Many ancient cultures believed the earth was flat. There are still people today who believe this theory.
To prove the earth was round, Aristotle took his evidence from the Egyptians. His evidence was from seeing new constellations of stars. Eratosthenes was the first to calculate the circumference of the earth. Islamic scholars made additional calculations. The Europeans circled the earth to contribute to the proof of a round planet. Over many years, many have tried to disprove what educated men declared.
Strangely, the evangelical Christian church and religious fundamentalists are spreading the news once again that the earth is flat. They discount such things as pictures of earth from the moon.
The practice of bloodletting is considered one of the oldest medical treatments. It is said to have originated in Egypt. Erasistratus believed that all illnesses stemmed from an overabundance of blood. Hippocrates believed good health required the practice of bloodletting, and it was a common practice in the Roman Empire.
Barbers eventually began offering this service, and thus we have the reason for the red and white striped barber’s pole.
In Mesoamerica, Maya priests and rulers pierced their bodies in a variety of places. They used the blood in sacrifice to their gods. Marie-Antoinette was a patient of bloodletting during the birth of her first child. George Washington, suffering from a sore throat that continued to get worse, requested the procedure. He was drained of five to seven pints of blood in less than sixteen hours and died the next day.
Matthew Maury, a sailor, worked as a sailing master aboard a ship. He struggled to find the right course. It was his job to navigate the course, determine where to steer and what sails to use during the voyage. Maury soon discovered that important information to navigate a safe course was not readily available. At one point in his life, he became very ill. He asked one of his daughters to read to him from the Bible. The passage she read changed the course of his life.
From logbooks of sea captains travelling the North Atlantic, he acquired a wealth of information regarding speeds and directions of wind, currents, and patterns. He combined this information with other compiled data to prove God’s simplistic statement.
Maury gave God the credit by attesting that the world has order; the world is made for a purpose; it was planned according to design; it was arranged to make the world as we see it; it is a place for the habitation of man.
Maury was a lot smarter than Aristotle, Eratosthenes, the Islamic scholars, the Europeans, evangelical Christians, Erasistratus, Hippocrates, Marie-Antoinette, or even George Washington. He went to the most reliable source we have—the Bible.
If only the great minds of ancient times had read or listened to the words of Isaiah. “It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in” (Isaiah 40:22 ESV). Had they or the skeptics of today read the words of Job, “He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing” (Job 26:7), they would surely know the placement of the earth in the solar system.
The medical geniuses of the past would surely have profited from the information God gave Moses to pass along to the Jews. It is a simple phrase found in Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood…”.
So, what did Matthew Maury learn from his daughter’s reading of the Scripture. It is a simple verse, but it provided him with just what he needed to do the work he was assigned to do. Psalm 8 is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving. It extols God’s wondrous gifts to mankind and praises Him for the creation of man, the universe, animals, birds, and fish. The writer then relates that man has dominion over all the works of God including, “the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas” (Psalm 8:8). Maury knew when he heard this verse that there were paths in the sea that could be studied and courses laid for the ships to be safe in their travels.
It was there all along. There was proof that the earth is round, life is in the blood, and there are paths in the seas. What else lies within the pages of Scripture that we could know, if only we would search?
Sandra Oliver
(physicsworld.com; history.com; adefenceofthebible.com).