a ball (
kaddur
), but he did
not.
[89]

Two further Scriptures use this “circle of the earth” in reference to God’s original creation of the land out of the waters and extend it outward to include the circumferential ocean with its own mysterious boundary:

Prov. 8:27, 29

When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew
a circle on the face of the deep
… when he
assigned to the sea its limit
, so that the
waters might not transgress
his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth.

Job 26:10

He has inscribed
a circle on the face of the waters
at the
boundary between light and darkness
[where the sun rises and sets].

Even when the Old Testament writers are deliberately using metaphors for the earth, they use metaphors for a flat earth spread out like a flat blanket.

Job 38:13

T
ake hold of the skirts of the earth
, and the wicked be shaken out of it.

Job 38:18

Have you comprehended
the expanse of the earth
?

Psa. 136:6

To him who
spreads out the earth
above the waters.

Isa. 44:24

“I am the LORD, who
spread out the earth
by myself.”

Geocentricity

In the Bible, the earth is not merely a flat disk surrounded by cosmic waters under the heavens; it was also the center of the universe. To the ANE mindset, including that of the Hebrews, the earth did not move (except for earthquakes) and the sun revolved around that immovable earth. They did not know that the earth was spinning one thousand miles an hour and flying through space at 65,000 miles an hour. Evidently, God did not consider it important enough to correct this primitive inaccurate understanding. Here are the passages that caused such trouble with Christians who took the text too literally because it did not seem to be figurative to them:

Psa. 19:4-6

Their voice goes out through all the earth,

and their words to
the end of the world
.

In them he has set a tent for the sun,

which comes out like a
bridegroom leaving his chamber
, and, like a strong man,
runs its course
with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them
.

Psa. 50:1

The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from
the rising of the sun to its setting
.

Eccl. 1:5

The
sun rises
, and the
sun goes down
,
and
hastens to the place where it rises
.

Josh. 10:13

And the
sun stood still, and the moon stopped
,
until the nation took vengeance on their enemies
…

The sun stopped in the midst of heaven
and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.

Matt. 5:45

Jesus said, “
For he makes his
sun rise
on the evil and on the good.”

Two objections are often raised when considering these passages. First, that they use phenomenal language. That is, they describe simply what the viewer observes and makes no cosmological claims beyond simply description of what one sees. We even use these terms of the sun rising and setting today and we know the earth moves around the sun. Fair enough. The only problem is that the ancient writers were pre-scientific and did not know the earth went around the sun, so when they said the sun was moving from one end of the heavens to the other they believed reality was exactly as they observed it. They had absolutely no reason to believe in a “phenomenal distinction” between their observation and reality.
[90]

The second objection is that some of the language is obvious metaphor. David painted the sun as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber or of being summoned by God and responding like a human. This is called anthropomorphism and is obviously poetic. But the problem here is that the metaphors still reinforce the sun doing all the moving around a stationary immobile earth.

1Chr. 16:30

Tremble before him, all the earth;

yes, the world is established;
it shall never be moved
.

Psa. 93:1

Yes, the world is established;
it shall never be moved
.

Psa. 96:10

Yes, the world is established;
it shall never be moved.
”

Understandably, these texts have been thought to indicate that the Bible is explicitly saying the earth does not move. But the case is not so strong for these examples because the Hebrew word used in these passages for “the world” is not the word for
earth
(
erets
), but the word that is sometimes used for the inhabited world (
tebel
). So it is possible that these verses are talking about the “world order” as does the poetry of 2Sam. 22:16.

But the problem that then arises is that the broader chapter context of these verses describe the earth’s physical aspects such as oceans, trees, and in the case of 1Chron. 16:30, even the “earth” (
erets
) in redundant context with the “world” (
tebel
), which would seem to indicate that “world” may refer to the physical earth.

Lastly,
world
can be interchangeable with
earth
as it is in 1Sam. 2:8, “For the pillars of
the earth
are the LORD’S, And He set
the world
on them.”

And this adds a new element to the conversation of a stationary earth:
A foundation of pillars
.

Pillars of the Earth

The notion of an immovable earth is not a mere description of observational experience by earth dwellers; it is based upon another cosmographical notion that the earth is on a foundation of pillars that hold it firmly in place.

Psa. 104:5

He set the
earth on its foundations
, so that it should never be moved.

Job 38:4

“Where were you when I laid
the foundation of the earth
? Tell Me, if you have understanding, Who
set its measurements
, since you know? Or who
stretched the line
on it? “On what were
its bases sunk
? Or who
laid its cornerstone
,

2Sam. 22:16

“Then the channels of the sea were seen;
the foundations of the world were laid bare
.

1Sam. 2:8

For
the
pillars of the earth
are the LORD’s, and on them,
he has set the world
.

Psa. 75:3

“
When
the earth totters
, and all its inhabitants,
it is I
who keep steady its pillars
.

Zech. 12:1

Thus declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens,
and founded the earth.

Ancient man such as the Babylonians believed that mountains and important ziggurat temples had foundations that went below the earth into the abyss (
apsu
) or the underworld.
[91]
But even if one would argue that the notion of foundations and pillars of the earth are only intended to be symbolic, they are still symbolic
of a stationary earth that does not move
.

Some have pointed out the single verse that seems to mitigate this notion of a solid foundation of pillars, Job 26:6-7: “Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering. He stretches out the north over the void and
hangs the earth on nothing
.” They suggest that this is a revelation of the earth in space before ancient man even knew about the spatial location of the earth in a galaxy. But the reason I do not believe this is because of the context of the verse.

Within chapter 26 Job affirms the three-tiered universe of waters of the Abyss below him (v. 5) and under that Sheol (v. 6), with pillars holding up the heavens (v. 11). Later in the same book, God himself speaks about the earth laid on foundations (38:4), sinking its bases and cornerstone like a building (38:5-6). Ancient peoples believed the earth was on top of some other object like the back of a turtle, and that it was too heavy to float on the waters. So in context, Job 26 appears to be saying that the earth is over the waters of the abyss and Sheol, on its foundations, but there is nothing under
those pillars
but God himself holding it all up. This is not the suggestion of a planet hanging in space, but rather the negative claim of an earth that is
not
on top of an ancient object.

Sheol Below

Before we ascend to the heavens, let’s take a look at the Underworld below the earth. The Underworld was a common location of extensive stories about gods and departed souls of men journeying to the depths of the earth through special gates of some kind into a geographic location that might also be accessed through cracks in the earth above.
[92]
Entire Mesopotamian stories engage the location of the subterranean netherworld in their narrative such as
The Descent of Inanna, The Descent of Ishtar
,
Nergal and Ereshkigal
, and many others.

Sheol was the Hebrew word for the underworld.
[93]
Though the Bible does not contain any narratives of experiences in Sheol, it was nevertheless described as the abode of the dead that was below the earth. Though Sheol was sometimes used interchangeably with “Abaddon” as the place of destruction of the body (Prov. 15:11; 27:20),
[94]
and “the grave” (
qibrah
) as a reference to the state of being dead and buried in the earth (Psa. 88:11; Isa. 14:9-11), it was also considered to be
physically
located beneath the earth in the same way as other ANE worldviews.