From Conservapedia

Biblical scientific foreknowledge is how the Bible shows a comprehension of science far ahead of its time. The Bible is a superb roadmap to future scientific discoveries. Unfortunately Bible deniers, including many atheists and evolutionists, refuse to read the Bible, and their irrational closed-mindedness against the Bible obstructs the advancement of science.

The Book of Genesis gives an example of anesthesia long before man discovered it in 1846. And the underlying chaos and uncertainty in the physical world was explained in the Bible long before quantum mechanics confirmed it in the 1900s.

Biblical scientific foreknowledge has an additional benefit: it guides a more precise translation of verses that describe scientific-related events, such as the reference to the universe in Hebrews 1:10, and the changing of water into wine at the wedding feast.

Modern thinkers who read the Bible frequently include John von Neumann, considered the most brilliant of the 20th century, and Kurt Gödel, the century's most influential mathematician.

Geology

Massive flooding

Atheist scientists long opposed a young earth created by God where cataclysmic flooding, such as the Great Flood described in the Bible, shaped the landscape. However, ample counterexamples to an old earth exist and the discovery in the Northwest of "giant ripple marks, 50 feet high and 200-500 feet apart" proved that a cataclysmic flood in the region had indeed occurred thousands of years ago. As a result, "[a]mong geologists, the concept of a catastrophic flood came to be universally accepted by the late 1950s."[1]

Continental drift

Continental drift was proposed by creationist Antonio Snider-Pellegrini in 1859 based on Genesis 1:9-10,[2] which states,

“ And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. ”

Because land is no longer all in one place , this implies that the continents have shifted over the six millennia to their current positions. Atheists and scientists who hadn't seen the light of creationism were in liberal denial about this concept for a century, until finally accepting its truth. This is just more data that the Bible knew millennia before secular science caught up.

However, The Continents are still connected; under the ocean is land if you dry up the water. This interpretation of this verse is in error, the separation spoken of here is the waters under the sky (Firmament) and the water out in space (beyond the heavens). Comets prove this theory, as many of them contain ice, and today as much as 1% of terrestrial rain comes from extraterrestrial sources.

The most likely reason for the current position and shape of the land mass is the Flood of Noah. Pangea does not work without flipping, shrinking, and sometimes removing countries entirely. Any Biblical statements of continents is in Genesis 10:25 when Peleg is mentioned "for in his days was the earth divided" this in particular refers to the separation of what today is Russia, Japan, and Alaska, when the oceans arose, and also to the division of the peoples by languages, who migrated together according to their language after the confusing of tongues at the tower of Babel, obviously the migration took place before the oceanic divide which led to the natives of the Far West. Everyone laughed at Columbus, not because they thought earth was flat, but because they had forgotten the Far West (America) was there, and they thought he didn't have nearly enough supplies or a big enough ship to go to Asia the long way around, and they would have been right if he didn't hit the Caribbean first by complete accident. Recent findings of biblical stone tablets, in Byzantine script prove that trade between Europe and the Far West was common prior to the Dark Age which began in 400 or 500 AD.

Underwater springs

Only in modern times have scientists become aware of the enormous underwater springs feeding into the oceans, and the very deep valleys at the bottom of the oceans. However, the Bible repeatedly described this thousands of years earlier in Genesis 7:11, which states,

“ In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. ”

“ And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. ”

Again, in 2 Samuel 22:16, the Bible states that,

And Job 38:16 “Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? Or hast thou walked in the search of the depths?"

This is obvious proof to all but liberals that the Bible had foreknowledge of subcrustal oceans, something the ancient Jews could not have possibly known, and thus proof of the Bible's God-given accuracy and divine nature.

Agriculture

Malthusianism

Since Thomas Malthus's 1798 work, An Essay on the Principle of Population, liberal intellectuals insisted that the world's population would grow faster than the food supply and result in mass starvation.

This liberal falsehood is contrary to the Multiplication of the loaves, as set forth in Matthew 14:13–21, Mark 6:31-44, Luke 9:10-17 and John 6:5-15. Multiple additional examples in both the Old and New Testaments, as well as the example of William Bradford at Plymouth Colony,[3] of the food supply increasing to be more far plentiful than expected, based on faith in God's powers and use of conservative economics. Indeed, in modern times obesity is far more prevalent and harmful than hunger worldwide, and food production far exceeds the ability to consume even in impoverished nations. Hunger remains a problem only in places with liberal and/or leftist political systems that impede food distribution or destroy the free market.

As predicted by the Bible there is an abundance of food in the world, although distribution problems sometimes prevent the food from getting to everyone who needs it. Food inflation in the United States is very low, hovering around only 1% for the last three decades,[4] which has kept overall inflation low.

History

Psychogenic hematidrosis

Psychogenic hematidrosis, which is sweat turning into blood, happens rarely but in the cases it does happen, it usually happens with death row inmates. In 70 percent of all studies that document this condition, the condition occurs in death row inmates.[5] In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus sweat blood (Luke 22:44). The early church was puzzled by the account of Jesus sweating blood given in Scripture and they didn't know what to make of it.[5]

Pleural effusion

The early church was puzzled by the blood and water that came out of Jesus' side when the soldier plunged his spear into him. The blood was not a problem in their understanding, but the water was. Medical science can now explain the water coming out of Jesus' side as being the result of pleural effusion.[5]

Great Flood ice mummy

The building of the Ark by Bertram of Minden, ancient German Painting

According to the Bible, a Great Flood occurred around 3300 B.C., or about 5300 years ago. It involved a cataclysmic rainstorm of a magnitude never seen before or since. For centuries atheists and liberals have mocked it, claiming that it was impossible. However, in 1991, an "ice mummy" was discovered in the Alps. Scientists located a remarkably preserved ancient body, including even the contents of his last meal, which was due to an extraordinary ice storm. By radiometric carbon dating,[6] the scientists discovered that this massive ice storm occurred 5300 years ago, which perfectly matches the Biblical Great Flood.[7] This is obvious proof of the Great Flood, as no natural occurrence could possibly explain how somebody came to be preserved by ice in the Alps.

Oldest Living Organism

Bristlecone pine trees in California's White Mountains are the oldest living unitary organism. As predicted by the Bible, they are not as old as 6,000 years but are as old as 5,000 years,[8] roughly the time of the Great Flood.

False theories

Jesus' recognition that the truth would remain hidden from arrogant "intellectuals" while simultaneously revealed to humbler, more openminded people. This foreshadowed the creation of theories to pull self-centered intellectual wannabees away from God, such as the Theory of Evolution, the Theory of Relativity, the homosexual agenda, the secular culture of abortion, Communism, and countless other liberal and atheistic ideas and ideologies.

Mankind remains extant

The Bible predicts that the end of mankind will not occur by chance, but rather at a time known only to God. Despite the extinction of many species each year throughout history, the expectation by scientists that Earth would have been hit by chance by a massive, extinction-causing meteor, and laws of probability that predict other immense catastrophes, mankind continues and Christianity grows just as Jesus predicted.

Construction of ancient sky-high structures

The Bible—the Book of Genesis chapter 11—explains how ancient people arrogantly sought to construct a sky-high "Tower of Babel" to try to reach Heaven. Then, in the 1900s, archaeologists discovered the great ziggurat of ancient Ur, located in present-day southern Iraq, having characteristics similar to the biblical description of the Tower of Babel.[9]

Hometown of Goliath

1 Samuel 17 of the Bible discusses the giant Goliath from a Philistine city named Gath, located in central Israel. In July 2015, archaeologists discovered its entrance in an excavation that began in 1899. They also uncovered evidence of a massive earthquake that occurred in the eighth century BC, as described in the biblical book of Amos.[10]

Effect of Deafness on Speech

For 2000 years after Christ, scientists overlooked the close connection between hearing and speech, and the brain, and are just starting to discover this now.[11] But Jesus illustrated the connection when he cured a problem with speech primarily by opening someone's ears, after which the man "spoke plainly."[12]

Common DNA

John 1:3 explains that "All things were made by Him; not one thing was made without Him." If something had been made without Him then creatures would exist that had completely different DNA from other creatures.

Psychiatry

Jesus Christ and Christendom have emphasized the important of forgiveness and in the last few decades mental health specialists have increasingly seen the importance of forgiveness to alleviate anger/depression/bitterness and other emotional problems within individuals.[13]

Modern medicine now realizes that obsessing with one's past is a big cause of psychiatric problems.[14] Jesus had the same insight 2000 years earlier: "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."[15]

See also: Atheism and anger and Atheism and bitterness

The Bible and health practices

See also: The Bible and health

Max Neuberger, writing in his "History of Medicine" states concerning the Mosaic laws:

“ The commands concern prophylaxis and suppression of epidemics, suppression of venereal disease and prostitution, care of the skin, baths,[17] food, housing and clothing, regulation of labour, sexual life, discipline of the people, etc. Many of these commands, such as Sabbath rest, circumcision, laws concerning food (interdiction of blood and pork), measures concerning menstruating and lying-in women, and those suffering from gonorrhoea, isolation of lepers, and hygiene of the camp, are, in view of the conditions of the climate, surprisingly rational.[16] ”

Blood clotting on the eighth day

In Genesis 17:12, God mandated that Abraham circumcise his sons on the 8th day after birth. In 1935, it was discovered that Vitamin K, together with prothrombin, causes blood coagulation, (important in any surgical procedure). On the 8th day, the amount of prothrombin present is elevated above 100% of normal and is therefore the only day in the male's life in which this will be the case (normally). If surgery is to be performed, day 8 is the perfect day to do it as vitamin K and prothrombin levels are at their peak.

Lifespan

The Bible puts the maximum lifespan for man at 120 years (Genesis 6:3), the typical lifespan at 70 years and the typical for a good-living person at 80 years (Psalm 90:10).

Thousands of years after that was written, despite immense advances in medicine and technology, these figures remain remarkably accurate. The longest modern recorded life of a man is precisely 120 years (Shigechiyo Izumi), the average lifespan for a man is roughly 70 years, and the average for a good-living man is about 80 years.

Jeanne Calment lived to age 122, only two years past 120. She was said to have never worked and used olive oil on her skin, outliving all of her feminist counterparts.

Oldest human ancestor

The Bible suggests that the oldest maternal ancestor — Eve — first lived slightly more than 6000 years ago.[17] The mutation rate of mitochondria indicates roughly the same date for the most recent common human ancestor.[18]

Anesthesia

The first surgical operation described in the Bible was the removal of a rib from Adam, which was performed by first putting Adam into an unconscious, "deep sleep-like trance."[19] This was the equivalent of anesthesia — thousands of years before anesthesia using inhaled ether was developed by William Morton in 1846. Had scientists and physicians been more openminded about Genesis 2:21 (perhaps they had considered it a miracle, and thus impossible for humans to achieve), they may have discovered anesthesia far sooner, and saved many more lives.

Bloodletting hastens death

At the time of Jesus and for centuries afterward, arteries and veins were thought to be filled with air, and blood was viewed as something to be used up rather than recirculate. Bloodletting—the practice of intentionally draining blood from a patient—was common medical practice through the time of George Washington, hastening his death prematurely for reasons not understood until years later.[20]

Most victims of crucifixion in Roman times languished on the cross for days. But the Bible describes how Pilate, who crucified many, was surprised at how quickly Jesus passed away. 2000 years later, scientific knowledge has advanced to understand that this was caused by his prior loss of blood during his scourging (being brutally whipped), a punishment typically given instead of crucifixion.

Homosexuality and disease

The Bible's prohibition against homosexuality predated knowledge about the many diseases and disorders associated with homosexuality, and thus showed scientific wisdom prescient for its time.

Eyesight

The description in the Gospel of Mark 8:24 for the sensation when one's eyesight is restored includes his perception of "trees walking." This perception was first confirmed nearly 2000 years later as physicians developed medical techniques for restoring eyesight.[21]

Maximum human height

Atheists thought the size of Goliath in the Bible to be absurdly large (over nine feet tall), until Robert Wadlow grew to nearly 9 feet tall and was still growing when he died at a young age in 1940.

Leprosy

Although leprosy is not as contagious as other infectious diseases, and some forms of it (such as tuberculoid or paucibacillary form are not contagious), Leviticus 13 and 14 set forth rules to prevent epidemics of this disease among the people of Israel. Western science did not catch up until, in 1663, such laws were introduced in America in an attempt to curb an outbreak of smallpox.

Centuries ahead of medical science, Jesus subsequently explained that leprosy was not as contagious as people thought.{needs citation}

Hygiene

Millennia before germ theory was proposed in the late 19th century, Leviticus 15 mandated hygiene laws that included bathing, washing of clothing, destruction of contaminated pottery and washing of hands.

In Matthew 15:2, Jesus then curbed compulsive hand-washing by explaining why it was no longer typically necessary (in a non-farming, non-medical context) with respect to man's digestive system.

Digestive system

It was common thought throughout history that infections and illness resulted from the digestive system, based on unclean hands or food. Jesus rejected that view, and declared hand-washing before meals to be typically unnecessary. It took many centuries before science caught up to the Bible on this.

It is part of the Jewish kosher law to not eat milk with meat. In some Jewish homes they have separate refrigerators for meat and milk products. It comes from Deuteronomy 14:21 "...Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk." There is evidence that the body has difficulty digesting both meat and milk at the same time.

Also, as part of the Jewish kosher law a pork is on the list of prohibited foods. Under cooked pork can transmit Trichinosis, a parasitic disease that can infect muscle tissue, the brain, and the central nervous system, among other parasites and zoonotic diseases. Creation deniers can counter this point only with such desperate non-arguments as asking why God had to create trichinae at all and then allow them onto the Ark.

Dietary

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Not discovered until 1973 by American physicians, fetal alcohol syndrome results from harm done to the unborn child in pregnancy due to the mother drinking alcohol. The Bible, thousands of years earlier, forbade the mother of Samson from drinking alcohol while pregnant, so that he could become a powerful leader:

3The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. 4Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. 5You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”[22]

Disease from Unclean Animals

The deadly coronavirus, which spread in 2020 from China, likely originated from eating unclean animals as designated in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 of the Bible.[23]

Animal Toxicity

Dr. David Macht

In 1953 Dr. David Macht, a Johns Hopkins researcher, conducted toxicity tests on many different kinds of animals and fish and concluded that the toxicity of Levitically "unclean" animals was higher than that of the "clean" animals, and that the correlation with the description in Leviticus was 100%.[24]

Macht's study in terms of classifying kosher and non-kosher animals matched the kosher classification performed by James W. Atz, Ph.D., Curator and Dean Bibliographer in the Department of Ichthyology of the American Museum of Natural History, NY, NY and Adjunct Professor of Biology, Graduate School of Arts and Science on New York University. Dr. Atz's list of kosher and non-kosher animals was published by the Orthodox Union in Kosher Guide and in the Orthodox Union Kosher Consumer Directory.[25] According to a list of kosher and non-kosher fish published by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, deciding what fish have scales, in the Orthodox Jewish community, appears to involve semantics as scales which are not visible to the human eye or scales that cannot be removed without tearing the skin are not considered "scales" in terms of the Torah law for determining which fish are kosher. It appears that Jewish religious authorities do appeal to well known Torah commentators.[26] Also, Dr. Macht's classification of swans as kosher is in accordance with the research done at Ohr Somayach Institutions in Jerusalem, Israel.[27]

Furthermore, Dr. Macht states in the peer reviewed journal Science that the toxicology test he used was a reliable method for detecting zoological toxins as it was a toxicology test sensitive to these type of toxins, and therefore one could conclude it was also suitable for testing the toxicity levels of fish, meat, and poultry.[28] (The toxicological method that Dr. Macht used was also cited in the Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine.[29]) In addition, Dr. Macht was an expert in cobra venom, which is a zoological toxin. Macht's conclusions, however, were challenged by three of his science community peers in a Seventh Day Adventist publication although one partially affirmed his study.[30] This was partly due to a likely unfamiliarity with what food is kosher and non-kosher. Also, perhaps they were unfamiliar with the toxicity test Dr. Macht used, and its apparent effectiveness in testing zoological toxins.

For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. 1_Timothy 4:4-5 (NKJV)

In the short term, eating non-kosher food often appears to have no dramatic ill effects in general. For example, the Arabs, who do not eat kosher, consider camel to be a delicacy. Clearly, non-kosher Arabs do not fall dead right after eating camel meat. However, the long term optimality of eating clean versus unclean meat is an unanswered question of science. Also, eating non-kosher foods clearly has some nutritional benefit. For example, shrimp and pork contain protein. The New Testament declares,

In regard to the aforementioned verse, it could be argued that prayer does sanctify food. The Bible has plenty of verses regarding God's protection. Also, it could be argued that the benefits outweigh the costs in all foods and thus all food is good. Clearly there is some nutritional goodness in foods that the Torah declared unclean (for example, shrimp has protein). What foods are optimal from an empirically tested science viewpoint is often controversial. In short, in regard to eating strictly a kosher diet versus a non-kosher diet, science has no definitive answers at the present time. From a Christian theological point of view, it could be argued that food should not be an impediment to anyone making a decision to become a Christian. It should be noted that orthodox Christian believers in Biblical scientific foreknowledge believe that Christians can eat the food that was declared unclean in the Old Testament, and 1_Timothy 4:4-5 and Galations 2:7-16 make this very clear.

In addition to the aforementioned study testing kosher and non-kosher foods for toxicity levels, Macht developed evidence indicating that combining meat and milk tended to be more toxic than either foodstuff alone.[31] In addition, he compared conventional animal slaughtering versus kosher slaughtering and determined that kosher slaughtering produced less toxic meat.[31]

A 1985 study by Nanji and French found that there was a significant correlation between cirrhosis and pork consumption (Macht claimed that swine was more toxic than the animal meat the Bible called clean).[32] Modern pork production methods are different from ancient methods of raising pigs, so the result of this study might be hard to apply to the ancients or those who raise pigs by organic farming methods, without the use of hormones or antibiotics.

Jane Cahill reported in Biblical Archaeological Review that the toilets of a Jewish household in Jerusalem were examined and no parasites or infectious agents were found.[33]

Today, some "alternative medicine" practitioners do not recommend pork to their patients. Their reasons include the possible content of hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides, and also the undiscriminating diet of the pig. Joseph Mercola, DO, who has a private practice in alternative general medicine, writes:

“ Pigs are scavenger animals and will eat just about anything. Their appetite for less-than-wholesome foods makes pigs a breeding ground for potentially dangerous infections. Even cooking pork for long periods is not enough to kill many of the retroviruses and other parasites that many of them harbor.[34] ”

Dr. Mercola does not even recommend pasture-raised pork, because wild boars will often infect herds of pork with Trichinella spiralis or other parasites.[34]

Feasibility of abiogenesis

Although scientists dismissed ideas involving abiogenesis, or the process from which life emerges from non-living material, as nothing more than archaic beliefs in spontaneous generation, the Bible very clearly depicts an occurrence of this phenomenon, for beginning in Genesis 1:20, God creates life from nothing. It was not until the early 20th century that science finally began to accept the viability of abiogenesis, a view that the Bible had held for almost 2000 years, except that atheists falsely claim that abiogenesis is somehow possible without a creator. For addition information, please see origin of life

Awareness while unborn

Abortion advocates argue that it is ok to terminate a baby while dismissing the pain inflicted by ending an innocent life. They argue that a fetus cannot feel pain because senses are incomplete. There is a heart-beating human in the womb that can feel even though still unborn and developing. In modern times, we now know the baby in the womb is alert, aware of their mother's emotions, recognizes voices, responds to stimuli and music. The Bible tells us the baby feels (1 Luke 44), "the babe leaps for joy in Elizabeth’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice." The inwomb developing baby, John the Baptist, notices the presence of the unborn Lord in Mary, and is excited. In addition (St. Paul to the Galatians 1:15), "God… from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace." Paul's very first thought, feeling awareness, began while unborn.

Embalming

Mark 14:3-8 describes an embalming process to preserve a body after death, which was not discovered in the West until 1867.

Significance of blood

The Old Testament teaches that the life of all flesh is its blood (Leviticus 17:13-14 (KJV)). Secular science remained ignorant of the properties and circulation of blood until the 17th century A.D.[35]

Menstruation

The Biblical laws concerning menstruation, including the setting apart of the menstruating woman and the prohibition on intimacy during menstruation, address health concerns that were not known to secular science until the 20th century.[16] Also, modern science has only very recently discovered that following such rules dramatically reduces the rate of illegitimacy.[36]

Cloning and a Common X Chromosome

Genesis 2:21-22 (KJV) records that God made a woman out of one of Adam's ribs. Secular scientists did not believe that cloning such a complex organism (apart from plants) was possible until 1997.[37] It should be noted, however, that this is not strictly 'cloning' as a clone would be identical to its original, most obviously in terms of its sex. Women can be cloned from the genetic material of men, but not the other way around, since women lack a Y chromosome. Women have the same X chromosome as men, but this was not discovered until the late 1800s. The Book of Genesis explained this thousands years earlier, describing how the first woman was created directly from man.

Inbreeding

Leviticus 18:7-11 elaborates in detail the relationships it regards as incestuous unions, to forbid inbreeding. Only in modern times has secular science caught up and been able to scientifically explain the harm to future generations of inbreeding.

Cosmology

Distance of Oldest Star to Earth

The Book of Genesis implies that the distance of the oldest star to Earth is how far light would travel during the age of mankind: about 6000 light-years. In 2014, a team of researchers discovered that the oldest star is indeed only 6000 light-years away.[38]

Planet formation

Theories of an old universe insisted that planet formation did not occur until long after the origin of the universe, contrary to the Book of Genesis. It was not until 2012 that atheistic scientists recognized and reported that planets formed at the "dawn of the universe," within a small fraction of the universe's age.[39]

Extraterrestrial life

For most of the 20th century, scientists typically believed in the existence of extraterrestrial life, despite the lack of any reference to it in the Bible. After spending many billions of dollars looking for such life, and investigating countless reports of UFOs, no such life has been found.

Starlight Problem

The Starlight Problem confounds atheistic theories about the universe: light has reached us from stars that are too far away to transmit the light within the age of the universe. But the Book of Genesis explains this easily: "let there be light" means that God created light, not merely stars.

Number of stars

The Bible repeatedly refers to the number of stars as being innumerable,[40] despite scientists insisting throughout most of history that there were only about 6000 stars. In the early 17th century Galileo turned a telescope to the heavens and discovered a great number of stars that had been previously invisible to the naked eye.[41]

Not until the 20th century did scientists discover the tremendous number of stars:[42]

There are "10 times as many stars as grains of sand on all the world's beaches and deserts," totaling "7 followed by 22 zeros or, more accurately, 70 sextillion.

But even that scientific estimate was much too low. On December 1, 2010, scientists admitted:[43]

"a cosmic embarrassment of riches – the universe appears to hold three times the number of stars many astronomers might have estimated only a year ago."

Uniqueness of stars

Although the use of telescopes to chart the outer-reaches of God's heavenly creation was developed around the 16th century in Europe, the Bible accurately hypothesized that every star is unique.

"There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory"- 1 Corinthians 15:41 [44]

Spherical Sun and Earth

The Book of Isaiah establishes that the true shape of the earth is a sphere:

“ He sits above the sphere of the earth, and its inhabitants look to him like grasshoppers. He stretches out the galaxies like a curtain, spreading them out like a tent to live under: - Isaiah 40:22 (CBP) ”

Likewise, with respect to the sun, the Book of Proverbs 8:27 (ESV) states:

“ When he established the heavens, ... he drew a circle on the face of the deep ”

The Book of Isaiah was written circa the 8th century BC, and the Book of Proverbs even earlier. This was centuries before Greek philosophers, beginning with Pythagoras, theorized the earth was round, and it was not discovered until 2012 that the sun is perfectly spherical. Astronomers were not able to conclude until well into the second millennium of Christ that the Earth is also a sphere.

Earth free floating in space

The book of Job states that God "hangs the Earth on nothing." It also contrasts with Greek Mythology's belief that Atlas holds up the Earth, or ancient Hindu and Native American myths that the Earth was on top of a gigantic turtle.

The Bible presaged the modern view that space is in fact empty, which wasn't known until the dawn of the 20th century when ether theories became disfavored.

Cosmic Background Radiation

Genesis Chapter 1 explains that God created light first, rather than merely stars. A "big bang" would result in light everywhere, without darkness, and without ripples in cosmic background radiation. Yet in the 21st century ripples were discovered in cosmic background radiation, which can only be plausibly explained by recognizing that light was created first.

Meteoroids

The Revelation of Saint John notes,

“ And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. Revelation 8:8-9 (KJV) ”

This accurately describes meteoroids, essentially large chunks of rock lit on fire by the shock of entering the earth's atmosphere. They were not discovered until 1801, and their composition was not otherwise known until the 20th century.

Stellar proper movement

In Job, a list of challenges are constructed in the form of questions, with the idea that man can't do it, but God can. Among these challenges, two are remarkable: one mentions the untying of Orion's belt, and the other is the binding of the Pleiades. Only recently, astronomers could measure the proper movement of those stars; Orion's belt is moving apart, with each star going in a different direction, while the Pleiades are moving together.

Space flight

Many theorize that the book of Ezekiel contains descriptions of spaceships and rockets, as they would have been described by someone thousands of years ago. Author Blumrich has even published an entire book about this.

Expanding universe

The Bible explains, in 17 different verses, that God "stretched out" the heavens,[45] in other words, expanding the fabric of space-time from a smaller size to a much larger one. Scientists have discovered only in the last 100 years that, by studying the red shift of galaxies, the universe indeed appears to be expanding, or "stretching out."

Meteorology

Water cycle, and the Six days of Creation Week

The existence of the water cycle was widely unknown to pagan people's until imperial Roman times. But the Bible described the water cycle over a thousand years before that. In general, see Ecclesiastes 11:3, Job 26:8 and Amos 9:6.

There may be a more Biblically central reference to the water cycle: The reports in Genesis 1 of five things that God names (v. 5=two, v. 8=one, v. 10=two) seem to be consistent with five basic features of the geophysical half of Earth's life-support cycle. In Earth sciences, it is known that the total life-support cycle is irreducibly complex in relation to Earth's distance to the Sun, and this complexity maintained on an order of mere days' reserve: flora and fauna are interdependent, their interaction is necessary for the maintenance of the atmosphere, and if any one of those five features suddenly ceased, Earth would fail to support life in a matter of days.

Physics

Immense power within atoms alluded to in 2 Peter chapter 3

The atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima unleashed the equivalent of about 15 kilotons of TNT.

The immense power within atoms is alluded to in the Bible in 2 Peter chapter 3.[46]

Daniel White III declares:

“ John Phillips notes that Peter’s prophecy of a great, end-times conflagration of the earth and its atmosphere uses precise terminology that accurately describes a nuclear explosion. Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon define the “elements” as “the components into which matter is divided” (or atoms), and the term “dissolved” comes from the basic Greek word meaning to “loose” that which is bound (as in nuclear fission). The term “great noise” is found nowhere else in the New Testament and signifies “a rushing sound of roaring flames.” The term “fervent heat” is derived from a Greek medical term denoting a fever. But Peter’s use of it in application to inanimate objects is the only such known usage anywhere in Greek literature. Thus, Phillips observes, “Peter describes in accurate terms the untying of the atom and the resulting rushing, fiery destruction which follows it.”[46] ”

Impossibility of a Grand Unified Theory

Billions of dollars and millions of hours have been wasted by scientists in futile pursuit of a "grand unified theory" for physics. But Genesis explains that the creation of light was done in a separate, initial creation, free of darkness or entropy, and thus incapable of theoretical unification with matter.

Light and color

Prior to the work of Isaac Newton, white was considered to be the fundamental color of light, and other colors (such as red, green and blue) were formed by adding to white light. Under that traditional theory, the fullness of all light (a combination of all colors of light) would result in something other than pure white.

The transfiguration of Jesus is described with remarkable consistency in all three synoptic Gospels: in the fullness of light Jesus and his clothing display an intense white, whiter than any bleach could produce. This illustrates what was not discovered and accepted until nearly 1700 years later: that white is the combination of other fundamental colors, and the purest white light is formed by a perfectly full combination (see Prism).

Action-at-a-distance

Jesus demonstrated action-at-a-distance, as recounted in John 4:46-54. Scientists, particularly atheists, denied the possibility of this phenomenon for thousands of years. When Newton proposed action-at-a-distance as the basis of gravity, scientists continued to reject it, but eventually accepted it as being true.

Later the Theory of Relativity again denied the possibility of action-at-a-distance, but quantum mechanics subsequently proved that it does occur.[47]

Quantum mechanics

The fundamental principle of quantum mechanics is that the underlying reality is in random fluctuation, or chaos, until there is intelligent observation of it. This is precisely what Luke 4:6 reveals when it quotes the devil in saying that he has dominion over this world.

The world was an abyss of chaos at the moment of creation, as explained in the Book of Genesis. The order created by God is on a foundation of uncertainty. The discovery of this in subatomic particles in the 1900s, known as quantum mechanics, confirms the nature of the world as described in Genesis.

The Parable of the Wheat and the Chaff, Matthew 13:24-30, describes a fundamental uncertainty that does not resolve itself until there is observation over time. The authenticity of a simpler explanation of this parable at Matthew 13:36-43 has been challenged. The parable may refer to a profound and pervasive chaotic struggle between good and evil, or in quantum mechanics the uncertainty in position and energy.

Observation of the wave function

The second chapter of the Gospel of John describes the conversion of water into wine by Jesus at a wedding reception. John 2:9 states: "When the host of the wedding feast tasted the water, it had been made into wine." This passage implies that the drink was not wine until it had been tasted, or observed. The drink was a superposition of the state of wine and the state of water until it was observed as wine.

In Matthew 16:19, Jesus draws a then-unusual distinction between what is fixed and what is uncertain by declaring, "Whatever you make binding on earth will be binding in heaven, and whatever you set loose on earth will be set loose in heaven."[48] This may describe the fundamental uncertainty that continues unless and until there is human observation that then causes the wave function to collapse into a particular ("bound") state.

Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

Both the Old and New Testaments refer to a fundamental uncertainty that requires observation to resolve, akin to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle discovered in the 1920s:

"The earth came to exist in an utterly formless and empty state." -- Genesis 1:2.

"The master refusing to order the removal of the weeds sowed among the wheat because of the uncertainty in distinguishing between the two until later." -- Matthew 13:24-30.

Wave-particle duality

Wave-particle duality, not discovered by scientists until the 20th century, is when something is sometimes a wave and sometimes a particle. Subatomic particles have wave-particle duality; so does light.

This is the same as God being a "wave" as the Holy Spirit, and also being matter in the form of Jesus. An open-minded appreciation of the wave-particle duality of the Trinity could have opened the eyes of scientists nearly 2000 years sooner to the fundamental wave-particle duality of nature discovered in the 1900s.

Wave-particle duality is also evident in the Gospel account of Jesus walking on water: Mark 6:45-54. A close reading of the passage reveals the wave-like (or light-like) characteristic of the walking on water:[49]

“ he walked on the surface of the lake and came to the boat, nearly passing it. But when they saw him walking on water, they thought it must have been a ghost, and cried out. ”

Even today a more open-minded recognition of the truth of the Trinity would help scientists understand the reality of wave-duality.

Quantum tunneling

Quantum tunneling is the ability of particles to move through energy barriers even though ostensibly impossible based on classical laws of mechanical physics. This was not discovered by scientists until the 20th century.

Jesus proved this was possible in John 20:26, when he appeared before the Apostles in a closed room with completely shut doors.

Classical relativity

Romans 10:6-7: But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) 7"or 'Who will descend into the deep?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

Equating ascending into heaven to bringing Christ down is an example of the fact that there is no universal reference frame, and only relative speeds matter.

Modern relativity

The Theory of Relativity denies the possibility of action-at-a-distance. But several passages in the Bible, such as John 4:46-54 and Matthew 27:51, describe simultaneous actions from afar.

The list of Counterexamples to Relativity has grown recently, and modern experiments in quantum mechanics have confirmed action-at-a-distance.

Second Law of Thermodynamics

The Book of Genesis states that the darkness or chaos in the universe can never overcome the light, or order. This same concept was not discovered in physics until the development of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which holds that heat (or order or light) always travels in the direction of cold (or disorder or darkness), and never in the opposite direction.

Hebrews 1:10-11 explains that the universe shall "wear out" like a "garment", centuries before the discovery of the physical law that entropy is always increasing.

Nature of air

Until about 300 years ago, common knowledge believe that the air was "empty" and didn't weigh anything. But Job 28:25 states, "To establish a weight for the wind, And apportion the waters by measure" indicating that the divinely inspired author knew the air had substance and weight.

Conservative forces

James 1:17 describes the electromagnetic forces (light) as having no "shadow of turning." Not understood for nearly 2000 years, this predicts that electromagnetic forces are conservative such that their line integrals over a closed loop are zero.

Conservation of mass-energy

Conservation of mass-energy is one of the most fundamental laws of physics and is described in the Bible.[50] It states that energy be neither created nor destroyed and instead the amount of energy remains constant. John 1:3 states that all things were created by God and that nothing has come into existence apart from Him. Moreover, in Genesis 2:2 it states that God ended His work of creation by the seventh day of the creation week. These passages imply no new material or energy can come into existence.

Secondly, God upholds all things by His sustaining power (Hebrews 1:3) and by Him all things consist (Colossians 1:17). Since neither matter nor energy will cease to exist, this implies that nothing new will come into existence. Together, these four passages imply that nothing new may be created nor anything destroyed: exactly what is described by the law of conservation of energy. There is the possibility of miracles, but as supernatural interventions by God, they by definition do not conform to the laws of physics and are exceptions.

Mathematics

See main article: Math and the Bible

Zero

Mathematicians in Western Europe did not discover zero until many centuries after the Bible was written. But there are hundreds of references to the concept of zero throughout the Bible.

Set theory

Set theory was unknown until the devout Christian Georg Cantor developed it in the late 1800s to understand God better. But Jesus taught, “So the last will be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16 ESV), a concept that is paradoxical except in set theory. This set-theory concept is also echoed by the repeated references to Jesus as the "Alpha and the Omega" in the Book of Revelation. (Revelation 1:8, 21:6, 22:13)

Uncountable Sets

The existence of an uncountable set was not known in mathematics until Georg Cantor developed it in a paper published in 1891. But the so-called (and misnamed) Epistle to the Hebrews, which was possibly written by Jesus, explains that the number of angels is uncountable.

Banach-Tarski Paradox

The only miracle described in all four Gospels is the multiplication of loaves and fish by Jesus, thought for thousands of years to be a mathematical and physical impossibility. But the 20th century discovery of the so-called Banach-Tarski Paradox proved a mathematical basis for creating identical copies of an object out of no extra material.

Axiomatization of Arithmetic

The full set of axioms for integer arithmetic may be found in the Bible. For example, Luke 12:52 is a striking statement of the commutative law for addition: "For from this point forward there will be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three." This understanding presaged both later attempts at the axiomatization of arithmetic by Peano and the development of abstract algebra in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Infinity

Most thinkers scoffed at the concept of infinity for thousands of years, despite it being referenced in the Bible in many ways. See, e.g., Psalm 147:4-6 (God's "understanding is infinte"); Matthew 20:1-14 (parable of the wages for the workers in the vineyard); Matthew 16:26 (one's soul has an infinite value to him, and nothing else can be worth more).

But Georg Cantor, inspired profoundly by Christianity, established a logical foundation for infinity that revolutionized all of mathematics as a result, with his development of set theory to accomplish his goal.

Calculus

The Bible emphasizes the importance of limits as a key distinction between this world and God; Calculus consists of relying on limits to derive useful results.[51]

James 1:17 states that the first and second derivatives of God's light (truth) is zero, more than 1600 years before calculus was discovered: "with [God] there is no variation or shadow of turning."[52]

Arithmetic with Negative Numbers

Negative numbers were not fully accepted by mathematicians until the 1800s,[53] including how a negative number dominates the result in multiplication with a positive number, to yield a negative outcome. Yet Jesus' parable of the sower and the seed, in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-8, and Luke 8:4-8, explained the same effect nearly 2000 years earlier.

Indeterminacy

The Bible repeatedly emphasizes that God is "unsearchable". See Job 5:9 (God "does great things and unsearchable"); Job 26:1 ("God's Majesty Is Unsearchable"); Job 36:26 ("Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.") Psalm 145:3 ("Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable."); Proverbs 25:3 ("As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth, so the heart of kings is unsearchable."); Isaiah 40:28 ("Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable."); Romans 11:33 ("Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!")' Ephesians 3:8 ("to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ").[54]

John 1:1 teaches that logic is part of God, and thus logic itself must also be "unsearchable". For many decades the finest mathematicians thought that the consistency of logic could be proven, until Kurt Godel (himself a frequent reader of the Bible) proved the indeterminacy, or "unsearchability", of mathematics.

Sociology

Trolls

The existence of malicious trolls on the internet is difficult to understand, until one reads Matthew 13:24-30 - the Parable of the Wheat and the Chaff.

Crime

Mark 4:22 says how nothing can be hid, neither can anything be kept secret. Empirical statistics show that the vast majority of crimes worldwide are solved.

Sports

The value of physical exercise was not discovered by secularists until late in the 20th century, but 1 Timothy 4:8 explained this nearly 2000 years earlier: "Physical exercise has some value ...."[55]

Zoology

Morality of animals

Genesis 3:1-10 explains that only humans understand good and evil, and clothe themselves because of it. Repeatedly scientists have attempted to demonstrate that animals can understand morality also, but every attempt has failed. No animal (other than humans) has ever been found that clothes itself. However, as limited case, animals do demonstrate altruistic behavior.

Existence of dinosaurs

Dinosaur fossils were not discovered until the 19th century, but the book of Job describes enormous creatures called behemoth and leviathan, the descriptions being similar to dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. It may also have referred to another similarly giant now-extinct species. Other dinosaur like creatures mentioned are the cockatrice and satyr [56]

Killing methods of lions

Until the 1970s naturalists believed that lions killed their prey by biting through the neck or by breaking the neck with a swat of a paw, while the Bible says that lions suffocated their prey. (Nahum 2:12) It was not until the 1970s that it was discovered that the Bible was correct.[57] Lions fit their mouth over the mouth and nose of their prey and hold it while it suffocates, in addition to other killing methods.

Giant sea creatures and Jonah

The Book of Jonah describes his survival in the belly of a giant sea creature for 2.5 to 3 days. Scientists declared this to be impossible due to powerful stomach acids that quickly break down any material and the lack of breathable air inside marine animals.

In 2010, scientists found the following materials intact in the belly of a gray whale that had died after being stranded on a Northwest beach:[58]

a pair of sweat pants

a golf ball

over 20 plastic bags

small towels

duct tape

surgical gloves

Of course, many sea creatures have gone extinct in the thousands of years since Jonah lived.

Gender of worker ants

Proverbs 6:6-8 correctly states the sex of worker ants (female), using the correct one of the two grammatical genders available in Biblical Hebrew. Secular entomologists would not discover that fact until the 19th century.[59]

Harvester ants

19th century European naturalists were wrong about ant behavior - namely the issue of ants/harvesting (Harvester ants). The Bible was correct about ant behavior.[60]

Hearing and snakes

The scientific consensus and the Encyclopedia Britannica both indicated that snakes can't hear.[61][62] The Bible said that snakes can hear. 21st century research showed that snakes can hear.

Vegetarian lion

See also: Christian/Jewish vegetarianism and Religion and vegetarianism and Atheism and veganism

The prophet Isaiah says that there will be a time when the lion will lay down with the lamb and the lion will eat straw like the ox (Isaiah 11:7 and 65:25). There was a vegetarian lion named Little Tyke that refused to eat meat.[63]

[63] There was a vegetarian lion named Little Tyke that refused to eat meat.

David Catchpoole wrote at the website of Creation Ministries International:

“ From 1946 to 1955, A female African lion, born and raised in America, lived her entire lifetime of nine years without ever eating meat.1 In fact, her owners, Georges and Margaret Westbeau,2 alarmed by scientists’ reports that carnivorous animals cannot live without meat, went to great lengths to try to coax their unusual pet (‘Little Tyke’) to develop a taste for it. They even advertised a cash reward for anyone who could devise a meat-containing formula that the lioness would like. The curator of a New York zoo advised the Westbeaus that putting a few drops of blood in Little Tyke’s milk bottle would help in weaning her, but the lioness cub refused to touch it—even when only a single drop of blood had been added. The more knowledgeable animal experts among the many visitors to the Westbeaus’ 100 acre (40 hectare) ranch also proffered advice, but nothing worked. Meanwhile, Little Tyke continued to do extremely well on a daily diet of cooked grain, raw eggs and milk. By four years of age she was fully grown and weighed 352 pounds (160 kg)... Mr Westbeau’s observation of the lioness that ‘To condition her stomach she would spend an hour at a time eating the succulent tall grass in the fields’, is also a vivid reminder of the prophecies of Isaiah 11:7 and 65:25, ‘ … the lion will eat straw like the ox.’[63] ”

Linguistics

Common descent theory

The theory of evolution suggests that all languages are descended from a common ancestral language, and for a century (1860 to about 1960) scientists clung to that view. But now most linguists identify many different families of languages that have no common ancestor, just as described in Genesis 11 with the Tower of Babel.

Earliest Hebrew writings

Skeptics have claimed that Hebrew writing did not exist before the 6th century B.C. But a recent Israeli archaeological dig dated four centuries earlier, in the 10th century B.C., included an artifact found at Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Elah Valley. This artifact contained a written inscription in Hebrew relating to "slaves, widows and orphans." Haifa University Professor Gershon Galil noted that this disproves the theory that the Bible could not have been written before the 6th century.[64]

Economics

Poverty

Jesus stated that there will always be poverty,[65] yet liberals repeatedly insist that poverty can be eliminated with more government spending. Every attempt to eliminate poverty has failed just as Jesus predicted. In 1991 Ronald Coase won a Nobel Prize in Economics for the Coase Theorem, which implies that government attempts to reduced poverty will interfere with efficient operation of the economy, and thereby reduce wealth.

Socialism and Capitalism

Ecclesiastes 5:18-19 says that capitalism is a gift from God:

"Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God give the him: for it is his portion. Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God."

Similarly, Ecclesiastes 6:1-2 condemns socialism:

"There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease."

Government and Politics

See also Biblical political foreknowledge

Nation-state

Ancient Israel, as described in the Old Testament, was a nation-state and that model was not utilized again until thousands of years later, well after the Renaissance in Western Europe. This model of a nation-state has become the modern standard worldwide.

Separation of Powers

The separation of powers adopted successfully by the U.S. Constitution in 1787, with the legislative, executive, and judicial branches having separate authority and jurisdiction, was first described in the Old Testament.[66]

Liberal influence on the media

The Third Temptation of Christ is to bow down and worship the Satan in exchange for becoming ruler of the world. The media plays that role and its influence is predictably liberal and anti-Christian.

Engineering

Biblical scientific foreknowledge about these engineering developments has been proposed:[67]

“ automobiles (Joel 2:3-4); airplanes (Isaiah 31:5, also 40:31); submarines (Revelation 9:1-11); radio (Ecclesiastes 10:20); and television (Revelation 11:3-12) ”

Classical photography, using negative imaging, was predated by the Shroud of Turin with respect to the imaging on the Shroud likely due to the light of the Resurrection. The Shroud (Greek: σινδών - sindón) is mentioned in three Gospels: Matthew 27:59, Mark 15:46, Luke 23:53, while John 20:5-7 talks about a face cloth or napkin (Greek: σουδάριον - soudárion - perhaps the Sudarium of Oviedo), and a piece of fine linen (Greek: ὀθόνιον - othonion). The description by the eyewitness John implies that his sighting of the Shroud may have confirmed his faith, though he doesn't mention its photograph-like image.[68]

Alleged "contradictions"

Biblical scientific foreknowledge is an underpinning of creation science, and is widely credited by Christian scientists and apologists, including the organizations Creation Ministries International,[69] Answers in Genesis,[70] and CreationWiki.[71]

Atheists and liberals unsuccessfully attempt to discredit the Bible based on science. Here are some examples:

Value of Pi

Two sections of the Bible (1 Kings 7, 23–26, 2 Chronicles, 4, 2-5) appear to indicate that the correct value of Pi is 3, whereas Pi is, in fact, an irrational number, equalling approximately 3.14159. Atheists, including Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, allege that this value indicates the fallacious nature of scripture.[72] However, a simple explanation of the claimed "contradiction" is that the Bible records the ratio of the actual object which Hiram created, not that of a mathematical sphere. The claim that it was round all about does not equate to a claim that it was a perfect sphere, as atheists have claimed.[73]

Additionally, Pi to one significant digit is 3. Just because the measurement is given to only one significant digit, that does not mean it was precisely that amount.[74] Of course, since Pi is an irrational number, it would be impossible to give a truly precise measurement. Since decimal notation was not in use in Biblical times, there was no way to express Pi to greater accuracy in the language of the day.

Bat as a bird

A favorite evolutionist canard is that Leviticus 11:13-19 labels the bat, a mammal, as a bird. The KJV translation of "fowl" is simply incorrect, as the Hebrew term 'owph did not entail the "clade" of birds, but was a non-scientific category simply referring to any winged creature. A popular Jewish translation, used to explain the laws of keeping kosher, translates the term as "winged flying things."

Rabbits, coneys, and cud

In Leviticus 11:5-6, the Bible states,

“ And the coney (or hyrax), because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. ”

Number of legs of insects

Although the term 'chewing the cud' usually means rumination (as seen in cows, for example), skeptics have claimed this is wrong in regards to rabbits and coney behavior. However, these animals do in fact use a similar process called refection. The underlying Hebrew words which are translated as 'chewing the cud' in the King James bible are actually much broader in scope, and mean simply 'to bring up' which is something both rumination and refection do.This issue in translation is similar to the bats and fowl problem mentioned above.

In Leviticus 11:20-23, the Bible states,

“ All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you. Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth; Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you. ”

See also

References

While this may appear to indicate that insects have four legs (they have six), the passage is in fact referring to the manner in which the grasshopper moves. Grasshoppers have large back legs mainly used for jumping, and not for walking, which is when it uses its smaller four front legs. Thus, the ancient Hebrews were just describing things as they saw them, not according to scientific nomenclature.