| The word James used for variableness is parallage, from which we get our term parallax. The "shadow of turning" is tropes aposkiasma, which means that the shadows are caused by motion. But what is turning? The word tropos was used in Greek to refer to the motions of heavenly bodies around the earth. For example, where the Hebrew text of Deuteronomy 33:14 refers to the fruits of the sun, the Greek Old Testament calls them fruits "of the changes of the sun". In Job 38:33, the Greek text calls the changes of the heavens the "turning" of the heavens. And in the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon 7:18 we read of the "alterations of the turning of the sun, and change of the seasons". So tropos was the ordinary Greek word for the motions of the sun, moon and stars. |
Every good gift and
every perfect gift is
from above, and
cometh down from
the Father of lights,
with whom is no
variableness, neither
shadow of turning.
James 1:17
every perfect gift is
from above, and
cometh down from
the Father of lights,
with whom is no
variableness, neither
shadow of turning.
James 1:17
| Or did educated men once hold to the geocentric model? |
| Is geocentrism a notion only fit for illiterate country preachers? |
| We read in the divine books that even the sun itself stood still when a holy man, Joshua the son of Nun, had begged this from God until victory should finish the battle he had begun; and that it even went back, that the promise of fifteen years added to the life of King Hezekiah might be sealed by this additional prodigy. Augustine, The City of God 21:8 |
...the sun moves in fixed and orderly
periods: for from him are hours, from
him the day when he rises, and from him
also the night when he sets; from him
months and years are reckoned, from
him the variations of the seasons are
produced...
Recognitions of Pseudo-Clement
periods: for from him are hours, from
him the day when he rises, and from him
also the night when he sets; from him
months and years are reckoned, from
him the variations of the seasons are
produced...
Recognitions of Pseudo-Clement
| According the Gary Bates, the creationist author of Alien Intrusion, geocentricity is "a mistaken medieval view" that "did not come from the Bible, as some think, but from Greek and Egyptian sources." But we have seen that the Bible does in fact describe an earth-centered universe in which the heavenly bodies move around us. |
Did the Light of
the Protestant
Reformation
sweep away
geocentrism as
an error of the
Papal system?
the Protestant
Reformation
sweep away
geocentrism as
an error of the
Papal system?
| The Apostle James used a technical astronomical term to describe the motion of the sun. |
God set the sun and moon at the precise
distance from the earth so that the small
moon appears about the same size as
the massive sun - which allows for total
eclipses of the sun.
distance from the earth so that the small
moon appears about the same size as
the massive sun - which allows for total
eclipses of the sun.
| ...the sun with the rest of the stars, runs on his course through every day. And again, the earth is fixed... Concerning the statues 12:4 |
St. Thomas Aquinas ... in his
"Summa Theologica" ... not only
discusses the nature of angels, and
makes careful and cogent
distinctions concerning the nature
of sin, but, ... also tells us that the
Earth is the center of the Universe.
Francis Graham,
Kent State University
nimitz.mcs.kent.edu/~banderson/graham/geocentr/ptolemy
"Summa Theologica" ... not only
discusses the nature of angels, and
makes careful and cogent
distinctions concerning the nature
of sin, but, ... also tells us that the
Earth is the center of the Universe.
Francis Graham,
Kent State University
nimitz.mcs.kent.edu/~banderson/graham/geocentr/ptolemy
| QUESTION TWO: DID THE CHURCH BELIEVE GEOCENTRISM ? |
