Firmament

[SonOfLilith]

I know this is a very inconsequential but I am slightly confused.

(Genesis 1: 6-8) God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate between water and water.” So God made the firmament, and separated the waters which were beneath the firmament and the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. God called to the firmament: “Heaven.” And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

A did a little research on the firmament and it was the belief that the sky and stars was basically just a large dome surrounding the earth with the stars and sun attached to it and beyond this was heaven. Judging by what we know about our planet and the universe now, how is this sentence justified? Also it is not just this one incident in the bible, I have found references to the firmament about 7 times now.

 

[Digit]

Hello,

Did a quick lookup of this, and came across:

The Septuagint (a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek produced by Jewish scholars in the third centuy B.C. at the behest of the Egyptian pharaoh, Ptolemy Philadelphus, for inclusion in his world-famous library in Alexandria) translated raqia into the Greek as stereoma, which connotes a “solid structure” (Arndt and Gingrich, 1967, p. 774). Apparently, the translators of the Septuagint were influenced by the then-popular Egyptian view of cosmology and astronomy [they were, after all, doing their translating in Egypt for an Egyptian pharaoh] that embraced the notion of the heavens being a stone vault. Unfortunately, those Hebrew scholars therefore chose to render raqia via the Greek word stereoma—in order to suggest a firm, solid structure. The Greek connotation thus influenced Jerome to the extent that, when he produced his Latin Vulgate, he used the word firmamentum (meaning a strong or steadfast support—from which the word “firmament” is transliterated) to reflect this pagan concept (McKechinie, 1978, p. 691).

More here if you are keen to read, quite lengthy though. Basically it's a translation error, which are more often than not the cause of a what some people jump on today as Biblical inconsistencies.

God bless,
Digit.

 

[SonOfLilith]

So then.. what your telling me is that it IS possible that the bible has been changed over the many years it has existed?

 

[Digit]

This is actually one of my worries. As I stated in another thread, at the end of the Bible are some verses where God promises to punish anyone who adds to or removes from the Bible.

I know that Biblical translation is a monumental effort, by many people over a great deal of time to establish a new version of the Bible. People from all cultures and with many varied and different specialities. In fact, often many Bibles reference the old Hebrew or Greek text at the bottom of the page in footnotes. To clarify some words, as they have changed in order to make it more readable in todays society, as our language has changed.

The New International Version of the Bible (my preferred version) was started in 1965, and had over 100 people working on it. :o I think some versions are better than others, but as with anything man-made, it can be flawed. The Bible however cannot, as it is God's Word (those that believe anyhow, believe it so) and as such it is flawless.

The NIV version says,
6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

I like this version as I believe it is more accurate to the original texts. As the quote I posted in my previous response says, the translators were influenced by a popular cosmic viewpoint back then, that of the Egyptians and as such it crept into their translation of the Bible. The NIV went back to the original texts, rather than making a copy of a copy, which is a sure way to lose information. I hope that helps.

All the best and God bless.

Digit

 

[heron]

I have heard some interesting theories from scientists. Some believe that before the flood, there was a thick region of water vapor that shielded the earth from too much sun. (They also speculate that the planet's magnetic forces were stronger, and are gradually waning with age.)

The dome idea ties in, but of course all the galaxies did not fit in the dome.

Reflections from multi-angled facets of these precisely embedded crystals off of a comprehensible number of actual stars are sent to locations of non-luminous entities (e.g., our moon without the sun, asteroids, nebulae). There in the blackness of space where many are retro-reflected off of the crystalline dome and are seen or captured by spectrographic technology and are yet other innumerable reflections that are being counted as actual dim stars or "night lights" behind nebulae, etc. The thickness of this global "dome" overlaying the present universe is vaguely suggested in the Hebrew connotation of "firmament" (#7554) that we just saw, viz., "...to expand by hammering, by implication, to overlay (with thin sheets of metal)...spread abroad (...into plates)...."

http://www.fixedearth.com/Ssize and Structure Part II.htm

http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v13/i2/firmament.asp

https://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2168

( I just did a quick search for broader discussion)

 

[tapero]

I know this is a very inconsequential but I am slightly confused.

(Genesis 1: 6-8) God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate between water and water.” So God made the firmament, and separated the waters which were beneath the firmament and the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. God called to the firmament: “Heaven.” And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

A did a little research on the firmament and it was the belief that the sky and stars was basically just a large dome surrounding the earth with the stars and sun attached to it and beyond this was heaven. Judging by what we know about our planet and the universe now, how is this sentence justified? Also it is not just this one incident in the bible, I have found references to the firmament about 7 times now.

It doesn't seem to be addressed in the bible, so I take it as another wonder of God that I just don't know about.

 

[Macca]

I know this is a very inconsequential but I am slightly confused.

(Genesis 1: 6-8) God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate between water and water.” So God made the firmament, and separated the waters which were beneath the firmament and the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. God called to the firmament: “Heaven.” And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

A did a little research on the firmament and it was the belief that the sky and stars was basically just a large dome surrounding the earth with the stars and sun attached to it and beyond this was heaven. Judging by what we know about our planet and the universe now, how is this sentence justified? Also it is not just this one incident in the bible, I have found references to the firmament about 7 times now.

My understanding of this is that God caused a canopy of water to cover the whole earth some distance up. Because this was like a hot-house effect, there were no polar caps, all the land was kept at a semi-tropical temperature. There was no rain fell on the earth before Noah's flood. Gen.1: 6 Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” 7 And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens. 8 God called the space “sky.”
The solar system was well outside this canopy.
4 This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. Ge 2:5-6
When Noah was 600 years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the underground waters erupted from the earth,
Ge 7:11
This eruption was the cause ot the mantle of water over the earth being ruptured; causing the first rain to fall on the earth.
The earth-quakes and volcanic eruptions caused by the emptying of the waters of the deep caused the mountain ranges we now have; and the polar-caps were formed because of the angle of the planet and the distance of the caps, during winter of the respective hemispheres, from the sun.

 

[heron]

Some perspective on what volume of volcanic activity occurs, for each single eruption:



"COSPEC measurements from a helicopter detected ...

moderate steam emission. COSPEC measurements of SO2 levels in the steam plume were ~630 metric tons/day (t/d), well above the 100-200 t/d measured during quiet periods.

"...Gas output from the summit had increased from recent emission rates of ~950 metric tons per day (t/d) to ~2,200 t/d on 29 October."

http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0703-03=&volpage=var



"Mt Ranier is ... covered with millions of tons of ice that would unleash huge mudflows down the rivers leading to Puget Sound, endangering more than 250,000 people."

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/kids/volcano_project/erupt.html



"TOKYO (July 3, 2005) - Japanese coast guard officials said Sunday they believe an underwater volcanic eruption has caused a 3,300-foot high column of steam to rise from the Pacific Ocean near Iwo Jima."

"Gas emission from the [Mt. Mayon] volcano measured at 6,099 tons"

http://www.earthmountainview.com/volcanos.html

 

[ebia]

I know this is a very inconsequential but I am slightly confused.

(Genesis 1: 6-8) God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate between water and water.” So God made the firmament, and separated the waters which were beneath the firmament and the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. God called to the firmament: “Heaven.” And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

A did a little research on the firmament and it was the belief that the sky and stars was basically just a large dome surrounding the earth with the stars and sun attached to it and beyond this was heaven. Judging by what we know about our planet and the universe now, how is this sentence justified? Also it is not just this one incident in the bible, I have found references to the firmament about 7 times now.

Genesis is written within the understanding of the world of its authors. Of course it's not accurate to a 20th century understanding of scientific accuracy - it's not meant to be. Trying to make the Genesis accounts fit a scientific understanding of the world is doomed to failure as is demonstrated by the many attempts to try which cause more problems than they solve.

Genesis is NOT scientifically or historically accurate - but then it's not meant to be so that's no more a flaw than the fact that it isn't a workable recipe for fruit-cake.

 

[Valid Name]

Greetings,

You may find error that Adam admits that he is naked while wearing a fig leaf. Or you may find wisdom. The choice is....

Peace,
Valid Name