Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Greg Jordan <jordan AT chuma.cas.usf.edu>]

I always thought the distinction between "heaven" and "sky" shouldn't be
projected onto Greek or Hebrew texts. The two English words have
different origins (one Anglo-Saxon, the other Scandinavian). But Hebrew
and Greek, even with synonyms and partial shades of meaning, were
not making the distinction common to English (heaven where God lives,
somewhere, in some other realm; sky as the literal space above). Modern
English usage allows the disconnection between Biblical cosmology and
scientific cosmology. 
In the Hebrew Bible, God sits on the "highest heaven", maybe a dome
on pillars above where the stars rotate (cf. the sphere of the Empyrean in
Ptolemaic cosmology) in a throne, or he "rides it" (in a chariot?), or
walks along it. (In Greek, the Christian book Apocalypse of John has a
clear image of God's throne on the "crystal sea" of sky). God can look
down and see people on earth, hear prayers coming up, and smell incense
and sacrifice smells coming up. There are also trapdoors for pouring down
rain, snow, fire, manna, rocks, etc.
Then there's the tradition where the sky is a tent God has raised.

Greg Jordan
University of South Florida
jordan AT chuma.cas.usf.edu

On Fri, 24 Aug 2001, Lisbeth S. Fried wrote:

> Just out of curiosity, and I know this is B-Hebrew,
> not B-Greek, but the word ouranos is usually translated
> heaven. Is there a separate Greek word for sky? According
> to L-S, ouranos refers to the area above the vault,
> so they must have had the same view of the world as the
> orientals. Also according to L-S, the gods live on top
> of the vault, which is solid, and in the ouranos.
> Is this the same view in the OT? Does YHWH live on top
> of the raqia'? There's evidence to suggest it (Exod 24, Ezekiel).
> Did the Greeks use the term ouranos to refer to the gods?
> Probably they did.
> Liz
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Peter Kirk [mailto:Peter_Kirk AT sil.org]
> > Sent: Fri, August 24, 2001 4:36 AM
> > To: Biblical Hebrew
> > Subject: RE: traditions regarding tetragrammaton?
> >
> >
> > Re the NT evidence, one thing you are missing is that Matthew has
> > not simply
> > preferred "kingdom of heaven" in his own writing, he has in many places
> > changed "kingdom of God" in his presumed underlying sources into
> > "kingdom of
> > heaven", as witnessed in parallel passages in Mark and Luke. Or, less
> > probably, "kingdom of heaven" was original and Mark and Luke changed it to
> > "kingdom of God".
> >
> > Another clear NT example of "heaven" being used in place of "God" is Luke
> > 15:18,21, where the returning Prodigal Son confesses his sin "against
> > heaven".
> >
> > I guess we can only speculate on the reasons for these changes.
> >
> > Peter Kirk
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Daniel Wagner [mailto:dan.wagner AT netzero.net]
> > > Sent: 23 August 2001 18:59
> > > To: Biblical Hebrew
> > > Subject: Re: traditions regarding tetragrammaton?
> > >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: David Stabnow <dstabno AT lifeway.com>
> > > To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> > > Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 8:51 AM
> > > Subject: Re: traditions regarding tetragrammaton?
> > >
> > <snip>
> > >
> > > Regarding "kingdom of heaven" (mostly Matthew) vs. "kingdom of
> > > God" (common elsewhere in NT), do we really have any evidence
> > > that this was intended to avoid the word _theos_ with Jews, or
> > > was it simply diversity of authors' preferences? Why would
> > > Matthew not want to say "kingdom of God" when he used _theos_ in
> > > plenty of other contexts? And why avoid "kingdom of God" which is
> > > not the same as "kingdom of Yahweh" anyway? I don't see that this
> > > NT evidence (mostly just in Matthew) is very strong. Am i missing
> > > something?
> > >
> > > Dan Wagner
> > >
> > >
> > > ----------------------------------------------------
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> >
> >
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