Thread by @JamesBejon

A BRIEF NOTE ON FIRMAMENTS:

I’ve recently come across a few articles/posts where the Hebrew word רקיע (‘firmament, expanse, space, vault’) is said--with no little certainty--to denote a solid dome of some kind.

That claim doesn’t strike me as at all obvious.

In fact, it strikes me as more likely to be false than true.

In terms of its etymology, the word רקיע seems to derive from the verb רקע,

which means ‘to be thinned out’ in some way.

In Scripture, metal is said to be רקע-ed = ‘hammered out’ (Exod. 39.3), as is the earth (on the day of its creation: Isa. 42.5).

It’s possible, therefore, for רקיע to denote ‘a solid/metallic dome’ of some kind.

But it’s not necessary.

‘The skies’ (שחקים cp. Job 37.18 w. Deut. 33.26, 2 Sam. 22.12) are also said to be ‘hammered/thinned out’ (רקע).

Etymology doesn’t, therefore, decide the issue.

That is to say, just because the word ‘firmament’ (רקיע) is derived from the verb רקע = ‘to be thinned out’ doesn’t mean the word ‘firmament’ (רקיע) refers to a solid substance,

which is why, in Rabbinic literature, one of the seven heavens is named רקיע.

The key issue is how the text of Gen. 1 employ the term רקיע.

And, to my mind at least, the text of Gen. 1 doesn’t employ the term רקיע as if it denotes a solid dome at all.

In Gen. 1.8, God assigns the רקיע the name ‘heaven’ (שמים = lit., ‘heavens’),

which is the term employed throughout Gen. 1 to denote what we commonly refer to as ‘the skies’ (i.e., the expanse of space above our heads).

Psa. 19.1 employs the term in the same way, i.e., as synonymous with ‘the heavens’.

It would therefore be odd for רקיע to denote a significantly different entity from ‘the heavens’ (שמים), i.e., a solid dome *in the midst of* the heavens.

(True, the רקיע is said to ‘divide’ (להבדיל) one mass of ‘waters’ from another (1.7), but that doesn’t require the רקיע to be a physical structure. When the day is ‘divided’ (להבדיל) from the night in v. 14, no physical structure is required.)

More important is the text of 1.17, where God is said to ‘set’ the stars ‘*in* the רקיע’ (via the construction לתת + obj. + ב),

which doesn’t reflected the idea of ‘studding’ a solid surface with stars (or hanging them from a ceiling),

but of setting them in the midst of a particular space. (Apparently, the prefix ב functions as shorthand for בתוך.)

Consider, by way of illustration, the texts below:

CONCLUSION:

Despite what is commonly claimed, the term רקיע doesn’t appear to have been understood by the author of Genesis to denote a solid dome, but, rather, an open expanse of space.