Moving | thebereancall.org

Moving

November 21, 2005
TBC Staff

Skeptics can be incredible nitpickers. They go far beyond the realm of logic and rules of linguistics in seeking to find discrepancies in the Bible. For example, some point to Psalm:93:1 as evidence that the writers of scripture believed the earth does not move.

"The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty: the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot move." Psalm:93:1

But, as another commentator points out:

"The Hebrew word 'môt' means `moved' and we find it again in Psalm:16:8 where it does not mean a fixed, unmovable position but rather describes an 'emotional' state. Therefore, the interpretation that Psalm:93:1 describes the earth as fixed, not moving in an orbit, is not taking the parallel ideas of the poet into consideration. What the author is trying to say is, that the earth will not stray from its precise orbit and rotational pattern which is 'firmly (e)stablished.'

"To understand motion we all must describe with respect to a frame of reference. You can choose any frame of reference you like and the Bible writers used the earth. Even today we say, 'Look at that beautiful sunset,' rather then, 'Look at the result of the fractionation of the light rays in the atmosphere as the orbit of the earth moves into position with respect to the sun . . . ' " (http://www.specialtyinterests.net/ugarit.html#est).

Copyright © The Berean Call 2016. All rights Reserved.  Click here for copyright permissions.