Flat Earth Bible 08 Of 10 - Early & Medieval Christians

The Flat Earth Bible 08 of 10 - Early & Medieval Christians

Views of Early & Medieval Christians 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

The early Christians believed in a Flat Earth because the Bible implies that this is the case. A Spherical Earth was rejected as being Pagan and unscriptural. However, the Greek Philosopher Pythagoras had proposed that the Earth was a sphere around 550 BC Educated Greeks and Romans had known that the Earth was a sphere since around 350BC. The early Christian Church eventually came to be led by educated Greeks and Romans. Between 300AD and 500AD, the Christian Church reconciled its beliefs with a spherical Earth. This synthesis was a Geocentric Cosmology based on Aristotle & Ptolemy and nothing to do with the Bible. Passages in the Bible implying a Flat Earth were interpreted in a non-literal or allegorical manner or simply ignored. This synthesis was accepted until around 1700AD.

The Biblical Cosmos (See next page)

Legend for Biblical Cosmos

Views of the Church Fathers

Spherical Earth

Flat Earth

By AD500 most Christian Scholars had accepted that the Earth was a Sphere.

Saint Augustine of Hippo (AD354 - 430) Christian Scholars such as Augustine attempted to reconcile the Bible with the ideas of Greek Science such as a Spherical Earth. Although the Greeks and Bible disagreed on the shape of the Earth, both agreed that it was in the centre of the Universe.

Medieval Christian Cosmos The Medieval Synthesis of the Bible and Greek Science imagined a Universe like this. God looks down upon a static spherical Earth in the centre of the Universe as Shown in Martin Luthers Bible of 1534 This is the view of the Universe challenged by Copernicus and Galileo.

Medieval Cosmos of Dante Above the Earth were seven Heavens or crystalline spheres Holding a planet. Hell was at the Earths core And divided into nine levels. Hell could be accessed from Jerusalem

Columbus and the Medieval Flat Earth Myth Contrary to popular belief Medieval Europeans In the time of Columbus did not believe that the World was flat. This story s a C19th Myth Created by Washington Irving and perpetuated by Andrew Dickson White

Columbus and the Medieval Flat Earth Myth

Washington Irvine

Andrew Dickson White

The real Christian Cosmos AD300 AD1700 This is the image of the Universe that Columbus & other Medieval Europeans had. A Spherical Earth Sits fixed in the Centre of the Universe. Crystalline spheres holding the various Heavenly bodies revolve around it.

This was the view of the Universe that was challenged during the Renaissance. Between AD1543 & 1689, this view of the Universe was overturned by • • • •

Copernicus Kepler Galileo Newton

Many Christian Churches did not come to terms with this until the C19th.

The Modern view of the Earth

We are here

Continued on next Presentation ……