earth Summary and Overview

(1.) In the sense of soil or ground, the translation of the word "adamah'". In Gen. 9:20 "husbandman" is literally "man of the ground or earth." Altars were to be built of earth (Ex. 20:24). Naaman asked for two mules' burden of earth (2 Kings 5:17), under the superstitious notion that Jehovah, like the gods of the heathen, could be acceptably worshipped only on his own soil. (2). As the rendering of "'erets", it means the whole world (Gen. 1:2); the land as opposed to the sea (1:10). "Erets" also denotes a country (21:32); a plot of ground (23:15); the ground on which a man stands (33:3); the inhabitants of the earth (6:1; 11:1); all the world except Israel (2 Chr. 13:9). In the New Testament "the earth" denotes the land of Judea (Matt. 23:35); also things carnal in contrast with things heavenly (John 3:31; Col. 3:1, 2).

The term is used in two widely-different senses: (1) for the material of which the earth's surface is composed; (2) as the name of the planet on which man dwells. The Hebrew language discriminates between these two by the use of separate terms, adamah for the former, erets for the latter. 1. Adamah is the earth in the sense of soil or ground, particularly as being susceptible of cultivation. #Ge 2:7| 2. Erets is applied in a more or less extended sense-- (1) to the whole world, #Ge 1:1| (2) to land as opposed to sea, #Ge 1:10| (3) to a country, #Ge 21:32| (4) to a plot of ground, #Ge 23:15| and (5) to the ground on which a man stands. #Ge 33:3| The two former senses alone concern us, the fairest involving an inquiry into the opinions of the Hebrews on cosmogony, the second on geography. 1. cosmogony. -- (1) The Hebrew cosmogony is based upon the leading principle that the universe exists, not independently of God, nor yet co-existent with God, nor yet in opposition to him as a hostile element, but dependently upon him, subsequently to him and in subjection to him. (2) Creation was regarded as a progressive work --a gradual development from the inferior to the superior orders of things. 2. Geography. --There seems to be traces of the same ideas as prevailed among the Greeks, that the world was a disk, #Isa 40:22| bordered by the ocean, with Jerusalem as its centre, like Delphi as the navel, or, according to another view, the highest point of the world. As to the size of the earth, the Hebrews had but a very indefinite notion.

EARTH . The word first occurs Gen 1:2. The Hebrews made the usual distinction between the earth as the planet which we inhabit and the earth as the soil which we cultivate, by employing altogether different words for these different ideas. But like other ancient nations, they had vague and inaccurate ideas in regard to the size of the earth. The phrases "the ends of the earth," all the "kingdoms of the earth," "the whole world," really took in only a limited extent. Geographical terms were loosely used. For example, the same word (yam, which means "sea") is applied to the Mediterranean, to the lakes of Palestine, and to great rivers such as the Nile. But they were much more definite when describing localities with which they were intimately acquainted, and these descriptive words for the minor features of the country are often singularly correct, and at the same time poetical. We can mark a progression in geographical knowledge from the days of the patriarchs to those of the N.T. Jews. As nation after nation was brought into contact with them their notions of the character and extent of the world enlarged. Owing to the highly poetic nature of the language in which descriptions of the earth as a whole are given, it is impossible to decide upon the ordinary ideas on this subject. Like other nations of antiquity, and like most people in all ages, the Hebrews viewed the world from a geocentric standpoint, as if the earth were the centre of the universe, every other heavenly body being formed for it and playing a subsidiary part. The heavens were conceived of as an inverted bowl, which rested on the flat earth at its edges, holding up the snow and rain, which came through when a window was opened. Gen 7:11; Isa 24:18. All natural phenomena are traced directly to the almighty will of God, without taking into account (yet without denying) secondary causes. The thunder is his voice, the lightning his arrows, the storm and the wind his messengers. Job 37:5; Ps 77:17; Ps 148:8. When he drew near, the earthquake, the eclipse, and the comet were the signs of his presence. Joel 2:10; Matt 24:29; Luke 21:25. We should remember that this is to this day the language of poetry and religion, and that it represents one and the most important aspect of truth, the primary cause; while prose and science view the other aspect, the secondary and finite causes -- that is, the laws of nature, which are the agencies of the almighty will of God. If all things in heaven above and earth beneath were created by the word of God, they were as certainly created for the sons of God -- for man. To the Hebrew nothing existed independent of some effect, good or bad, upon man. Ps 104:14, Heb 12:23 expresses in poetry his sober opinion. The earth spoke to him likewise of orderly and preconcerted progress. From one day to the other, as he read the account in Genesis, there was development of higher from lower forms, until, as the crown and lord of all creation, man stood in Eden.

'erets in Hebrew; gee in Greek, designating either the whole globe, or land as opposed to sea, or a particular land; to be distinguished by the context. A distinct term expresses the material of which the earth consists damaah, the "ground," "soil," from whence Adam was named (Genesis 2:7), his body coming from and returning to the earth (Genesis 3:19), a different word "dust" (Job 10:9; Ecclesiastes 12:7). Naaman desired to have two mules' burden of earth of the Holy Land ('Eretz Israel), whether for an altar or other sacred purpose (Exodus 20:24), a half-paganish nation that God would accept devotions in connection with that soil rather than with any other. In James 5:17 it is translated: "it rained not on the land (of Israel)"; for the drought was a judgment, not on the whole earth, but on Israel; compare Luke 4:25. So in Luke 23:44 "there was darkness over all the land," not "all the earth"; compare Matthew 27:45. In 1 Corinthians 15:47-49, "the first man is of the earth, earthy," contrasted with "the Lord from heaven" and "the heavenly," the term is choikos, not merely earthly, i.e. born upon earth, but "earthy," literally, "of heaped clay," answering to the surface "dust" in the Old Testament of which man is made; not merely terrestrial, but terrene, therefore, transitory.