The Shape of the Earth: The Firmament Part 1

[Originally published as the second section of Untwisting Scripture: Refuting Flat Earth Falsehoods – Part 5]

And God said, “Let there be a firmament [rāqîa‘] in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” And God made the firmament [rāqîa‘], and divided the waters which were under the firmament [rāqîa‘] from the waters which were above the firmament [rāqîa‘]; and it was so. And God called the firmament [rāqîa‘] Heaven. (Gen 1:6–8 KJV)

“Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament [rāqîa‘] of the heavens…”
“Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament [rāqîa‘] of the heavens to give light upon the earth…
“Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament [‘al penê rāqîa‘] of the heavens.” (Gen 1:14–20 NKJV)

As mentioned previously, Flat/Stationary Interpretation Proponents (FSIPs) believe that the firmament in Genesis 1 is a solid metal dome that encloses a flat earth like a snow globe.

How do they derive this concept from this passage?

Richard D. Phillips explains in The Reformed Expository Commentary on Genesis, “A popular view among liberal scholars is that Moses held a primitive understanding in which the sky was a metal dome holding back the waters of the cosmic sea. The use of the word ‘firmament’ in the Latin Vulgate and through it the King James Version has encouraged this interpretation… The idea is that the Israelites picked up this idea of the sky as a metal roof from their ancient Near Eastern neighbors.”³

There are then three fundamental reasons underlying this interpretation:

1. The word “firmament,”
2. The belief that Moses held this view, and
3. The cosmologies of the Hebrews’ neighbors.

The Word Translated as “Firmament”

Now, chances are many of you couldn’t find the word firmament when you read through Genesis 1 in your Bible. That’s because it only appears in most of the older English translations, most notably the King James, New King James, Revised Standard, and Authorized versions. It’s likely that if you have a more modern translation, the word in your version is “expanse.”

God said, “Let there be an expanse [rāqîa‘]…”
And God made the expanse [rāqîa‘] and separated the waters that were under the expanse [rāqîa‘] from the waters that were above the expanse [rāqîa‘]…
And God called the expanse [rāqîa‘] Heaven. (ESV, NASB, TLV, LSB, CSB, YLT)

The words “firmament” and “expanse” can carry either similar or very different meanings, depending on the reader. That is, the terms themselves are somewhat ambiguous and subject to personal interpretation. For centuries, most believers have understood “firmament” to mean the sky or heavens above without conceiving that they are a solid metal dome holding back a cosmic sea. And yet others do hold to this idea, thinking the ‘firm’ in ‘firmament’ must mean “solid.”

Likewise, an expanse can be anything that’s spread out, such as metal, canvas, or space. We obviously need more information.

What is the definition of rāqîa‘?

According to some of the most popular Hebrew lexicons, rāqîa‘ can mean an extended surface, a solid expanse, firmament, an expansion of plates (as if beaten out), an expanse of atmospheric space above the earth, sky, and the vault of heaven.

The good news for FSIPs is that several of the possible meanings of rāqîa‘ include solidity, which indicates that their interpretation is possible. Yet here are several lexical definitions of rāqîa‘ that don’t imply solidity, which means we cannot simply assume or limit the word’s semantic meaning.

As Dr. Jason Lisle explains, “When we look up a given word in a dictionary, more often than not, it will have several different definitions. Each definition is called a ‘lexical definition.’ However, within a given proposition, a given word will have only one meaning. It will generally be one of the lexical definitions. Which definition applies is always determined by context — the surrounding words.”⁴

In order to know which definition or definitions apply to the rāqîa‘ of creation, we must examine it in its biblical context, for, as Lisle says elsewhere, “Context always determines the meaning.” ⁵

What we’ll find is that the authors of Scripture are equivocal about many aspects of the rāqîa’s physical characteristics, simply speaking about its appearance rather than its essence, leaving it up to the reader to fill in their own details when those details are unnecessary or unimportant to the author’s purpose.

As J.P. Holding writes, the authors used “the only terms available to [them] in [their] language to describe natural phenomena,” while providing “the vaguest, most minimal descriptions of those phenomena, thereby leaving nearly everything unsaid about their exact nature.”⁶

This ambiguity unnerves some. They want the Bible to provide us with comprehensive details about everything. But just as the Bible doesn’t give us the exact nature of water (its chemical composition), the human body (its vital physical components), or the dry land (its material make-up or structure), neither does it provide us with all of the details of the rāqîa‘.

The question we must ask is, “What details does the Bible give us about the rāqîa‘?” Let’s look more closely.

First, how is the rāqîa‘ described in the creation account?

And God said, “Let there be a rāqîa‘ in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” And God made the rāqîa‘, and divided the waters which were under the rāqîa‘ from the waters which were above the rāqîa‘; and it was so. And God called the rāqîa‘ Heaven. (Gen 1:6–8 KJV)

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the rāqîa‘ of the heavens…” Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the rāqîa‘ of the heavens to give light upon the earth… Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the rāqîa‘ of the heavens.” (Gen 1:14-20 NKJV)

According to these verses, the rāqîa‘ is something created by God on the second day (v. 8) that separates the waters above the earth from the waters beneath (v. 6). The waters beneath are “the seas” or oceans (v. 10).

What are the waters above? We’re not told. The most natural reading would be that “the waters above” are clouds, since clouds are made almost entirely of water and are “above” the surface of the earth.

As Keil and Delitzsch summarize, “The waters under the firmament are the waters upon the globe itself; those above are not the ethereal waters beyond the limits of the terrestrial atmosphere, but the waters which float in the atmosphere, and are separated by it from those upon the earth, the waters which accumulate in clouds, and then bursting these their bottles, pour down as rain upon the earth.”⁷

So, the rāqîa‘ is the space or area above the seas in which the clouds reside.

Additionally, God placed the sun (the greater light), the moon (the lesser light), and the stars (v. 16) in the rāqîa‘.

We’re also told that birds fly across the face of the rāqîa‘ (v. 20). The birds fly across the part of the rāqîa‘ that faces the surface of the Earth.

Lastly, we’re told that God called the rāqîa‘ “heaven” (šā·mǎ·yim) (v. 8).

This is all the information we’re given in Genesis. Please note that there’s nothing about the size, shape, or nature of the rāqîa‘ included in Genesis itself.

To be continued…

1. The word firmament appears in the KJV, NKJV, ASV, and Geneva translations.
2. Some versions that render pā·ně as surface are the NIV, NLT, NASB, TLV, LSB, CSB, CJB, HCSB, ISV.
3. Phillips, R. D. 2023. Genesis (Reformed Expository Commentary) (p. 81-83). Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing.
4. Lisle, Jason. 2015. Understanding Genesis: How to Analyze, Interpret, and Defend Scripture (p. 108). Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
5. Ibid. p.108.
6. Holding, J. P. 1999. Is the raqiya’ (‘firmament’) a solid dome? Equivocal language in the cosmology of Genesis 1 and the Old Testament: a response to Paul H. Seely. CEN Technical Journal 13(2): p. 45.
7. Keil, C.F. and Delitzsch, F. 1976. The Pentateuch: Three Volumes in One, Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes (1:53-54) Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.