Perhaps Seely would have been more precise if he had avoided using the term “Firmament” and spent more time dealing with the double-waters scenario in general. Below is a snapshot of some pages that concisely treat the Sumerian/Akkadian/Babylonian mythological arc on the Waters of creation!
I actually remember reading about this, but had forgotten how it had flowed into the Semitic cosmology of Earth’s creation!
I think we can now safely say that Egypt, the Hebrew and the Babylonians all had an impression that there were waters up in the heavens…
I note your previous objection that we can’t be sure the Egyptians thought the Solar Barge, traveling above the Earth, was actually plying waters or not. And I understand that objection. But even here … if the Hebrew merely “jumped to the conclusion” that the Solar Barges traveled on real water in the sky … that would certainly be understandable.
The Egyptian culture was a very old, and presumably very wise, culture - - and so it is not like the Hebrew had to invent the whole notion on their own. I do think they had the most elaborate construction of the entire operation . . . even if they weren’t the ones to come up with the general idea first.
