Thoughts about Genesis (5)

Genesis 1:6-8
⁶ And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.
⁷ And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.
⁸ And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

Day 2 starts with and God said, and ends with there was evening, and there was morning. On the 2nd day of creation, God separated the water above the earth from the water on the land, placing the sky between the two. The sky (or our atmosphere) is like a blanket of gasses that protects the earth. Because of the atmosphere, the sun (created later) does not burn us to death and protects us from harmful solar radiation. Although we cannot see the atmosphere, it constantly plays the part God intended.

There may have been more water involved at that time than that which is present in our atmosphere today. One possible explanation is that God placed a layer of water vapor around the earth, high in the atmosphere. Such a layer of water would have created a greenhouse effect that could have encouraged the rapid growth of plants and protected the earth’s inhabitants from the sun’s damaging rays. This protection could partly explain the long lives that the first people enjoyed and the volume of water that spilled from the sky in Noah’s flood. Concentrating on air and water without referring to land (which God doesn’t play with until the third day) is challenging. When you think about air and water, you find much to discuss. There are clouds, wind, evaporation, ice particles, snow, etc. Water exists in many forms in the atmosphere.

Genesis 1:6
And God (אֱלהִים - Elohim) said (אָמַר - amar), Let there be (יְהִ֣י - yehi) an expanse (רָקִיעַ - raqia) in the midst (תָּוֶךְ - tawek) of the waters (מַיִם - mayim) and let it (וִיהִ֣י - wihi) separate (בָּדל - badal) the waters (מַיִם - mayim) from (בֵּ֥ין - ben) the waters (מַיִם - mayim).

Once again we find God speaking something into existence. As discussed in the second lesson (lesson 4), the word Elohim (Strong’s H430) is common noun that means strength, might, and power(ful). Since the word Elohim is a common noun, it is a descriptor, not a name. The phrase and said (Strong’s H559) means to speak from the heart.

The word said (אָמַר - amar), (Strong’s #H559, pronounced aw-mar) means to speak, say. The word often refers to what a person is thinking or has thought. In this case, the heart of God is speaking. An example is Ecclesiastes 3:17, I said (amar) in my heart. In most cases, however, amar tends to reflect the act of speaking. It is essential to realize that there are two different words in Hebrew for to speak. The first word is amar, and the second word is debar. Debar has been recognized as a more direct, clear, and forceful speech, whereas amar is more like everyday conversation.¹ The other thing to remember is that in Genesis 1, God’s word is creative. God created everything through his words and speech. This use of speech was not necessary, but it was his choice to demonstrate his creative power. He could have thought the universe into existence. He could have willed it to be so, and it would have happened. He could have snapped his fingers, and it would have happened. Instead, he used words that carried divine thoughts, patterns, plans, and designs. God created everything as he envisioned it. In no other religion was creation carried out by the words of the gods, which set Judaism apart from all those other religions.

The phrase let there be יְהִ֣י - yehi (Strong’s #H1961) is typically translated as let there be, to become or became, will be. This word (in Hebrew) is a Qal imperfect in a jussive form, which means it is not command, but a desire or a wish.² Our English translations imply that let there be is a command. That is not completely accurate. God is really saying; My desire is for … or I wish for …. In plain English, the best we can do is say: Let there be. While the phrase let there be is accurate, it fails to convey the desire of God’s heart. What he is speaking is the desire of his heart. This desire is God’s love in action. His love carries the weight of a command, so his words come to pass. In Genesis 1, yehi declares God’s intention to create something, in this case, an expanse.³

The next word we want to examine is רָקִיעַ – raqia, which the ESV accurately translates as expanse. Some versions translate raqia as the firmament, but that is not accurate, as firmament comes from Latin, not Hebrew. Since the King James version depended heavily on the Catholic Latin Vulgate, they translated the Latin firmamentum to get the English word firmament. Raqia is used seventeen times in the Old Testament. In many verses in the Old Testament, raqia refers to the broad expanse of heaven.⁴ The raqia would be between the waters above, and the waters below. We could easily refer to the raqia as the sky, where the birds fly (Gen 1:20). In modern terms, we could better think of raqia as atmosphere. Raqia refers to that which separates the earth from all that is beyond it.⁵

Many modern scholars incorrectly teach that the raqia was a solid dome. They teach that ancient civilizations thought of the sky as a solid dome despite very little evidence to support that theory. Some theologians read extra meaning into the word by looking up the root word and substituting that meaning for the meaning behind raqia. The term raqia implies something that has been spread out or stretched out; it is a cognate of the root verb raqa, which means to spread out or stretch out.⁶ Raqia conveys the notion of expansion and enlargement. No specific material substance is inherent in the term raqia, so just what has been spread out must be determined from the context of the text. The context of raqia in the Genesis narrative does not imply any sort of solid mass like a dome but instead talks about water.⁷ Genesis 1:8 states that God called the raqia shamayim, thus equating the raqia with the sky or the heavens. The term raqia of the shamayim, or expanse of the sky or expanse of the heavens, occurs four times in the creation narrative: Gen. 1:14-15,17, 20. Birds fly in the raqia, and stars shine in it.

The picture painted with the word raqia goes beyond what we think of as the sky. It includes what we (in our morden day and age) think of as outer space. However, remember that the ancient Israelites did not have a concept of outer space. The sun, moon, and stars were simply in the sky. Later in verse 14, God will place the sun, moon, and stars in the raqia. Let’s back up a few verses and quickly review them to help us understand raqia. With the understanding that Genesis 1:1 is an initial statement that God created the sky and the land, Genesis 1:2 gives us more information about them. It begins with the formation of the land and its sky as a single great body of water, formless and empty at the outset but presumably in the general shape of a sphere (with the land at the center of that watery sphere). God formed the raqia (expanse), which separated the water into two zones — one zone above the and raqiaone below. At this point, the land remained submerged in the water below the raqia. Also, the size of the raqia is not specified.

Verse 6 tells us that the raqia was in the midst (תָּוֶךְ - tavek, Strong’s H8432) of the waters. The word tavek means midst, middle, into, through, among, in-between.⁸ Rabbi Solomon Yitzchaki, in his famous eleventh-century Rashi Commentary, stated that the expanse was in the exact center of the waters.⁹ If Rabbi Yitzchaki is correct, then 50% of the water would be above the raqia and 50% would be below. The raqia separates the two from coming back together. The Hebrew word בָּדל - badal means to divide or separate. The word badal has the prefix letter מ (mem) at the front of the word, acting as the preposition from. This prefix causes badal to mean divide from. Just as God separated the light from darkness, we now see him separating the waters above from the waters below.

The interesting question is when God separated the waters into two zones, where did the top body of water go? Where are those waters? The top body of water probably became a gaseous body of water particles or vapor that became clouds. Many Old Testament passages, such as Deuteronomy 28:12, Judges 5:4, 1 Kings 18:44, 45, Ecclesiastes 11:3, and Isaiah 5:6, support the idea that water’s top layer is clouds. Thus, there is good evidence to conclude that the waters above are equated with clouds in ancient Hebrew thinking, as opposed to a celestial ocean of solid water above a vault.¹⁰ The amount of water vapor in the air is defined as humidity. Scientists even invented an instrument, the hygrometer, to measure humidity. Dry areas such as deserts have very low humidity, whereas a jungle may have a very high humidity. As the water on the earth evaporates, its gaseous form joins with the water vapor in the sky. While the two zones of water release water to each other, they remain separated.

Genesis 1:7
And God (אֱלהִים - Elohim) made (עָשָׁה - asah) the expanse (רָקִיעַ - raqia) and separated (בָּדל - badal) the waters (מַיִם - mayim) that were (אֲשֶׁר - aser) under (תַּחַת - tachath) the expanse (רָקִיעַ - raqia) from the waters (מַיִם - mayim) that were (אֲשֶׁר - aser) above (מֵצַ֣ל - meal) the expanse (רָקִיעַ - raqia). And it was (וַֽיְהִי - wayhi) so (כֵֽן).

As discussed under verse six, due to our modern understanding of science, most theologians believe the top body of water was incorporated into the expanse, not above the expanse. Verse seven clearly states that top body of water was not incorporated into the expanse, but rather placed above the expanse. This leaves a question that no one can answer: where is the top body of water? Where did it go? Did God pull that upper body of water thousands of light years into outer space where we cannot see it? To answer these questions, we must examine the Hebrew word (preposition) אֲשֶׁר - aser, translated as above. The preposition can be translated as above, against, beside, on, over, and upon.¹¹ The context of the sentence determines the usage. Since the water was divided by the expanse, it makes sense that God separated it into two bodies. One body of water would be below the expanse, covering the land, and the other body would be above.

Genesis 1:20 states that God placed the sun, moon, and stars in the expanse. Psalm 148:4 states, Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Psalm 148:4 also places the top body of water above the expanse and beyond heaven (sky). That certainly rules out the top body of water as being the water vapor inside the earth’s atmosphere. As you can see, there are numerous problems in figuring out what or even where this body of water above the expanse is. Everything hangs upon our definition of the expanse. If the expanse is the atmosphere, then the body of water above the expanse is the clouds and water vapor in the atmosphere. If the expanse includes the sun, moon, and stars, then the body of water above the expanse is somewhere out in space. How did the ancient Israelites view the expanse?

The context of Genesis 1:6-8 indicates that Moses intended his audience to understand that raqia is simply the sky, or atmosphere, above the earth. We need to realize that Moses was allowed to use the only terms available to him in his language to describe natural phenomena but was not allowed to offer anything more than the vaguest, most minimal descriptions of those phenomena, thereby leaving nearly everything unsaid about their exact nature.¹² For the ancient Israelite, the raqia would have included the sun moon, and stars, that were visible in the sky. The concept of outer space is a relatively new concept astronomers developed in the 1800s during the Scientific Revolution. More than likely, the original audience would have understood the body of water above the expanse to be the water in the upper reaches of the atmosphere.

The phrase and it was so consists of two words: (וַֽיְהִי - wayhi) plus (ֵכֵֽן; - ken). There is hyphen that connects the two words together. In a Hebrew Bible the two words appear as one: וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן. The verb wayhi means to be or to become or to exist.¹³ As a verb, wayhi means ‘to be doing something that defines to doer’ or, in the case of some unfolding event, to happen.¹⁴ The word wayhi defines the doer (God) in that what he says comes to pass. The unfolding event was the dry land becoming visible as the water receded. The adverb ken (Strong’s H3651) (an adverb modifies a verb) expresses confirmation of something previously expressed: usually translated as yes, or so, or thus, but also conveys cause and effect.¹⁵ The word ken lets us know that what God said, came to pass.

Genesis 1:8
And God (אֱלהִים - Elohim) called (קָרָא - qara) the expanse (רָקִיעַ - raqia) heaven (שָׁמַיִם -shamayim). And there was (וַֽיְהִי - wayhi) evening (עֶרֶב - ereb) and there was (וַֽיְהִי - wayhi) morning (בֹּקֶר - boqer), the second (שֵנִי - seni) day (יוֹם - yom).

The word שָׁמַיִם, pronounced shamayim (Strong’s #H8064), is typically translated as heavens. Shamayim is a plural word and is always used in the plural (heavens rather than heaven). Shamayim has three meanings:

1.  The heavens refer to where God lives.
2.  The heavens refer to the starry expanse.
3.  The local heavens, or the sky.

It is clear from the words in verse eight that the shamayim describes some space or expanse that God placed between two bodies of water, one on Earth and the other somewhere above and around the Earth. The word shamayim is a plural word, so this can lead to some confusion. The plural form belongs to the poetic vocabulary to connote a region.¹⁶ The region is the newly created space between the waters.

Modern science tells us that the raqia includes Earth’s atmosphere. However, it cannot only be the Earth’s atmosphere. If you look ahead to verses 14-17 and Day 4 of creation, you will see that God put the sun, moon, and stars inside this expanse. Therefore, according to modern science, the raqia could not simply mean the Earth’s atmosphere because the sun, moon, and stars are beyond our atmosphere. But we’re not dealing with modern science; we’re dealing with how the original audience interpreted the raqia.

Regarding verse eight, translating shamayim as sky makes more sense in modern English. Even today, we still refer to the sun as traveling across the sky. We still refer to stars as being in the nighttime sky. This understanding is precisely how the original audience would have perceived the sky. While it is not wrong to translate shamayim as heavens in verse eight, translating it as sky would be more accurate in today’s language.¹⁷

There was evening, and there was morning, the second day. Remember, an evening and a morning was simply another way of stating that twenty-four hours had passed. The evening is at sunset, and the morning is at sunrise. Another way of looking at this portion of the verse is, There was sunset, and there was sunrise, the second day. So when exactly does a day start? The answer is at sunset.¹⁸ This lines up with verse three, where light is created that shatters the darkness. God’s work started with creating the heavens and the earth in complete darkness, but in verse three, his work occurs in the light, a custom that the Israelites continued.

Many of the Jewish religious holidays set up by God through Moses begin at sunset, such as Passover. Also, the Sabbath begins at sunset. Many verses in the Old Testament refer to the day starting at sunset. This concept would have been the opposite of the Egyptian idea of a day, which began at sunrise. God wanted the Israelites to be a people set apart from the rest of the world. Even the dietary laws prevented the Israelites from eating foods popular in other cultures. Starting the day at sunset would be another way for God to remind the Israelites that, as God’s chosen people, they were different from everyone else.

© 2024 by Steven P. Wickstrom, all rights reserved.