Long ago, people in the Middle East thought the earth was a flat plate, and that the sky was a hard dome like an upside-down bowl, with water stored above it. The Bible was written by those people, and it describes the world their way. Today we know the Earth is a ball floating in space and there's no ocean above the sky.
Read in its own language and setting, the Bible describes a three-level universe: heavens above a solid dome (the raqia), a flat earth on pillars, and the dead below. This isn't just a skeptic's reading. Christian scholars such as Paul Seely and Michael Heiser reach the same conclusion.12 That's strong evidence the Bible's authors shared the science of their day, not knowledge from outside it.
"The Bible was scientifically ahead of its time. It even says the earth is round (Isaiah 40:22) and hangs on nothing (Job 26:7)."
The picture, piece by piece
Every label is a real verse. Tap any blue reference to read it in Hebrew and three English translations.
Spin the ancient universe in 3D
The key word: raqia, something hammered out
- The noun raqia comes from the verb raqa, "to beat or hammer out." The same verb is used in Exodus 39:3 for hammering gold into thin sheets, and in Job 37:18 for the sky being "strong as a cast-metal mirror."
- The ancient Greek translation (the Septuagint) called it stereōma, a solid thing; Latin made it firmamentum; the KJV made it "firmament."
- Its job is to hold back water: the "waters above" sit on it (Genesis 1:7), and it has windows that open to cause the flood (Genesis 7:11).
- The sun, moon and stars are set in it (Genesis 1:17).
Paul Seely, writing for a conservative seminary journal, concluded that the historical meaning of raqia in Genesis 1 is "a solid sky," and that early Jewish and Christian writers, including Origen, Ambrose and Augustine, described it as solid.1
"But the Bible says the earth is round"
| Verse people quote | What it actually says |
|---|---|
| Isaiah 40:22: "the circle of the earth" | The Hebrew chug means a circle, like one drawn with a compass: a flat disc or the horizon. Isaiah had a word for "ball" (kaddur, in Isaiah 22:18) and didn't use it. The same verse stretches the heavens out "like a tent."3 |
| Job 26:7: "hangs the earth on nothing" | A poetic line. The same book also says the earth has pillars (Job 9:6) and foundations laid with a cornerstone (Job 38:4–6), and that the sky is hard as metal (Job 37:18). |
| Psalm 104:5: "foundations… never be moved" | Galileo's opponents used verses like this, and Psalm 93:1, against the moving Earth. |
| Daniel 4:11 and Matthew 4:8 | A tree seen from the ends of the earth; all kingdoms of the world seen from one mountain. Both work only on a flat earth (or as visions). |
Reading modern science into an ancient verse is called eisegesis. Reading what it meant to its first audience is exegesis. See How we got the Bible.
Where the picture came from
This model of the world wasn't unique to Israel. Babylonian, Egyptian and Sumerian texts also describe a solid sky. In the Babylonian Enuma Elish, the god Marduk makes the sky from half of the slain sea-goddess Tiamat and sets gates in it.1 Genesis tells a different story with one God, but in the same picture of the world. See Borrowed stories.
The Earth is a sphere about 12,742 km wide. The sky is not solid: it's an atmosphere that thins into space. There is no ocean above it.
"The Bible's authors were inspired by a God who knew all this, yet wrote in the mistaken science of their time."
Seely and Heiser, both believers, argue that God "accommodated" his message to the understanding of the ancient audience. The Bible's purpose was to teach about God, not astronomy, so its cosmology no more counts as an error than our saying "the sun rises."12 The skeptic's reply: if a book contains the same mistaken science as its neighbors, the simplest explanation is that it was written by humans of that time. And it means verses like Isaiah 40:22 can't be used as evidence of supernatural knowledge.
Sources
- Paul H. Seely, "The Firmament and the Water Above, Part I: The Meaning of raqia' in Gen 1:6-8", Westminster Theological Journal 53 (1991); journal listing. Concludes the raqia is "a solid sky"; cites ancient Near Eastern parallels and Origen, Ambrose, Augustine.
- Michael S. Heiser, "The Ancient's Guide to the Galaxy: How the Israelites Viewed God and the Universe", Logos Bible Software (2017): three-tiered universe, solid vault, pillars, windows of heaven, Sheol.
- Christian Resource Institute, "The Circle of the Earth": chug does not imply a sphere; it's a circle or horizon on a flat-disc cosmology.
- Hebrew text and word data on this page come from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (public domain) and the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (CC BY 4.0), shown in the verse pop-ups.