This is that interval of space between the earth on the one side and the birds on the wing, the clouds and the heavenly bodies on the other, the lower part of which we know to be occupied by the air. For this purpose God now calls into existence the expanse. Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water. Hence, its adjustment is the second step in this latest effort of creation. Air naturally takes the next place, as it is equally essential to the maintenance of vegetable and animal life. Hence, its presence and activity are the first thing required in instituting a new process of nature. According to the laws of material nature, light or heat must be an essential factor in all physical changes, especially in the production of gases and vapors. This mass of turbid and noisy water must be reduced to order, and confined within certain limits, before the land can be reached. The second act of creative power bears upon the deep of waters, over which the darkness had prevailed, and by which the solid crust was still overlaid. עשׂה ‛āśâh "work on," "make out of already existing materials." It is also described as luminous Daniel 12:3, and as a monument of divine power Psalm 150:1.ħ. רקיע rāqı̂ya‛, "expanse " στερέωμα stereōma, רקע rāqa‛, "spread out by beating, as leaf gold." This expanse was not understood to be solid, as the fowl is said to fly on the face of it Genesis 1:21.
It is true, we afterward read of the sun, moon, and stars being set in the firmament of heaven: but the meaning seems only to be that they are so placed as only to be visible to us through the atmosphere.īarnes' Notes on the Bible - IV.
Thus the second great production of the Almighty was the element which is next in simplicity, purity, activity, and power, to the light, and no doubt was also used by him as an agent in producing some subsequent effects, especially in gathering the waters into one place. And as this extension or expansion was to be in the midst of the waters, and was to divide the waters from the waters, it chiefly, if not solely, means the air or atmosphere which separates the water in the clouds from that which is in and upon the earth. Let there be a firmament - This term, which is an exact translation of the word used by the Septuagint, or Greek translation of the Old Testament, by no means expresses the sense of the word used by Moses, רקיע, rakiang, which merely means extension or expansion. And gradually this would sink lower and lower, until finally it reached the surface of the earth and at this point the work of the second day would be complete.īenson Commentary Genesis 1:6. If, as geologists tell us, the earth at this stage was an incandescent mass, this expanse would be the ring of equilibrium, where the heat supplied from below was exactly equal to that given off by radiation into the cold ether above. Here, therefore, the word rendered “firmament” means an expanse. Even in this “Hymn of Creation” we have poetry, but not expressed in vivid metaphors, but in sober and thoughtful language. As such it appears in the poetry of the Bible, where it is described as a mighty vault of molten glass ( Job 37:18), upheld by the mountains as pillars ( Job 26:11 2Samuel 22:8), and having doors and lattices through which the Deity pours forth abundance ( Genesis 7:11 Psalm 78:23). Undoubtedly it means something solid and such was the idea of the Greeks, and probably also of the Hebrews. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(6) A firmament.-This is the Latin translation of the Greek word used by the translators of the Septuagint Version.
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