The Solid Sky Expanse and Dome of Biblical Cosmology and the Ancient Near

[Job 33:6]

between the years 4000BC and toughly 500BC, many cultures held a view that the sky was a solid structure, like a dome. that rested sbove the earth.

this dome would hold the stars up against the force of gravity, before ancient cultures knew how far away the stars were.

above the dome, the sky was blue by day and black by night. the same color as water in the seas and rivers. and thus, many ancient cultures held to a belief in "waters above".

ancient artifacts such as the tablet of shamarah. the sarcophagus of wereshnefer, etchings lf the sky goddess nut on the tomb of king ramses, the babylonian map of the world, and ancient texts from babylonian and caananite, egyptian, assyrian, alkadian and broadwr mesopotamian texts, confirm this.

it wasnt until around 500 BC that early measurements were made of the curvature of the earth.

Spherical Earth - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Galileo is later credited with the promotion of heliocentrism at roufhly 1600AD.

with the old testament dating back to at least 1200BC, it is fair to ask, "does the Bible fescribe modern 21st century science?" Or does the Bible describe ancient near east cosmology?

Biblical scholarly consensus is currently "No", it does not describe 21st century scjence and with that, I present the following Bible verses and material on ancient near east cosmology, for general awareness.

And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
Genesis 1:6

God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
Genesis 1:7‭-‬8

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,
Genesis 1:14

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
Genesis 7:11

the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained,
Genesis 8:2

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.”
Genesis 1:20

And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him [or stood above it] and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring;
Genesis 28:12‭-‬13

and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.
Exodus 24:10

Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror?
Job 37:18

Hast thou with him spread out the sky, Which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?
Job 37:18

can you join him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze?
Job 37:18

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in;
Isaiah 40:22

Over the heads of the living creatures there was something like a dome, shining like crystal, spread out above their heads.
Ezekiel 1:22

And above the dome over their heads there was something like a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was something that seemed like a human form.
Ezekiel 1:26

Then I looked, and above the dome that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something like a sapphire, in form resembling a throne.
Ezekiel 10:1

When He established the heavens, I was there, When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, When He made firm the skies above, When the springs of the deep became fixed, When He set for the sea its boundary So that the water would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth;
Proverbs 8:27‭-‬29

The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Revelation 6:14

 

[Original Happy Camper]

I read these verses the other day and wanted to share.

And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
Genesis 1:6

God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
Genesis 1:7‭-‬8

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,
Genesis 1:14

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
Genesis 7:11

the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained,
Genesis 8:2

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.”
Genesis 1:20

And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him [or stood above it] and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring;
Genesis 28:12‭-‬13

and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.
Exodus 24:10

Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror?
Job 37:18

Hast thou with him spread out the sky, Which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?
Job 37:18

can you join him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze?
Job 37:18

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in;
Isaiah 40:22

Over the heads of the living creatures there was something like a dome, shining like crystal, spread out above their heads.
Ezekiel 1:22

And above the dome over their heads there was something like a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was something that seemed like a human form.
Ezekiel 1:26

Then I looked, and above the dome that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something like a sapphire, in form resembling a throne.
Ezekiel 10:1

When He established the heavens, I was there, When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, When He made firm the skies above, When the springs of the deep became fixed, When He set for the sea its boundary So that the water would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth;
Proverbs 8:27‭-‬29

The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Revelation 6:14

I Searched multiple different bibles and dome is not found in Genesis 1:6
Go back to a better translation of the bible and you will not go down these type of rabbit trails.

 

[d taylor]

I Searched multiple different bibles and dome is not found in Genesis 1:6
Go back to a better translation of the bible and you will not go down these type of rabbit trails.

Everett Fox and The Complete Jewish Bible both use dome.

 

[d taylor]

-​

I am a plain,stationary earth believer but the maker of this video posted below is not. But He still states that the early people were.

The Solid Sky Dome of Biblical Cosmology and the Ancient Near East

 

[JAL]

I read these verses the other day and wanted to share.

And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
Genesis 1:6

God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
Genesis 1:7‭-‬8

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,
Genesis 1:14

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
Genesis 7:11

the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained,
Genesis 8:2

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.”
Genesis 1:20

And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him [or stood above it] and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring;
Genesis 28:12‭-‬13

and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.
Exodus 24:10

Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror?
Job 37:18

Hast thou with him spread out the sky, Which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?
Job 37:18

can you join him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze?
Job 37:18

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in;
Isaiah 40:22

Over the heads of the living creatures there was something like a dome, shining like crystal, spread out above their heads.
Ezekiel 1:22

And above the dome over their heads there was something like a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was something that seemed like a human form.
Ezekiel 1:26

Then I looked, and above the dome that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something like a sapphire, in form resembling a throne.
Ezekiel 10:1

When He established the heavens, I was there, When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, When He made firm the skies above, When the springs of the deep became fixed, When He set for the sea its boundary So that the water would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth;
Proverbs 8:27‭-‬29

The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Revelation 6:14

A few years back I read a 2-part article by Paul Seely, named "The Firmament and the Water Above". As I recall, he argued that the Hebrew text is so unambiguous on this issue that, throughout history, both Jews and Christians unanimously held to a solid dome, anchoring the stars in the sky, until Renaissance science caused them to question the literal reading. Today, the consensus is for a non-literal reading.

I accept the literal reading. Like the church father Tertullian, I am a staunch materialist. The (physical) divine Word is volumetrically dispersed throughout the universe, filling it more or less sparsely, applying pressure to every particle as needed to uphold the universe, thereby "sustaining all things by the word of his power" (Heb 1:3). In other words He is the source of gravity upholding the stars. They are physically anchored in Him. Thus the crystalline dome/firmament of Genesis simply refers to a subsection of the divine Word positioned to anchor the stars of our solar system, precisely as He is doing for all solar systems.

Yahweh is highly skilled at keeping such physical dynamics hidden from our eyes and indetectable to human instruments. Recently I was debating with someone on materialism. He said to me, basically, "There's no way God is like a magician hiding material things from human instruments." I said, "Fine. In that case, pull out your instruments and pinpoint for me the exact current location of Christ's physical body, and the throne upon which He sits." He didn't seem to have a good reply.

 

[Job 33:6]

Everett Fox and The Complete Jewish Bible both use dome.

@Original Happy Camper

LEB, CJB, CEB, GNT, NASB (1 case in amos), NABRE, NRSV, OJB among others use "dome". These tend to lean more toward direct translation from Hebrew than versions that lean more toward word for word translations rather than thought for thought.

NRSV I think tends to lean pretty far into the word for word side along with influence from ancient near east context. I think it's one of the better translations for old testament reading. I'd recommend the Bible App to view many translations as well.

But rather than bickering over translations, just read the context in which the raqia is described.

Pavement, molten metal or molten mirror, crystal, cast bronze, frozen water or ice, which has windows in it that open and close to let water through (Gen 7:11 and 8:2). Among others. The context suggests a solid or "firm" firmament. Spread like being beat out like a blacksmith might beat out or expand molten metal. That birds do not fly within but rather fly across the face of, much like the spirit hovers over the face of the deep. Etc.

The original hebraic context is that the raqia is a solid structure.

 

[d taylor]

@Original Happy Camper

LEB, CJB, CEB, GNT, NASB (1 case in amos), NABRE, NRSV, OJB among others use "dome". These tend to lean more toward direct translation from Hebrew than versions that lean more toward word for word translations rather than thought for thought.

View attachment 321457
NRSV I think tends to lean pretty far into the word for word side along with influence from ancient near east context. I think it's one of the better translations for old testament reading. I'd recommend the Bible App to view many translations as well.

But rather than bickering over translations, just read the context in which the raqia is described.

Pavement, molten metal or molten mirror, crystal, cast bronze, frozen water or ice, which has windows in it that open and close to let water through (Gen 7:11 and 8:2). Among others. The context suggests a solid or "firm" firmament. Spread like being beat out like a blacksmith might beat out or expand molten metal. That birds do not fly within but rather fly across the face of, much like the spirit hovers over the face of the deep. Etc.

The original hebraic context is that the raqia is a solid structure.

What i have come to see this as, over the years. Is that This raqia, is above and is where the sun, moon and stars are place and is solid and crystal clear so we can not actually distinguish the raqia from the air above us. And like Genesis 1:20 states the birds fly across the face of it. I do not believe that means the birds fly in the raqia.

But that is the question i still ponder is the raqia separate from our air. I believe it is.

 

[Job 33:6]

A few years back I read a 2-part article by Paul Seely, named "The Firmament and the Water Above". As I recall, he argued that the Hebrew text is so unambiguous on this issue that, throughout history, both Jews and Christians unanimously held to a solid dome, anchoring the stars in the sky, until Renaissance science caused them to question the literal reading. Today, the consensus is for a non-literal reading.

I accept the literal reading. Like the church father Tertullian, I am a staunch materialist. The (physical) divine Word is volumetrically dispersed throughout the universe, filling it more or less sparsely, applying pressure to every particle as needed to uphold the universe, thereby "sustaining all things by the word of his power" (Heb 1:3). In other words He is the source of gravity upholding the stars. They are physically anchored in Him. Thus the crystalline dome/firmament of Genesis simply refers to a subsection of the divine Word positioned to anchor the stars of our solar system, precisely as He is doing for all solar systems.

Yahweh is highly skilled at keeping such physical dynamics hidden from our eyes and indetectable to human instruments. Recently I was debating with someone on materialism. He said to me, basically, "There's no way God is like a magician hiding material things from human instruments." I said, "Fine. In that case, pull out your instruments and pinpoint for me the exact current location of Christ's physical body, and the throne upon which He sits." He didn't seem to have a good reply.

Paul Seelys article is great, very detailed as well.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

I Searched multiple different bibles and dome is not found in Genesis 1:6
Go back to a better translation of the bible and you will not go down these type of rabbit trails.

Then God said: Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other. Gensis 1:6 NAB

 

[The Barbarian]

I Searched multiple different bibles and dome is not found in Genesis 1:6
Go back to a better translation of the bible and you will not go down these type of rabbit trails.

Genesis 7:11
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.

 

[mindlight]

I read these verses the other day and wanted to share.

And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
Genesis 1:6

God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
Genesis 1:7‭-‬8

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,
Genesis 1:14

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
Genesis 7:11

the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained,
Genesis 8:2

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.”
Genesis 1:20

And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him [or stood above it] and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring;
Genesis 28:12‭-‬13

and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.
Exodus 24:10

Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror?
Job 37:18

Hast thou with him spread out the sky, Which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?
Job 37:18

can you join him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze?
Job 37:18

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in;
Isaiah 40:22

Over the heads of the living creatures there was something like a dome, shining like crystal, spread out above their heads.
Ezekiel 1:22

And above the dome over their heads there was something like a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was something that seemed like a human form.
Ezekiel 1:26

Then I looked, and above the dome that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something like a sapphire, in form resembling a throne.
Ezekiel 10:1

When He established the heavens, I was there, When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, When He made firm the skies above, When the springs of the deep became fixed, When He set for the sea its boundary So that the water would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth;
Proverbs 8:27‭-‬29

The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Revelation 6:14

Straw man argument based on a faulty reading of the actual words of scripture:

Genesis 1:6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. NASB (one of the better translations)

 

[JAL]

Straw man argument based on a faulty reading of the actual words of scripture:

Genesis 1:6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. NASB (one of the better translations)

A solid-dome reading unanimous among Christian and Jewish scholars until the Renaissance is merely a strawman? Since these ancient people did not believe in gravity, they had to believe that some kind of solid sky was upholding the stars, preventing them from falling out of the sky. Right? Since the text seems to address this problem, isn't that a likely reading?

 

[mindlight]

A solid-dome reading unanimous among Christian and Jewish scholars until the Renaissance is merely a strawman? Since these ancient people did not believe in gravity, they had to believe that some kind of solid sky was upholding the stars, preventing them from falling out of the sky. Right? Since the text seems to address this problem, isn't that a likely reading?

I believe the word rāqīa was used here before the Ancient Near East settled on a perception of the sky as a solid firmament and was passed down from Abraham in the oral history of the creation that Moses finally wrote down in Genesis. The word itself is flexible enough to allow a different meaning than a dome or fixed firmament. Phenomenologically we speak of the sun rising in the East and setting in the West and even the sky appears fixed above us. But the appearance of a thing to an observer on the ground may differ from reality as we know more. The bible is mainly written in phenomenological language but the words chosen are remarkably flexible and allow the deeper meanings that science has uncovered since.

Many atheistic or misguided Christian scholars undermine respect for scripture by suggesting that its language was borrowed from contemporary false religions and loaded with their assumptions rather than being created before them. They load falsities onto the text that the texts themselves can overthrow. We should not be so accepting of their conclusions as we so often are.

 

[The Barbarian]

I believe the word rāqīa was used here before the Ancient Near East settled on a perception of the sky as a solid firmament and was passed down from Abraham in the oral history of the creation that Moses finally wrote down in Genesis.

Seems unlikely, since such stories precede Ur, from which Abraham came.

 

[mindlight]

Seems unlikely, since such stories precede Ur, from which Abraham came.

Unless Abraham got his account from Noah. He was a middle-aged man when Noah died. Noah in turn may have heard from his father.

Also, I doubt your datings of ANE literature.

 

[JAL]

I believe the word rāqīa was used here before the Ancient Near East settled on a perception of the sky as a solid firmament and was passed down from Abraham in the oral history of the creation that Moses finally wrote down in Genesis. The word itself is flexible enough to allow a different meaning than a dome or fixed firmament. Phenomenologically we speak of the sun rising in the East and setting in the West and even the sky appears fixed above us. But the appearance of a thing to an observer on the ground may differ from reality as we know more. The bible is mainly written in phenomenological language but the words chosen are remarkably flexible and allow the deeper meanings that science has uncovered since.

Many atheistic or misguided Christian scholars undermine respect for scripture by suggesting that its language was borrowed from contemporary false religions and loaded with their assumptions rather than being created before them. They load falsities onto the text that the texts themselves can overthrow. We should not be so accepting of their conclusions as we so often are.

The crystalline firmament rests upon a few additional verses as well, notably Ez 1:22-26 where Christ's throne seems seated on a crystalline platform. Therefore His feet are resting on crystalline pavement as Ex 24:10 seems to confirm.

"9Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10and they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was a work like a pavement made of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself."

Obviously this thread and the video have cited a few additional verses as well. So I think it's clear that non-solid sky proceeds more from science than biblical text and context. And that's somewhat okay, because we need to allow the idea of textual accommodations to the ancient mind. But let's not be hasty here.

After all, what upholds the stars in the sky? Newton invented the theory of gravity but didn't believe it himself! He never took it literally and considered it naive to do so. What is this notion of an immaterial force acting at a distance? How can I push or pull you into a swimming pool if you are standing out of reach at the opposite end? It doesn't make sense. Therefore Newton theorized that gravity must be either the hand of God at work (which is my position) or atmospheric pressure (which isn't likely scientifically, from what I've heard).

In my view, then, there MUST be solid sky (the hand of God), even if He keeps it indetectable to human instruments. For example I can't see Christ's throne right now, but one day we will all see it.

 

[mindlight]

The crystalline firmament rests upon a few additional verses as well, notably Ez 1:22-26 where Christ's throne seems seated on a crystalline platform. Therefore His feet are resting on crystalline pavement as Ex 24:10 seems to confirm.

"9Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10and they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was a work like a pavement made of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself."

Obviously this thread and the video have cited a few additional verses as well. So I think it's clear that non-solid sky proceeds more from science than biblical text and context. And that's somewhat okay, because we need to allow the idea of textual accommodations to the ancient mind. But let's not be hasty here.

After all, what upholds the stars in the sky? Newton invented the theory of gravity but didn't believe it himself! He never took it literally and considered it naive to do so. What is this notion of an immaterial force acting at a distance? How can I push or pull you into a swimming pool if you are standing out of reach at the opposite end? It doesn't make sense. Therefore Newton theorized that gravity must be either the hand of God at work (which is my position) or atmospheric pressure (which isn't likely scientifically, from what I've heard).

In my view, then, there MUST be solid sky (the hand of God), even if He keeps it indetectable to human instruments. For example I can't see Christ's throne right now, but one day we will all see it.

Not sure the verses you cited really support the notion of a solid sky, though I understand how someone with that worldview might read them like that.

22 Now over the heads of the living beings there was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal, spread out over their heads. 23 Under the expanse their wings were stretched out straight, one toward the other; each one also had two wings covering its body on the one side and on the other. 24 And I also heard the sound of their wings, like the sound of abundant waters as they went, like the voice of the Almighty, a sound of a crowd like the sound of an army camp; whenever they stopped, they let down their wings. 25 And a voice came from above the expanse that was over their heads; whenever they stood still, they let down their wings.

26 Now above the expanse that was over their heads there was something resembling a throne, like lapis lazuli in appearance; and on that which resembled a throne, high up, was a figure with the appearance of a man. NASB

they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.

How we interpret the throne room of God requires a few points of understanding first.

God is not beholden to His creation, though its boundaries and laws were set by Him. The interpenetration of the highest heaven and the material world is a mix of dimensions that do not have to correspond with ideas of up and down or our dim comprehensions of the rules of the game. This same transcendence makes revelations of God much more mysterious than many would like them to be. If we get to see God we are interacting with a great cloud of unknowing that would explode our minds beyond all our capacity for reason were we truly to let it in. Such an experience would silence all dissent and possibly all conversation, what could be worth saying after that.

The NASB translation is more honest because it says the guy saw something like this or that not something that was readily accessible to worldly minds.

It is possible God created the entire universe in a goldfish bowl whose boundaries continually elude us. If the James Webb telescope has added any value to this conversation then perhaps it is to suggest that the glass is even further back than previously expected as we are seeing fully formed mature galaxies in the gaps between the stars where we had expected to stare at the hardly formed versions from the beginning of the universe, just after the "Big Bang" (if indeed that ever occurred at all).

 

[JAL]

Not sure the verses you cited really support the notion of a solid sky, though I understand how someone with that worldview might read them like that.

22 Now over the heads of the living beings there was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal, spread out over their heads. 23 Under the expanse their wings were stretched out straight, one toward the other; each one also had two wings covering its body on the one side and on the other. 24 And I also heard the sound of their wings, like the sound of abundant waters as they went, like the voice of the Almighty, a sound of a crowd like the sound of an army camp; whenever they stopped, they let down their wings. 25 And a voice came from above the expanse that was over their heads; whenever they stood still, they let down their wings.

26 Now above the expanse that was over their heads there was something resembling a throne, like lapis lazuli in appearance; and on that which resembled a throne, high up, was a figure with the appearance of a man. NASB

they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.

How we interpret the throne room of God requires a few points of understanding first.

God is not beholden to His creation, though its boundaries and laws were set by Him. The interpenetration of the highest heaven and the material world is a mix of dimensions that do not have to correspond with ideas of up and down or our dim comprehensions of the rules of the game. This same transcendence makes revelations of God much more mysterious than many would like them to be. If we get to see God we are interacting with a great cloud of unknowing that would explode our minds beyond all our capacity for reason were we truly to let it in. Such an experience would silence all dissent and possibly all conversation, what could be worth saying after that.

The NASB translation is more honest because it says the guy saw something like this or that not something that was readily accessible to worldly minds.

It is possible God created the entire universe in a goldfish bowl whose boundaries continually elude us. If the James Webb telescope has added any value to this conversation then perhaps it is to suggest that the glass is even further back than previously expected as we are seeing fully formed mature galaxies in the gaps between the stars where we had expected to stare at the hardly formed versions from the beginning of the universe, just after the "Big Bang" (if indeed that ever occurred at all).

I'll paraphrase your words: "God resides in a kind of science-fiction, fantasy-land called 'multiple dimensions' utterly mysterious and incomprehensible to the human mind. Hence none of us can really say anything definite/definitive about cosmology, we really don't know, we have no idea."

Fine. But in that case - if all you can say is, "I don't know" - then you can't really fault someone who pits his dome interpretation against your empty-void interpretation. (You have no right to presume your position to be the default reading, shifting the burden of proof onto us).

Meanwhile you have not really accomplished much in the way of resolving Newton's dilemma as to what REALLY upholds the stars.

 

[Job 33:6]

Not sure the verses you cited really support the notion of a solid sky, though I understand how someone with that worldview might read them like that.

22 Now over the heads of the living beings there was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal, spread out over their heads. 23 Under the expanse their wings were stretched out straight, one toward the other; each one also had two wings covering its body on the one side and on the other. 24 And I also heard the sound of their wings, like the sound of abundant waters as they went, like the voice of the Almighty, a sound of a crowd like the sound of an army camp; whenever they stopped, they let down their wings. 25 And a voice came from above the expanse that was over their heads; whenever they stood still, they let down their wings.

26 Now above the expanse that was over their heads there was something resembling a throne, like lapis lazuli in appearance; and on that which resembled a throne, high up, was a figure with the appearance of a man. NASB

they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.

How we interpret the throne room of God requires a few points of understanding first.

God is not beholden to His creation, though its boundaries and laws were set by Him. The interpenetration of the highest heaven and the material world is a mix of dimensions that do not have to correspond with ideas of up and down or our dim comprehensions of the rules of the game. This same transcendence makes revelations of God much more mysterious than many would like them to be. If we get to see God we are interacting with a great cloud of unknowing that would explode our minds beyond all our capacity for reason were we truly to let it in. Such an experience would silence all dissent and possibly all conversation, what could be worth saying after that.

The NASB translation is more honest because it says the guy saw something like this or that not something that was readily accessible to worldly minds.

It is possible God created the entire universe in a goldfish bowl whose boundaries continually elude us. If the James Webb telescope has added any value to this conversation then perhaps it is to suggest that the glass is even further back than previously expected as we are seeing fully formed mature galaxies in the gaps between the stars where we had expected to stare at the hardly formed versions from the beginning of the universe, just after the "Big Bang" (if indeed that ever occurred at all).

 

[The Barbarian]

After all, what upholds the stars in the sky? Newton invented the theory of gravity but didn't believe it himself!

Newton showed that Kepler's Laws were universally valid, and could also explain the motion of comets, moons, and apples falling from a tree. He didn't like the notion of action at a distance, and inferred God just set up the rules and then acted directly to make them work.

Newton;s three laws of motion and his principle of universal gravitation sufficed to regulate the new cosmos, but only, Newton believed, with the help of God. Gravity, he more than once hinted, was direct divine action, as were all forces for order and vitality. Absolute space, for Newton, was essential, because space was the “sensorium of God,” and the divine abode must necessarily be the ultimate coordinate system. Finally, Newton’s analysis of the mutual perturbations of the planets caused by their individual gravitational fields predicted the natural collapse of the solar system unless God acted to set things right again. […]

The final touch to the Newtonian edifice was provided by Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace, whose masterly Traité de mécanique céleste (1798–1827; Celestial Mechanics) systematized everything that had been done in celestial mechanics under Newton’s inspiration. Laplace went beyond Newton by showing that the perturbations of the planetary orbits caused by the interactions of planetary gravitation are in fact periodic and that the solar system is, therefore, stable, requiring no divine intervention.
Did Sir Isaac Newton think that gravity was a divine force? - Quora

The key thing is, Newton's theory of gravitation works, no matter what your beliefs might be. Personally, I think God's constant attention to the universe is what makes it exist and work. But the theory works for an atheist just as well as it works for me.