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  • From: TedBro AT aol.com
  • To: George.Athas AT moore.edu.au, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] sky
  • Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:56:55 -0400 (EDT)

George:

Actually I wrote my Senior Thesis on physical cosmology in the Hebrew
Bible. Discussion of whether the contextual intent of רקיע is literal
description or metaphor was a central theme of the paper... same with
"floodgates", "pillars of the earth" etc.

Although it is possible that the D concept of sky might have been
different from the P concept, the following text might be worth
considering...

Deuteronomy 28:22 The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a
fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the
sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until
thou perish.

28:23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth
that is under thee shall be iron.

28:24 The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven
shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

If the sky becomes metal at times of drought, aren't we dealing with a
metaphor, where metal sky is used to illustrate the shutting out of the rain?

Similarly, we find descriptions of the sky as an icy sheet in Ezekiel, as a
blue turquoise pavement, etc. When these various descriptions are taken as
a whole, shouldn't we best imagine the authors of the texts viewing all
these descriptions, including רקיע , as metaphor?

It seems to me that there are two interpretive errors to be avoided, the
first obviously is imposing modern views on the ancient text. The second is
to avoid overshooting the mark and imposing scientific errors on the text
in our effort to avoid the first.

Peace,
Ted Brownstein






In a message dated 8/30/2012 9:15:22 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
George.Athas AT moore.edu.au writes:

I think you'll find the root רקע refers to 'spreading out' in the same
sense as one hammers out gold plaiting onto a wooden object or panel. The
רקיע, just going by the morphology of the noun, suggests something that is
spread out in the same way, like the gold in the example I just gave. The
sky
is evidently not conceived of as an emptiness or ether, but rather as a
hard thing that has been spread out in this 'hammering out' kind of way.

Yes, there are other words that mean to beat in repetitive manner, like
כתת. But they are in some way synonymous or have overlapping semantic
domains, even as they each have specific exclusive nuances. The root כתת has
the
sense of beating or crushing down in order to pulverise into small pieces.
The idea of רקע is to beat something out in a particular shape—not to
pulverise into pieces.


GEORGE ATHAS
Dean of Research,





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