# Does the Bible state that the earth is spherical? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 23, 2016, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-state-that-the-earth-is-spherical/746893 "2016-02-23T17:32:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-state-that-the-earth-is-spherical/746893/41 "2016-02-27T10:14:58Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > It’s [Job 26:10](http://biblehub.com/job/26-10.htm). It doesn’t prove anything about the author’s idea of the earth’s shape, though. A flat, circular earth would also be deprived of sunlight once the sun sinks below the surface (as it appears to do at sunset). No, because it specifically defines a circle that is a boundary between light and darkness. It’s only a circle on a sphere. There would be no line at all on a disc. But that’s not the only verse. I remember another one. But I accidentally posted this before I was finished. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-state-that-the-earth-is-spherical/746893/42 "2016-02-27T10:38:02Z")
Gah. I thought it would be as easy to find this verse as it was to find that one in Job. But I’m running into trouble. So I’ll just describe what I remember and see if anyone else knows about it. It involves different seasons in different parts of the world. And do not read this as me saying it’s definitely in the Bible. There are a lot of metaphorical interpretations that work. Some even say that Job verse refers to a ring of water around everything. I’m just trying to put forth all the arguments I’ve heard about the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-state-that-the-earth-is-spherical/746893/43 "2021-12-22T18:21:57Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Fun fact: God can _also_ manifest as a large, bearded man _without_ a beard. I can see the bitter clashes between Shorn & Unshorn starting here. A Scissor Schism, if you will. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2021, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-state-that-the-earth-is-spherical/746893/44 "2021-12-22T19:24:33Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Well… here is a picture of a [Druze man from South Syria](https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3167/2509940349_db71f6c200_b.jpg), not far from where Jesus was from. > > Its uncommon, but light skinned and dishwater blond is within the range of phenotypes found in the region. Not sure how accurate it is, but in the movie _Lawrence of Araibia_ he is captured and tortured by the Turks, and IIRC they are debating if he is in fact who he claims to be - that blond-ish blue-eyed was not an impossible physical type for the Ottoman empire and Middle East. As for literal interpretations, reminds me of: [Group in the back, straining to hear the Sermon on the Mount] "Blessed are the _cheesemakers???_ " {Another Man] “It’s obviously not meant to be taken literally, it refers to any manufacturer of dairy products.” ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2021, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-state-that-the-earth-is-spherical/746893/45 "2021-12-24T10:13:55Z")
There was a book on KGB operations written by a defector and in it they said skin and hair colour was the easiest thing to explain away. Accent and dress were harder. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2021, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-state-that-the-earth-is-spherical/746893/46 "2021-12-24T21:15:19Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > > [@Ludovic](#): > > > > Fun fact: God can _also_ manifest as a large, bearded man _without_ a beard. > > I can see the bitter clashes between Shorn & Unshorn starting here. A Scissor Schism, if you will. Schrödinger’s beard. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2021, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-state-that-the-earth-is-spherical/746893/47 "2021-12-24T22:42:36Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > Schrödinger’s beard. Schrödinger’s God. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2021, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-state-that-the-earth-is-spherical/746893/48 "2021-12-27T03:24:12Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Since when was the Bible considered an almanac? Thank you! I keep trying to pound this into students’ heads. It was never meant to be an almanac, an academic history book, a repressive rule book, or a science textbook. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2021, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-state-that-the-earth-is-spherical/746893/49 "2021-12-27T18:32:47Z")
Well, parts of it were meant to be a rule book, though those who wrote and followed those rules would say they weren’t repressive. And parts were meant to be a history book, and I’m not sure what distinction you’re making with the adjective “academic”. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2021, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-state-that-the-earth-is-spherical/746893/50 "2021-12-29T15:14:41Z")
Certainly it was intended as in part a book of rules, and in part as a history book, but not as an almanac. The Biblical authors probably subscribed to the prevailing Babylonian cosmology, but that wasn’t what they cared about; they cared about God’s relationship with people in general and the Jews in particular. If they had known about heliocentrism, it wouldn’t have affected any theological concepts they considered important in the slightest. They would have been very puzzled at the notion that people were seizing on those sorts of errors as “proof” that their entire belief system was flawed. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2021, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-state-that-the-earth-is-spherical/746893/51 "2021-12-29T16:37:22Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > Certainly it was intended as in part a book of rules, and in part as a history book, but not as an almanac. And let’s remember, it’s a _collection_. Of laws, histories and philosophical writings that had been handed down across centuries and spent different spans of time turning from oral to written. > [@Thing.Fish](#): > > They would have been very puzzled at the notion that people were seizing on those sorts of errors as “proof” that their entire belief system was flawed. Or that conversely, other people would be insisting that the authors/compilers’ using of common tropes from their culture in their time was “proof” that those tropes were divinely ordained facts that override real-world observed evidence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-bible-state-that-the-earth-is-spherical/746893.md?page=2)