Very interesting topic. But LANGUAGE and idiomatic expressions are part of language and we must try to understand the context when certain phrases are used in one language to express a certain idea but in direct translation makes no sense or gives the wrong impression
FOR INSTANCE: I've I said "I burned rubber all the way to the store to get back in time for my TV program" you'd understand the that "burned rubber" was a way of me staying I sped down to the store. But when translating that, it might no sense to someone not understanding the context!!
The same goes for Biblical idiomatic expressions. One fun one that is often misunderstood x 2 is the use of the world "camel". In one place the Bible says that it's "harder for a rich man to get into the kingdom than a CAMEL to get through the eye of a needle." Some think this is a reference to a literal camel, but in fact, a "camel" was an idiomatic reference to a knot in the thread that gets bunched up behind the needle hole and it resembles a camel who has a skinny neck but then a bit body. So they euphemistically referred to it as a "camel". So what Jesus was saying was it's harder for a rich man to get into heaven than to get a knot in the thread through the eye of a needle.
Another use of "camel" is in reference to what we call a "horsefly". In the Middle east they called them camelflies or simple "camels". Thus when Jesus was talking about the Pharisees straining out the gnat but gulping down the camel, he was not talking about a literal camel that would find its way into their drink somehow and they would swallow a dromedary in their drink, but contrasting the very large hoursefly/camelfly with the tiny gnat. So he was basically saying they went to the trouble of straining out the tiniest little gnat which often flew into the drink, but gulped down the huge camelfly, showing their hypocrisy, only the local term for it was simple "camel" because it was in common language.
The same happens in our culture since if I told you "I smoke Camels" you would not imagine I was talking about the animal but a brand of cigarettes. But is translated into another language it might be confusing.
So local colloquialism, euphemisms and idiomatic expressions have to be taken into CONTEXT when in reference, which is the case of "heaven and earth." Obviously Jesus is not literally talking about the heaven and earth. But what was it?
"HEAVEN AND EARTH" was the equivalent to "SYSTEM OF THINGS". That is what "heaven and earth" is in reference to. That's because when you look up into the heavens and see the order of things and the earth being part of that "order of things" they used that to express a reference to a certain consistent cirumstance, an "age" a "world" a "system of things." So when Jesus said "Heaven and earth would pass away" before a single word of scripture would not be fulfilled he was merely saying in another way that the "system of things would end" for sure and God's word would remain true.
So when you see heaven and earth references to something passing away, it's a reference to a certain "age" or order of things that would end.
Thus in Revelation 20 we have two references to heaven and earth passing away or fleeing near the end of a specific order of things or system of things or an "age" that ends. The first reference to heaven fleeing is right after Satan is destroyed. That ends an "era" of Satan-dominated existence for the earth. So that era of Satan and his rebellion is over and so it is said that "heaven fled away". But that introduces a new "age" or system of things of JUDGMENT DAY where the dead would be judged. But then again, after all the judgment is over, then another new age or system of things would begin and thus at Revelation 21 we find a reference to a "new heaven and a new earth" coming about whereas the former "heaven and earth" had passed away. Only in this case, it was a reference to the previous "age" of Judgment Day where Death existed.
So "heaven and earth" is just the colloquial way of referring to an "age" or a "system of things" and not literally the heavens and earth.
So, whenever reading something in another language and/or especially from another culture, if something doesn't quite make sense, you have to do the extra homework and add a little judgment and insight to try to understand what is MEANT in comparison to a direct translation, and when that is done you get harmony in scriptures.
It's all the fun and frantic of translations!!!
Hope this was a help.
L.G.
