bibleberean said:
How can anyone speak for bible authors that lived thousands of years before them?
You presume to do so constantly.
God is the author of the bible. He knew what He was doing.
God inspired men to author the Bible. The Bible is our spiritual framework, not a scientific text, and God knew quite well what he was doing.
Isaiah 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
I find it hard to believe that the ancients thought the earth was a big flat circle.
They believed that you could have a giant mountain or tree seen everwhere on Earth. This sounds just as absurd to me as the thought of a big flat circular earth. Explain to me how you can believe in a giant mountain visible from everywhere and a spherical earth.
Jesus also knew that when He returned it would be day and night on the earth at the same time.
"...The Lord Jesus Christ spoke of His Second Coming in Luke chapter seventeen. In Verse thirty-four He speaks of some people being taken at NIGHT. Then in verses thirty-five through thirty-seven He speaks of this event occurring while people are grinding at the mill and working in the field, both of which are DAYTIME activities. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Himself told us nearly two thousand years ago that the earth CAN have day and night at the same time. The greatest educated minds of that day and time didn't know this, and they wouldn't have believed it if they'd been told, but Jesus Christ clearly revealed it to all who chose to believe the word of God." James Melton Modern Science in an Ancient Book
Luke 17:31 In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.
Luke 17:34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
Luke 17:36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Day and night at the same time.
Psalms 119:160 Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.
Strong's Number 2250
hemera {hay-mer'-ah}
1. the day, used of the natural day, or the interval between sunrise and sunset, as distinguished from and contrasted with the night
in the daytime
metaph., "the day" is regarded as the time for abstaining from indulgence, vice, crime, because acts of the sort are perpetrated at night and in darkness
2. of the civil day, or the space of twenty four hours (thus including the night)
Eastern usage of this term differs from our western usage. Any part of a day is counted as a whole day, hence the expression "three days and three nights" does not mean literally three whole days, but at least one whole day plus part of two other days.
3. of the last day of this present age, the day Christ will return from heaven, raise the dead, hold the final judgment, and perfect his kingdom
4. used of time in general, i.e. the days of his life.
You are assuming that Luke was using definition 1, and that he is therefore aware that the Earth is a sphere. However, in 4:5 Luke describes something which is physically possible on a sperical Earth. Therfore, it is much more reasonable to conclude that he thought the Earth was flat, the sun orbited around it, and that his usage of "day" in this passage was one of definitions 2-4.
