In Hermeneutical Principal 13 B,
we'll continue our examination of the structure and
operation of the world from an ancient phenomenological perspective.
This episode is the first of three,
that deals with the heavens and ancient astronomy in a three tier universe.
Ancient astronomical feature number one.
Ancient people believed that the sun moves across the sky daily,
as we've noted, this was the issue in the Galileo affair.
Let me give you some examples from the Bible.
Ecclesiastics 1:5 states; the sun rises
and the sun sets and hurries back to where it rises.
Psalms 19:6 also refers to the movement to the sun.
The sun rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other.
And the verse that was prominent in the Galileo affair was Joshua 10:13,
the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.
It's important to note that the poetic language argument,
and the phenomenological perspective argument,
were not used until after the 1600s.
In other words, right up to this time,
nearly everyone believed that the Sun literally and
actually moved across the sky every day.
Ancient astronomical feature number two, the firmament.
In my opinion, the firmament is one of the best topics for developing
our hermeneutics regarding statements about nature in the Bible.
The firmament refers to the solid dome or solid sphere of heaven above the earth.
It was accepted in astronomy in the 1600s.
In fact, Galileo believed it actually existed.
Therefore, there are two different understandings of the term firmament.
In a three tier universe,
the firmament is the dome overhead.
In a geocentric universe,
the firmament is the final sphere of the world.
The firmament was created on the second day of creation in Genesis 1.
God said, let there be a firmament between
the waters to separate the water from the water.
So God made a firmament and separated
the water under the firmament from the water above the firmament.
And it was so, God called
the firmament heavens and there was evening and there was morning the second day.
Note, that the word firmament,
appears five times in this short passage.
Reference to the term firmament also appears in Psalm 19.
"The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands."
It's worth pointing out, that many evangelical translations of
the Bible use the word expanse or skies instead of firmament.
Why? It's because most evangelicals are scientific concordists,
and these translations attempt to move away from
the actual meaning of the original biblical term for firmament.
So let's look at the ancient languages,
because ancient science is deeply embedded in some ancient words.
The Greek term for firmament is stereoma,
and it can refer to either the solid dome or the sphere of heaven.
As we saw earlier,
with the Greek term for baren,
the adjective stereo's means 'hard' or 'firm'.
Therefore embedded in the Greek word for firmament is the idea that it's hard.
The Hebrew word for firmament is
Rakia and it can also mean either the solid dome or the sphere of heaven.
This noun is related to the verb raqa,
which means to flatten, to hammer and to stamp down.
This verb raqa appears in the context of counting metals for example, Exodus 39:3 states;
They hammered out raqa, thin sheets of gold.
Most notably, raqa is even found in the context of creating the heavens.
Job 37:18 asks the question,
can you join God in spreading out?
That is raqa, the skies,
hard as a mirror of cast bronze?
This verse is clearly referring to the firmament and acknowledging
that it is solid like a hard metal.
One final Hebrew term worth mentioning is riqqua,
which means broad metal plate.
It appears in Numbers 16:38.
Hammer is the verb raqa, the censers in two sheets.
Riqqua, to overlay the altar.
You will note in this slide the similarities of these three Hebrew words.
We turn these cognates.
They use the same basic three consonants, the ר ,
the ק and the ע and all three terms
carry the sense of dealing with something that is hard like a metal.
And indeed, the ancient Hebrew people
believed that there was a hard structure overhead in heaven,
which they called the Rakia,
and which is best translated into English as the firmament.
It's also worth noting that the Latin Bible which was called the
'Vulgate' and which was translated in the fifth century,
was the church's Bible for 1000 years.
It translates the Hebrew word Rakia, as firmamentum,
meaning firmament and solid sphere of heaven.
This word is related to the Latin adjective firmus,
meaning hard and firm.
As well, the English King James Bible of the 17th century has been
a Protestant Bible for 400 years and it translates Rakia as firmament,
meaning the solid sphere of Heaven.
Please turn to Page 83 in the class handouts,
and let's consider historical criticism.
The firmament was the astronomy of the day 3000 years ago.
Here's a depiction of the universe,
according to the ancient Egyptians,
between 1570 and 1085 BC/BCE.
As you can see, the firmament is in red and it is speckled by stars.
There is also a depiction of the heavens by
the ancient Mesopotamians around 885 to 850 BC/BCE.
The firmament is in red and it upholds stars,
in a heavenly sea of water.
The Sun-God Shamash, is on his throne in his heavenly dwelling.
We can now come to a conclusion regarding the firmament.
All the ancient words indicate that it is a solid structure and
all the traditional translations of the word Rakia also indicate it is a solid structure.
Most importantly, the firmament is not outer space.
Please turn to page 67 in the class handouts.
So you can see the use of the term firmament on
the second day of creation in the Greek Old Testament.
As we noted, stereoma is the Greek for
the word firmament and it appears five times in this passage.
The Greek word stereoma,
referring to the firmament,
is also found in Psalm 19:1.
Please now turn to page 68 in the class handouts,
and to the second day of creation in the Hebrew Old Testament.
We saw that Rakia is the Hebrew for the word firmament,
and it appears five times in this passage.
The Hebrew term Rakia is also found in Psalm 19 verse one.
Here is the definite article Vah and here is Rakia,
the word for firmament.
End of episode.
Denis LamoureuxAssociate Professor
