Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

George:

I have already pointed out that the phrase על פני has a wider semantic
range than just “upon the surface of”, rather its contexts show it being
used even in the sense of “among” making the birds fly “within”. I’d have
to go back to see in which message that was.

Karl W. Randolph.

On Sun, Sep 9, 2012 at 1:31 AM, George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>wrote:

> 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