Does the Bible say the earth is immovable and the sun revolves around it?

This is yet another installment to my science vs Bible blogs. I will be examining if the Bible really does teach this or not.

First, does the Bible say the Earth is immovable? In order to answer these questions of course, we must read the language it was written in.

"The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is established, that it cannot be moved." - Psalm 93:1

This is in the book of Psalms, so lets look at the Hebrew this was written in.

In each of these cases the word moved is translated from the Hebrew mote. According to Strong it means: "to waver; to slip, shake, or fall." So the word has nothing to do with being absolutely motionless, but a steadiness in motion and permanence. This is because saying that something does not "waver, slip, shake, or fall" does not eliminate other forms of motion. And indeed, the Earth is fixed in the relationship around the orbit of the sun. The Earth does not fly out of orbit, or does not fall down. It is fixed.

Now, unto the second part of this blog. Does the Bible suggest that the sun revolves around the earth? In order to answer most questions like these, we must read the context it was written in.

"And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day." - Joshua 10:13

Keep in mind the Bible was written during certain times in history by a certain culture. It is possible that the Hebrews believed the sun revolved around the Earth, and simply recorded what they thought happened. Because indeed, even if God stopped the Earth's rotation that day, the sun would appear to not be moving from Earth's perspective. How God performed this miracle is unknown, but some have even proposed the idea that this is poetic because the Israelites were fighting so hard that it seemed like it was two days.

However, I think there are good reasons to actually believe this happened. Many cultures and legends seem to be based on this event. For example, there is a Greek myth of Apollo’s son, Phaethon, who disrupted the sun’s course for a day. The New Zealand Maori people have a myth about how their hero Maui slowed the sun before it rose, while the Mexican Annals of Cuauhtitlan (the history of the empire of Culhuacan and Mexico) records a night that continued for an extended time. There are other stories like these that talk about the longest day and the day when the sun didn't set. It's quite amazing indeed!

God bless.