Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <Yigal-Levin AT utc.edu>]

>At 10:59 AM 14/08/2002 -0400, Yigal Levin wrote:
>>What is the difference between the "universe" and "the totality of all that
>>exists, seen and unseen, on earth and in the heavens"?

>At 08:51 PM 8/14/2002 +0200, Andrew & Debby Kulikovsky wrote:
>Ok. I should have explained this a bit better. The difference is subtle but 
>I think "universe" is a word which has many connotations which would not 
>have been considered by the original readers. Cassuto pointed this out as 
>well. The use of the two terms "heavens" and "earth" is deliberate and 
>meaningful. They indicate that God created all that is in the heavens, and 
>all that is in the earth. But note that this initial creation of both the 
>heavens and the earth was not complete which is indicated by the rest of 
>the chapter
>(ie. we have sun, moon and stars being created, and dry land etc). The 
>language is also geocentric ie. describes things as seen from an observer 
>on Earth. This is why the terms "earth", and "heavens" were used - even 
>though the "earth" is insignificant with repect to the entire universe. 
>This is not surprising since it is, after all, written to humans who live 
>on this Earth.
>
>So, yes there is some similarity between "universe" and "the totality of 
>all that exists, seen and unseen, on earth and in the heavens" but the 
>latter makes important distinctions not captured by the former, and the 
>former introduces inappropriate connotations.
>


This seems like hair-splitting to me. Of course the ancients did not have
the same concepts of astronomy as we have! For that matter, neither did
"moderns" of 50 years ago! To the ancients, "heaven" and "earth" were two
pretty-much equal realms, together encompassing the universe.


Dr. Yigal Levin
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
U.S.A.