![]() Appealing to a Platonic division between base and heavenly or spiritual matter, Augustine of Hippo would distinguish between the waters below the firmament and the waters above the firmament. For Origen, the resolution was in by supposing two heavens and two Earths: a pair created on the first day residing in the invisible and supreme region of creation, and a visible pair (corresponding to the firmament from the second day and the "dry land" from the third) that acted as its corporeal, physical counterpart and as the plain in which humans existed. One problem for Christian interpreters was in understanding the distinction between the heaven created on the first day and the firmament created in the second day. This picture was geocentric and represented the cosmos as a whole as spherical. However, the work of Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Thales, followed by classical Greek theoreticians like Aristotle and Ptolemy ushered in the notions of a spherical Earth and an Earth floating in the center of the cosmos as opposed to resting on a body of water. Prior to the systematic study of the cosmos by the Ionian School in the city of Miletus in the 6th century BC, the early Greek conception of cosmology was closely related to that of near eastern cosmology and envisioned a flat Earth with a solid firmament above the Earth supported by pillars. A Babylonian clay tablet from the 6th century BC illustrates a world map. The gap between heaven and Earth was bridged by ziggurats and these supported stairways that allowed gods to descend into the Earth from the heavenly realm. Beyond the firmament is the upper waters, above which further still is the divine abode. The two primary structural representations of the firmament was that it was flat and hovering over the Earth, or that it was a dome and entirely enclosed the Earth's surface. Between these two main sources, there is a fundamental agreement in the cosmological models pronounced: this included a flat and likely disk-shaped world with a solid firmament. Near eastern cosmology is primarily known from cuneiform literature (such as the Enūma Eliš) and the Bible : in particular, the Genesis creation narrative as well as some passing references in the Psalms and the Book of Isaiah. Main article: Ancient near eastern cosmology The Vulgate translates rāqīaʿ with firmamentum, and that remains the best rendering. The meaning of the verb rqʿ concerns the hammering of the vault of heaven into firmness (Isa. Rāqīaʿ means that which is firmly hammered, stamped (a word of the same root in Phoenecian means "tin dish"!). "the vault of heaven, or 'firmament,' regarded by Hebrews as solid and supporting 'waters' above it." A related noun, riqquaʿ ( רִקּוּעַ), found in Numbers 16.38 (Hebrew numbering 17.3), refers to the process of hammering metal into sheets. "(flat) expanse (as if of ice), as base, support", and 2. The Hebrew lexicographers Brown, Driver and Briggs gloss the noun with "extended surface, (solid) expanse (as if beaten out)" and distinguish two main uses: 1. Rāqīaʿ derives from the root rqʿ ( רָקַע), meaning "to beat or spread out thinly". These words all translate the Biblical Hebrew word rāqīaʿ ( רָקִ֫יעַ), used for example in Genesis 1.6, where it is contrasted with shamayim ( שָׁמַיִם), translated as " heaven(s)" in Genesis 1.1. This in turn is a calque of the Greek στερέωμᾰ ( steréōma), also meaning a solid or firm structure (Greek στερεός = rigid), which appears in the Septuagint, the Greek translation made by Jewish scholars around 200 BC. The same word is found in French and German Bible translations, all from Latin firmamentum (a firm object), used in the Vulgate (4th century). It later appeared in the King James Bible. ![]() In English, the word "firmament" is recorded as early as 1250, in the Middle English Story of Genesis and Exodus. Today it is known as a synonym for sky or heaven. The concept was adopted into the subsequent Classical/Medieval model of heavenly spheres, but was dropped with advances in astronomy in the 16th and 17th centuries. In biblical cosmology, the firmament ( Hebrew: רָקִ֫יעַ rāqīa) is the vast solid dome created by God during the Genesis creation narrative to divide the primal sea into upper and lower portions so that the dry land could appear. In ancient near eastern cosmology, the firmament signified a cosmic barrier that separated the heavenly waters above from the Earth below. ![]() The firmament ( raqia), Sheol, and Tehom are depicted. An artist's depiction of the early Hebrew conception of the cosmos. For the video game, see Firmament (video game).
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