Firmament

The firmament is the sky. It is debated on whether the term can be interpreted to mean expanse or whether it should be translated to mean a solid dome.^[1] Many modern translations translate the Hebrew word as "expanse," but the King James Bible translates the word as firmament.^[1] According to Genesis in the KJV version, God created the firmament to separate the "waters above" the earth from those below: "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."^[2] The word is anglicized from Latin firmamentum, which appears in the Vulgate. This, in turn, is a Latinization of the Greek stereōma, used in the Septuagint.

Nearly all pre-scientific peoples believed that the sky was a solid dome.^[1] "Firm is the sky and firm is the earth," according the Rig Veda, an Indian scripture.^[3]

Augustine wrote that too much learning had been expended speculating on the nature of the firmament.^[4] John Calvin proposed that firmament be interpreted as clouds. But he did not commit himself to this explanation: "As it became a theologian, [Moses] had to respect us rather than the stars."^[5]

References[edit]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Is the raqiya‘ (‘firmament’) a solid dome? Equivocal language in the cosmology of Genesis 1 and the Old Testament: a response to Paul H. Seely by James Patrick Holding
2. ↑ Genesis 1:6
3. ↑ "The Firmament and the Water Above", Westminster Theological Journal, 53 (1991), 232–233.
4. ↑ Grant, Edward, Planets, stars, and orbs: the medieval cosmos, 1200-1687. p. 335.
5. ↑ Calvin, comment on verse 1:15.