The Flat Earth Bible

08 of 10 - Early & Medieval Christians

 Views of Early & Medieval Christians
1. The early Christians believed in a Flat Earth because the Bible
implies that this is the case.
2. A Spherical Earth was rejected as being Pagan and unscriptural.
3. However, the Greek Philosopher Pythagoras had proposed that
the Earth was a sphere around 550 BC
4. Educated Greeks and Romans had known that the Earth was a
sphere since around 350BC.
5. The early Christian Church eventually came to be led by educated
Greeks and Romans.
6. Between 300AD and 500AD, the Christian Church reconciled its
beliefs with a spherical Earth.
7. This synthesis was a Geocentric Cosmology based on Aristotle &
Ptolemy and nothing to do with the Bible.
8. Passages in the Bible implying a Flat Earth were interpreted in a
non-literal or allegorical manner or simply ignored.
9. 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 ……