[Virginia-American]

[RE: the Bible being implicitly flat-Earthish]

The Israelites were not seafarers, unlike their cousins the Phoenicians.

Sailors **knew** the sphericity of the earth from watching ships disappear over the horizon, the hull going first, the top of the mast last.


I don't know what the Babylonians thought on the subject.

[aNYCguy]

The Israelites were not seafarers, unlike their cousins the Phoenicians. I don't know what the Babylonians thought on the subject.

The Polynesians who settled Hawaii found the place hospitable enough that they never left, and lost the ability to make long-distance sea voyages. It would be interesting to see what other knowledge atrophied alongside it.

[Just mythoughts]

"The Israelites were not seafarers, unlike their cousins the Phoenicians."


Really, Biblically speaking those Israelites were indeed "seafarers", ever heard of the House of Israel and those 'lost' ten tribes that made up the House of Israel. Ships of Chittim come to mind called bruisers, but plowing a bit deep for most.