Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

> What do people who believe in the inerrancy of the
> biblical text do with the word raqi(a in vs 1:6-8? Do
> they think the sky is a rolled out sheet of metal
> strong enough to hold the rain waters?

Speaking as an inerrantist, I've dug into the word enough to know it
means "expanse" in a fairly general sense rather than the "rolled
out sheet of metal" that you maintain.  But more than that, I have
no problem with this expanse being seen from the POV of earth,
nor do I have a problem with the ancient mind seeing it as some
sort of dome over the earth.  Even with our (ha-ha) advanced
knowledge of science, visually that's still what it looks like.  I see
no reason to split hairs like this; we have plenty of examples where
the text speaks from an earthly point of view.  That doesn't
constitute an error.

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Éist le glór Dé."