Bible Dictionary
Earth
Earth may mean the soil or ground, the inhabited world, a particular land, or the planet created by God. Scripture contrasts the earth with the heavens and sometimes uses earthly things figuratively in contrast with heavenly realities.
Definition
Earth may mean soil, ground, dust, the inhabited world, a country, a plot of land, or the planet on which humanity dwells. Biblical Hebrew distinguishes chiefly between adamah, the soil or ground, and erets, the earth or land.
Biblical Usage
Earth is contrasted with the heavens and may mean the whole created world, a particular country, or the land of Judea. It can also represent earthly or carnal things in contrast with heavenly realities. Dust from the ground is associated with humanity’s creation and mortality.
Historical Background
Palestine’s hilly limestone soil commonly has a reddish color. The words adamah and erets cover overlapping meanings, while aphar chiefly denotes dust or dry earth. The Greek ge is commonly used for earth, with oikoumene sometimes meaning the inhabited earth.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
(1.) In the sense of soil or ground, the translation of the word adamah’. In Gen. 9:20 “husbandman” is literally “man of the ground or earth.” Altars were to be built of earth (Ex. 20:24). Naaman asked for two mules’ burden of earth (2 Kings 5:17), under the superstitious notion that Jehovah, like the gods of the heathen, could be acceptably worshipped only on his own soil. (2). As the rendering of ’erets, it means the whole world (Gen. 1:2); the land as opposed to the sea (1:10). Erets also denotes a country (21:32); a plot of ground (23:15); the ground on which a man stands (33:3); the inhabitants of the earth (6:1; 11:1); all the world except Israel (2 Chr. 13:9). In the New Testament “the earth” denotes the land of Judea (Matt. 23:35); also things carnal in contrast with things heavenly (John 3:31; Col. 3:1, 2).
Smith's Bible Dictionary
The term is used in two widely-different senses: (1) for the material of which the earth’s surface is composed; (2) as the name of the planet on which man dwells. The Hebrew language discriminates between these two by the use of separate terms, adamah for the former, erets for the latter.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>urth ('adhamah, 'erets, 'aphar; ge, oikoumene):</p><p>In a hilly limestone country like Palestine, the small amount of iron oxide in the rocks tends to be oxidized, and thereby to give a prevailing reddish color to the soil. This is especially the case on relatively barren hills where there is little organic matter present to prevent reddening and give a more blackish tinge.</p><p>'Adhamah (compare 'adham, "a man," and Adam) is from 'adham, "to be red," and is used in the senses: "earth" (Ex 20:24), "land" (Ps 105:35), a "land" or country (Isa 14:2), "ground" (Ge 4:11), "the earth" (Ge 7:4).</p><p>The word most in use is 'erets, undoubtedly from a most ancient root occurring in many languages, as English "earth," German Erde, Arabic 'ard. It is used in most of the senses of 'adhamah, but less as "soil" and more as "the earth" as a part of the universe; frequently with shamayim, "heavens," as in Ge 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."</p><p>`Aphar and its root word and derivatives are closely paralleled in the Arabic, and refer mainly to "dust" or "dry earth" (compare Arabic `afir, "to be of the color of dust"; `afar "dust"; ya`fur, "a gazelle"; Hebrew `opher, "a gazelle"). Compare Ge 2:7: "Yahweh God formed man of the dust of the ground"; Job 2:12: ".... sprinkled dust upon their heads"; Ps 104:29: ".... they die, and return to their dust"; Ge 18:27: "dust and ashes."</p><p>In the Septuagint and New Testament, ge is used in nearly all cases, oikoumene being used a few times for the "habitable earth," as in Lu 21:26 the King James Version.</p><p>See further ANTHROPOLOGY; ASTRONOMY; EVOLUTION; WORLD.</p><p>Alfred Ely Day</p>