Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Andrew Kulikovsky <anku AT CelsiusTech.com.au>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Zellmer [mailto:zellmer AT cag.pworld.net.ph]
>
> Andrew,
> 
> I saw Kevin's response, but I thought that Holladay (which is based on
> the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions of K-B, and copyrighted
> 1988, with corrections in 1991) was a bit more clear:
> 
> (beaten, [metal]) <bold> plate, firmament <unbold> (i.e., vault of
> heaven, understood as a solid dome) Gn 1.6

I did a GRAMCORD search on raqia over the entire MT. It seems that the
rendering "firmanent" or "vault of heaven" is highly questionable, and does
indeed appear to have come from an imported Greek idea.

In all cases, it appeared to represent something malleable that could be
stretched, spread, molded and/or stamped down/out.

In Gen 1, the sun, moon and stars are said to be "in the expanse of the sky"
(BiReQiYa HaSSaMaYiM) so it can't refer to the earth's atmosphere. Although
the birds are said to "fly across the expanse" the Hebrew actually has
aL-PeNeh ReQiYa HaSSaMaYiM ("on/above the surface of the expanse").
Therefore, it seems to me that the "expanse of the heavens" in Genesis 1
which was created on day 2, was in fact interstellar space.

Comments?

cheers,
Andrew
-- 
Andrew S. Kulikovsky B.App.Sc(Hons) MACS
Software Engineer
Celsius
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