The Singular Meaning of a Biblical Metaphor

A Refutation of the Flat Earth Concept

By Desmond Allen, PhD, ThM, MDiv

Introduction

A peculiar phenomenon has taken root in recent years. Largely fueled by distrust of government and propagated by social media influencers, a small but persistent percentage of the US population (2%) has embraced a concept held by various ancient pagan cultures: i.e., that the Earth is flat, even cubical. Another 8% favor the idea, though they are not completely convinced. Young adults (ages 18–24) were the most likely to be skeptics of a spherical Earth, with only 66% stating a firm belief in a round Earth, compared to 94% among those ages 55 and older. This is even though ancient Greeks showed the Earth was a sphere as early as the 4th and 5th centuries BC, by observing the Earth's curved shadow on the Moon during a lunar eclipse and watching ships disappear below the horizon before their masts disappeared.

Sadly, about 52% of those who adhere to this notion are zealous Christians who believe they are defending the veracity of the Bible. However, their argument is both untenable from the perspective of tangible reality and unwarranted from the biblical perspective. Indeed, the Prophet Isaiah spoke of the circle of the Earth in the 8th century BC, and Job spoke of it perhaps as early as 2,000 BC. “He that sits upon the circle of the Earth” (Isa 40:21-22); and “He has drawn a circle on the waters at the boundary where the day and night come together” (Job 26:10). The Hebrew חוּג, chûwg, denoting a circle, a circular course, to mark with a compass, is from the root חָגַג, châgag, “to move in a circle.” Thus, the curved horizon that appears circular is marked by a boundary charted with a compass.

While those Christians who accept this notion are also likely to distrust the government, their adamant belief in a flat Earth resides largely on their flawed hermeneutic. Like the devout Pharisees and Sadducees, who convinced themselves they were defending Mosaic Law when they were actually defending their own traditions, these zealous Christians defend a contrived position derived from their inconsistent differentiation between common concrete-literal and metaphorical communication. For example, they will acknowledge the metaphorical nature of passages such as "Jesus is the bread of life" or "Christians are the body of Christ," yet they fail to acknowledge the metaphorical nature of passages that speak of the foundation, pillars, and corners of the Earth.

While a zealous belief in the Bible's veracity and authority is admirable, this is not that. In this instance, it is actually counterproductive to evangelism, as it diminishes both Scripture and Christianity in the eyes of the unbeliever, for what does it say about the beliefs and sacred writings of those who deny reality?

The Literal Hermeneutic

Biblical interpretation, or hermeneutics, is not a subjective aesthetic process as we might apply to poetry or art. Nor is it a device employed to modify the meaning to present a particular version of reality. The process of interpretation is not eisegesis, which projects the reader’s feeling into the text; it is exegesis, which seeks to understand the author’s original, singular, plain, literal, or precise meaning. This is the foundation of all clear communication, both verbal and written, in any language; without it, we are merely babbling nonsense.

The concept of literal interpretation discerns the speaker’s plain intent or singular meaning. It applies to both concrete-literal language, such as “the sun is shining bright,” and metaphorical language, such as “she is a ray of sunshine.” Concrete-literal language refers to tangible items or factual concepts, while metaphorical language likens someone or something to those tangible items or factual concepts. Both express the speaker's plain meaning or singular direct intent. Even in this explanation, concrete, which is a tangible substance, is used figuratively to refer to tangible items or realistic concepts.

Various Metaphorical Phrases in Common Communication

As the following list illustrates, metaphorical phrases are a common feature of everyday conversation. The speaker always has a plain, singular, literal meaning in mind that everyone understands, unless they are 3 years old.

· It’s raining cats and dogs

· They’re fighting like cats and dogs

· Get off your high horse

· She is a busy bee

· Life is a roller coaster

· He is a cool cucumber

· The crossroads of life

· She has a heart of gold

· It will cost an arm and a leg

· He is a couch potato

· The boy is a night owl

· He will spill the beans

· You are an open book

· I’m drowning in work

· This is a piece of cake

· Let me break the ice

· The girl swims like a fish

· Light at the end of the tunnel

Various Metaphorical Biblical Passages

Likewise, the Bible is replete with metaphors, which, although metaphorical, also convey the author’s plain, singular, literal meaning. The prophets, and Jesus Himself, made great use of the many metaphors; and always, there is a plain, singular, literal meaning in mind.

When James said, “the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity” (Jas 3:6), he did not mean fire in a concrete-literal sense as Luke meant it when he said Paul “shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm” (Ac 28:5). Nor did he mean world in the concrete-literal sense as Peter meant it when he said God “did not spare the ancient world” (2Pe 2.5). James obviously used both metaphorically, yet he had a singular, literal meaning in mind. But we must take a step further. His metaphorical use of the tongue and fire was, itself, a metaphorical reference to the thoughts and intents of the mind, which controls the tongue.

Clearly, James had warned that evil thoughts proceed from our sinful nature, and speaking them has destructive powers. This is the plain intent, the singular meaning of his metaphorical comments. Likewise, when Jesus said, “If your right eye causes you to offend, pluck it out, and cast it from you; and if your right hand causes you to offend, cut it off, and cast it from you” (Mt 5:29-30). He also spoke of the old nature that controls the eyes and the hands. His obvious meaning was to put away the old sinful nature, even as Paul said, “put off concerning the former way of life the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts” (Eph 4:22).

Every parable in Scripture, from the trees that anointed a king over themselves (Jg 9:8) to the Sower of seeds (Mt 13), is a metaphor with literal significance. It is the role of the reader, the role of the Christian, to correctly differentiate the two. When the disciples ask Jesus why He spoke in parables, He told them that the mysteries of the Kingdom were not for unbelievers (Mt 13:10-11). The controlling factor in properly differentiating between metaphorical and concrete-literal is not the term itself but the context in which the term is applied. For example, Jesus said He was the manna from heaven, that His flesh was food and His blood was drink, and those who eat and drink of Him have eternal life. As He later explained, He spoke metaphorically concerning the manna, food, and drink, as well as the act of partaking of Him; but He employed the concrete-literal when He spoke of eternal life (Jn 6:55-63).

Peruse the following list, which is but a small portion of the multitude of metaphorical passages in Scripture, for afterward we will see what nonsense they would become if we attempt to understand them in a concrete-literal sense. You will note that none of these phrases are comparative, such as “He is like” or “He is similar to.” Rather, each is clearly definitive, such as “You are” or “He was,” and although metaphorical, each conveys an obvious literal meaning.

· “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD has spoken” (Isa 1:2).

· “He was seen upon the wings of the wind” (2Sa 22:11).

· “You rode upon Your horses and Your chariots of salvation? Your bow was made quite ready, according to the oaths over Your arrows” (Hab 3:8-9).

· “We are the clay, and You our potter; and we all are the work of Your hand” (Isa 64:8).

· “The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool” (Isa 66:1-2).

· “The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at His reproof” (Job 26:11).

· “He is the Rock; His work is perfect” (De 32:4).

· “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress” (2Sa 22:2).

· “You are my hiding place and my shield” (Ps 119:114).

· “Hide me under the shadow of Your wings” (Ps 17:8).

· “He that touches you touches the apple of His eye” (Zec 2:8).

· “He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young” (Isa 40:11).

· “He…brings forth the wind out of his storehouses” (Jer 51:16).

· “Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, that made all the earth drunk” (Jer 51:7).

· “The windows of heaven were opened” (Ge 7:11).

· “My hand also has laid the foundation of the Earth, and My right hand has spread out the heavens; when I call unto them, they stand up together” (Isa 48:13).

· “But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword” (Isa 1:20).

· “He shall…gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners (literally “wings”) of the Earth” (Isa 11:12).

· “The pillars of the Earth are the LORD’s, and He has set the world upon them” (1Sa 2:8).

· “If your right eye causes you to offend, pluck it out, and cast it from you; and if your right hand causes you to offend, cut it off, and cast it from you” (Mt 5:29-30).

· “You are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them” (2Co 6:16).

· “Now you are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1Co 12:27).

· “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29).

· “Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David” (Re 5:5).

· “If any man comes to Me, and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Lu 14:26).

· “Whosoever does not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple” (Lu 14:27).

· “Then spoke Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness” (Jn 8:12).

· “You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness” (1Th 5:5).

· “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (Jn 9:5).

· “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star” (Re 22:16).

The Absurdness of Neglecting the Metaphor

To ignore the context and metaphorical aspect of such passages and to understand them in a concrete-literal sense is much like a child’s belief in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, or that Dad can do anything. If we attempt to understand them in a concrete-literal sense, we might conjure up something like the following. Hang on to your seat because this is going to get wild.

With a concrete-literal understanding of these passages, it is undeniable that God is made of stone. He has wings and His eyes are apples. He is seated on His throne, which is the heavens held up by its pillars, while resting His feet on the Earth, which is His footstool and also sitting atop its foundation pillars. It is unclear what supports these foundation pillars. All of which He, being a skilled potter, formed with His hands.

Both God’s throne, the heavens, and His footstool, the Earth, are alive and animated, for they have ears to hear Him, and they stand up before Him when He calls upon them. When the Earth drank from the golden cup in His hand and got drunk, He opened the windows of heaven and poured out water from above. He opened His storehouses, where He keeps the wind in reserve, and made the wind to blow upon the Earth in a mighty storm, which He Himself orchestrated as He rode upon a cherub. But sometimes He rides a horse and chariot while wielding His bow and arrows; and sometimes He rides the wind, which, like Him, also has wings.

Then, as we turn our attention to those who trust God, we gain greater insight. We know that God is a rock, and because He is the fortress and high tower for His true followers, He gathers them into His bosom, which we might assume is something similar to a marsupium in which followers can hide in times of trouble. And He is their shield, so that if the enemy gets too close, they can wield Him to protect themselves from the enemy’s sword, which is a ravenous carnivore, because it actually eats its victims after it has cut them. While His followers can defend against the enemy, at the same time, if they do wrong, such as to pocket or even look upon something with lust, they are to cut off their hand and pluck out their eye.

Now, while God is a rock, those who trust Him are His temple, which at that time was made of stone; but those who trust Him are also the body of Christ, which makes sense, since God is a rock. But here it gets a bit confusing. Although saints are the body of Christ, John the Baptist said Jesus is a lamb, and the Apostle John said Jesus is a lion, and He is also a root. Jesus Himself confirmed that He is a root, and He is a star; not just any star, but the bright morning star. Thus, much like the ancient Incas, Aztecs, Mayans, Egyptians, Hindus, and Japanese pagan Sun worshipers, His followers can begin every day in worship as they view the object of their worship in the early morning sky. But Jesus is not just the bright morning star; He is the light of the world, and apparently, when He walked the Earth, there was no need of the Sun, for He served as the light of the world. And since His return to heaven, He is still the light for His true followers who are never in darkness. Such true followers ought not to need a candle or a flashlight to see where they are going or to read a book, for they are always in light. Indeed, they are the offspring of light; thereby, always shining themselves. Yet, to prove they are His true followers, they must hate their family members, fathers, mothers, siblings, and even themselves. And they must tote around a cross like Jesus did on the way to His crucifixion.

Such is the nonsense that one could logically assume by neglecting the context and/or the author’s obvious metaphorical use of various terms, not following the universally accepted rules of basic communication. Context is key to properly interpreting all speech and literature, and the Bible is no exception. Each passage must be understood within the context of the historic period, the original language, the grammar and syntax, the argument or story, the theology, and the usage of each term.

As for the meaning of terms and the context in which they are used, we must understand that many words have extended applications beyond their root or primary meaning. Here are a few examples. The KJV translates the Greek αἰών (aiṓn, which properly means age) as age, ever, world, course, and eternal. It renders κόσμος (kósmos, which properly means orderly arrangement, decoration) by its primary meaning, “adorning,” only one time, and renders it as “world” 186 times, whether speaking of the physical Earth or the inhabitants of the Earth.

The Hebrew כָּנָף (kânâph, which properly means edge or extremity; specifically of a bird or an army, a wing), is most often translated as a “wing,” but is also rendered as feather, flying, bird, skirt, every sort, overspreading, border, ends, quarter, corner, and uttermost part. While Ezekiel clearly used kânâph to say, “the cherubims lifted up their wings” (Eze 10:19), Isaiah used it to speak of “the four corners (i.e., uttermost parts) of the Earth,” the four cardinal directions (Isa 11:12), and Daniel used it to say, “the overspreading (greatest) of abominations.”

The Hebrew יָסַד (yâçad, literally or figuratively, properly means to set, establish, found, ordain, or appoint) is used in a variety of applications, such as the foundation of Egypt (Ex 9:18), the porters that Samuel ordained (1Ch 9:22), the Earth that is established forever (Ps 78:69). Isaiah clearly used the term to say the LORD “founded the Earth” (Isa 48:13), as Wycliff and Young’s had rendered it. At the same time, the KJV chose the metaphorical image of “laid the foundation.” Elsewhere, the KJV also rendered yâçad as “founded the Earth” (Pr 3:19), which it also rendered as “ordained” (1Ch 9:22), “instructed” (2Ch 3:3), “appointed” (Es1:8), “take counsel” (Ps 2:2), “set” (Song 5:15), “lay” and “sure” (Isa 28:16), and “established” (78:69). So it is that context determines meaning.

Other Historic Erroneous Teachings

Through the centuries, some strange heretical beliefs and practices have arisen by ignoring context and misapplying Scripture. During the 3rd and 4th centuries, a community of ascetics called the Desert Fathers and Mothers emerged. In their zealous but misguided pursuit of holiness, they attempted to overcome the worldly desires of the flesh by mortification of the body. Thus, they practiced strict self-denial, poverty, sleep deprivation, hunger, and lived as hermits. They would even beat and whip themselves, seeking to discipline and tame their bodies into submission. All of which was based on various misunderstood and/or erroneously applied passages such as John the Baptist clothed with camel’s hair and eating honey in the wilderness; Jesus fasting forty days and forty nights in the wilderness; Paul keeping his body in subjection; and the commands not to be conformed to this world, and to abstain from fleshly lusts.

The ascetic Syrian monk and hermit, Simon Styles (d. 459), sat on top of an 11-square-foot pillar, more than 50 feet high, for 37 years. Ascetics in the 11th and 12th centuries practiced self-flagellation with small whips as penance. In the 13th and 14th centuries, this became a public practice of repentance, as they hoped to stop the spread of the plague.

Since the early 20th century, a subset of Christianity has risen to prominence that encourages its members to handle venomous snakes to demonstrate their faith. The teaching is based on the misapplication of a passage directed toward the apostles and early disciples, which spoke of them casting out demons, speaking with new tongues, healing the sick, and not being harmed by serpents or poisons (Mr 16:17-18). The miracles of Jesus and the early disciples served to validate Christendom as it spread throughout the world. But as history records, the regular practice of such miracle workers ceased to exist shortly after the end of the Apostolic Age. While miracles can and do still happen, miracle-workers such as the apostles do not.

Another false teaching that arose in the late 20th century is the Prosperity Gospel. Unlike the ancient zealous but misguided pursuers of holiness, this pervasive false teaching is founded in the pursuit of reward and luxury. Based on the misapplication of various passages, it teaches that faithful Christians will enjoy good health and financial wealth when they speak positive declarations of faith that command God to unlock divine blessings; and, of course, the most important feature, i.e., when they sow “Seed-Faith,” which means to give generously to the ministry.

One of the more popular misapplied passages comes from the parable of the Good Shepard, in which Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10). The passage obviously speaks of spiritual life. Still, the false teachers apply it to material wealth. Another misapplication is God’s specific challenge to the Israelites. About 100 years after returning from their Babylonian captivity, they had grown apostate; even their priests were corrupt. The people were marrying pagans, and they were defrauding God by withholding portions of their tithes. Therefore, the Lord challenged them to bring all their tithes to Him so there would be food in His house (i.e., to sustain the Levites, Ne 13:5), and see if He would not pour out a blessing upon them (Mal 3:10).

Clearly, this is not a promise of wealth to Christians who tithe to someone’s ministry. And the clear but unspoken implication of those who spew this false theology is that if Christian’s are poor, they are not living godly, which of course is erroneous. Relatively speaking, very few saints through the ages have enjoyed wealth. The first-century Christians in Jerusalem were desperately poor (Ro 15:26), even as the Apostle John and James, Jesus’ brother, were leading them. James declared that God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith (Jas 2:5). Jesus Himself lived as a poor man, with no place even to lay His head (Mt 8:20).

The notions that health and wealth are achieved by the command of faith, or the earned benefits of tithing “seed-faith” to some ministries, are foreign to Scripture. Such tithes are hardly the spirit or the purpose of giving. We are to give from love and generosity, not as a means of financial investment. The desire for wealth hinders holiness; it is not a means to it. Yet, this false teaching has permeated modern Christendom so deeply that even members of congregations that do not teach this theology from the pulpit have been influenced by slick televangelists who seek to rid them of their money. In a 2023 survey, Lifeway Research reported that roughly 76% of professed Protestant Christians believe God wants them to prosper financially; 52% believe they achieve this by giving money, and 45% believe their own actions have earned it.[1]

Although their zeal to defend and believe Scripture is admirable, like that of the ascetics and the snake handlers, the inconsistent and flawed hermeneutic of the flat Earthers fails to recognize the obvious metaphorical nature of select passages, thereby leading to completely unbiblical and unwarranted concepts.

It is proper and necessary to interpret the Bible literally and to defend its foundational doctrines[2] against false teachers and the pseudo-scientific hypotheses, such as the Big Bang and evolution; but this notion of a flat Earth is not that. Sadly, as mentioned earlier, because of the undeniable reality that the Earth is an oblate sphere, this zealous yet erroneous interpretation of Scripture actually works against their desire to defend both the Bible and Christianity. Both the veracity of Scripture and Christianity are diminished in the eyes of those whom they would hope to evangelize, for what does it say about the religion of someone who is in denial of reality?

Furthermore, to defend this erroneous position, they are drawn even deeper down the rabbit hole into a bizarre conspiracy theory in which government agencies, scientists, mathematicians, and even casual observers (such as passengers in airliners who have observed the curvature of the Earth) are viewed as either being deceived or being outright liars. Certainly, anyone who claims to have traveled into the upper stratosphere and beyond to observe the spherical Earth from afar is simply an outright liar. Ultimately, even fellow Christians who have made such a journey must be deemed liars. At this point, the belief system has crossed the line into heresy, perhaps even cultish behavior.

Beyond being unwarranted from a biblical point of view, neither is this position tenable from a tangible point of view. As the following pages show, mathematics, geometry, astronomy, magnetism, and even casual observation prove that the Earth is an oblate sphere.

The Observable and Scientific Reality of the Oblate Sphere

1. Geometry.

a. The observable line-of-sight to the horizon is directly proportional to the square root of the elevation of the observer, which is roughly calculated by the mathematical equation: (distance equals the square root of 1.5 times height), where d is the distance in miles and h is the eye-level elevation in feet. As the ancient Greeks observed, beyond this distance, objects drop below the horizon.

b. From ground level, a person of average height (5.5 to 6 ft) can see the mountain-less horizon (such as the ocean or a large body of water) about 3 miles away. Longer distances are observed, depending on the observer's elevation. For example, from the observation deck of the Empire State Building (1,250 ft), the horizon is about 43 miles away. With a wide field of vision of 60 degrees, the curvature of the Earth’s horizon is visible from 35,000 feet, and clearly visible from 50,000 feet with a much smaller width of the field of vision.

c. Similarly, because radio waves bend slightly due to atmospheric refraction caused by the density and moisture in the air, the VHF/UHF radio horizon is about 15% farther than the visual horizon, and the general reach is about 40 to 100 miles depending on the height of the broadcasting antenna. One exception to this is called skip, in which radio waves reflect off the ionosphere (the Earth’s upper atmosphere) like a mirror and return to Earth thousands of miles away. This is a key feature of shortwave radio, or Ham Radio.

d. The curvature of the Earth is visible from 35,000 ft with a wide field of vision of 60 degrees. At 50,000 feet, it is even easier to see. At 3,000 miles, a complete circular horizon of the hemisphere is visible.

2. Non-Euclidean Geometry.

a. Lines starting parallel from anywhere at the equator and going straight North will meet at the North Pole; known as parallel convergence.

b. Euclidean geometry does not apply to the geometry of the Earth or an oblate sphere. The sum of the angles of a Euclidean triangle on a flat surface always equals 180 °, but on a sphere such as the Earth, the sum of the angles of a triangle is 270 °. For example, make a straight line from the North Pole to the Equator, then turn 90o and make a straight line along the Equator; at some point, turn 90o again and go back to the North Pole to complete the triangle. The three angles 90o + 90o +90o = 270o.

c. The shortest distance between two points on Earth, as observed on a 3-dimensional sphere, follows the curved path of the Great Circle, rather than the constant-bearing straight path of the Rhumb Line, which crosses meridians, as observed on a flat 2-dimensional Mercator map. For example, on a flat map, a flight from Vancouver, Canada, to Moscow, Russia, that flies over Canada and England is about 5,750 miles. In comparison, a flight following the Great Circle over the Arctic is about 5,101 miles.

3. Astronomy.

a. The Moon appears to be upside down in the Southern Hemisphere.

b. The obvious curved shadow of the Earth on the Moon during a lunar eclipse.

c. Polaris (the Northern Star) is always nearly straight overhead at the North Pole, while at the exact moment, viewed from locations further south, it progressively appears lower to the horizon until it is not visible south of the equator.

d. Stars, viewed from the North Pole, do not arc up and down, but they appear to spin around Polaris like a carousel wheel.

e. These Northern Hemisphere constellations are not visible in the Southern Hemisphere: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Draco, Camelopardalis, and Lynx.

f. These Southern Hemisphere constellations are not visible from the Northern Hemisphere: Octans, Hydrus, Mensa, Chamaeleon, Apus, Tucana, and Volans.

4. The Coriolis Effect. Newton’s laws of motion: inertia, the conservation of angular momentum, and the rotating reference frame.

a. This phenomenon is a force caused by the Earth’s west-to-east rotation. Because the planet is a spinning oblate sphere, points at the equator travel much faster than points progressively closer to either the North or South Pole. When an object moves long distances, it retains its initial rotational speed, so its path appears curved relative to the ground beneath it.

b. Winds and storms such as hurricanes spin counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.

c. Long-distance moving objects curve to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.

e.g., The true compass direction from Miami to Minneapolis is 335o. If a pilot were to set his course for 335o and did not make constant course corrections to compensate for the Coriolis Effect, he would drift off course to the East. In the Southern Hemisphere, such a flight would drift off course to the left.

e.g., When making extremely long-range shots, snipers must also make corrections for the Earth’s rotation with calculations based on the exact latitude, the bullet’s time-of-flight, and direction of the shot.

5. The Magnetic fields.

a. Northern Hemisphere: The magnetic field lines point downward into the Earth. The dip angle is positive and becomes completely vertical at the magnetic North Pole.

b. Southern Hemisphere: The magnetic field lines point upward into the Earth. The dip angle is negative and becomes completely vertical at the magnetic South Pole.

c. Due to the vertical component of the magnetic pull, compasses in the Northern Hemisphere require a tiny counter-balance weight on the south end of the needle. In contrast, compasses in the Southern Hemisphere require a counter-balance weight on the north end of the needle.

6. Navigate the Globe East and West by Land and Sea.

a. From mainland North America to Greenland is 15 to 16 miles.

b. From Greenland to Iceland is 180 miles.

c. From Iceland to mainland Euro/Asia is about 600 Miles.

d. From the Siberian coast to Russia’s Big Diomede Island is about 25 miles.

e. From Big Diomede Island to America’s Little Diomede Island is about 2.5 miles.

f. From Little Diomede Island to mainland North America is about 25 miles.

7. Daylight and Darkness.

a. Every morning, the Sun appears on the Eastern horizon and progressively rises high in the sky, then sets on the Western horizon. In the Northern Hemisphere: during Summer, it rises in the Northeast and tracks Northwest; and in Winter, it rises in the Southeast and tracks Southwest. In the Southern Hemisphere: during Summer, it rises in the Southeast and tracks Southwest; and during Winter, it rises in the Northeast and tracks Northwest.

b. North and South: At any given time, the season in the Northern Hemisphere is opposite the season in the Southern Hemisphere. When it is Summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it is Winter in the Southern Hemisphere. When it is Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, it is Spring in the Southern Hemisphere.

Conclusion

Biblical interpretation seeks to understand the author’s original, plain, literal meaning. It requires knowledge of the historical context, the language, the culture, and any theological matters that might be of concern. Thus, we immediately face problems on several levels because of cultural and language differences, historical distance, perhaps even geographical issues, theological ignorance, and, always, the self-imposed limitations of our own experience and bias. Without addressing these problems, the likelihood of misunderstanding the text is amplified.

Due to the broad application of many terms in the historic original languages, and the ever-changing, fluid nature of the language into which we are translating, we cannot rely merely on translations. English has experienced at least four major changes since the NT was written: Old English (450-1100), Middle English (1100-1500), Early Modern English (1500-1800, during which the first English translations were printed), and Modern English (1800-present), which is always in flux, so that the common usage of certain terms has changed dramatically even in the last 100 years. Ancient Hebrew had about 8,700 unique words, and Koine Greek had about 5,400 unique words, so that both languages employed terms with broad application. By contrast, including scientific and technical terms and local slang, Modern English has more than 1,000,000 words. Yet, even with so many words at our disposal, we still use words in both the metaphorical and the concrete-literal sense.

Words have meaning. Words within a certain context have a specific meaning. Words from a certain historical setting will be expressed in a specific vernacular. But context is always key, and we must assume the author intended to convey a plain, singular meaning. If readers are free to understand and apply Scripture to mean anything that moves them, they might as well be staring at cloud formations and letting their imaginations run wild. If readers are free to remove passages from their context and use them to support their argument, they might as well be cutting and pasting words out of the newspaper.

This does not mean that only theologians and scholars should attempt biblical interpretation. But it does mean that readers who intend to formulate or confirm doctrines must take interpretation very seriously; they must follow the basic grammatical and contextual rules of communication and address the various aforementioned problems with integrity. In this way, the non-theologian will arrive at the same understanding as the theologian.

Unfortunately, some believe we need not interpret the Bible but merely read it and believe what it says. This sounds reasonable and even pious, for indeed we are to believe what the Bible says, yet it has one major flaw: it omits a major step in the equation, i.e., having a clear understanding of what one is reading. Again, we do not employ a subjective aesthetic interpretation so that each reader gleans their own personal meaning from the text. Merely hearing, seeing, or reading does not equate to understanding. So it is that Jesus said, “seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, neither do they understand” (Mt 13:13).

The disciples clearly demonstrated the issue of hearing or reading without understanding when Jesus warned them about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. If Jesus had not corrected their misunderstanding, they would have refused to eat any bread made by the Jewish leaders (Mt 16:6-12).

Man’s sinful nature, tainted with bias and ignorance, often clouds his ability to communicate or receive communication clearly due to a myopic worldview shaped by culture, life experiences, and/or belief systems. Therefore, the speaker’s meaning might differ significantly from what the hearer understands. For this reason, there is no escaping the necessity of sound and truthful biblical interpretation that seeks to understand the author’s plain original meaning, not the meaning that might speak to us or that we might want the passage to express. False interpretation leads to incorrect knowledge, which leads to erroneous thinking, which leads to faulty conclusions, and finally, to wrong actions.

So it is, there is a great distance between simply reading and believing. To quickly leap from one to the other is to bypass understanding. It is proper to believe what we read in Scripture, but it is also proper and of extreme importance first to clearly and correctly understand what we read.

[1] “Prosperity Gospel Beliefs on the Rise Among Churchgoers,” Lifeway Research| Churchgoer Views and Practice | Aug 22, 2023; https://research.lifeway.com/2023/08/22/prosperity-gospel-beliefs-on-the-rise-among-churchgoers/

[2] Such as, The Trinity, God is the Creator, the Earth is young, the depravity of man, the Deity of Jesus, salvation by faith in Jesus alone, etc.