How do the Fathers and Doctors of the Church interpret these passages?

The Fathers and Doctors read the biblical texts on the cosmos in their literal sense: the Earth is fixed and the heavenly bodies move. This consensus is clear across the Greek and Latin sources (Basil, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Augustine, John of Damascus, Isidore, Bede) and is received and systematized by the medieval Doctors, especially Thomas Aquinas. They did not treat Joshua 10, Psalm 93(94):1, Psalm 103(104):5, Ecclesiastes 1:5, or the related passages as poetic exaggerations, but as straightforward assertions about the order of creation under divine providence. When the Fathers use allegory or moral application, they do so upon the literal sense, not against it. The scholastics preserve this method: the literal sense grounds all the spiritual senses. So the patristic and medieval tradition affirms a geocentric cosmos not as an optional opinion but as the received understanding of Scripture and the harmony of reason with revelation. (See Galileo Was Wrong, Vol. 1, chs. 3-5; Commentary on the Douay-Rheims NT, Vol. 1, pp. 212-226.) Patristic exegesis proceeds on the axiom that God, the primary author of Scripture, cannot deceive or be deceived. Hence the literal sense of the sacred text, where the author intends to assert a fact of nature or history, is privileged. On cosmology the Fathers speak with one voice: the Earth stands firm; the sun, moon, and stars traverse the heavens in divinely appointed courses. Greek Fathers: - St. Basil (Hexaemeron) comments on Genesis as a literal creation narrative in ordered stages. He describes the Earth as "immovable" and the heavens as moving with regularity for the governance of times and seasons, treating the luminaries' motions as physical realities, not figures of speech. - St. John Chrysostom speaks of the Earth "standing immovable" while the heavens "revolve," drawing moral lessons precisely because the physical order is stable. - St. John of Damascus (Exposition of the Orthodox Faith) summarizes the received cosmology: Earth at the center, motion in the heavens, all ordered by Providence. Latin Fathers: - St. Ambrose (Hexaemeron) echoes Basil, affirming that God "established the Earth" and "set the lights in the firmament" to move according to their offices. - St. Augustine, though careful on interpretive method, still treats the relevant texts in their literal sense when they assert natural facts. His principle is decisive: where Scripture intends to report nature, the literal sense stands unless a necessary demonstration compels a different reading. Augustine never claimed such a demonstration had been given for the Earth's motion. (See GWW, Vol. 1, pp. 110-127.) Medieval Doctors: - St. Thomas Aquinas codifies the patristic inheritance: the literal sense is foundational; the spiritual senses rest upon it. In commenting on the Psalms and Job, and in synthesizing Aristotelian physics, Thomas presumes an immobile Earth and moving heavens. He does not define geocentrism as dogma, yet he treats it as the factual backdrop of exegesis and natural philosophy. - The Venerable Bede, Isidore of Seville, and the later scholastics integrate astronomical learning with biblical language without contradiction. The school tradition reads Joshua 10 literally: the miracle halts the sun and moon because those luminaries ordinarily move. Joshua 10 as a test case: The Fathers take Joshua's command at face value: the sun "stood still," meaning the luminary ceased its customary motion. Allegorization appears in homiletic applications, but none deny that the text asserts a physical event. The miracle's intelligibility depends on the ordinary truth that the sun moves daily over the Earth. (GWW, Vol. 1, pp. 250-262.) Hermeneutical principle: When the Fathers use "phenomenological" expressions elsewhere, context marks them as figures. By contrast, the geocentric passages function as assertions within historical narrative and doctrinal praise. The uniformity of patristic testimony on the Earth's fixity and the sun's motion meets the Church's classical criterion for the "unanimous consent of the Fathers" on matters touching faith and morals, insofar as cosmology undergirds the literal sense that safeguards doctrinal coherence. (Commentary on the Douay-Rheims NT, Vol. 2, pp. 50-58.) Reception by the Magisterium: Early modern theologians, led by Cardinal Bellarmine, preserve the patristic stance: until a true demonstration proves otherwise, Scripture's literal sense stands. No such demonstration has been produced. So the Fathers and Doctors remain the normative guides. Their consensus is neither pre-scientific naiveté nor expendable piety. It is the faithful reading of inspired texts in concord with reason and observation. Conclusion: The patristic and scholastic tradition reads Scripture as teaching a fixed Earth and moving heavens. Allegory enriches that literal sense; it does not erase it. Until a necessary proof compels a different reading, and none has, the Fathers and Doctors remain the surest interpreters of the biblical cosmology. (See Galileo Was Wrong, Vol. 1, chs. 3-5; Geocentrism 101, ch. 7.)