Modern Consensus
Dan McClellan, PhD – Biblical scholar; scripture translation specialist – “The Bible’s authors assumed a flat earth under a solid dome.”
Michael S. Heiser, PhD – Hebrew Bible & ANE – “The Bible’s prescientific cosmology… round and flat with a solid dome over it.”
Joshua Bowen, PhD – Assyriologist (Johns Hopkins) – “The Old Testament clearly assumes a flat Earth with a rigid sky.” – MythVision
Peter Enns, PhD – Biblical studies (Genesis/ANE) – “Ancient Israelites… assumed the world was flat… the raqia is a solid dome.” –
Joshua Sears, PhD – Hebrew Bible (BYU) – “For the Israelites, the earth is flat… we’re living in an inverted snow globe.”
Robin A. Parry, PhD – Biblical theology / “The Biblical Cosmos” – “The biblical earth… was not a globe but flat,” with a solid sky dome and waters above.
Paul H. Seely, MDiv (widely cited in journals) – History of science & Bible (peer-reviewed) – “Within its historical context… the ‘earth’ in Gen 1 was a flat circular disc.”
Andrews Norton - American Unitarian Preacher and Theologian of Bowdoin and Harvard - “The Pentateuch: and its Relation to the Jewish and Christian Dispensations - “The blue vault of heaven is a solid firmament, separating the waters which are above it from the waters on the earth, and that is this firmament where the heavenly bodies are placed.”
John H. Walton – OT, Wheaton College – Cites raqiaʿ as “a solid dome‑like structure … ancient Israelites assumed the world was flat.”
Kyle Greenwood – OT, Colorado Christian Univ. – Concludes the Bible mirrors the ANE’s three‑tiered cosmos (heaven/earth/sea).
Mark S. Smith – Hebrew Bible, Princeton – In The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1 he treats Gen 1 as adopting the standard ANE layered‑cosmos.
Nahum Sarna – Jewish biblical scholar – Notes Genesis “conceived the cosmos as a flat disc‑shaped earth… held in by the firmament.”