The "round world" Found in Old English Bibles

This is has been such a treat for me since I became an Anglican Catholic. During Evening Prayer a Psalm is read and almost every Evening Prayer its a Psalm that contains the phrase "round world." Now the Psalter of the Anglican Church comes from the 1539 Great Bible. King James had authorized a new translation of the Bible but he never changed the Book of Common Prayer's Psalter and left the Great Bible alone. We read these "round world" phrases from the 1535 Coverdale Bible, 1537 Matthew-Tyndale Bible. 1539 Great Bible, and 1568 Bishop's Bible. Here is an example of "round world" verses.

Pslam 18:15 -- Round World

1535 Coverdale Bible,

"The springes of waters were sene, & the foundacios of the roude worlde were discouered at yi chiding (o LORDE) at the blastinge & breth of thy displeasure."

1537 Matthew-Tyndale Bible,

"The sprynges of waters were sene, and the foundacyons of the rounde worlde were discouered at thy chidynge (O Lorde) at the blastynge and breth of thy displeasures."

1539 Great Bible,

"The sprynges of waters were sene, & the foundacions of the round worlde were discouered at thy chydinge, O Lorde, at the blastynge of the breth of thy displeasure."

1568 Bishop's Bible,

"And the bottomes of waters appeared, and the foundations of the rounde worlde were discouered at thy chidyng, O God: at the blast of the breath of thine anger."


Psalms 89:11 (v.12 ).

1535 Coverdale Bible,

"The heaues are thine, the earth is thine: thou hast layed the foundacio of the roude worlde and all that therin is."

Both 1537 Matthew's Bible and 1539 Great Bible (modified spelling)

"The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine; * thou hast laid the foundation of the round world, and all that therein is."

1568 Bishop's Bible,

"The heauens are thine, the earth also is thine: thou hast layde the foundation of the rounde worlde, and of all the plentie that is therin".

Proverbs 8:21,

1535 Coverdale Bible,

"As for the roude copase of his worlde, I make it ioyfull, for my delyte is to be amoge the children of men".

1537 Matthew-Tyndale Bible (modified spelling),

"As for the round compass of his world, I make it joyful: for my delight is to be among the children of men".

1539 Great Bible,

"As for the rounde compase of thys worlde, I make it ioyfull: for my delyte is to be amonge the chyldren of men"

1568 Bishop's Bible,

"As for the rounde compasse of this worlde I make it ioyfull: for my delite is to be among the chyldren of men"

And then other verses like,

"Let the sea make a noyse, and that is within it: the rounde worlde, and they that dwell therin" (Psalm 98:7 [8]), 1568 Bishop's Bible).

So this is the discussion of this topic. Why was "round world" taken out of the 1560 Geneva Bible and 1611 King James Bible? Was William Tyndale correct by translating "round world" into the text. Ultimately you will have to decide on your own if this was or was not justified. But I'm gonna side with Tyndale and other scholars who did not remove it. I will post a few links and lexicons deal with the Hebrew word that is translated "round world" which I believe strongly favors Tyndale and the other scholars who left it in. I believe the KJV scholars just thought that the people of the time would know what it means. This was the common mistake made by KJV scholars....they assumed people knew what things meant. But Tyndale was not the type of scholar to translate just for his time. He was a brilliant scholar and so were his supporters such as John Rogers and Miles Coverdale among other translators of the Great Bible as well as the Bishop's Bible. So in my other posts below I will post from 4 major lexicons...all which come from completely different disciplines. I will most definitely start with the Strong's, which most people agree is the most trustworthy.

The New Strong's Exhaustive Expanded Concordance of the Bible. H8398

"8398. têbêl, tay-bale'; from H2986; the earth (as moist and therefore inhabited); by extension, the globe; by implication, its inhabitants; specifically, a particular land, as Babylonia, Palestine:—world [35x] habitable part, [1x].
The word signified, first, the solid material on which man dwells, and that was formed, founded, established, and disposed by God; and secondly, the inhabitants thereof. See TWOT 835h; BDB--385c, 1061d.
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Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, TWOT and Strong's all agree that tebel means "globe" in some verses it is applied. These verses would be those which mention the whole earth as related to God's word of creation. Here is a link which supplies both the Strong's and Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon.
Genesis 1:1 (KJV)

Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament.

TWOT 835h תֵּבֵל têbêl, tay-bale'; world.

"This noun is used in three basic situations. First, the noun is employed to represent the global mass called earth, including the atmosphere or heavens (cf. Ps.89:12; II Sam 22:16; et al.). têbêl is often in parallelism or apposition with 'eres (I Sam 2:8; Isa.26:9; 34:1; et al.) when 'eres is used in its broadest sense of "the world." The "world" was created by God, not false gods (Jer.10:12; Ps.93:1) and it belongs solely to him (Ps.24:1). God's eternality is illustrated by his existence before the creation of "world" (Ps.90:2) and his wisdom (perhaps a personification of Christ) was present prior to the world's creation (Prov. 8:26, 31). Creation itself gives a "worldwide" witness to God's glory (Ps.19:4 [H 5]) which should result in Yahweh's praise (Ps.98:2). Yahweh will judge this "world," making it empty (Isa.24:4), though in the millennium God will cause Israel to blossom and fill the whole world with her fruit (Isa.27:6).
Second, têbêl is sometime limited to "countries" or "the inhabitable world." This meaning is more closely related to the root meaning. It refers to the world where crops are raised. This is observed in the judgment message against the king of Babylon (not Satan) for violently shaking the "world" or "inhabitable world" (Isa.13:11; 14:17). Lightning is said to enlighten the "world"---undoubtedly referring to a limited land area (Ps.77:18 [H 19]; 97:4).
Third, têbêl may also refer to the inhabitants living upon the whole earth. This is demonstrated by the parallelism of têbêl with I' umim (Ps.9:8 [H 9]) and 'ammim (Ps.96:13; 98:9). The context of these references is Yahweh's judgment upon the world's inhabitants---a judgment both executed in righteousness and instructive of Yahweh's righteousness (Isa.26:9; 34:1).
In several passages the sense of têbêl as the globular earth in combination with its inhabitants is clearly observed. Everything belongs to Yahweh as his creation (Ps.50:12). Yahweh alone controls this world (Job 34:13; Nah 1:5) and his power is over all the earth which always responds to his presence (Job 37:12; Ps.97:4)".

New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis, Volume 4:

"9315. têbêl תֵּבֵל Nom. fem., world (#9315).

OT Found 36x exclusively in poetic texts, the word conveys the cosmic or global sense in which 'eres is also sometimes used; i.e., the whole earth or world considered as a single entity. It sometimes occurs in parallelism with 'eres (Jer.10:12; Lam.4:12). Twice it is used together with 'eres, either to express "the whole earth" (Job 37:12), or perhaps in the sense of the inhabited earth (Prov.8:31). It is used frequently in contexts that associate it with Yahweh's creative act and that, as a result, express the stability or durability of the earth (1 Sam.2:8; Ps.89:11 [12]; 93:1; 96:10). It is used when the whole population of the world is referred to (Ps.24:1; 33:8; 98:7; Isa. 18:3; 26:9; Nah.1:5). Isaiah uses têbêl more than any other prophet, mostly in the context of universal judgment (Isaiah 13:11; 24:4; 34:1; cf. Ps.96:13; 98:9).

Land, earth: --> damd (ground, piece of land, soil, realm of the earth, #141); --> 'eres (earth, land, #824); --> têbêl (world, #9315)."
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This lexicon is very liberal overall to the treatment of ancient Hebrew and is generally not dependable. Even TWOT is a much more dependable lexicon for learning the meaning of Hebrew than this one. But seeing how this lexicon is in general agreement with the other three posted here, it demonstrates how the meaning of têbêl does imply the globe of the earth in some of the verses têbêl is found in.

Now since this Hebrew word has a broader meaning than just the world in general, translating the word into English may not be as easy as thought. For example, Psalm 89:11 [12] in old English translations will apply "round world" when speaking about the whole earth. Tyndale must have known that if he did not use the phrase "round world" in some of the verses then the meaning of têbêl is lost in English, as simply translating it to "world" without capturing the significance of the word as a globe would tarnish the English meaning and leave readers unaware that the verse speaks about the globular earth.
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Adam Clarke Commentary (on Psalm 89:11).

The heavens are thine - Thou art the Governor of all things, and the Disposer of all events.

The world - The terraqueous globe.

And the fullness - All the generations of men. Thou hast founded them - thou hast made them, and dost sustain them.

After this verse, the Editio Princeps of the Hebrew Bible, printed at Soncini, 1488, adds: -

lלילהנ לךנ אףנ יוםנ לךנ lailah lecha aph yom lecha

ושמשנ מאורנ הכינותנ אתהנ
vashamesh maor hachinotha attah To thee is the day; also to thee is the night:

Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.

But these same words are found in Psalm 74:16.