"In
biblical cosmology, the
firmament is a vast solid dome, created by God on the second day of creation, which divides the primal “waters” into upper and lower portions. The word is found in the King James Version, Tyndale, Douay-Rheims, and other early English translations of the Bible. Today it survives as a synonym for "heaven"."
Etymology[edit]
"In English, the word "firmament" is recorded as early as 1250, in the
Middle English Story of Genesis and Exodus. It later appeared in the
King James Bible. The same word is found in
French and
German Bible translations, all from Latin
firmamentum (a firm object), used in the
Vulgate (4th century).
[1] This in turn is a
calque of the Greek
στερέωμᾰ (
steréōma), also meaning a solid or firm structure (Greek στερεός = rigid), which appears in the
Septuagint, the Greek translation made by Jewish scholars around 200 BCE."
"These words all translate the
Biblical Hebrew word
rāqīaʿ (רָקִ֫יעַ), used for example in Genesis 1.6, where it is contrasted with
shamayim (שָׁמַיִם), translated as "
heaven(s)" in Genesis 1.1.
Rāqīaʿ derives from the root
rqʿ (רָקַע), meaning "to beat or spread out thinly".
[2][3] The Hebrew lexicographers
Brown, Driver and Briggs gloss the noun with "extended surface, (solid) expanse (as if
beaten out)" and distinguish two main uses: 1. "(flat) expanse (as if of ice), as base, support", and 2. "the vault of heaven, or 'firmament,' regarded by Hebrews as solid and supporting 'waters' above it."
[4] A related noun,
riqquaʿ (רִקּוּעַ), found in Numbers 16.38 (Hebrew numbering 17.3), refers to the process of hammering metal into sheets.
[4] Gerhard von Rad explains:"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firma...e firmament,English translations of the Bible.
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