In the ancient world, many large empires and cultures thought the world was flat, and lacked many other aspects of knowledge that we take for granted today. The widespread assumption is that no ancient cultures had any of the geographical or scientific awarenesses that we possess today. That assumption would be wrong. Modern mankind would be very surprised to know how many scientific awarenesses and realities about global geography were recorded in the Bible millennia ago! Far from being a superstitious book that has been disproven, the truth is that the Bible contains evidence of ancient knowledge that was millennia ahead of its time. This post is intended to reveal some of the scientific realities that were known in ancient biblical times, but people have forgotten that these scientific facts are in the Bible.
Please read the following items while asking yourself if the Bible is a scientific book or not.
The Bible Teaches the World is Round:
Modern mankind assumes that ancient mankind never knew the world was round until the age of discovery began after the Medieval period concluded and explorers began to sail the world’s oceans. However, the Bible records that some ancient biblical cultures knew the world was round. The book of Isaiah was written during the 8th and 7th centuries BC, but one passage references the fact that the spherical nature of the earth was already then known. Isaiah 40:22 refers to God as “…he that sits on the circle of the earth (emphasis added).” A flat earth would not be described as being circular, but In Isaiah’s time it was known that the earth was circular–in other words, spherical. Job is arguably the oldest book in the Bible, and there is no certain dating for it. However, Job’s texts include some remarkably accurate scientific observations. Job 26:7 (speaking of God) states: “He stretches out the north over the empty place, and hangs the earth upon nothing (emphasis added).” The Hebrew word translated “empty” is “tohu” meaning a void or empty state of being. That aptly describes the northern polar regions, which are barren or empty of places fit for human habitation as defined by anyone coming from the Mediterranean region. The fact that God is credited with “hanging the earth upon nothing” reveals that in Job’s time, it was known the earth was not only a sphere, but that it was positioned in the nothingness of space. These references to scientific truths that mankind did not grasp at all during the Dark Ages and much of the Medieval period shows that the ancient biblical societies were far more advanced than human cultures were for many centuries afterward. This bit of scientific accuracy was far ahead of the Greek and Roman civilizations. I’ve seen documentaries that assert the Greeks thought the earth was carried on the back of an immense turtle. In spite of the evident fact that ancient biblical texts reveal a grasp of scientific realities far in advance of the Greek and Roman civilizations, we assume nothing could have been known until the Greeks and Romans finally learned it.
When Magellan’s fleet circumnavigated the globe, it took about three years to do so. In I Kings 9:26-27 and 10:22-23, it is recorded that Solomon had a fleet of Israelites and Phoenicians which returned only every third year with animals (apes and peacocks) from other continents being mentioned. We can only guess how far they sailed during those three-year voyages. As my books on the history of the ten tribes makes evident, the “Phoenician” Empire was primarily the empire of the tribes of Israel allied to King Hiram of Tyre and the other generally-called Phoenician cities of Sidon, Byblos, etc. along the modern Lebanese seacoast. When the kingdom of Israel fell, the Phoenician city-states reverted to minor status and the Israelites established new kingdoms and empires in Parthia, Scythia, Carthage, etc. Modern mankind is not taught that the Parthians were an equal of the Roman Empire in their time (250 BC-227 AD) and that Carthage was so strong for centuries that they long forbade the Romans to sail into the Atlantic Ocean. That the Romans were confined to the Mediterranean region meant that they did not learn the earth was round until much later than the Phoenicians and Carthaginians. When the Romans burned the great library in Carthage after the Punic Wars, they undoubtedly destroyed books, maps and records of the entire centuries of knowledge gained by the Phoenician/Israelites and their Carthaginian offspring. Those maps surely included maps of the other continents and wherever their fleets sailed and traded. Their ships were long present in the New World, and my books include the information about Phoenician/Israelite and Carthaginian artifacts and inscriptions found in ancient North American settings. These books can be obtained at the home page of my website.
The Bible Mentions the Polar Ice-Caps:
In what will be a shocker to many people, the Bible mentions the polar ice-caps! It was mentioned above that the Bible records that the far northern regions of the world were an empty wasteland–a fitting description of the far north. Job 38:29-30 references ice and snow and adds that there is a place where the waters are like “stone” and “the face of the deep is frozen.” This clearly describes the northern polar ice sheet. That it also says the ice covers “the deep” is meaningful. The term “the deep” refers to the oceans, and this passage reveals the ancient Israelites knew the ice-sheet was atop oceanic waters, not atop a continent as at the South Pole. This observation about the northern ice-cap indicates that a large amount of exploration had been done in the northern polar region for these observations to be made. Psalm 107:23-30 contains language that affirms the Israelite fleets had gone far out into the world’s oceans already in the time of King David (this was before his son, King Solomon, sent his fleet that sailed to other continents during its three-year voyages). Psalm 107’s words describe ships sailing in “great waters” where they do “business” (conduct trade), and that they encountered huge storms with sea swells that lifted boats high on the crests of waves and then plunged them down into the troughs between the waves. Psalm 65:5-8 also includes language that indicates the Israelite/Phoenician fleets sailed to “the ends of the earth” and that they “were afar off upon the sea.”
These passages affirm the reality of globe-girdling maritime Israelite/ Phoenician trading fleets that went everywhere on the earth in their business and exploration efforts. II Chronicles 8:18 and 9:21 document that the Israelites were taught all the maritime knowledge of the Phoenicians and that their fleets were crewed by both Israelites and sailors from Tyre. Given that the Bible asserts that Phoenician/Israelite fleets sailed the oceans to the ends of the earth, it is not surprising that they discovered the polar ice cap.
The Bible Contains the Need for Health-Care Quarantines:
In an item that is particularly germane to our modern society, Leviticus 13-14 and Numbers 5:1-4 record that God gave the Israelites rules about how to limit the spread of leprosy and other illnesses in their midst. The Bible advocates quarantines of the sick in order to protect the healthy. This is now common medical knowledge but when this was first written circa 1450 BC, it was millennia ahead of human knowledge on the subject. Whoever gave the Israelites this advanced knowledge had to understand the truth about germs and viruses spreading through close human contact, and the need to quarantine the sick until they were well. The superior intelligence that gave these instructions could only have been a Creator God, who also delivered the Israelites from Egypt via the Exodus plagues on the Egyptians, and who also opened the Red Sea for their full deliverance from their prior Egyptian slavery.
It is also noteworthy that the Divine instructions on quarantines in the Torah say nothing about quarantining the healthy as part of any plan to limit the spread of illnesses. During the Covid pandemic, many nations, states, provinces, etc. imposed draconian quarantines on everyone–the ill and healthy alike. The resultant damage to people and society attributable to the gulag-like lock-downs imposed by governments has proven to have had severe effects on people, society and economies. The world would have been better off if it had acted according to the Divine wisdom in Leviticus and Numbers about how best to limit the spread of illnesses in society.
The Writer of Hebrews Knew the Truth about Sub-Atomic Particles:
One biblical passage that many people have surely been “reading over” for years without realizing its true significance is Hebrews 11:3. In speaking about the creation, this passage states that “things which are seen were not made of things which do appear (emphasis added).” Think about what his reveals! This assertion states that all that is matter (“things seen”) is made from things which cannot be seen. This statement is also millennia ahead of its time. Until powerful microscopes were invented in more modern times that could determine that visible objects in our created physical world are all composed of molecules, atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons, etc., this statement would have made no sense. However, this scripture reflects what had to be a Divine revelation at the time. How would the author of this ancient passage know that there were such things as invisibly-small, sub-atomic particles out of which visible elements and objects were all made? Obviously, the author of this scripture did not name these microscopic particles as they had no names at the time. However, the assertion that everything that we see in the world of physical matter around us is actually made of tiny particles too small to be visible is a scientific reality that mankind would not discover for the better part of two more millennia. In essence, the Bible asserted here that all matter is composed of compressed energy, a fact which we now know to be true. In modern cutting-edge, sub-atomic research being conducted at the Hadron super-collider in Europe and other locations, mankind is probing ever-deeper into the invisibly-small world of sub-atomic particles. Such research is further confirming the scientific accuracy of Hebrews 11:3, but there may also be risks having unconverted mankind learn secrets about the building-blocks of matter that could be turned to destructive uses in developing new quantum weapons or other weaponry not yet named or revealed to the masses.
This is another example where the Bible has all along contained scientific truths that were far ahead of mankind’s available fund of knowledge. The fact that the Bible contains extremely advanced scientific knowledge not available in the times in which they were written affirms that the source of this advanced knowledge had to be the Creator God himself.
The Bible Mentions the War Galleys, Ballistas and Trebuchets Long Before Medieval Cultures Had Them:
Many readers have, no doubt, seen movies or documentaries that mention war galleys, ballistas and trebuchets in them. War galleys featured tiered banks of rowers who would propel a galley into an enemy and destroy it via a ram at the prow of the galley. Roman, Carthaginian and Greek navies had such galleys. You can see that technology at work in the old movie, Ben Hur. A ballista is a large device which shoots either a single arrow or bolt or an entire group of them in the manner of a huge cross-bow. A trebuchet is a siege engine which launches a large rock or object into an opponent’s city wall to knock it down. These devices are shown in the movies Kingdom of Heaven and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Generally they are attributed to being invented by the Romans, Greeks or other well-discussed ancient civilizations.
However, did you realize that all these weapons of war were mentioned in the Bible as being known to or deployed by the ancient Israelites in their biblical kingdoms? Isaiah 33:21 mentions oared galleys as being known in ancient Israel. It refers to a “galley with oars” in conjunction with “gallant ships.” A check with a concordance reveals that the Hebrew words translated “gallant ship” in Isaiah 33:2 could also be called a “glorious ship” and the word “galley” could also be translated “navy.” These clearly have military connotations, not civilian ones.
II Chronicles 26 describes the reign of King Uzziah of ancient Judah, and verses 13-15 describe the weaponry of his army and the defenses of the city of Jerusalem. His army was equipped with not only shields, bows and arrows, slings and spears, but “habergeons” as well. This word used in the King James version of the Bible refers to coats of mail. These are defensive armaments worn over the torso to prevent or lessen injuries from spears, arrows, etc, and are typically made of interlinked metal rings. Verse 15 is very remarkable, and it is another one of those verses where one can “read over” what is there and not grasp the importance of the words used. It says Uzziah fortified the city of Jerusalem’s walls with “engines” designed “to shoot arrows and great stones” at a besieging army. These war engines were ballistas and trebuchets. Ancient Jerusalem had these defensive war engines built into its walls circa 767 BC! You can get a glimpse of what it might have looked like as trebuchets are built into the walls of the city of Minis Tirith in the movie, Lord of the Rings, Return of the King. Medieval Jerusalem is also depicted as having defensive trebuchets during the defense of the city by the Christians in Crusader times in the movie, Kingdom of Heaven. This biblical account affirms the ancient Israelites had ballistas and trebuchets many centuries before the Greeks and Romans ever rose to power. The soldiers of Uzziah with their coats of chain-mail and typical medieval weaponry would have appeared more like a Medieval European army rather than the simple-armed shepherd folk that the Israelites are usually shown as in movies. In my books you will see that the ancient Israelite army defeated the Assyrian army (and all its vassals) during the reign of King David (see I Chronicles 18-19), and sent the empire of Assyria into eclipse. Some military and civilian inventions may have been initially invented by King Solomon, the wisest man in the ancient world, who claims in Proverbs 8:12 that his wisdom helped him design “witty inventions.” Years ago, I wrote a post dedicated to examining the presence of trebuchets and catapults in the ancient Israelite kingdoms and that is included below as the first link.
The kingdoms of Israel and Judah had, generally under their righteous kings, large and well-equipped armies as well as major naval forces due to their alliance with the city-states of Tyre, Sidon, etc. My books, available at the homepage of this website, go into great detail about how extensive the Israelite empires really were throughout the biblical and post-exilic periods.
The Bible Mentions the Water Cycle of Evaporation:
In modern times, we know that there is a global atmospheric system whereby water is in a continuous state of evaporation from oceans and lakes, rain forests, etc., condensation into clouds and then precipitation back to the earth’s surface as rain or snow. Biblical narratives show this same scientific fact was known millennia ago in Israelite culture. Ecclesiastes 1:7, Amos 5:8 and Jeremiah 10:13 all make this fact quite evident. Ecclesiastes 1:6 also indicates that King Solomon, the emperor over the “Phoenician” empire of his time, knew about the circular trade winds that whirl about in their courses over the oceans. This is surely one of the facts taught to the Israelites by their maritime allies in Tyre and Sidon (I Kings 9:26-27). The Israelite/Phoenician fleets would have taken advantage of the knowledge of the oceanic trade winds to save time in trans-oceanic trips to the Americas and elsewhere. The Israelite/ Phoenicians and their Carthaginian offspring would have sailed to the New World by utilizing the west-bound winds taking them from West Africa and Gibraltar to the coast of Brazil and they would have sailed back to the Old World via the Gulf Stream and the east-bound trade winds taking their returning ships to the Phoenician tin mines in Cornwall on their way back to Mediterranean locations.
However, it should be realized that some of the Israelite tribes located on the Mediterranean seacoast had a strong maritime tradition of their own long before King David’s alliance with the Phoenicians city-states of Tyre and Sidon. Judges 5:17 mentions, almost as an aside, that the tribe of Dan had such a strong maritime tradition that they are described as “abiding in ships” circa 1200 BC. The subject of the ancient Israelites and their maritime skills and traditions are discussed in some detail in an article I wrote many years ago, which is included as the second link below.
The Bible Contains the Truth about Extinction-Level Events:
When I was young decades ago, evolution was already being taught to students in public schools. One of the tenets of evolution at that time was the doctrine of uniformitarianism–the dogma that the earth’s geologic record “proved” that sediments were laid down slowly and “uniformly” throughout all ages and that there were no catastrophic events in earth’s history (third link). This, it was asserted, proved the superiority of the theory of evolution over the Bible. This narrative was an evolutionary dogma before the discovery of the global geological iridium layer and the gargantuan Chixulub crater off Yucatan which confirms that a global extinction of the dinsoaurian world was caused by an impact of a huge meteor in that area. The scientific community was slow to accept the facts, but finally did so. Did the scientific and educational community abandon the theory of evolution when uniformitarianism, one of its key tenets, was proven wrong? Not at all. They simply invented new false narratives to replace their previous false narrative that the earth has experienced no global catastrophes as taught by the Bible.
Indeed, the Bible teaches there have been at least two Extinction Level Events (ELE) or Near Extinction Level Events in our planet’s history. Job 38:4-7 has its own initial creation story–which describes a creation previous to the one in Genesis Week. It states that when God first created our planet, it was so beautiful that the “morning stars” and “sons of God” shouted for joy. These had to be angels or other categories of spirit beings. Isaiah 45:18 adds that when God first created the earth, he made it “not in vain” (i.e. not in “tohu”). There is that Hebrew word “tohu” (for wasteland or emptiness) again. In that initial creation time, Lucifer was a gifted and “perfect” cherub (Ezekiel 28:12-15). This initial creation parallels Genesis 1:1. However, everything went bad. Lucifer and many angels revolted vs. God (Isaiah 14:12-15, Jude 6). They lost their battle with God’s angels, and Lucifer’s name was changed to Satan as he was hurled out of heaven (Luke 10:18). The fallen angels wandered for an indefinite period of time on a lifeless and darkened planet (Jude 13). The earth had become a lifeless and empty “tohu” place, and this corresponds with Genesis 1:2 (the word “tohu” is used again in that verse). We now know what caused the physical earth to become a darkened, lifeless place instead of a verdant original earth. The scientists found the answer when they discovered the global iridium layer and the Chixelub crater where a huge meteor impacted the earth and destroyed that original world. It was truly an Extinction Level Event.
Then God re-created life on earth starting in Genesis 1:3, and he made the current world we now know of mankind, mammals, etc. It was an Eden, but Adam and Eve fell when they disobeyed God. Centuries passed. Mankind then lived incredibly long lifespans (900+ years), and the world became so corrupted and evil that God destroyed everything again in a global Flood…except for Noah, his family and the life forms placed on the Ark (Genesis 7:17-23). After the Flood, mankind developed into our modern races and ethnic groups as they descended from Noah’s three sons and their wives. The Flood was a Near Extinction Level Event, and it was followed by the continents and ecosystems we now have on planet earth. For more information on the earth’s pre-history, the origin and end of the dinosaurs, etc., please read my article, Is the Earth 6,000 Years Old? [Hint: it isn’t] That article reconciles the earth’s fossil record with the biblical narratives, and I think you are in for some real surprises if you read it.
The point to remember here is that the Bible was right all along and the modern evolutionists were wrong the entire time they taught uniformitarianism which did not allow for any ELEs. The Bible was proven to be scientific fact and the erroneous musings of the evolutionists were proven false.
Conclusion:
The Bible can be proven to be scientifically accurate, once its narratives are understood in context. Evolutionary scientists continue to teach the errors of evolution, even though it can be disproven in many ways. One way is included in the fourth link. Romans 1:17-23 contains a prophecy about the flawed theory of evolution, written in ancient terminology of course. I Timothy 6:20 refers to something called “science falsely so-called.” That phrase applies to the entire lot of evolutionary teachers teaching nonsense in the world today. In Psalm 14:1, David wrote that only “fools” say in their heart that “there is no God.” However, we have many scientists and highly-educated teachers who assert today that there is no God and that evolution explains all life on earth. What is my reaction to this dichotomy? My opinion is that it shows that we have a lot of highly-educated fools today who are teaching many errors to the rest of mankind. The Bible can be proven to be scientifically accurate, and people ignore its teachings to their own peril.
- http://stevenmcollins.com/
did-king-uzziah-of-ancient- judah-have-trebuchets- catapults-and-more-new/ - http://stevenmcollins.com/
articles/did-israel-fear-the- sea/
- http://www.physicalgeography.
net/fundamentals/10c.html - http://stevenmcollins.com/
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