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b-hebrew - RE: Re[2]: The meaning of raqia

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  • From: Andrew Kulikovsky <anku AT CelsiusTech.com.au>
  • To: "'peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG'" <peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG>, Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Re[2]: The meaning of raqia
  • Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 10:40:20 +0930


> -----Original Message-----
> From: peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG [mailto:peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG]
>
> But now you are importing cosmology from the 20th century, or
> at least from after Copernicus.

No, not at all. I am not saying that raqia _means_ interstellar space but
that _in Gen 1_ it REFERS to interstellar space ie. where the sun, moon and
stars are.

> Don't forget that the dictionaries are working only from the data you
> have: the usage in the Hebrew Bible in context; ancient and not so
> ancient translations which may have imported alien cosmologies; and
> the apparent derivation from the root RQ( "beat, stamp, beat out,
> spread out" (BDB). And they have some parallels of dubious value in
> other Semitic languages e.g. Arabic raqa`a "patch, repair".
> So you may do as well to decide for yourself from reading the texts and
> comparing the usage of the verb RQ(.

As I said before, all the uses of raqia in the OT refer to something that
is, or can be, stretched out or expanded.

cheers,
Andrew
--
Andrew S. Kulikovsky B.App.Sc(Hons) MACS
Software Engineer
Celsius
CelsiusTech
Endeavour House, Technology Park S.A. 5095
Phone : +61 8 8343 3837 (Direct) Fax : +61 8 8343 3778
Email : anku AT celsiustech.com.au

"The road to tyranny, we must never forget,
is the destruction of the truth."
-- President Bill Clinton, during a
speech at the University of
Connecticut, 1995.




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