A Lesson on Genesis 1:6-8

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

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.