A Lesson on Genesis 1:6-8

Genesis 1 contains many challenging ideas but verses 6-8 pose a special challenge.

And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. (NIV)

What is the vault? And what is water above the vault? I’ve written one post on how John Calvin understood these verses. Here’s one way to introduce and teach this passage to secondary students.

Introduction

Christians and Jews believe Genesis is a part of God’s Word. A human wrote it (traditionally attributed to Moses), but God inspired that human to write it. Now, if God is going to effectively communicate with humans, he will need to accommodate to human limitations. When we accommodate someone, we make room for them in our home. So by accommodate I mean that God made room for our lack of knowledge and lack of ability to understand.

Question: Have you ever accommodated to someone in the way you explained something? How so?

Activity: Now, you will be taking on roles with the person next to you. One of you will be a five-year-old and the other will be their actual age. I’m going to have you explain something to the five-year-old.

Here’s the first question for you to answer: Where do babies come from? (Remember your questioner is only five.)

Now switch roles.

Here’s the second question: Where does rain come from?

Question: How does an adult communicate with a baby?

Answer: Yes, sometimes adults talk normally, but other times they talk in a different language known as “baby talk.” Some famous Bible teachers have used that analogy to explain how God communicates with us in the Bible. The distance between an adult and a baby is nothing compared to the distance between God and us. So if God is going to communicate effectively with us, he will have to come down to our level or accommodate to us. And since the Bible was written thousands of years ago, God had to accommodate to the level of an ancient audience.

Two Challenges

These are difficult verses to understand for two reasons:

  1. the translation of the Hebrew word raqia is disputed
  2. the idea that there is water above the raqia

Dome or Space?

First, the translation of the Hebrew word raqia is controversial and that can be seen by comparing English translations. Some translations use a word that indicates an opening of space rather than something solid. For example,

  • “expanse” (NASB, ESV, NET, HCSB),
  • “space” (NLT),
  • “huge space” (NIRV),
  • “horizon” (GW)

Other translations use words that indicate something solid, such as:

  • “firmament” (NKJV, RSV),
  • “dome” (NRSV, CEB),
  • “vault” (NIV),
  • “canopy” (ISV)

Pro Dome

In support of the translation “dome” we have references from the Old Testament and other ancient literature that suggest ancient people viewed the sky as a solid dome with heavenly lights embedded in it and which when opened caused rain to pour down on earth. For example, “Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies” (Ps. 148:4). And “the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky” (Gen. 8:2). (For a defense of this view see Peter Enns’ article.)

Obviously, a solid interpretation of raqia would create a problem for those who believe everything in Genesis 1 happened exactly as stated because we know that our atmosphere contains layers, but none are solid.

Pro Space

Others disagree, either by asserting that a solid-like translation is inaccurate or by claiming that a solid-like translation is accurate but shouldn’t be interpreted literally. Ancient people who talked this way about the sky were using simple language for the way things appeared just like we refer to sunrise or sunset, but we know that the sun doesn’t actually rise or set. Perhaps it was even their way of speaking poetically. Therefore, the translation “expanse” or “space” is more accurate to what the ancients actually believed.

Obviously, there’s no way for us to get inside an ancient person’s brain to know what they really thought, but we do know that they had to understand the world without modern scientific tools.

Be Nice to Old People—Really Old People

Question: What modern tools and technology do we have that ancient people did not have?

Answer: Ancient people had to understand the world with their bare eyes only. They didn’t have telescopes, radar, cameras, satellites, planes, or rockets.

Water above the “Vault”

These verses are also difficult because they distinguish water under the raqia from water above the raqia. But today we don’t think of a body of water being above the expanse or sky. However, from an ancient and uneducated person’s point of view it would seem like water descends from some place above the raqia.[1]

Some claim that the water above refers to water vapor or clouds (e.g. John Calvin). Hugh Ross identifies the raqia with the troposphere—the layer above the ocean where clouds form.[2] However, there are two challenges with these proposals.

First, the vocabulary doesn’t support it. The Hebrew word used for “water” in “water above” the vault is mayim. In the Old Testament mayim is the normal word used for water not clouds. Also, the description of day two uses mayim for what is above and below the raqia making it difficult, though not impossible, to argue that one is a different form than the other (e.g., vapor vs. liquid).

Second, the prepositions don’t support it. The text refers to “water above” the raqia causing us to think of water somewhere above and not merely in the sky. Additionally, since God sets the two great lights—sun and moon—in the raqia (vv. 14-17), the water above the raqia must be somewhere above the two great lights.

So putting together the uses of raqia and mayim in Genesis 1 gives us the following: the sun and moon are set in the raqia and mayim or water exists above and below the raqia. Thus, water, like the water in our rivers, exists somewhere above the sun and moon.

A solid interpretation of raqia along with the claim that water exists above the raqia leads some to this conclusion: the description of day two does not convey accurate scientific information. Support for that conclusion can be found in other places. For instance, although the moon is called one of the “two great lights” (Gen. 1:16), we know that the moon doesn’t actually emit light.

Conclusion

These insights can lead to one of the following responses:

  1. Total rejection of Genesis 1 – We should not accept anything as true in Genesis 1.
  2. Total rejection of modern science – We should cling to the Bible even when it contradicts science.
  3. Seek to harmonize Scripture and science – Attempt to reconcile modern-day science with the details in Genesis 1. For example, astronomers have recently discovered an enormous amount of water, 140 trillion times larger than all the water in the world’s oceans, 12 billion light-years away.[3] We also know that water vapor exists in the Milky Way galaxy, so perhaps the reference to water on the second day can be supported by modern-day science. This response would need to defend the non-solid view of raqia.
  4. Adjust expectations – Genesis 1 was written thousands of years ago to ancient people who didn’t have modern-day technology. The original purpose was not to convey accurate scientific information to people in the 21st century. It was written in a way that ancient people could understand. Divine inspiration of Genesis 1 means that God had to accommodate his message to an ancient audience.

Yes, it’s possible to combine #3 and #4 in various ways.

Finally and most importantly we must ask, What is the primary point of Genesis 1:6-8? The description of day two is making one simple assertion: God made the sky. Verse 8 says, “God called the raqia ‘sky.'” If the point was to convey to ancient people that God placed the big blue canopy-like structure over their heads, then modern, scientifically-informed believers can fully agree with it, even if our understanding of the nature of the sky is different from theirs.

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(I have used information from Reading Genesis 1-2: An Evangelical Conversation in my explanation.)

[1] Matthews, Kenneth A. Genesis 1–11:26: The New American Commentary: Vol. 1A (Broadman & Holman, 2001), 150.

[2] See Hugh Ross, Navigating Genesis: A Scientists Journey through Genesis 1-11, 2014.

[3] Whitney Clavin and Alan Buis, “Astronomers Find Largest, Most Distant Reservoir of Water,” NASA, accessed June 26, 2017, https://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/universe20110722.html.

1 thought on “A Lesson on Genesis 1:6-8”

  1. re: ‘In the Old Testament mayim is the normal word used for water not clouds. Also, the description of day two uses mayim for what is above and below the raqia making it difficult, though not impossible, to argue that one is a different form than the other (e.g., vapor vs. liquid).’ ETC.

    It becomes very likely in view of a number of facts, some about Biblical, or Ancient, Hebrew; others about natural language.

    One of these facts about Hebrew is that the ancient Hebrews commonly implied cloud by the word ‘dark’, and ‘darkness’. For example, in the first nine verses of Job 3.

    One of these facts about natural language is the universal phenomenological terminology about the sky.

    On this latter fact, consider:

    Think of a modern person’s statement that ‘Both birds and the Sun are in the sky’. No one but an idiocentric hearer would ever presume that this person means the Sun and birds are in the same particular reach of the sky. That is, we all normally recognize that the person is making a phenomenological reference—and even maybe implying the fact that the Sun and birds physically are in respectively very different reaches of ‘the sky’!

    Another fact of the Hebrew: Given the obvious particular usage of ha-shamayim (not shamayim) in Genesis 1:26, 28, and 30, that word can, depending on authorial intention and context, mean either, or even both, celestial and atmospheric sky. By analogue to this distinction between ha-shamayim and shamayim, the pair of accounts also make a point of using five different words for the realm underfoot, depending on what sense of ‘underfoot’ is intended. It’s use of ‘ha-erets’ is plainly for the entire globe, whereas ‘erets’ clearly is for ‘land’ or ‘region’; ‘ha-adama’ is for dirt; ‘apar’ is likely for the material elements themselves; and one other word is for the broad sense of ‘not submerged’ (there may be rivers, lakes, and streams in this ‘not submerged’, but it is overall suitable for land animals).

    As for why Genesis 1 outright mentions only water, not clouds, it has to do with the Biblical fact that the Hebrew Scriptures make many references to the basics of the water cycle. Thus we can see the following seven-fold concern expressed in Genesis 1:1-2:25.

    1. the general cosmos and the special Earth.
       2. The Earth, as its own general subject, implying that which we all intuit is most valuable about the Earth unto itself in all the cosmos: its abiding maximal abundance of open liquid water.
         3. that water and its special relation to the Sun’s light, hence the water cycle;
           4. The water cycle and its special beneficiary and member, biology;
             5. biology and its special category, animal biology (plant/animal/mineral = animal);
               6. Animal biology and its special category, human;
    7. The man and his wife (Genesis 2:21-23)

    Reply

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