Hi Ragdoll,
Actually, Geocentric earth is just fact in the Bible, and a geocentric earth is the center of the entire universe, as Genesis 1 shows that the entire heavens were stretched out from the primal waters of the globe, between those cut in two waters: Two Waters /Sha Mayim is what the Creator named the firmament stretched out in stories/layers of at least 3, with Paradise being in the 3rd heaven/story/layer.
As to Sungenies, his charts show the geocentric unmoving earth and the paths of the planets around the sun, yearly. He teaches a geocentric unmoving earth as the Word of God does, but in his charts, he also shows the heliocentric model, for comparison.
So the entire stretched out heavens circle the earth each Day. A Day is measured by 18 parts in Enoch, and the light of the day and darkness of the night are equal two times a year, at fall and spring equinox's, and the light is double the night at summer solstice, and the night is double the the light at winter solstice. All this is measured from the center, or belly button, of earth as God calls Israel.
So it (the Dry "named Earth", called "to be" from the primal waters under the heavens, began coming forth and spreading out from there, so to speak. Earth is a globe, and it has a "belly button" from the beginning of the "spreading out of it".
The heavens are the cicle of the earth, in Job, and in the passage you put up from Job, in 38:12-14 is God speaking to Job of the "Morning" and the "Dawn" rolling over earth like a clay seal leaving it's impression, so to speak. Go check it out, because it does not say the earth is turning.
The Earth's Rotation in the Holy Bible
The Job passage can only be understood as heliocentrism. You cannot possibly get geocentrism out of this passage until you don't understand the difference between geocentrism and heliocentrism. The circle of the earth is better understood as the Great Circle of a sphere. Isaiah 40:22 has always been understood as a spherical earth. When both ancient and modern exegesis agrees, there is no dispute.
There is another point I really need to drill in here. In geocentrism, the earth doesn't move at all. In the Job passage you quoted, the earth moves. Lets look at the two translations that do the best job translating Job 38:14,
King James Version:
12 Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;
14 It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment.
Young's Literal Translation:
12 Hast thou commanded morning since thy days? Causest thou the dawn to know its place?
14 It turneth itself as clay of a seal And they station themselves as clothed.
As a side note, these two translations get this passage down the best. It does not mean that these two translations are the best English translations. What this does mean, is that these two translations compliment the Hebrew more than other translations do in this given passage.
So the earth turns, turns itself. This is rotation. The earth faces the dayspring. As it turns, the night turns, changes, into day. The morning light rolls over the earth exposing the deeds of the wicked. Geocentrism has nothing to do with a moving earth.
Isaiah 40:22 from Hebrew:
הישׁב על
חוג הארץ וישׁביה כחגבים הנוטה כדק שׁמים וימתחם כאהל לשׁבת
The word here is H2329 חוּג chûwg
The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible,
H2328. חוּג Chuwg, kloog; a prim. root [comp.2287]; to describe a circle:--compass [1x]."
H2329. חוּג Chuwg, khoog; from 2328; a circle:--circle [1x], circuit [1x], compass [1x].".
Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, H2329: "חוּג m. a circle,
sphere, used of the arch or vault of the sky, Pro.8:27; Job 22:14; of the world, Isa.40:22."
So how does the Gesenius' get a sphere? Well lets look at the Strong's for the answer.
The Strong's uses three English words to define a chûwg. Lets look at these three English words:
1. circle.
In English, a circle as we know can either be 2D flat or 3D. The word "circle" itself doesn't tell us whether its 2D or 3D? However, if indeed this circle is describing a globe that it will compass, having a circumference.
2. Compass.
This word is used to describe a circle that surrounds, environs, encompasses from all sides. Here is your latitude and longitude, where horizontal and vertical lines intersect. Job 26:10.
Also note that "compass" is a synonym for the word "circumference" as well as "sphere."
COMPASS Synonyms: 82 Synonyms & Antonyms for COMPASS | Thesaurus.com
Then you can check out synonyms for circumference and find compass.
CIRCUMFERENCE Synonyms: 21 Synonyms & Antonyms for CIRCUMFERENCE | Thesaurus.com
This is how we get an horizon which can only understood from living on a globe. See definition of "Horizon" from the 1828 Webster's Dictionary which is used today as a lexicon for learning the English of the KJV.
Websters Dictionary 1828 - Webster's Dictionary 1828 - Horizon
3. circuit.
While the word circuit shares much in common with a circle, it does not mean circle. In context it means that the earth moves in a circle. This accounts for the rotation of the earth and its circuit around the sun.
Websters Dictionary 1828 - Webster's Dictionary 1828 - Circuit
So now you know why the Gesenius' has sphere in the definition of chûwg. But the thing we are mainly discussing here is rotation.
We can look at this verse in the Greek Septuagint and see the same thing, using different synonyms to describe the same thing.
Isaiah 40:22, Greek Septuagint:
"ὁ κατέχων τὸν
γῦρον τῆς γῆς, καὶ οἱ ἐνοικοῦντες ἐν αὐτῇ ὡς ἀκρίδες, ὁ στήσας ὡς καμάραν τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ διατείνας ὡς σκηνὴν κατοικεῖν."
Word: γῦρον (gyron)
The common variant is γύρος (gyros). Both γύρος and γῦρον mean the same thing.
γύρος (gyros) means: round, circumference, rotation, circular movement, circumnavigate, ring, horizon.
The verse says "the one who possesses the circumference of the earth" (i.e. "the whole earth").
Gyros is also (and this is useful for our purposes here) rotation. You can find this meaning on this page in Greek, in the first sentence.
Γύρος (αποσαφήνιση) - Βικιπαίδεια (wikipedia.org)
So when the earth rotates.....it is the same word in a noun γυρίζει/gyrizi.
Ironically, from the word gyro came the compound word gyroscope.
A quick comparison of the Greek and Hebrew meanings:
chûwg = circle
γύρος = round
chûwg = compass
γύρος = circumference
chûwg = circuit
γύρος = rotation
chûwg geometrically describes a sphere that moves in a circle. This is impossible in geocentrism, as the earth in geocentrism is stationary and never moves in a circle. There is no rotation of the earth in geocentrism.
Moses, who spoke with God on Mt.Sinai, also speaks of God forming the earth into a rotating sphere in Psalm 90:2,
"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God" (KJV).
"Before the mountaines were broughte forthe, or euer the earthe and the worlde were made, thou art God from euerlastynge and worlde without ende" (1537 Matthew's Bible).
"Before mountains were brought forth, And Thou dost form the earth and the world, Even from age unto age Thou `art' God" (1862 Young's Literal Translation).
"Before the mountains were born, and the earth shall be begun, and the habitable globe, and from forever even to forever, thou art God" (1876 Julia Smith Bible).
Psalm 90:2, Hebrew:
בְּטֶ֤רֶם ׀ הָ֘רִ֤ים יֻלָּ֗דוּ
וַתְּחֹ֣ולֵֽל אֶ֣רֶץ
וְתֵבֵ֑ל וּֽמֵעֹולָ֥ם עַד־עֹ֝ולָ֗ם אַתָּ֥ה אֵֽל׃
The first word in this Hebrew verse is וַתְּחוֹלֵֽל (i.e., חוּל)
This is Strong's H2342 חוּל chûwl
In the kjv, the word formed is Strong's חוּל chûwl, which properly means "to twist or whirl (in a circular or spiral manner)."
H2342 - ḥûl - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) (blueletterbible.org)
In Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon it means to "to be twisted, turned, turned round. To be changed, to be turned, round about, a year, full of turns, wily." Here is the full Gesenius definition
H2342 - ḥûl - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) (blueletterbible.org)
While חוּל chûwl has a broad context, in this verse the context is about the formation of the earth that came into existence with a whirl, that turned in a circle.
Secondly, the word translated
world in the kjv is Strong's H8398 תֵּבֵל têbêl, which means " the earth (as moist and therefore inhabited); by extension, the globe; by implication, its inhabitants; specifically, a particular land, as Babylonia, Palestine:—habitable part, world."
In the Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon it means "the habitable globe"
H8398 - tēḇēl - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) (blueletterbible.org)
So here in Psalm 90:2, a Psalm of Moses, we see two words that describe the earth's shape and rotation. It might be possible that חוּל chûwl could describe the galaxy but I don't want to jump to that assumption without deeper analysis. It does seem reasonable that חוּל chûwl and תֵּבֵל têbêl describe an globular earth that rotates. This is another verse that strongly refutes the allegation of geocentrism in the Bible.
Here are some of the early church fathers writing commentary on Day 1 of the Genesis account:
Clement of Alexandria (150-215 A.D.)
The following is taken from his writing called The Instructor, which I’m citing from the very last page of Book III entitled To The Paedagous:
“And when the seasons, in their circling course,
Winter and summer, spring and autumn, each
Should come, according to well-ordered plan;
Out of a confused heap who didst create
This ordered sphere, and from the shapeless mass
Of matter didst the universe adorn;--
Grant to me life, and be that life well spent,
Thy grace enjoying; let me act and speak
In all things as Thy Holy Scriptures teach”
(Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Vol.1).
St.Ambrose (337-397 A.D.)
"Consequently, the year, too, has the stamp of a world coming to birth, as the splendor of the springtime shines forth all the more clearly because of the winter’s ice and darkness now past. The shape of the circles of years to come has been given form by the first dawn of the world” (St.Ambrose, "Hexameron" The Fathers Of The Church series translated by John J. Savage., p.12).
Ambrose understood that both the shape of the earth and its rotation began on Day 1.
St.Augustine (354-430 A.D.)
“But if the light first created enveloped the earth on all sides, whether it was motionless or travelling round, it could not be followed anywhere by night, because it did not vacate any place to make room for night. But was it made on one side, so that as it travelled it would permit the night to follow after from the other? Although water still covered all the earth, there was nothing to prevent the massive watery sphere from having day on one side by the presence of light, and on the other side, night by the absence of light. Thus, in the evening, darkness would pass to that side from which light would be turning to the other” (St.Augustine, "The Literal Meaning of Genesis, Vol.1." Ancient Christian Writers, Vol.41., p.33).
St.Augustine may not be able to identify the source of light on Day 1, but he, like other church fathers, are reading that the earth was round and began to rotate on Day 1.
What Augustine has right is how the earth is a sphere and rotating at this point. However, he is having trouble identifying the light.
St. Augustine didn't know exactly how the earth turned. But his 4th century mind was on the right idea:
“These writers are then asked why Saturn is cold. Its temperature should be higher in proportion to the rapid movement it has by reason of its height in the heavens. For surely when a round mass is rotating, the parts near the center move more slowly, and those near the edge more rapidly, so that the greater and lesser distances may be covered simultaneously in the same circular motion” (St.Augustine, "The Literal Meaning of Genesis, Vol.1." Ancient Christian Writers, Vol.41, p.52).
What Augustine gets right is that there is something inside a planet that makes it spin. This he would have solved had he known about the core.
So the earth rotates, Saturn rotates, all planets have a rotation to them. Their circular motion may not be the same for all the planets in our solar system, but they all move in a circle motion, including the earth.
