The Hellenistic world generally acknowledged that the earth was spherical in shape. Aristotle (384–322 BC) provided evidence for the spherical shape of the earth on empirical grounds by around 330 BC. By the fourth century BC, a spherical Earth “became widely accepted among educated people.” How far this acceptance may have trickled down to the formally uneducated majority is uncertain. The sixth-century Greek philosopher Pythagoras is acknowledged as the first person to contend that the earth is a globe. We will provide a brief history of the idea and a brief outline of principles of interpretation, present the evidence, critically engage with it, and present our findings.
This article examines the purported biblical evidence brought forward to support this view. Television documentaries, internet posts, and entire websites are devoted to the idea.
There has been a recent resurgence in the belief that the earth is flat. This article was originally published on the October 2019 issue of the BRI Newsletter "Reflections," available for download here.
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