Genesis Through Ancient Eyes - John H Walton PhD (Awesome - MUST SEE!)

[ebia]

This model is pretty accurate representation of the ancient Hebrew cosmology, in fact, during the great flood it states God in Genesis 7:11 that God broke up the fountains of the Great Deep and opened the windows of heaven a la the windows of the skydome.

Basically, imagine our snowglobe is submerged and suspended in a ten gallon aquarium filled with water, it is saying God opened doors in the skydome of our globe and punched holes into the bottom of the globe... blurp, blurp, blurp, and flooded the inside of the snowglobe up til its highest mountains.

And in a later verse, our ancient Hebrew author states that the waters rescinded and poured back into the Great Deep in the earth's core. Our author believes all the flood water returned to the earth''s core.

Another thing, the KJV is the only Bible without a copy right. However, each version that is published in softcover, hardcover, leather, and its maps, study helps, and concordances are all copywritten.

This is factually incorrect. Other old translations predate copyright, or their copyrights have expired.
The kjv has what is in effect the only perpetual copyright. It just is only enforceable in England.

 

[Smidlee]

But what kind of door? Does it have a letterbox; a doorbell? A Yale 5 lever lock? Does it have brass hinges, or leather ones? Is it even made out of wood, or is it PVC? It may well be a solid object, but that doesn't make it our solid object; it may even be a metaphor; language works that way.

And for that matter, what is a window?

When we think of a window we think of looking out into the world through an expanse of glass, but this is not what it meant formerly; it is a 'wind eye'. It is a hole for allowing ventilation in, quite possibly to reduce the amount of smoke and other nasty smells inside. Even when glass was eventually used, it was in very small pieces, and far too cloudy to see through. In ancient times a window is not about seeing, in other words, but allowing access from inside to outside, outside to inside. But if you were not aware of the derivation you would not know that ancients referring to windows do not mean what we mean.

This is why linguistic research is very important; without it we assume that everything is as we envisage it because we will not be informed enough to realise how wrong we are.

We only know what we already know. You used what within us to understand and describe the world around us ... thus put it into language ... more than any other creature on earth. The scripture were written in a way that meaning can be pass on throughout the centuries including modern times. I never suggested windows are about seeing as I already gave an example of NASA usage of "window" in modern times. Why does NASA use "window" is such away... simply because "window and doors" (language) is something "wired" into us just like the knowledge of flight is "wired" into a bird. Window doesn't have to have glass even today.
When I look ahead and see a wall of rain it looks as if the windows of heaven opens up and allowed the waters of the heaven comes pouring down. The "windows of heaven" in three different verses all refer to a great pouring out , 1) of rain 2) of food and 3) of blessings.

This is factually incorrect. Other old translations predate copyright, or their copyrights have expired.
The kjv has what is in effect the only perpetual copyright. It just is only enforceable in England.

are you sure the KJV was ever copyrighted? From my understanding King James authorize to start of the translation but never authorizes the finish product as the people could care less if he approve it or not. It automatically replace the Geneva Bible since it was more complete.

I can assure you this is not a misrepresentation of the Genesis cosmology, it is just that the English translations obscure this fact. Here are some more beautifully colorful representations of the ancient Israelite cosmology.


And this only places greater emphasis on not being a closed minded, fundamental literalists when handling and studying Genesis.

How can you assure me of this? You pictures are nothing by modern day man translation of how they think they thought. It too easy for modern day "English" man to assume they are so smart and our ancestor were a butch of idiots. Are you sure it's not you who is being close minded? There are still some here who believes in the Flat Earth myth and doesn't seem to know it's been proven to be a lie. (Again hinting how stupid our ancestors were.)

When Jesus says He is the Way , the Truth , and the Life I take him literally. I don't hold the position that spiritual things are less real (less literal) than physical things. Language itself is nothing but symbols which represents something that's "real" .

 

[Percivale]

The ancient Hebrews might have believed in flat dome cosmology. Most of them might not have bothered figuring those things out, or there may have been several competing theories. We don't know. But to claim that they certainly did believe in flat dome cosmology based on those verses requires a much more wooden literalism and firmer dogmatism than even YEC advocates possess. The Hebrews were poetic, they chose words that were picturesque and moved the emotions rather than ones that gave a detailed scientific description. I don't think the Babylonians took the Enuma Elish literally, and the Hebrews may not have taken Genesis literally. They liked allegories (Ezekiel especially), and used them to tell stories of real events, but not to describe literal details or make scientific descriptions.

God called the raqia shamayim, and shamayim is clearly a place within which stars and clouds moved (just like our word 'sky.') So I think raqia sometimes means an expanse, not necessarily a solid surface.

 

[random person]

Percivale,

Welcome to the Flat Earth Society.

 

[random person]

If someone wants to homeschool their children to ancient Hebrew cosmology, in which the Sun was created after the earth, and that the earth is stationary under a hard dome, and sun and stars revolves around the earth within that same dome. That is their perogative.

However, those poor children are going to miss a awesome opportunity to advance their learning in the modern world.

 

[Percivale]

like I said, these guys take the Bible way too literally. They would prove that modern man believes in flat earth by any story that mentions a sunset (rather than an earth-rotating-and-blocking-the-sun-from-view-event).