שֶׁמֶשׁ shemesh (H8121) primarily refers to the sun, the greater light set in the firmament of the heavens to rule the daytime, give light to the land (cf. Genesis 1:17) and heat to the land (the earth) (cf. Psalm 19:6). According the Scripture, the sun is a luminary orb that physically rises (cf. Job 9:7; Psalm 104:22; Matthew 5:45) and sets (cf. Psalm 104:19) by revolving around the land in a circular or elliptical course from one end of the heavens to the other (cf. Psalm 19:6). שֶׁמֶשׁ shemesh is equivalent to the Greek word ἥλιος helios (G2246) which also refers to the physical sun or rays of the sun.
The Geocentric vs. Heliocentric Controversy
Despite the Bible’s description of the geocentric model of the sun’s revolution around the stationary land (cf. Job 9:7; Joshua 10:12-14; Psalm 19:6; Psalm 104:19; Matthew 5:45), some ancient and modern-age astronomers redefined the meaning of the word “earth” to be an oblate, terraqueous spheroid that revolved around the stationary sun.
Aristarchus of Samos (c. 310 – c. 230 B.C.) was an ancient Greek astronomer and mathematician who presented the first known heliocentric model that placed the Sun at the center of the universe, with the Earth revolving around the Sun once a year and rotating about its axis once a day. He supported the theory of Anaxagoras according to which the Sun was just another star.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic canon, who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its center. “[Copernicus] proposed that the planets have the Sun as the fixed point to which their motions are to be referred; that Earth is a planet which, besides orbiting the Sun annually, also turns once daily on its own axis; and that very slow long-term changes in the direction of this axis account for the precession of the equinoxes. This representation of the heavens is usually called the heliocentric, or “Sun-centred,” system—derived from the Greek helios, meaning “Sun.” – Westman, R. S. (2024, November 7). Nicolaus Copernicus. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolaus-Copernicus
Copernicus’s theory, published in 1543 in his book “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres”, upended the traditional belief that the Earth was the center of the universe. The Catholic Church initially accepted heliocentricity, but eventually banned Copernicus’s book in 1616 and declared it heretical. The Church remained opposed to Copernicus’s ideas until the 19th century. Despite this opposition, Copernicus’s theory helped usher in the modern scientific age. His remains were reburied with Catholic honors in 2010, and he is now considered a hero.
Orthodox Judaism’s Reception to the Copernican Theory
The prevailing Greco-Roman heliocentric theory that the earth revolved around the sun was not how Jews of the Talmudic Period, from 70 A.D. to 638 A.D., or Orthodox Judaism up until at least the 14th century believed about the earth. In his book, “New Heavens and a New Earth: The Jewish Reception of Copernican Thought” Jeremy Brown wrote, “The rabbis of the Talmud believed that the world was flat, and that the sun revolved around the Earth every day. There is a debate about the length of the solar year in the Talmud, and its consequences and the rare Jewish ceremony of the Blessing of the Sun (Birkat Hahammah) are discussed. The view of the talmudic rabbis is contrasted with that of the contemporary Greek astronomers. While the rabbis of the Talmud argued about the size of the flat Earth, the Greeks had determined the Earth to be a sphere, had calculated its circumference and had moved on to consider other questions.”
Furthermore, the portion on Genesis chapter one from the Jerusalem Targum (aka Targum Pseudo-Jonathan) which is believed to have been initially composed in the 4th Century AD or by the 14th Century at the latest wrote (emphasis added);
“And the Lord said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens, to distinguish between the day and the night; and let them be for signs and for festival times, and for the numbering by them the account of days, and for the sanctifying of the beginning of new moons, and the beginning of years, the passing away of new moons, and the passing away of years, the revolutions of the sun, the birth of the moon, and the revolvings (of seasons). And let them be for luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the land. And it was so. And the Lord made two great luminaries; and they were equal in glory twenty and one years, less six hundred and two and seventy parts of an hour. And afterwards the moon recited against the sun a false report; and she was diminished, and the sun was appointed to be the greater light to rule the day; and the moon to be the inferior light to rule in the night, and the stars. And the Lord ordained them unto their offices, in the expanse of the heavens, to give forth light upon the land, and to minister by day and by night, to distinguish between the light of the day and the darkness of the night. And the Lord beheld that it was good. And it was evening, and it was morning, Day the Fourth.”
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