What is a Firmament? 🌎🤔 #firmament #bible

[quantumweirdness]

Is the Raqia necessarily solid? Here are some reasons why not:

1. The raqia is equated with the heavens in Genesis 1:8. The heavens (shamayim) refer to the regions where birds are in and where walls of cities touch. Therefore, the shamayim (and hence, raqia) is not solid.

2. In Genesis 1:20, birds are said to fly ‘al pane’ (literally “on the face of”) the raqia. This term is used a number of times in the Old Testament and seems to imply contact with some sort of boundary every time the term is used (whether vertical or horizontal). Since the birds do not touch the solid sky, the raqia here means something else.

3. It is believed by scholars that the tabernacle (later the temple) is meant to represent the cosmos. Therefore, Hulisani Ramantswana writes:

“The Tabernacle was structured along graded holiness: Most Holy Place - Holy Place -Court. The Most Holy Place represented the invisible heavenly reality - the throne room of Yahweh (Pss 103:19; 123:1; Is 63:15; 66:1; cf. Is 14:13). The Holy Place represented the land - the locus of human habitation and land creatures. The Table of Presence on which was placed twelve loaves of show bread (Lv 24:5-6) represented the Lord‘s provision for his people Israel – the twelve tribes. The lampstand is often associated with the seven major lights: five planets, sun and moon (Walton 2001:148;Beale 2004:34-35; Poythres 1991:18-19). For others, the lampstand represented the tree of life, which symbolised God‘s provision (Sarna 1991:162-65; Stuart 2008:580). According to Meyers (2005:232), the lampstand – considering the iconographic context of the Mediterranean in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages – represented― the divine power that provides fertility of plant life. The Court where the wash-basin was set up represented the sea (Ex 30:18 – 20; 35:11–18; cf. 1 Ki 7:2 –26). Bloch-Smith (1994:20) notes that the bronze sea in Solomon‘s temple court was so huge that―no practical application is offered for the sea during the time of Solomon which is indicative of its symbolic value as representing the―cosmic waters or the waters of life. The wash-basin in the Tabernacle court and later the bronze sea in the temple court are better viewed as representing the third part of the cosmos – the sea. The pragmatic function of the wash-basin for the washing by priests should not detractfrom the significance of where it is located, the court, which within the graded holiness is the least holy space of the Tabernacle.”

What divided the Most holy place from the Holy place was a veil, said to separate (using the same word found in Genesis 1 regarding the function of the raqia). This lines up with the raqia being the heavens that separate God from man in total and not in part. So, the raqia here is not solid.

4. Ezekiel 1 portrays the cosmos in the form of a chariot. Critically, it provides a distinction between the raqia which looks like ice (that is, white) and the throne looking like lapis lazuli, which is blue and above the raqia (see Exodus 24:10) thus making a distinction between the blue sky and the raqia and placing the raqia beneath the blue sky.

5. Hebrews did not think about the world in a material sense like we do. They thought about the world in terms of what they did. Therefore, the idea that the word raqia refers to something necessarily solid is a non-starter.

6. There is no word in Ancient Hebrew that specifically refers to ‘hardness’. All words that could refer to hardness (e.g. chazaq, amats) are better understood with terms like ‘strong’ ‘powerful’ and ‘mighty’ since they can refer to wind, sound of a trumpet etc.

7. The word raqia itself is used in Psalm 150 to refer to power and in the Dead Sea Scrolls to refer to light. Neither of these things are solid and so the word itself does not necessarily refer to something solid.

8. The word raqia was translated into Greek as stereoma. This word need not refer to something solid (e.g. Col 2:5). It is used of part of an army in 1 Maccabees (all of an army is solid, so solidity here is redundant) and a ratification in Esther 9:29. Its verbal and adjective forms are used of famine, wounds, thunder and something smoke does. The Church father Basil rejects the interpretation that the stereoma is solid and instead understands it in terms of strength. The word was then translated into latin as ‘firmamentum’, a word that was previously used in rhetoric and has the meaning of support (in the political sense as well, see Tacitus). Augustine interprets the word to refer to air. One other pre-Copernican translation is expansium, with no connotations of solidity.

9. In Bereshit Rabbah, one interpretation of “Let there be a firmament” is let the firmament gleam, not something associated with solidity, but associated with power.

10. In the Aramaic Targum to Song of Songs, Moses is said to be in the raqia to receive the 10 commandments. In Exodus 24, this refers to a cloud. Further evidence that clouds can be raqia is found in Deuteronomy, where the Hebrew has shachaq (a word normally translated cloud), the Greek has stereoma, commonly translated firmament.

11. Some medieval rabbis (Such as Ibn Ezra and Radak) believed the firmament (of Genesis 1:6) to be the air. Thus, the raqia here is not solid.

Objections:

Objection :“The word raqia literally means something solid. It's where we get the word rock from.”

No, it is not. We get the word rock from Latin.

Objection : “The birds fly across the firmament, not in the firmament.”

The birds fly on the face of the firmament. The expression, “on the face of” in Hebrew (al pane) is used to indicate something is at the outward part of something (ie at an extremity). So we read:

Genesis 1:29
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

Or Genesis 6:1
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

Or Exodus 16:14
And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.

Or Isaiah 19:8
The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

The “upon” in Isaiah 19:8 is literally “on the face of.”

Objection : “Also, it has to be something solid in order to divide the waters above from the waters below”

This one is actually interesting. The so called “waters above the firmament” might actually be beside the firmament. The expression in Hebrew is meal le-raqia. The same grammatical expression is used in 1 Samuel 17:39 to refer to a sword that was girded to David’s armor. The Hebrew expression here is meal le-maddaw.

1 Samuel 17:39
And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.

Clearly, it is not above the armor but beside it!

It is also used in 2 Chronicles 26:19. Here, the KJV translates the expression “meal le-mizbah” as “from beside the altar.”

Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar.

Another instance of this usage may be found in Malachi 1:5. Thus, the waters are actually beside the firmament rather than being above it.


Objection : It says that God walks on the circuit of heaven.

Given that the parallel in Job 22:14 is "Thick clouds cover him that he does not see, " It may not be referring to the sky at all, but rather some clouds (or a cloud). God is also said to ride on clouds.

Objection: "Windows open and close in it to release and restrain water during the Genesis flood."

The word for windows (arubbot) is almost never used for actual windows (except probably in Eccl 12:3). Given its corresponding verb meaning of "to lie in wait, " often with the sense of restraining or impairing (as in an ambush), the best way to understand what this word means is "That which has been laid up to wait, " primarily with the sense described above. Hence, the Greek and Latin translations referring to a "sluice gate, " a gate that restrains water, but could also let it pass. This would then naturally refer to the clouds.

Objection: “The sky is described as hard as cast metal, also in Job."

In Job 37:18, the word translated hard is better understood as mighty or strong (it can refer to wind or to the sound of a trumpet). The word rendered skies is better rendered clouds. And the strength of the cast mirror is best understood as being the overwhelming brilliance of its reflection of light. In context, it appears that Elihu is referring to a theophany starting while his speech is going on. God begins to speak out of the whirlwind mere verses later.

[muted]

It also says that the sun and moon are within the firmament, so how would you explain that. genensis 1:14-, 15 and god said let there be lights IN the firmament in the heaven to divide day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and for years, and let them be for lights IN thd firmament of the heaven to give light UPON the earth. And it was so.

[picamishael]

Hebrew word Rakia is a solid thing, which is the firmament

[lukehartman]

“With Him, have you spread out the skies,
Strong as a cast metal mirror?”
Job 37:18

The Hebrew word rāqaʿ (רָקַע) with Strong's number H7554 is a verb that means "to beat, stamp, beat out, spread out, stretch".
It is pronounced "raw-kah'". 

Here are some other meanings of rāqaʿ:
* To pound the earth as a sign of passion
* To expand by hammering
* To overlay with thin sheets of metal

[adimlah]

The firmament is a sheath of water that surrounds the earth, but it is non-physical. This is known in other religions as the river stix or vaitarna, it is not a physical barrier of water.

[GabrielCeballos-kb]

Water don't make things up water above

[bendeleckeiii]

Dig deep and find out about the sky ice they are getting from s pole

[abrahamsoklaski]

Leader in rocketry Van Braun felt to leave his last words dedicated to telling the world and pointing out to the world one BIBLE VERSE and that one is the FIRMAMENT shows Gods handy work!!! Again letting you know the truth so there Conscious is clean or so they think they must tell you the truth straight to your face every time you wanna play stupid that’s on you

[BlueBarrier]

I love how no one goes to what Biblical scholars and historians say . . .

[abrahamsoklaski]

In the words of NASA discoveries there is a impenetrable barrier Ip there and they CAN NOT GET THROUGH IT!! Firmament= solid structure

[Dp.]

You can believe what you like pal the firmament is like a solid molten glass

[GodfreyTaiOyYong]

A watery universe and a biosphere contains us beaming with life.The Creator got to be a water being.So we are surrounded by water and also more firmaments out of our vicinity have more lands and continents in them.

[bullionsean]

Wow, a reasonable person speaking about the firmament…cheers mate

[real_Hamilton]

If the earth is flat then how do you explain lunar and solar eclipses? You can't. It's literally physically impossible for something like that to happen on a flat stationary earth

[The-narrow-gate]

But you have to take the rest of the Bible into consideration too. Other verses say it's a crystalline impenetrable structure. Another verse says that the earth takes shape like clay under a seal.

[VeraciousDuke]

your explanation is flawed my friend. read the bible and stop sreading mis information. The bible describes the firmament as being a physical object and he called the firmament the sky/heaven. he also explained the firmament to be as a clear molten looking glass. Its a solid object.

[martinpadilla]

You’re only reading part of the verse and you’re adding your own to the verse that you reading you’re adding

[christianwheelock]

You just earned a subscriber. I always wondered this

[LetsGlorifythePerfectCreator]

I believe the three heavens refer to our Atmosphere, Outer space, And Glory where ADONAI resides

[jogo]

I appreciate you mentioning “what you believe” rather than “I know what this is”
Also, Hebrew is a very loose language. One word can mean a lot of things.