If God wanted us to believe that the first eleven chapters of Genesis are an accurate account of historic events, why did He give them to us in the same genre of literature as epic tales, sagas, myths, and legends rather than in the historical narrative genre that the rest of Genesis (and the rest of the Hextateuch) are written in?
If God wanted us to know that the earth is spherical rather than flat, why did He use language that fits a flat earth rather than a spherical earth? (Domes are not used to cover spheres, they are used to cover flat items like a cake plate). Moreover, He used the Hebrew word רָקִיעַ. In the
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, we find an excellent article (Vol. III, pp. 568-569 [two lengthy columns of fine print per page] on the word רָקִיעַ. Of special importance is the following from the article,
The verb רָקַע, raká, means to expand by beating, whether by the hand, the foot, or any instrument. It is especially used, however, of beating out metals into thin plates (Exod. xxxix, 3, Numb. xvi, 39), and hence the substantive רַקֻּעַים “broad plates” of metal (Numb. 16:38). (The italics are theirs).
Furthermore, the Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament by Brown, Driver, and Briggs published by Oxford University gives us the following meaning of word רָקִיעַ in Gen. 1:7, “the vault of heaven, or ‘firmament,’ regarded by Hebrews as solid, and supporting ‘waters’ above it.” (p. 956). Moreover, John Skinner, the late Principal and Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature at Westminster College, Cambridge, in his commentary on the Hebrew text of Genesis, writes,
6-8 Second Work: The Firmament.—The second fiat calls into existence a firmament, whose function is to divide the primeval waters into an upper and lower ocean, leaving a space between as the theater of further creative developments. The “firmament” is the dome of heaven, which to the ancients was no optical illusion, but a material structure, sometimes compared to an “upper chamber” (Ps. 104:12, Am 9:6) supported by “pillars” (Jb 26:11), and resembling in its surface a “molten mirror” (Jb 37:18). Above this are the heavenly waters, from which the rain descends through “windows” or “doors” (Gn 7:11, 8:2, 2 Ki 7:2, 19) opened and shut by God at His pleasure (Ps 78:23).
For further and much more extensive proof that this word רָקִיעַ is correctly translated as “dome,” please see the following link:
The Firmament and the Water Above: Seely
This reference is especially important because the article was originally published in 1991 in The Westminster Theological Journal 53 (1991) 227-40, a journal that was “
founded upon the conviction that the Holy Scriptures are the word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.” Moreover, The Westminster Theological Journal is published by Westminster Theological Seminary,
one of the most theologically conservative seminaries anywhere in the world!
