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| Image showing an ancient understanding of the earth- there is a firmament above the sky, holding back the waters above the sky. Image source: By Tom-L - Own work Based on File:Early Hebrew Conception of the Universe.png and several other depictions, including Understanding the Bible, Stephen L. Harris, 2003., CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=99817773 |
I recently read "Genesis for Normal People," and so I want to talk about the firmament.
What is "the firmament," you ask? Well, in ancient times, people believed that there was a whole reservoir of water above the sky. The firmament is the big dome-shaped thing that holds back the water, so it doesn't all fall on us.
Okay...
Genesis 1 tells us what God made on each of the 6 days of creation. Verses 6-8 say that God separated the water above from the water below, and called the big space between them "sky." Different bible translations describe this using different words- vault, space, expanse, firmament.
So yes, on Day 2, God made the firmament. You know how there's water above the sky, and there's a firmament holding it back so it doesn't fall on us? Ever wonder where that came from? Well, God made it on Day 2.
Okay...
"Genesis for Normal People" explains what the firmament is, and tells us to read the bible "with ancient eyes", ie, don't bring our modern understanding of science into it. As I said in my previous post about this book, it was so surprising to me that this book is ONLY about what the biblical writers meant, and it does NOT say anything about finding truth in the bible, or finding moral lessons to apply to our lives. It talks about what the bible meant to its ancient readers, and then leaves it at that.
I had heard about the "firmament" before, but reading this book, this was the first time I really understood this: The biblical writers believed that there was a firmament holding up the water. Really. They believed the earth was flat, and it had a dome on top, containing the sky, and then more water on top of that, and the firmament is the barrier between the sky and the water. Really. They believed that, and they mentioned it when writing the bible. That's what this part of the bible is talking about.
In the past, when I read the creation story from Genesis 1, I always had in mind what the earth really looks like. So I read that God made an expanse to separate the waters above from the waters below, and I assumed "waters above" maybe meant clouds, or something. I thought Day 2 was when God made the sky. I took the words in the bible and mapped them onto things that we know exist.
So Genesis 1 tells us that God made the firmament, but I wasn't able to understand that, because I believed the bible was true. Obviously there's no such thing as a firmament- so if I'm confused about what this bible verse is saying, I would never in a million years consider the interpretation "maybe it's talking about the firmament." When we read the bible with the assumption that it's true, we miss what the writer was actually saying.
Or, perhaps if you believe in inerrancy, you might explain it like this: "Firmament" is just an old-timey word for "sky." See, the point is that God made the sky- that's the part that's inerrant. Ancient people had an incorrect understanding of what the sky is, but that's not the inerrant part, so no problem. I feel like this explanation still misses the point- it fails to appreciate how foreign and alien the bible is. It just quickly glides past the concept of the firmament, claiming that this bible passage is actually about the sky. In this understanding of inerrancy, the bible passage is "actually about" something that would have been confusing and incomprehensible to the original writer.
Is that how inerrancy works? God directs them to write something, and the part that's inerrant is the deeper meaning, which the writer themself doesn't even know? Yes, I have seen Christians talking about the bible with these kinds of assumptions- but normally I've seen inerrancy defined as "what it originally meant is inerrant."
I have heard young-earth creationists talking about the firmament, actually. I remember reading a young-earth creationist article which said that when God created the world, there was a layer of water above the sky, just kind of suspended up there I guess, and that's what Genesis 1 is talking about, when it mentions the firmament. Later, during Noah's flood, the water in the firmament rained down onto the earth- see, that's why the firmament doesn't exist any more. Also, before the flood, the air pressure in earth's atmosphere was much higher than it is now, because of the firmament on top of the atmosphere- and this high air pressure is good for people's health, and that's why you have people with 900-year lifespans before the flood. I'm honestly impressed with how much work the young-earth creationists have put into this fan theory.
But even this young-earth creationist fan theory is NOT what the bible is saying, when it talks about the firmament. The bible is NOT saying "there used to be a firmament, but all the water rained down during Noah's flood." It's saying "You know how you look up in the sky and it's blue because there's water up there?" It was written by people who believed the firmament still existed, because they saw it with their own eyes. (Or rather, they saw the sky was blue and assumed they were seeing the big sea of water that's up there. And yeah, that's a reasonable thing to think if you live in ancient times and don't have access to information about space.) The young-earth creationist approach of believing the creation story is literally true and then doing a lot of work to make it fit with what we know about the world thanks to modern science completely misses the point.
(And apparently there are some young-earth creationists who believe the earth is flat, and believe in the firmament and everything. I never encountered that when I was a young-earth creationist though.)
Believing that the bible is true interferes with our ability to understand what it was actually trying to say. It talks about the firmament because the writers really believed that was a real thing. We now know it's not a real thing- but if you bring that knowledge into your understanding of the bible, if you believe the bible is true and therefore can't possibly be talking about something that's not real- well, then you'll miss the point.
Anyway, let's all go outside and look up at the firmament today and thank God for making it on Day 2~
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Posts about "Genesis for Normal People":
"Genesis for Normal People": Separating "what the writer meant" from "what is true" and "what it means for us"
God Made the Firmament
When the Bible is Racist
Related:
I used to be a young-earth creationist
If God Metaphorically Made the World in 6 Days, What Does That Even Mean?
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