RE: Do you wish you could believe in a Deity?
June 11, 2014 at 9:19 am
(This post was last modified: June 11, 2014 at 9:23 am by Confused Ape.)
(June 10, 2014 at 6:22 pm)Ksa Wrote: It is mentioned in the gospel if Isaiah, chapter number 13, verse number 10 which says:
"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 in Ezekiel, chapter number 32, verse number 7, that the light of the moon is it's own light:
"When I snuff you out, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light."
and in the gospel of Mathew, chapter number 24, verse number 29 which says:
"Immediately after the distress of those days "'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken."
gospel of Mark, chapter number 13, verse number 24:
"But in those days, following that distress, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light"
Theonewhoanswersyourquestions Wrote: That does not say it gives off it's own light, you totally over interpret it, the sun gives the moon it's light and te moon gives us the suns light,
I agree that all but one of those verses can be interpreted as meaning the moon's light is reflected sunlight. After all, we know that if the sun was darkened the moon wouldn't have anything to reflect. Ezekiel's version is a bit baffling, however, unless we take it as a metaphor. It's still possible that the people who wrote these books of the Bible knew what moonlight is, though - Anaxagoras
Quote:Anaxagoras (/ˌænækˈsæɡərəs/; Ancient Greek: Ἀναξαγόρας, Anaxagoras, "lord of the assembly"; c. 510 – 428 BC) was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher.
He was the first to explain that the moon shines due to reflected light from the sun
He wouldn't have got this bit of information because the God of the Bible revealed it to him. He happened to be the first person we know of to explain moonlight but this doesn't automatically mean that he was the first person in history to figure it out.
History Of Astronomy
Quote:Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, and astrological practices of pre-history: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy, and not completely disentangled from it until a few centuries ago in the Western World (see astrology and astronomy). In some cultures astronomical data was used for astrological prognostication.
Ancient astronomers were able to differentiate between stars and planets, as stars remain relatively fixed over the centuries while planets will move an appreciable amount during a comparatively short time.
Mesopotamia
Quote:The origins of Western astronomy can be found in Mesopotamia, the "land between the rivers" Tigris and Euphrates, where the ancient kingdoms of Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia were located. A form of writing known as cuneiform emerged among the Sumerians around 3500–3000 BC. Our knowledge of Sumerian astronomy is indirect, via the earliest Babylonian star catalogues dating from about 1200 BC. The fact that many star names appear in Sumerian suggests a continuity reaching into the Early Bronze Age. Astral theology, which gave planetary gods an important role in Mesopotamian mythology and religion, began with the Sumerians. They also used a sexagesimal (base 60) place-value number system, which simplified the task of recording very large and very small numbers. The modern practice of dividing a circle into 360 degrees, of 60 minutes each, began with the Sumerians.
On the other hand - Book of Isiah
Quote:Isaiah identifies itself as the words of the 8th century BC prophet Isaiah ben Amoz, but there is ample evidence that much of it was composed during the Babylonian captivity and later.[3]
The Babylonian captivity (or Babylonian exile) is the period in Jewish history during which a number of Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylonia. After the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, resulting in tribute being paid by King Jehoiakim.[1] Jehoiakim refused to pay tribute in Nebuchadnezzar's fourth year, which led to another siege in Nebuchadnezzar's seventh year, culminating with the death of Jehoiakim, and the exile of King Jeconiah, his court and many others; Jeconiah's successor Zedekiah and others were exiled in Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth year; a later deportation occurred in Nebuchadnezzar's twenty-third year. These deportations are dated to 597 BCE, c. 587 BCE, and c. 582 BCE, respectively.
After the fall of Babylon to the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 538 BCE, exiled Jews began to return to the land of Judah.
Book Of Ezekiel - Composition
Quote:The Book of Ezekiel describes itself as the words of the Ezekiel ben-Buzi, a priest living in exile in the city of Babylon between 593 and 571. Most scholars today accept the basic authenticity of the book, but see in it significant additions by a "school" of later followers of the original prophet.[6] While the book exhibits considerable unity and probably reflects much of the historic Ezekiel, it is the product of a long and complex history and does not necessarily preserve the very words of the prophet.[7]
Seeing as the books of Ezekiel and Isaiah were 'updated' after the Babylonian captivity it's possible that the writers had heard of Anaxagoras's explanation because word had got round in the ancient world. The gospels of Matthew and Mark were written several centuries after Anaxagoras's time.
Conclusion - even if those lines in the Bible indicate that the writers knew what moonlight is, it still doesn't mean that they got a revelation from God about it.



