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The third objection is that a number of these verses are just common sense
poetical expressions, and not meant to contain hidden scientific truths. In Isaiah
51:6 the earth grows old like a garment. Is Isaiah trying to communicate the
second law of thermodynamics in this verse? Things grow old is common
knowledge not supernatural science.
The fourth objection is that a number of these verses are based on a poor
translation of certain words from the original language into English. There has
been a number of important discoveries of ancient texts since the King James
1611 translation of the Bible that help us to better understand the original
languages of scripture. One major discovery was the ancient city of Ugarit. A
number of tablets written in cuneiform were discovered. An analysis showed that
this new language of Ugaritic was very close to Hebrew. Ugaritic can help us to
better understand certain Hebrew words (Craigie 1983; Curtis 1985; Coogan
1978).
The final objection is that the Bible is not a science book. II Timothy 3:16 clearly
states that the Bible is inspired by God so that it is profitable for instruction in
righteousness not instruction in science. Much of the Bible is poetry. To take a
poem and make it into a scientific text is wrong. One must understand the
different genres of the Bible. One must understand the historical context and the
meaning of the original language that the Bible was written in. Let us now look at
some of the specific verses Morris covers in his book.
Oceanography
Psalm 8:8 - "Paths of the Sea"
Morris relates (p.290) how Matthew Maury, the "father of oceanography"
discovered ocean currents as a result of studying Psalm 8:8 that declares the
"paths of the sea." Did the writer of this psalm mean ocean currents that Maury
discovered? Was the Holy Spirit trying to communicate some modern science
here, or perhaps it was a common phrase used at that time?
Homer in his book The Odyssey, (Book 3:71) says, "the paths of the sea
water." Again in Book three (line 177) it says, "the ships ran before the wind on
paths of the deep sea fish" (see also Book 4:389). Was Homer also
communicating great scientific discoveries? Was he inspired, or was this just the
common language that was used back then?
Apollonius Rhodius in the third century BC wrote in his book The Argonautica,
"and the fishes came darting through the deep sea, great mixed with the small,
and followed gambolling along the watery paths" (Book 1:574). Apollonius
describes the fish playfully following the ship as sheep follow a shepherd.
In the Sibylline Oracles it says, "A king will come from Asia, brandishing a great
spear, with countless ships. He will walk the watery paths of the deep, and will
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Driver states that hidden channels connecting the sea with the great abyss of
water (the great deep) which the Hebrews conceived to extend under the earth
(Psa.224:2, 136:6) and from which the waters of the sea were supposed to be
derived (p.330). Lucretius in De Rerum Natura mentions the sea’s own fountains"
(VI.613 p.487).
Meteorology
Ecclesiastes 1:7 - "All the rivers run into the sea"
Morris sees the hydrologic cycle of modern science here (p.274). I see common
observation. In ancient times it was a great mystery how all the rivers emptied
into one earth-encircling sea and did not fill up. The targum of Ecclesiastes
shows how these verses were understood back then. Grossfeld translates:
And the sun rises in the day from east, and goes down in the west
by night, and hastens to its place, and goes down through the path
under the sea, and rises the following day from the place where it
rested yesterday; it goes all the side of the south in the day, and
goes round to the side of the north by night, through the path under
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the sea; it turns round and round to the wind of the south corner in
the revolution of Nisan and Tamuz, and returns its circuits to the
wind of the north corner in the revolution of Tishri and Tebeth; it
comes through the windows of the east in the morning, and goes
into the windows of the west in the evening. All the rivers and
streams of water go and flow into the waters of the ocean which
surround the world like a ring, and the ocean is not full, and to the
place where the streams go and flow there they go again through
the channels of the sea.
It is interesting to note that the sun travels through a path under the sea. All the
streams flow in the sea which surrounds the earth like a ring (see Babylonian
World Map). The water of the sea flows through channels of the sea up to the
mountains where they come out as the streams again. Floods were seen as
coming from below the earth, not from rain in the sky above. In the vassal-
treaties of Esarhaddon it says, "may a flood, an irresistible deluge, rise from the
bowels of the earth and devastate you" (ANET 1969, 539, ¶ 56, line 490).
There is another parallel to Ecclesiastes 1:7 found in the book The Clouds by
Aristophanes which says, "What then! Think you the Sea is lager now than ëtwas
last year? NO surely, ëtis no larger: It is not right it should be. And so you then,
Insatiable grasper! When the Sea, Receiving all these Rivers, grows no larger,"
(1290-4; see also Harry Ranston’s book Ecclesiastes and the Early Greek
Wisdom Literature 1925).
The Babylonian Talmud explains why the sea is not full by saying that the
primeval waters have the ability to absorb all other waters. Therefore the ocean
is never full (Bekoret 9B see also The Aramaic Version of Qohelet by Etan
Levine 1978, 48).
Lucretius in De Rerum Natura states, "In the first place, they wonder that nature
does not increase the measure of the sea, for all the great running down of
waters thither, for all the rivers that come into it from every side Ö. that the great
sea does not increase Ö. Lastly, since the earth has a porous body, and it is
joined together with the sea, girdling its shores all around, it is necessary that as
the flow of water comes from the land into the sea, so also it should ooze into the
land from the salt sea; for the pungency is strained off, and the substance of the
water oozes back, and all meets in a moving mass of sweet along the path which
was once been cut for it in its liquid course" (VI.608-638).
Seneca in Naturales Quaestiones says, "first then, let us investigate how the
earth supplies the continuous flow of rivers, and where such great quantities of
water come from. We are surprised that the seas are not affected by the addition
of the rivers; it is equally surprising that the earth is not affected by the loss of the
waters leaving it Ö Some think that the earth receives back whatever water it has
emitted; and for this reason the oceans do not grow larger because they do not
assimilate the water which flows into them but immediately returns it to the land.
For, the water enters the land by hidden routes openly it comes to the sea;
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secretly does it return. Sea water is filtered in transit because it is battered by the
many circuitous passages in the earth and sets aside its salinity and impurities"
(III, 4-5).
Pliny in Natural History theorizes, "the intention of the Artificer of nature must
have been to unite the earth and water in a mutual embrace, earth opening her
bosom and water penetrating her entire frame by means of a network of veins
radiating within and without, above and below, the water bursting out even at the
tops of mountain ridges, to which it is driven and squeezed out by the weight of
the earth, and spurts out like a jet of water from a pipe Ö This theory shows
clearly why the seas do not increase in bulk with the daily accession of so many
rivers. The consequence is that the earth at every point of its globe is encircled
and engirdled by sea flowing round it" (II.LXVI).
Aristotle in Meteorologica argues, "The old question why so great an amount of
water disappears (for the sea becomes no larger even though innumerable rivers
of immense size are flowing into it every day) is quite a natural one to ask, but
not difficult to answer with a little thought. For the same amount of water does not
take the same time to dry up if it is spread out a s if it is concentrated in a small
place Ö this is what happens with rivers: they go on flowing in a constricted
space until they reach a place of vast area when they spread out and evaporate
rapidly and imperceptibly. Plato’s description of rivers and the sea in the Phaedo
is impossible. He says they all flow into each other beneath the earth through
channels pierced through it, and that their original source is a body of water at
the centre of the earth called Tartarus, from which all waters running and
standing are drawn Ö all of them pass round again in a circle to the original
source from which they flowed; many return to it again at the same place" (II.ii).
The Septuagint and the Vulgate imply the contant cycle of water which led to
discussions about underground streams conveying the waters back to their place
of origin (Crenshaw 1987, 65). Crenshaw argues that the point of Ecclesiastes is
the continual flow of streams not their cycle to show the futility of life (65-66).
Stadelmann believes that Isaiah 55:10-11 and Job 36:27-28 show that the
Hebrews did not believe that rain or snow returned back to the clouds. He states,
"It must be insisted upon that the idea of the formation of rain by means of
evaporation and condensation of water vapor is not found in the Old Testament
Ö Thus, having once fallen to the earth, rain never returns to the clouds" (1970,
123).
It is interesting to note that the Hebrew word for river here is nhl meaning torrent.
This refers to the streams that flow in wadies when it rains. The normal word for
a river that continually flows is nhr. This word is never used for any streams, or
rivers in Palestine (Stadelmann 1970, 161). It is used for the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers. What the Hebrews called the "head" of the river is what we
would call the "mouth" of the river today.
Morris states that Job 28:25 is another anticipation of modern knowledge (p.276).
He interprets this to mean "atmospheric pressure" which was unknown in ancient
times. The Hebrew word öql means weight, or shekel. It corresponds to the
Akkadian öiqlu, and Aramaic and Ugaritic tql (NIDOTTE Vol.4, 235-7). The NIV
translates, "the force of the wind." Job is not talking about the atmospheric
pressure, but the force of the wind.
clouds" Sutcleffe 1953, 100). Because of the discovery of ancient texts and the
efforts of modern research the word `d should not be translated "mist."
On Genesis 2:6 the Targum of Pseudo-Jonathan says, "The cloud of majesty
came down from the throne of majesty and filled itself with water from the ocean,
and then rose up from the earth and gave rain to water the whole face of the
ground" (Bowker 1969, 110). Rabbi Eliezer agreed with this, but Rabbi Joshua
replied that the water was sweetened in the clouds (Sutcliffe 1952, 100). Sutcliffe
states, "This idea of the clouds receiving water from the sea suggests
evaporation to the modern mind. But the Targum Jon., just quoted, seems clearly
to mean that the cloud received water in liquid form, and if the phenomenon of
evaporation had been know to R. Eliezer, he would surely have said something
about it" (Ibid). It seems that these Rabbis are reading much more into this verse
than is actually there as does Dr. Morris. The only difference is that the Rabbis
see rain clouds while Morris does not see any rain until the flood.
Morris thinks that this verse is a reference to the meteoritic and other dust
particles in the lower atmosphere (p.273). The Hebrew word for "highest" is r`ö. It
is the first word in the Hebrew Bible meaning "beginning." It is better to translate
this phrase as "the first dust of the earth." This fits the context better which is
referring to the time before anything was created. The NIV says, "Before he
made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the earth." This verse is not
talking about the dust high in the sky.
ancient times there were only four winds from the four cardinal directions.
Aristotle distinguished twelve winds (Meteorologia chp. 4). By the end of the first
century AD people distinguished only eight winds because twelve winds were too
complex to use.
I Enoch 18:1-5 says, "And I saw the storerooms of all the winds and saw how
with them he has embroidered all creation as well as the foundations of the earth.
I saw the cornerstone of the earth; I saw the four winds which bear the earth as
well as the firmament of the heaven. I saw how the winds ride the heights of
heaven and stand between heaven and earth: Theses are the very pillars of
heaven. I saw the winds which turn the heaven and cause the star to set-the sun
as well as all the stars. I saw the souls carried by the clouds" (Charlesworth
1983, 22-3). The writer believed that the four winds were the same as the four
pillars of heaven which held up the sky and rotated it around. In earlier times the
mountains were seen as pillars that held up the sky. Herodotus in Book 4:184.3
sarcastically writes, "The natives say that this (mountain called Atlas) is a pillar of
heaven (Hude 1979).
I Enoch 76:1-4 says, "And I saw the twelve wide openings in all directions
through which the winds come out and blow over the earth. Three of them are
open in the forefront (east) of the sky, three in the west, three in the right (south)
of the sky, and three on the left (north) Ö through four of the (openings) blow out
winds of blessing (and) through eight of them blow out winds of pestilence-when
they are sent in order to destroy the whole earth (Charlesworth 1983, 55). In this
passage there are twelve winds that are described.
Seneca in chapter five of his book Natural Questions discusses in length the
twelve winds. Vitruvius in his book On Architecture says, "Some have held that
there are four winds Ö But those who have inquired more diligently lay down that
there are eight (Book I.C.VI.4; 57). He goes on to describe the first octagonal
wind tower built.
Pliny the Elder in his book Natural History says, "The ancients noticed four winds
in all, corresponding to the four quarters of the world (this is the reason why even
Homer mentions no more)-a dull-witted system, as it was soon afterwards
considered; the following age added eight-this system on the other hand was too
subtle and meticulous. Their successors adopted a compromise, adding to the
short list of four winds from the long one. There are consequently two winds in
each of the four quarters of the heaven (Book II.XLVI; 261).
Astronomy
Job 38:14 - "[The Earth] is turned as clay to the
seal"
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Morris contends that the rotation of the earth is implied in this verse (p.165). He
says, "The figure, in context, is of a clay vessel being turned on a wheel to
receive the design impressed upon it by a seal or signet." The key word is "seal"
which can mean either a cylinder seal or stamp seal (see NIV note). It is not
talking about a clay vessel being turned on a potter’s wheel. Delitzsch in his
commentary on Job says, "The dawn is like the signet-ring, which stamps a
definite impress on the earth as the clay" (p.316). The NASB says, "It is changed
like clay under the seal." The NIV says, "The earth takes shape like clay under a
seal." There is no pottery wheel spinning around. One must understand the
cultural background of the ancient Near East’s use of seals.
Morris says, "the earth is suspended in space, not supported on pillars" (p.246).
There are several verses that talk about the pillars of the earth (Job 9:6, Psalm
75:3) and the pillars of the heavens (Job 26:11). I think that Job 26:7 is just
poetically describing the earth being spread out of the deep. This phrase
parallels the stretching out of the heavens over the void or deep. The word
"north" is used as a part for the whole heavens. The word for "stretched out" is
only used of the heavens. The word "nothing" parallels the word "void" in the
proceeding phrase. The word void is also used in Genesis 1:2, the earth was
formless and void. I would translate this phrase as: He is suspending the earth
over the formless deep.
In Enuma Elish (tablet IV:145, Heidel 1942, 43) it says, "The great structure
Eaharra (earth) which he made as a canopy (over the deep)." The earth is seen
here as a canopy that is stretched out over the ocean. The äamaö Hymn says,
"You (äamaö, the sun god) climb to the mountains surveying the earth. You
suspend from the heavens the circle of the lands" (Lambert 1960, lines 21-22).
These are just common phrases that were used in the ancient world. One should
not read modern science back into them.
The Babylonian Map of the world clearly shows a circular earth surrounded by a
circular sea (Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum
1960, part xxii, pl.48; for a translation see Horowitz 1988, 147-65; 1998, 20-42).
The äamaö Hymn which is written to the Sun-god says, "You climb to the
mountains surveying the earth, you suspend from the heavens the circle of the
lands." The phrase "the four corners of the earth" which in Akkadian is kip-pát tu-
bu-qa-at eerbitti, can be literally translated "the circle of the four corners"
(Grayson 1972, 105).
In Egyptian literature the Hymn to Ramses II found on various stela inside the
temple of Abu Simbel says, "like Re when he shineth over the circle of the world"
(Erman 1927, 258-9). There is another similar phrase in The War Against the
Peoples of the Sea" which comes from Ramses III’s temple of Medinet Habu
which says, They laid their hands upon the lands as far as the circuit of the
earthÖ" (ANET 1969, 262). Keel in his book The Symbolism of the Biblical World
(pp. 37-40). Has many Egyptian drawings showing a circular earth surrounded by
a circular sea.
Geographic
Isaiah 11:12 - "The four corners of the Earth"
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Morris (p.248) goes through the trouble of trying to show that the earth really
does have four corners:
1. 55 N, 10 W (near Ireland)
2. 50 S, 48 E (near South Africa)
3. 15 N, 140 E (near the Philippines)
4. 18 S, 80 W (near Peru)
Isaiah was not thinking about these locations when he penned the book of Isaiah
(Meyers 1989, 80-2). Morris seems to be bound and determined to force some
scientific truth out of literal words that were meant to be taken figuratively.
In Isaiah 11:12 the Hebrew word for "corners" is knp which BDB lexicon
translates as "the extremities of the earth." The root of the word means "winged"
which the Septuagint translates as pterygon which is used in the New Testament
in Matthew 4:5, "the pinnacle of the temple."
The four corners of the earth are also mentioned in Revelation 7:1 and 20:8. The
Greek word is gonia. Thayer’s Lexicon says this word means "the four extreme
limits of the earth" (Thayer 1962, 123). This word can also mean "angle" or
"corner." The Vulgate translates this word with angulos. The International
Standard Bible Encyclopedia says, "The four corners of the earth or land are
therefore simply the extremities of land in the four cardinal directions" (Orr 1939,
887). When gonia refers to a building it means corner, but when it refers to land it
means the extremity. For example in the Catalogue of the Greek Papyri in the
John Rylands Library (II 130,9) it says, "in the area of Euhemeria in the division
of Themistes at the corner" (Moulton and Milligan 1976, 134). The phrase "the
four corners of the earth" is a common ancient expression (Grayson 1972, 105).
One example of this is found in the legend of Keret which says, (3) sb. Lqsm.
`ars. (4) lksm. M`iyt, meaning "they go around to the edges of the earth, to the
limits of the watery region" (Gibson 1978, 98; Herdner 16:3,3-4). I do not think
these ancient writings meant the four compass points that Morris mentioned
above.
Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote a book called Christian topography around 547 AD
(McCrindle 1987). One of the basic purposes of his book was to refute from
scripture and common sense, the impious pagan belief that the earth was a
sphere. Cosmas believed the earth was rectangular in shape because he took
literally the verses that say the earth has four corners. He saw the Hebrew
tabernacle as a microcosm of the universe. The table of show-bread with its
waved border represented the earth surrounded by the ocean. Since the table
was twice as long as it was wide, and was placed lenghtwise from East to West
twice as long as it is wide. From Isaiah which says that the heaven is His throne,
and the earth is His footstool, he deduced that the earth must be at the bottom of
the Universe. Just as Cosmas’ deductions look silly today so also does Morris’
scientific deductions from figurative language.
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Number of Stars
Jeremiah 33:22 says, "As the host of heaven can not be numbered, neither the
sand of the sea measured" (also Genesis 15:5, & 22:17). On a clear night in the
middle east the stars look like they are innumerable. The point of this hyperbole
is that David will have many descendants. If we use a computer to estimate the
amount of sand or the number of stars, this does not mean we will then know the
exact number of descendants of David or Abraham. This is poetical language,
and not a scientific statement. This was a common ancient hyperbole (Bullinger,
426-7).
Akkadian Literature
Shalmaneser I was king of Assyria about 1280 BC. He had an inscription
engraved upon a stone tablet (KAH,I,No.13) that describes the rebuilding of the
Temple Eharsagkurkurra. It says, "Thereupon, the land of the Kuti, whose
numbers are countless as the stars of heaven, who know how to plunder,
came down upon me and fought with me, and stirred up enmity" (Luckenbill
1926, 40, #117; Grayson 1972, 83).
Assur-nasir-pal’s annals are inscribed on the pavement slabs of the entrance to
the temple of Urta at Calah. It describes his great military campaigns in the first
six years as king of Assyria starting about 1018 BC. In his first year the city of
Suru of Bit-halupe rebelled. Assur-nasir-pal captured the city and said, "Öhis
heavy spoil, which like the stars of heaven could not be counted, I carried
off" (Luckenbill 1926, 145, #443).
Assur-nasir-pal in another military campaign said, "As far as Dummete (and)
Asmu, cities of the men of Adini, I pursued him (Azi-ilu), and the rest of his hosts,
which were countless in number as the stars of heaven, I carried off"
(Luckenbill, 162, #472).
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Sargon II wrote a letter to "Assur, Father of the gods," about 714 BC. in which he
tells in detail the events of his eighth military campaign. Sargon says, "I stopped
my march on Andia and Zikirtu which lay before me, and set my face toward
Urartu. Uishdish, a district of the Mannean country, which Ursa had seized and
taken for his own, with its many cities, which are countless as the stars of
heaven, I captured in its entirety. Their powerful walls I smashed like pots, down
to their lowest foundations, and I leveled them to the ground. I broke into
countless orchards and let my army devour great quantities of food" (Luckenbill,
84, #157).
Greek Literature
Pindar, a lyric poet who lived from 518 to 438 BC., says, "whereas sand can
never be numbered, and who could ever count up all the joys that he hath given
to other?" Then later on in the same book Pindar says, "for, in truth, I could not
have the skill to tell the number of the pebbles of the sea" (Olympian Odes
2.98-100, and 13.46; L&S, 240).
Plato who lived from 429 to 347 BC. in his book Timaeus (39b-d) describes the
wanderings of the stars as "incalculable in multitude and marvelously intricate"
(Farrington 1961, 218).
When the science of astronomy became more developed the Greeks numbered
all the stars they could see. God has numbered the stars and calls them by name
(Psalm 147:4; Isaiah 40:26). Hipparchus, the father of Greek astronomy,
catalogued a total of 1,080 stars in the second century before Christ. Later
Ptolemy still considered this an accurate count (Coder 1965, 45).
Latin Literature
Seneca born about 4 BC. in his book Naturales Quaestiones states,
"innumberable planets (stellas) move in secret, unknown to us either on
account of the dimness of their light or because the position of their orbits is such
that they are eventually seen only when they reach the extremities of those
orbits" (VII. 13.3-7).
Medicine
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Apollonius, Rhodius. 1912. The Argonautica. Trans. by R.C. Seaton. London:
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Archer-Hind, R.D. 1973. The Timaeus of Plato. New York: Arno Press.
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Coogan, Michael D.1978. Stories from Ancient Canaan. Philadelphia:
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