Foreknown Scientific Facts in the Bible

A big reason that people do not always trust the Bible is because they feel it’s too old to be reliable and that it opposes modern science.

However, many may not realise that the opposite is true.

The Bible of course, is mainly for the purposes of spiritual and moral teaching, and was not written to be a scientific text book, and it often poetically describes things from the viewpoint of man, for example we find scriptures saying that “the sun moves” or “goes into a tent” (Psalms 19:4-6, Ecclesiastes 1:6).

But despite this, the scriptures, even within said poetic passages, do actually contain many scientific facts of which many were impossible for a person to know thousands of years ago without the tools of modern technology, as such many may find this Biblical scientific foreknowledge strengthening in their faith of the divine inspiration of the scriptures.

The Universe Had External Origins

• The Bible says at 2 Chronicles 6:18 the origin and cause of the Univese (God) is beyond the Universe, and cannot be contained within it.

This supports the modern secular science model that the physical universe we live in “came from nothing” or originated from something “outside our dimension and reality”.

Other ancient religions and cultures thought the sun, moon, stars were gods in themselves, or that the gods lived somewhere in the clouds above our heads. In comparison, contrary to popular sceptic beleif, the Bible says the origin of the Universe is beyond our physical dimension, and that there are other non-tangible realms in which they (as the originators of this Universe) dwell.

The Universe Has Multiple Layers & Dimentions

• 2 Chronicles 6:18 also claims there are “multiple heavens”.

As the “heavens” in the Bible can refer to both the sky, and outerspace where the stars are, this is telling us the Bible writers understood that what the human eye sees is not the full scope of the reality of the universe we live in, but that there there were “heavens”, “heavens above the heavens” and “highest heavens”. This is in line with what we now know, that there there multiple solar systems, and galaxies the further one travels in the Universe, as well as different dimentions of which, God cannot be contained within any of them, indicating these “multiple heavens” are part of our own reality, as opposed to the “spiritual Heaven” alone.

The Universe Began with an Expansion

• Jeremiah 51:15 states the Universe was set in motion via “stretching”.

Modern science claims that the universe began with a “Big Bang”, which resulted in exapansion fron a single point. Scripture may be stating the same thing in that it says “God stretches out the heavens”.

The Bible in respect of claiming the Universe had a beginning, was also ahead of its time in comparison to scientists of later eras, who at one time tried to claim the Bible was wrong and that the Universe was eternal.

This had been the secular status quo since the time of the ancient Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, down to the time of famous scientists such as Albert Einstein in the 1920s, who also first opposed the idea of a finte Universe with a beginning. But secular scientists slowly since retracted their statements after the discovery of the Big Bang by the 1970s (of which ironically was first proposed by a Catholic scientist, Georges Lemaître in 1927).

Incalculable Number of Stars in the Universe

• At Jeremiah 33:22 it states there are an incalculable number of stars in the universe, just as the grains of sand in the desert.

At this time this scripture was written, there were less than 5,000 stars visible to the human eye, and thus they were certainly countable. It was not until the 17th century did Galileo Galilei observe the universe with his newly created telescope, giving way to the fact that the stars that fill our universe are certainly uncountable as grains of sand to us. Today, astronomers estimate that there are ten thousand billion trillion stars and counting as the universe ever expands.

The Earth Hangs on Nothing

• The Bible states at Job 26:7 that “the world hangs above nothing”.

It was not until 1475 did Copernicus suggest such a thing through calculation, and was finally proven conclusively in 1946 when the first pictures of Earth were taken from outerspace. Until that time the world’s cultures believed the Earth was held up by a physical support.

The Moon Derives Light From the Sun

• The Bible shows that the moon gets its light from the sun, as opposed to being its own independent light:
  
  “The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light… And the light of the full moon will become like the light of the sun; and the light of the sun will become seven times stronger, like the light of seven days…. For you the sun will no longer be a light by day, nor will the shining of the moon give you light, For YHWH will become to you an eternal light, And your God will be your beauty… And when you are extinguished I will cover the heavens and darken their stars. I will cover the sun with clouds, and the moon will not give its light“– Isaiah 13:10, Isaiah 30:26, Isaiah 60:19, Ezekiel 32:7

Many try to claim that the Bible teaches the moon has its own light source, as opposed to being a reflection of the sun, but this statement is never found anywhere in the Bible, but only is it described as an object that acts as a luminary from the point of view of man, but in every instance the sun is dimmed or brightened, so is the moon in turn. There are no Biblical statements which state “when the sun goes dark the moon will go bright” or vice versa.

The Earth is Round

• At Isaiah 40:22 is described the “circle of the earth”, referring to the Earth being round or spherical and having a circular rotation, by using the Hebrew word “Chug”.

As Isaiah’s writings are said to be first written in the 700s B.C. If this is referring to the Earth being a globe and not just man’s viewpoint of a flat round plane (which is of course possible), then this statement was unique to the rest of the world’s theories on the shape of the Earth in those times. It was not until the Greeks in 500-350 B.C first theorised through math that the Earth was round, and yet still many cultures and philosophers afterward insisted on the Earth’s flatness until the Age of Enlightenment.

Some have criticised this particular scripture, as they assume it to mean a flat circular disk.

We have already established that the Bible does often use visual poetry for describing what is seen on the Earth, and so it wouldn’t be impossible to make this claim, there are also various historical Rabbinical writings which make such an interpretation of this text. But it’s important, however, to note in ancient Hebrew there was no such word for “sphere”, even other spherical or ball like objects we often described as “circular”.

Some may try to contest this and point out that the scriptures use the word “ball” in verses such as the scripture Isaiah 22:18 which states; 

“He will certainly wrap you up tightly and hurl you like a ball into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will be, a disgrace to your master’s house”.

However, this word is directly translated from the word “dur” (דּוּר) which doesn’t mean ball, but means to “encircle and pile up”:

The root definitions of “dur” (דּוּר) is suggested by some scholars to originate from the object Hebrew children would play catch with. This why translators have used the English term ball to get across the concept of the described object.

This however caused people to falsely assume that the “dur” (דּוּר) literally means “a spherical object”. But some have pointed out in fact the object the children would play catch with was twisted, layered, or knotted up piece of cloth or circlet (perhaps in the form of multiple cloths being knotted together, or something akin to a hoop made from knotted rope) and not an actual smooth or spherical object. This is why the verse in Isaiah 22 states; “he will certainly wrap you up tightly“.

Hence, this is likely why “dur” (דּוּר) was not used to describe the shape of the Earth, because it did not refer to a literal ball shape, bur rather something “encircled”, “piled” or “heaped up”, as well as something that can dropped or thrown around.

The Hebrew word for circle used in the particular scripture when referring to the shape of the Earth at Isaiah 40 is “chug”(חוּג), which denotes “roundness”. It has several meanings depending on the context it was used in; circle, compass, circuit, round, vault or horizon. Ancient Hebrew has very wide definitions within a single word, sometimes the meanings of Hebrew words can even take on more than one definition at once.

We see this when we examine other scriptures, such as Job 22:14, where we are told “God walks on the “chug” (often translated as “vault” or “dome”) of Heaven”.

Thus, in this context we can reason that the descriptions of “roundness” and “circularness” are obvious, “encircle” means to “surround”, “circuit” means to “go about” or possibly “turn”, where as “vault” can mean to “vault over”, or something that “arches” like a hill. When we put these definitions together one can gain the description of the globe; A circular vault that can also turn, which describes a sphere or ball.

I have found that this can be demonstrated if we draw 2D shapes for each definition of the root word and combine them together:

I feel this is possibly also why Davidson’s Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon suggests that word sphere in itself, could possibly be one of actual pure root definitions of Chug (חוּג):

This is also reflected in several Bible translations:

• “And him who sits on the sphere of The Earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretched out the Heavens like a vaulted bowl, and stretched them out as a tent for a dwelling”. – Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
• “It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts: he that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.” – Douay-Rheims Bible
• “He is the One who sits upon the globe of the earth, and its inhabitants are like locusts. He extends the heavens as if they were nothing, and he spreads them out like a tent, in which to dwell”. – Catholic Public Domain Version

And it is confirmed even further in the Greek Septuagint scrolls of Isaiah, which uses the word “guné (γύρον)”, which means “curve” or even “gyro”, and this word root also has been used in Greek to describe a woman, likely for the obvious connotations of “curvature”.

This is the only verse in the Bible that describes the shape of Earth in a plain descript fashion, as opposed to other statements that some would claim describes the shape of the Earth.

For example, some mistakenly would claim the expression “four corners of the Earth” in verses such as Isaiah 11:12 and Ezekiel 7:2 is a description of a flat square earth, but examination of those verses reveal use of poetic license of humanity’s spread out vastness, and are not literal descriptors of the Earth itself, and not to mention that a “square” is not a circle (which doesn’t have corners), which in turn would be contradictory of the Earth’s shape mentioned in the scriptures describing a circular Earth by the very same authors, even if it were a flat Earth circle model.

Earth was made over several Generations of Time

• Genesis 1 states the Earth was created in seven “Yom”.

“Yom” is a Hebrew word that has been used throughout the Bible to refer to various lengths of time. Sometimes a 24 hour day (which is why some have translated Genesis to say “seven days”), but it also can refer to a “generation”, an “age” and even “infinity”.

Science may have thus revealed to us which definition the writers of Genesis referred to by means of “seven Yom”, in that it was not seven “days” but seven “creative ages”.

This is why many Bibles translate Genesis 2:4 (which refers to all of the days of creation collectively) as the “ages” or “generations”. This specific translation has in fact been long written in many Bible translations long before the scientific discovery of the age of the Earth and its geological eras, and includes Bibles such as: The John Wycliff Bible (1381), The William Tyndale Bible (1534), The King James Bible (1604), Douay-Rheims Bible (1609), Brenton Septuagint Translation (1844) English Revised Version (1881), Webster’s Bible Translation (1883), American Standard Version (1901), JPS Tanakh (1917), American King James Version (1999) and The 2000 King James Bible (2000).

This has been the Christian traditional view of the days of Genesis since the 1st Century according to ancient writings, whilst Young Earth Creationism dates back only as recent as the 1800s-1900s, which was an extremist response toward Darwinian evolution.

Life is made of the Earth’s Elements

• Genesis 2:7 states we are all made from the “dust” or components (clay, soil, dirt, elements etc) of the Earth.

It is well known within the scientific community that we share DNA with all creatures in this regard as well as plant life. In 2013, Biological Engineers from Cornell University’s department for Nanoscale Science in New York stated that now they believe “clay might have been the birthplace of all life on Earth”. 

Order of the Apperance of Life

• Genesis 1 states that the order of appearance of life on Earth began with life in the sea, then to land, and ended with mankind.

From sea and water breathing creatures, to ancient birds (feathered dinosaurs), to land mammals, and finally mankind, is the same order of life Evolutionists teach based upon the order of fossils in the layers of the Earth.

The Bible and the Evolutionary chronological order of appearance of life are identical in this regard.

Life Can Adapt and Evolve According to the Enviroment

• The Bible states at Genesis 1:24 that God set forth that the “land” should be responsible for producing the “various kinds” within animal species.

Whilst this might be directed toward the notion of God “creating from the dust of the Earth” like he did man, it’s interesting to see that a different phrase is used here, and that it says “the land produces” these things according to their kinds by God’s decree. This possibly may be a reference to species adaptation according to environment.

Onlys Animals and Humans are Concious

• Genesis 1:20-26 tells us only animals and humans are “souls” or “living beings”.

This might not seem like a spectacular statement when we take our knowledge of modern science and observation of life for granted, but many ancient cultures believed that plants, trees and even rocks had “souls”, and were somehow “concious” with feelings, and such was the basis of belief systems and religions like Animism and Pantheism, and according to many historians were some of the widest spread faiths in ancient history from the dawn of humanity.

Meanwhile, the Bible has always advocated that trees and plants, whilst being things that can “live and die” (John 12:24, Jonah 4:7), are not “souls” (concious beings) nor containers of souls, whilst animals and humans are.

The Water Cycle

• The natural water and rain cycle is mentioned in the Bible;
  
  “He draws up the drops of water; They condense into rain from his mist; Then the clouds pour it down; They shower down upon mankind. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth. He causes the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain; he brings the wind out of his treasuries”. – Job 36:27-28, Ecclesiastes 1:7, 11:3, Psalm 135:7

These words were the earliest written statements in all of history which describes the cycle, long before the first scientific hypothesis by Pierre Perrault in the 1664, but even then, Pierre’s statements were not accepted as mainstream science until the full scientific confirmation in the late 1800s-1900s.

The Jet Stream

• The earliest statements of the existence of the jet stream, that the wind cycles around the Earth in circular patterns as opposed to wind being on a straight path, is written in the Bible;
  
  “The wind goes toward the south, And turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, And comes again on its circuit.” – Ecclesiastes 1:6

In the scientific world, the jet stream was not discovered until the 1920s by Wasaburo Ooishi, a Japanese meteorologist. Before this, most if not all people believed the wind blew on a continual straight path from an uknown source, rather than in circular currents and patterns.

Springs of the Deep Sea

• The Bible stated the existence of the “springs of the sea” at Job 38:16.

This scripture was written well before man had even explored the deep depths to make such observations. It was not until 1977 on the Galapagos Rift that such observations had been officially scientifically recorded due to underwater travel and exploration capabilities

Deep Sea Mountains

• Psalm 104:6 and Jonah 2:6 state that there are mountains under the sea.

Psalm 104 is a poetic retelling of the creation account of Genesis, and in there is states in the beginning God had poured water on tops of mountains. This fact is also repeated in the book of Jonah, that he “decended down to the mountains”. These mountains under the sea were not discovered by scientists until the late 1950s, and more mountains are still being discovered to this day, even ones over a mile high.

Sea Was Poured Upon the Earth

• Psalm 104:5-6, also tells us that the Earth did not have water in the beginning by mentioning that it had to be poured upon the Earth.

In ancient times, many believed the Earth always had water along with the belief that the Earth was eternal with the universe. However, modern science asserts that water was transported to the Earth externally after its early stages of formation.

Hygiene

• Laws on sanitation and hygiene are written in that was well ahead of its time;
  
  “‘When a man is cleansed from his discharge, he is to count off seven days for his ceremonial cleansing; he must wash his clothes and bathe himself with fresh water, and he will be clean. Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” – Leviticus 15:13, Deuteronomy 23:12-13, Psalm 51:7 

In comparison, other cultures from these times (and still some do today) were using urine to wash themselves, their clothes, or were drinking it as a health practice. The Bible has never once give out bad or outdated health advice.

It’s also interesting to note in these verses that Hebrews even had antibacterial practices by the specific use of “Hyssop oil” by command of God in order to stay physically clean. Today it is known that Hyssop oil has antifungal and antibacterial properties, something the ancient Israelites would not have known.

Forbidding the Consumption of Blood

• Scripture has long forbade the eating or drinking of blood of any kind since the beginning before the Mosiac Law, and continually in Christian Law (Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:14, Acts 15:29).

Throughout history, and even in some modern day cultures, humans have ate and drank blood as a part of their diet. Some engaging in cannabilism, whilst others only consuming animal blood. However, the Bible states that from the earliest times, God has fobade such a thing.

The reasons given in scripture, are not said to be for medical benefit or due to study of observable effects, but rather, are spiritually based, yet this command has long served as a medical protection for those that abide by it. In this respect, the scriptures have long been ahead of the medical status quo.

“Drinking blood (animal or human)… has no known health benefits and can have severe health risks.

The consensus in the medical community is that drinking raw blood is associated with health risks and can have serious, life threatening outcomes. This is not a recommended practice.

As with raw meat, blood can contain harmful bacteria and pathogens that can cause food poisoning and pass on diseases such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, norovirus, or HIV“. – Healthline

Blood Clotting on the 8th Day of Birth

• There is foreknowledge of the safe use of blood clotting for male circumcision. That being said to be done when the child was eight days old;
  
  “He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant.” – Genesis 17:12 

In the modern day, medical researchers recently discovered that the two main blood clotting factors; Vitamin K and Prothrombim, reach their highest level in the entirety of our life on the eighth day after birth. These blood clotting agents facilitate rapid healing and greatly reduce the chance of infection.

Seed of a Man

• In ancient pictographic Hebrew, the word for “seed”, “nun”, was drawn as something that resembles a sperm cell:

This word could refer to the seed of a growing plant, but it also had connotations of swimming, and was a character used to refer to fish, or snakes that slither.

What makes this so fascinating, is that this pictograph also was used to refer to the “seed of a man”, his sperm, throughout scripture. Considering that mankind had not discovered sperm cells until 1677 by Van Leeuwenhoek under the microscope, the fact that a man’s “seed” was referred to by a picture that looks like a sperm cell, and had connotation of swimming, might be a potential form of miraculous foreknowledge in the ancient language of the Hebrews.

Conclusion

All of these scriptures are at the very least 2500-4000 years old, and so much of the scientific foreknowledge found in these verses can be said to be nothing other than miraculous, and I feel strongly shows that the Bible writers were truly touched by God.

Furthermore, it’s quite a spectacular thing, that scripture never once provides any unhealthy or outdated medical advice, in comparison to many other ancient and historical writings, even ones that are younger the Bible’s texts, that do.

Whilst for the most part, the Bible speaks in terms of spirituality, poetry and human relativity, what cannot be ignored are these early nuggets of truth contained within these passages that are strikingly accurate in the fields of modern science.