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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] ] A VISUAL EXPRESSION OF A THEOLOGICAL IDEA OF THESKY/HEAVEN ( Rolf's Response)

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  • From: George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>
  • To: "b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] ] A VISUAL EXPRESSION OF A THEOLOGICAL IDEA OF THESKY/HEAVEN ( Rolf's Response)
  • Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2012 13:01:37 +0000

Rolf,

I think you may have misunderstood me. The רקיע in Genesis 1 is given the
name שׁמים (sky). We today, however, do not identify the 'sky' as a רקיע over
our heads. We conceive of the sky as open air. Thus, there is a discrepancy
between our concept of sky and the concept in Gen 1. We talk about birds in
the sky and imply that they fly in open air, but in Gen 1.20 the birds fly
across the surface of the רקיע. For the writer of Gen 1 the sky is a
something that has a surface. It is not open air. What I'm trying to guard
against is reading our concept of sky back into Gen 1. If we let Gen 1 say
what it says, we will come to the conclusion that the writer saw the sky as
something that had a surface and functioned as a roof over the everything,
such that when birds flew, they flew across the surface of this roof. It's a
very different way of seeing sky to our concept. If we demand that the sky in
Gen 1 is open air, then we are, I fear, reading our cosmology back into the
text, rather than letting the text say what it says.


GEORGE ATHAS
Dean of Research,
Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)
Sydney, Australia





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