Deep Space and the Dome of Heaven

[gbrooks9 (George Brooks, TE (E.volutionary T.heist OR P.rovidentialist))]

@Eddie

Regarding “heaven,” as someone steeped in Biblical scholarship, I’m so used to the fact that Biblical scholars don’t confuse different meanings of the word “heaven” that I use “heaven” freely without the popular connotations you are speaking about. And most of the people here who comment on the issues seem to be well-read and I’ve been assuming that by “heaven” they know what I’m talking about. However, just to confirm what you are saying, “heaven” in the Genesis 1 account means “what we see when we look up there – the realm of the sun and moon and stars, the part of the world from which rain and lightning come, etc.” It doesn’t mean some place you go when you die where everyone is white and semi-transparent and sings on harps and God sits on a throne etc. Heaven (shamayim) is a physical part of the world, like “earth.”

@Eddie… yes, very reassuring.

And yet, this is not how Jon is interpreting the word, right?

From Jon’s post:

"Similarly, “the heavens” are formally named “shemayim” only when the raqia is formed on Day 2, . . . Remember that heaven is to become God’s own realm (within the imagery being presented in the Bible), and nowhere in Genesis or elsewhere is God pictured as dwelling on, in or under the sky, but above all things - he does not look up at the ocean, but down on all his works: the biblical phrase is “everything under heaven”, not “everything under the uppermost waters”.

As you can see, even the very knowledgeable Jon has succumbed to the siren call of HEAVEN…

George