Genesis scholar Kenneth Mathews explains, “In the Old Testament elsewhere there is evidence that the Hebrews understood that clouds produced rains and thus, from a phenomenological perspective, ‘water’ can be described as belonging to the upper atmosphere.” Mathews supplies the following verses as support for his argument: Some scholars believe that the waters above the expanse are clouds. Are the waters above a reference to clouds? Genesis scholars agree that the waters below the expanse are the surface waters of the earth, but there isn’t consensus about the nature of the waters above the earth. Second, he organized “waters” above the expanse. First, God organized water on the surface of the earth. It also organized the “waters” into two places. The expanse God created enabled people and some animals to breathe the air it contained. Some English translations like the NLT add descriptions like “the waters of the heavens” and “the waters of the earth,” but the modifiers “heavens” and “earth” don’t appear in the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:6. However, there are differences of opinion about what the “waters above” mean. Scholars agree that the “waters below” refer to the seas that cover the earth. What is a water canopy? See below What does separating waters from waters mean? The simple definition of the word is “the vault or arch of the sky” ( Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary).Īlso see Where Is Noah’s Ark? to learn more. The word “firmament” isn’t a common English word in the twenty-first century, yet the KJV and NKJV translations help keep it in the vocabulary of many Bible readers. Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.”Īnd God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” (Also NKJV)Īnd God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” TranslationĪnd God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” (Also NASB and CSB)Īnd God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. As the table below shows, Bible translations render the word differently. The Hebrew word raqia (רָקִ֖יעַ) refers to an extended surface or expanse. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day” (v. “And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. 55:11), an expanse appeared and separated the waters. Since God’s word accomplishes its purposes (cf. 3), he spoke space into existence between the waters above and below on the second day, saying, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters” (v. Just as God spoke light into being on the first day, saying, “let there be light” (v. Yet it wasn’t until the second day of creation that God acted upon the “face of the deep” or the “face of the waters,” which most Genesis scholars believe are parallel descriptions. On the first day, God created light, which penetrated the blackness that enveloped the world (v. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. The second verse of the Bible explains that before the first day of creation, God’s Spirit hovered over the unfashioned waters of the earth. How do Bible translations describe the expanse? See below Let There Be An Expanse: What God Created On Day Two
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