Go on about the graphics all you want, but the evidence for this system is to be found in our bibles.
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Heavens, Earth, and underworld[edit]
The
Hebrew Bible depicted a three-part world, with the heavens (
shamayim) above, Earth (
eres) in the middle, and the underworld (
sheol) below.
[24] After the 4th century BCE this was gradually replaced by a Greek scientific cosmology of a spherical earth surrounded by multiple concentric heavens.
[9]
The cosmic ocean[edit]
Further information:
Tehom
The three-part world of heavens, Earth and underworld floated in
Tehom, the mythological cosmic ocean, which covered the Earth until God created the
firmament to divide it into upper and lower portions and reveal the dry land;
[25] the world has been protected from the cosmic ocean ever since by the solid dome of the firmament.
[26]
The
tehom is, or was, hostile to God: it confronted him at the beginning of the world (
Psalm 104:6ff) but fled from the dry land at his rebuke; he has now set a boundary or bar for it which it cannot pass (Jeremiah 5:22 and Job 38:8–10).
[27] The cosmic sea is the home of monsters which God conquers: "By his power he stilled the sea, by his understanding he smote Rahab!" (Job 26:12f).
[27] (Rahab is an exclusively Hebrew sea-monster; others, including
Leviathan and the
tannin, or dragons, are found in
Ugaritic texts; it is not entirely clear whether they are identical with Sea or are Sea's helpers).
[28] The "bronze sea" which stood in the forecourt of the Temple in Jerusalem probably corresponds to the "sea" in Babylonian temples, representing the
apsu, the cosmic ocean.
[29]
In the New Testament Jesus' conquest of the stormy sea shows the conquering deity overwhelming the forces of chaos: a mere word of command from the
Son of God stills the foe (
Mark 4:35–41), who then tramples over his enemy, (
Jesus walking on water -
Mark 6:45, 47–51).
[30] In
Revelation, where the
Archangel Michael expels the dragon (
Satan) from heaven ("And war broke out in heaven, with Michael and his angels attacking the dragon..." –
Revelation 12:7), the motif can be traced back to Leviathan in Israel and to
Tiamat, the chaos-ocean, in Babylonian myth, identified with Satan via an interpretation of the
serpent in Eden.
[31]
Heavens[edit]
The
Tablet of Shamash depicting a solid sky with stars embedded holding up the heavenly ocean.[
citation needed]
Form and structure[edit]
Further information:
Firmament
In the Old Testament the word
shamayim represented both the sky/atmosphere, and the dwelling place of God.
[32] The
raqia or
firmament – the visible sky – was a solid inverted bowl over the Earth, coloured blue from the heavenly ocean above it.
[33] Rain, snow, wind and hail were kept in storehouses outside the raqia, which had "windows" to allow them in – the waters for
Noah's flood entered when the "windows of heaven" were opened.
[34] Heaven extended down to and was coterminous with (i.e. it touched) the farthest edges of the Earth (e.g. Deuteronomy 4:32);
[35] humans looking up from Earth saw the floor of heaven, which they saw also as God's throne, as made of clear blue
lapis-lazuli (Exodus 24:9–10), and (Ezekiel 1:26).
[36] Below that was a layer of water, the source of rain, which was separated from us by an impenetrable barrier, the firmament (Genesis 1:6–8). The rain may also be stored in heavenly cisterns (Job: 38:37) or storehouses (Deut 28:12) alongside the storehouses for wind, hail and snow.
[37]
Grammatically the word
shamayim can be either dual (two) or plural (more than two), without ruling out the singular (one).
[38] As a result, it is not clear whether there were one, two, or more heavens in the Old Testament,
[39] but most likely there was only one, and phrases such as "heaven of heavens" were meant to stress the vastness of God's realm.
[35]
The Babylonians had a more complex idea of heaven, and during the
Babylonian exile (6th century BCE) the influence of Babylonian cosmology led to the idea of a plurality of heavens among Jews.
[40] This continued into the New Testament:
Revelation apparently has only one heaven, but the
Epistle to the Hebrews and the epistles to the Colossians and the Ephesians have more than one, although they don't specify how many,
[41] and the
apostle Paul tells of his visit to the third heaven, the place, according to contemporary thought, where the garden of
Paradise is to be found.
[42] The reference to the "third heaven" may refer to one of two cosmological systems present in antiquity: one where the cosmos was divided into seven heavens, and the other where the cosmos was divided into three.
[43]
Biblical cosmology - Wikipedia
