"The interpretation that seems to come the closest to understanding the “science” behind the Torah’s description here is that of the peshat commentator (ca. The Firmament Blocks the Light: Rabbi Joseph Kara See also this page of Roger Evans' Genesis in Context. This view is compatible with a literal understanding of Scripture but is not required by it. See Ecclesiastes 1:5 for reference to some ancient scholars who argued that the Sun is hidden by the Firmament at night time, turning around at sunset and going back eastward behind it. Thus, he believed, the “firm” words were not to be read literally. He understood the words רקיע and στερέωμα to refer to something solid, but believed that the firmament was actually rushing air, blowing so hard that it held up the waters above. It was understood that the sky was solid in Bible times and later, and that the words רקיע (raqia) and στερέωμα (stereoma) had that meaning - this accounts for Jerome's Latin neologism “firmamentum” created when he made the Vulgate translation, and from there the English word firmament in the King James Version and elsewhere.Ĭommon Understanding in the Ancient Near East Ben Stanhope ”On William Lane Craig's (mis)interpretation of Othmar Keel and criticism of my Hebrew cosmology illustration” Stanhope response to Craig Ben Stanhope’s cosmology illustrationĪncient understanding of "the Firmament" ( raqia) and "the Heavens" ( shamayim)īasil of Caesarea (330-379), who died a few years before Jerome was born, is a solitary exception with respect to this ancient understanding of Biblical cosmology. Here the Lord causes the sky, pictured as a dome or vault, to sink down as he descends in the storm. For the bowing of the heavens consider this NET Bible note to Psalm 144:5:Ī tn The Hebrew verb נָטָה (natah) can carry the sense "to bend to bow down." For example, Gen 49:15 pictures Issachar as a donkey that "bends" its shoulder or back under a burden. Whatever the Shamayim was/were and how ever it is to be translated, the Bible speaks of it, perhaps in poetical exaggeration, as something that could bend under pressure. LXX (Septuagint) Old Testament: Greek στερέωμα (stereoma) Vulgate: Latin firmamentum The Heavens in the Bible See Ezekiel 1:26-28, The Sun's Path at Night. The Hebrew raki'a suggests a hammered-out slab, not necessarily arched, but the English architectural term with its celestial associations created by poetic tradition is otherwise appropriate. Robert Alter translates raqia as "vault" in Genesis 1:6 and gives this footnote: Oren Faas, My Encounter with the Firmament at Natan Slifkin, "The Sun’s Path at Night", Rationalist Judaism (2010). 4:5), to the “50 year journey” firmament of Rav Judah (j. Chagigah 12b), to the two firmaments of R Judah (ibid.), from the finger-width firmament of Rav Joshua ben R Nehemia (Gen. The Talmud, for instance, records varying opinions about the thickness of what is clearly a solid firmament from the seven layer firmaments of Resh Lakish (b. The Firmament was created on the Second Day the Sun was created on the Fourth Day.Įvery pre-Copernican commentator in Judaism who wrote about the rakia knew exactly what it was. See the story of the word in Latin below. When he translated the Vulgate into Middle English in the 1380s, John Wycliffe transliterated Jerome's Latin firmamentum into English, perhaps with an eye on the 12th Century French borrowing of the same word from Church Latin. 4.3 A modern interpretation: the "expanse". 4.1.2 Ancient understanding of "the Firmament" ( raqia) and "the Heavens" ( shamayim).4.1 Common Understanding in the Ancient Near East.2.2 LXX (Septuagint) Old Testament: Greek στερέωμα (stereoma).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |