Is it true that in the Bible Book of Isaiah, the Earth is referred to as being round?

[Lou Newton]

Is it true that in the Bible Book of Isaiah, the Earth is referred to as being round?

Lou Newton, former Steel Mill Crane Designer and Physics Teacher
Answered just now


Job 26:7

New International Version
He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.

Isaiah 40:22 New International Version (NIV)

22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

[Lou Newton]

Glen B Smith
To:Lou Newton

Aug 7 at 2:56 AM

Isaiah 40.22 circle of the land


Round must be defined as either a flat circle, disk, or a globe or sphere. The Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA) interprets the Hebrew word "hug" as globe.

²² It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts: he that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.

This brings Isaiah 40:22 into agreement with modern planetary science.

To make the text fit the idea of a globe the DRA has also changed the preposition "above" to "upon" since sitting on a circle would be akin to sitting on a hula-hoop or wagon rim.


The NABRE version interprets "circle" as "vault" which is being like a dome.


Other English versions have opted for disk or horizon. Sitting above the disk works as a visual concept. The suggestion of "horizon" used for "circle" works since a horizon, especially on a prairie or sea, appears as a 360-degree circle. This might be why most translators use the word for word exchange by using "circle" for the Hebrew word "hug."


Pick your viewpoint:


1. If the Bible reader feels it is necessary to make the English Bible agree with a modern worldview the suggestion is to use the DRA version since the divine purpose must to have been to reveal a modern view of the land as a spherical planet commonly thought of as "round".



2. If the Bible reader feels "circle" might be better translated as "horizon," which is quite likely the Hebrew meaning, he should know that origins of the English word "horizon" is from the late 14^th century.


3. If the Bible reader is comfortable with the Bible's ancient worldview and ancient Hebrew language, then the circle of the land above which "El" sits, presumably upon His throne, adequately pictures God's relationship to the land upon which men dwell and were likened to grasshoppers.