The sun moves across the sky and travels around the Earth.

Astronomy 47 passages in this field

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“So let all your enemies perish, Yahweh, but let those who love him be as the sun when it rises in its strength.” Then the land had rest forty years.

Read in context

What current science says

Earth orbits the sun, not the other way around. The sun only appears to move across our sky because Earth is rotating on its axis. We figured this out over 500 years ago. Earth spins at about 1,000 mph at the equator while orbiting the sun at about 67,000 mph.

What the text says

Judges 5:31 speaks of the sun as it "goeth forth in his might," reflecting the view that the sun moves across the sky around a stationary Earth.

Three honest ways to read this passage

As history

The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
As accommodation

The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
As contradiction

The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.

GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.

The sun moves across the sky and travels around the Earth.

The cited passage

What current science says

What the text says

Three honest ways to read this passage

As history

As accommodation

As contradiction

The same picture elsewhere in Scripture

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