The Bible's Flat Earth

Hi GM,
Amazing how often I come across this issue on debates about biblical inaccuracy. Usually it leads back to the old argument of where to apply metaphorical meaning, and what parts to take seriously.Christians have interpreted the bible differently ever since it was written, and do so still. Obviously when new discoveries are made, like evolution, heliocentrism, etc. people read different meanings into the same words.Nowhere does the bible say that the writers (yes, human writers, even if inspired by an omniscient deity) knew all the facts of the universe. The purpose of the verses you have quoted had nothing to do with the shape of the earth.

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1 Chronicles 16:30: “He has fixed the earth firm, immovable.”
Psalm 93:1: “Thou hast fixed the earth immovable and firm ...”
Psalm 96:10: “He has fixed the earth firm, immovable ...”
Psalm 104:5: “Thou didst fix the earth on its foundation so that it never can be shaken.”
Isaiah 45:18: “...who made the earth and fashioned it, and himself fixed it fast...”

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They were meant to express the greatness of God from the writers' worldviews. And the belief in a flat-earth was the name of the game at the time. I'm not aware of any Christian claim that God revealed all the secrets of the universe to the writers. I suspect it would have been Moses, rather than Einstein, who theorized of Relativity if that were the case

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In Daniel 4:10-11., the king “saw a tree of great height at the centre of the earth...reaching with its top to the sky and visible to the earth's farthest bounds.”. Clearly this makes little sense if the Earth were spherical, but it makes perfect sense on a flat Earth, where a sufficiently tall tree would be visible to all.

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If the king had seen a spherical earth in his dream he would not have known what he was seeing. Why would God give dreams that make no sense to the dreamer? Can you see any sense in a deity giving visions incorporating string theory and ten-dimensional space to a modern layperson?

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In "Job 38:14, “The earth takes shape like clay under a seal." This is reference to the ancient practice of stamping out clay tablets. This passage makes no sense at all if it is about a sphere, but it does make sense for a flat Earth.

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Here is the whole verse:

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It takes on form like clay under a seal,
And stands out like a garment

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Which is it? Clay or a garment? If you read the whole chapter you'll see some pretty wild imagery.

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“Or who shut in the sea with doors,
When it burst forth and issued from the womb

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Either the writer had some pretty wild ideas of how the world works, or he was using imagery. Now if you want more verses to support your argument you're in luck, most of the imagery in the chapter does describe the earth as "flat" or "stretched out". But would the words have had the intended impact on an iron age audience if they had alluded to a spherical earth?

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Matthew 4:1-12 has the Devil taking Jesus atop a high mountain, to show him the world. "the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them". This would only be possible on a flat Earth. I have heard it suggested that the Devil showed Jesus a vision, rather than a physical view, but if so, why bother going to the mountain?

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The verses do indeed imply a flat earth, although the text does not "explicitly" describe the flatness of the earth. Perhaps the mountain was a vision? After all, the passage never explains how Jesus got off the "exceedingly high mountain".
The passage does not necessarily have to imply a flat earth, but would probably have done so for people at the time.The bible was written a very long time ago, and from an iron age perspective. Even assuming that an all-knowing god inspired it, the message could not be diluted with unfamiliar images of the world as a spherical planet.

Care to contribute then?