What is the Firmament?

by VM44 13 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  VM44

  In Genesis the Firmament is first mentioned.

  God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

  What exactly was the meaning that the ancient Bible writers gave to the word "firmament"?

  and,

  What meaning does The Watchtower give to this word?
• 

  Brother Apostate

  The "firmament" is the distinction between what we humans perceive as "waters" verses what we perceive to be above it, what we call "atmosphere" ( tropo, strato, meso, thermo, exosphere).

  BA- Answering the question.

  PS- I don't, nor will I ever, give a rat's behind-hole what the washtowel thinks it is.
• 

  Leolaia

  The firmament in the OT and later Jewish tradition is a solid structure supported by the earth that contains the visible heavens. The sky has an appearance of a dome extending from the horizons; it is in the expanse of this dome that the sun shines, the moon and stars move, and the birds fly. Because this notion is inconsistent with modern cosmology, the Society insists that the Hebrew word rqy` only means "expanse" and not something solid. The basis for this is the fact that the Priestly narrative in Genesis 1 construes the luminaries as placed within the rqy` (v. 14), which is the same place where birds fly (v. 20), but in fact the empty space is simply what is contained within the dome or vault -- just as one could place a fish in a bowl. The term comes from a root meaning "to beat out with a hammer," which clearly implies a solid object. Job 37:18 thus refers to God as "beating out (trqy`) the heavens hard (chzqyn) as a mirror of cast bronze" when he created the heavens. The heavens are probably compared to a mirror because they appear to shine forth their own light; they are frequently described as brilliant, luminous, and sparkling, e.g. "The learned will shine as brightly as the firmament of heaven (yzhrw k-zhr h-rqy`)" (Daniel 12:3), "The shining firmament of heaven (stereóma kathariotétos ouranou) appears in a glorious spectacle as the splendor of the heights" (Sirach 43:1). The heavens are also described as stretched out over the earth and upon which God's palace is built above:

  Psalm 104:2-3: "He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers (h-mqrh `lywtyw) on their waters (b-mym). He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind".
  

  Ezekiel 1:22, 26: "Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked like a firmament (rqy`), sparkling like ice (k-`yn h-qrch) and awesome... Above the firmament (mm`l l-rqy`) over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man".

  4Q403 1:41-44: "Sing to God, awesome in power, all you wise spirits of light, to exalt together the utterly brilliant firmament of heaven (rqy` zw twhr thwrym) that girds his holy temple. Praise him, divine spirits, praising forever and ever the firmament of the uttermost heaven (rqy` rwsh mrwmym), all its beams (qyrwtw) and walls, the work of its construction".

  The upper chambers have their beams and walls constructed on the firmament which is stretched like a tent over the earth, and the heavenly palace is built "on their waters," compare Psalm 29:2, 10: "The voice of Yahweh is over the waters, the God of glory thunders, Yahweh thunders over the mighty waters .... Yahweh sits enthroned over the flood, Yahweh is enthroned as king forever". This composition is extremely close to Canaanite poems referring to Baal and El. In the case of the latter, El rules from his own holy mountain (Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan River) which lies at the meeting-place of the heavenly deep and the subterranean deep under the mountain. This dwelling place is a garden from which the rivers flow that irrigate all creation:

  KTU 1.4 iv 20-24: "[Athirat] set her face towards El at the source of the rivers, at the midst of the springs of the two deeps. She rolled back the Tent of El, and came into the pavilion of the King, the Father of the Bright One".

  KTU 1.100 R 3-4, V 60-64: "Shapsh, my mother, carry my voice to El at the source of the rivers, at the confluence of the two deeps (mbk nhrm b'dt thmtm)...[Horon] set his face towards the Tigris abounding in rain, and well-watered Tigris, he uprooted from among the trees the tamarisk, and from among the shrubs the tree of death".

  Psalm 42:4-7: "I am on my way to the wonderful Tent, to the House of God, among cries of joy and praise and an exultant throng. Why so downcast, my soul, why do you sigh within me? Put your hope in God, I shall praise him yet, my savior, my God. When my soul is downcast within me, I think of you; from the land of Jordan and in Hermon, in Mount Misar, deep is calling to deep (thwm-'l-thwm qwr') as your cataracts roar".

  Ezekiel 28:2, 13-14: "You say, 'I am El ('l) in the dwelling of the gods ('lhym); I dwell in the midst of the seas (ymym)'...You were in Eden in the garden of God ... you were on the holy mountain of the gods ('lhym)".

  As for Baal, he built his own palace on his mountain (Mount Zaphon) following his victory over the sea dragon Yamm, which was similarly built on top of the deep which he used to provide the rains that water the earth:

  KTU 1.101 R 1-9: "Baal sits like the base of a mountain, Hadad settles on the ocean, in the midst of his divine mountain, Zaphon, in the midst of the mountain of victory. Seven lightning-flashes, eight bundles of thunder, a tree-of-lightning in his right hand. His head is magnificent, his brow is dew-drenched, his feet are eloquent in his wrath. His horn is exalted, his head is in the snows of heaven, with the god there is abounding water" (cf. also the sevenfold thunder being the "voice of Yahweh" in Psalm 29).

  KTU 1.4 vii 25-39: "Let a window ('urbt) be opened (yptch) in the house, a casement in the midst of the palace! Baal opened a rift in the clouds; his holy voice (i.e. thunder) Baal gave forth; Baal repeated the issue of his lips".

  Compare also the motif of the cosmic mountain in post-exilic writings regarding Mount Zion as the source of "living water" giving life to all (cf. Psalm 87:1-7; Ezekiel 47:1-22; Joel 4:18; Zechariah 14:8, 1 Enoch 26:1-2, Revelation 20-22), and in later Jewish tradition, the foundation for the Temple was believed to have kept the subterranean floods at bay; it was said to be the stone on which the world is based (Yoma 54b). What is quite interesting is that the same words used in the Baal Cycle to refer to the "opening" of a "window" in Baal's palace occurs in the OT (cf. Hebrew 'rbwt "window" and ptch "open") to refer to Yahweh opening up the windows of heaven to bring the waters to the earth (Genesis 7:11, 8:2, 2 Kings 7:2, 19, Isaiah 24:18, Malachi 3:10). The mabbul "flood" that Yahweh is enthroned upon in Psalm 29 is also the same word that occurs in Genesis 7-8 to refer to the floodwaters cast down to the earth from heaven.

  Although the text is somewhat difficult, the myth of the Birth of the Gracious and Beautiful Gods gives the Canaanite perspective of the vault of heaven as comprised of two gods Shahar and Shalem -- one responsible for dawn and the other for dusk:

  "The gracious gods delimit the day, sons of a single day, who suck the nipples of the breasts of the lady, one lip to the earth and the other lip to the heavens. Into their mouths enter the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea when they stand from delimitation to delimitation" (KTU 1.23 I 62-70).

  So here apparently we have two gods who together mark out the day, one bringing forth the dawn and the other bringing the day to an end. They are construed as standing at the edges of the world and rising up from the horizon to the zenith of heaven -- into whose mouths the birds fly at the height of heaven and the fish swim at the bottom. This poetic description is reminiscent of the vault of heaven, with the horizontal horizon in the east or west forming the bottom lip and the upper lip arching up to heaven -- resulting in open mouths in the east and west. This Shahar/Shalem mythology is not representative of the cosmology of the Hebrews, although there are some possible traces in the OT (cf. Genesis 49:24-25, Joshua 13:19, 1 Chronicles 7:10, Psalm 108:2, 110:3-4, 139:9, Isaiah 14:12-13).
• 

  Leolaia

  It is also worth noting Job 38:29-30: "Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens, where the waters become as hard as a stone, where the surface of the deep (pny thwm) is frozen? The phrase "surface of the deep" is the same word that occurs in Genesis 1:2 (where `l-pny thwm is paired with `l-pny h-mym "across the surface of the waters"), compare 1:20, `l-pny rqy` h-shmym "across the surface of the firmament of heaven". This suggests that the firmament has a surface of its own like that of the deep or that of the earth (cf. v. 29: `l-pny kl h-'rts "across the surface of the earth").

  There was a rabbinical commentary on the passage in Genesis which makes explicit the solid nature of the firmament: "Our Rabbis said the following in the name of R Hanina, while R Pinhas and R Jacob b R Avin said it in the name of R Samuel b Nahman: When the Holy One, blessed be he, ordered 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the heavens,' the middle layer of water solidified, and the nether heavens and the uppermost heavens were formed. Rav said: [God's] handiwork the heavens was in fluid form and on the second day it congealed. Thus, 'Let there be a firmament' means, 'Let the firmament become strong'. Rabbi Judah b R Simon said: [The verse means], 'Let a lining be made for the firmament,' as it says, 'They hammered out sheets of gold [into thin plates] (cf. Exodus 39:3)" (Parashat Bereshit Rabbah 4.2).

  There are descriptions of the heavenly ocean in the later pseudepigrapha, including 2 Enoch and 3 Baruch.
• 

  jaguarbass

  I'll guess the firmament is the sky.
• 

  garybuss
• 

  BluesBrother

  I just thought I would let the WTS have their say

  ce chap. 3 p. 28 pars. 12-13 What Does Genesis Say? ***

  12

  Some translations use the word "firmament" instead of "expanse." From this the argument is made that the Genesis account borrowed from creation myths that represent this "firmament" as a metal dome. But even the King James Version Bible, which uses "firmament," says in the margin, "expansion." This is because the Hebrew word ra·qi´a?, translated "expanse," means to stretch out or spread out or expand.

  13

  The Genesis account says that God did it, but it does not say how. In whatever way the described separation occurred, it would look as though the ‘waters above’ had been pushed up from the earth. And birds could later be said to fly in "the expanse of the heavens," as stated at Genesis 1:20.
• 

  Mebaqqer2

  Just to let you know...
  
  "And birds could later be said to fly in 'the expanse of the heavens,' as stated at Genesis 1:20."
  
  Actually, Genesis 1:20 does not say that the birds fly "in" the expanse (raqia') of the heavens, it says that the birds fly literally "above the earth in front of/above the surface ('al-p'ney) of the raqia' of the heavens." "in the raqia'" would have been bireqia' see Gen. 1:14, 15, 17; Ps. 150:1.
  
  Mebaqqer
• 

  Leolaia

  Some translations use the word "firmament" instead of "expanse." From this the argument is made that the Genesis account borrowed from creation myths that represent this "firmament" as a metal dome. But even the King James Version Bible, which uses "firmament," says in the margin, "expansion." This is because the Hebrew word ra·qi´a?, translated "expanse," means to stretch out or spread out or expand.

  "Expanse" is fine if it is understood that something solid is being stretched out or spread out or expanded -- just as a metalworker beats out a sheet of metal. The problem is that this is not how most English readers understand the term (although one might say "the wide expanse of the ocean" or "the expanse of the forest"), and that is not the understanding that the Society wants to endorse. But if you see how the term is in fact used in the OT and the Dead Sea Scrolls, you can see that the rqy` is a thing that is stretched out over the earth, constituting the vault or arch of the sky. It supports the upper chambers of Yahweh's heavenly temple with its beams and walls, it is compared to ice or crystal, it is stretched over the earth like a tent. Among the other scriptures quoted above, here is another important text:

  Psalm 19:1-6: The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament (rqy`) proclaims the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech ... Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun (l-shmsh shm 'hl), which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens (mqtsh h-shmym mwts'w) and makes its circuit (tqwptw) to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat".

  Aside from the obvious geocentrism, it is clear that the sun is contained in what is stretched out. This is not consistent with an interpretation that harmonizes Genesis 1 with a modern concept of the atmosphere; the sun is not inside the atmosphere. But it illustrates what is plainly said in Genesis 1:15, that the heavenly luminaries were put "in the firmament" (b-rqy`) -- not from the perspective a "putative observer from the earth that didn't exist at the time" (as the Society says in the Creation book in another harmonization), but rather populating the firmament with luminaries just as God would subsequently populate the seas with creatures and the land with animals and humans.

  Here is a good article from a conservative journal that covers most of the basics:

  http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/Ted_Hildebrandt/OTeSources/01-Genesis/Text/Articles-Books/Seely-Firmament-WTJ.pdf
• 

  Leolaia

  Here are some quotes from the article I linked:

  [T]he word shamayim (heaven[s]) is broader in meaning than raqia`. It encompasses not only the raqia` (v. 8; Ps 19:6; 148:4) but the space above the raqia` (Ps 2:4; 11:4; 139:8) as well as the space below (Ps 8:8; 79:2). Hence birds fly in the heavens, but never in the raqia`. Rather, birds fly upon the face or in front of the raqia` (Gen 1:20). This phrase upon the face (surface) or in front of the raqia` is important in that it implies the raqia` was neither space nor atmosphere. For birds do not fly upon the surface or in front of space or air, but rather in space or air. This distinction is illustrated in the case of fish, which no one would say swim upon the surface or in front of the water (Gen 7: 18) but rather in the water (cr. Exod 7: 18, 21). Gen 1:17 also testifies that the raqia` is not air or atmosphere for it says that God placed the stars (and probably the sun and moon) "in the raqia` of the heavens" .... We see then that Gen 1:17 and 1:20 testify that the raqia` is not air or atmosphere. The verbal cognate of raqia`, as well as the use of the verb `shh ("made"), in 1:7 imply the raqia` was solid. More important, the purpose and function of the raqia` imply its solidity, for it functions as a horizontal dam (cf. 7:11; 8:2; Ps 148:4), holding back a mighty heavenly ocean. The water above the firmament is not clouds as some rationalize (and we shall delineate this fact more fully in Part II), for while the sun, moon, and stars are in the raqia` (v. 14), the waters of the upper primeval ocean are above the raqia` (v. 7).47 This ocean over the raqia`, indeed resting upon it (Gen 7:11; 8:2; Ps 148:4), tells us quite clearly that the firmament is a physical part of the universe. It is not just phenomenal language as it might have been if Genesis were a modern Western book. Rather it is an ancient Near Eastern concept similar to if not related to that found in Enuma Elish Tablets IV and V.