[Avodah] mabul

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Nov 03, 2011 at 02:25:56PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
> On 3/11/2011 1:26 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
>> Both R' Eliezer and R' Yehushua both describe the flood (RH 11b) as
>> falling through the heaven onto the earth. Rebbe (Pesachim 94b) is
>> described as arguing against the ages of Rome when he said the mazalos
>> move and the galgal is fixed (which was the Babylonian theory). So there
>> were tannaim who didn't buy into Ptolemy.
>
> None of which has to do with the shape of the earth itself...

Except it's all one theory. Ptolemy's model of the universe was where
they got the spherical earth concept from. The Romans themselves never
taught one without the other. For R' Eliezer and R' Yehoshua to know
the world was round because they were in the Roman Empire raises the
question of why they didn't buy into the rest of the theory.

However, the Romans themselves didn't buy into Greek Astronomy until
the 2nd generation of amora'im. And so the line appears to be around
R' Chiyya Ruba (as he was titled in EY) in EY and a generation or two
later in Bavel.

I am agreeing with your basic thesis, that Chazal believed the latest
science, as it was understood to be in their times and places. However,
I think the data both from Chazal and of when the surrounding culture
accepted the Ptolmeic theory isn't EY vs Bavel or tannaim vs amoraim.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

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