Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

None of this gets around the basic exegetical fact: In Gen 1, the birds fly 
across the surface of the רקיע, just like the spirit/wind hovers across the 
surface of the waters. If it has a surface, it is perceived as something that 
could be touched. That's what the text says.

Whether the ancients understood this as a metaphor is another issue, but one 
which inevitably sees us importing extra-textual considerations, into the 
equation. In other words, the argument that the רקיע is not actually 
something that could be touched is invariably a foray into tangential 
considerations that take us away from what the writer of Gen 1 actually wrote.


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