NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible CBSB_Digital Sampler | Page 8
6 | Genesis 1:23
GENESIS 1:6 – 7
The “Vault” and “Water Above”
T
he Hebrew raqia (“vault”) is of unspecified material, but in at least one text it
refers to something solid (cf. Eze 1:25 – 26). It is the boundary between heaven
and earth, and its main function is to hold back the water above. Some moun-
tains are identified as intersecting the sky and perhaps holding it up. Mesopotamian
literature at times suggests some sort of skin, but also speaks of the various levels of
heaven having pavements, the most visible one being blue. Heaven and earth were
kept in place by cables held by the gods.
In Egyptian iconography the sky is represented by the goddess Nut, whose body
arched over the land. The Israelites portray no god, living or dead, as the sky, but their
cosmic geography saw the sky as having a composition and role similar to what can be
seen across the ancient Near East. We know from Ex 24:10 that they shared the idea of
a pavement in God’s abode — and it is even of sapphire as in the Mesopotamian texts.
Intertestamental and rabbinic speculation sometimes focused on the material that
the vault was made of and how thick it was. The church fathers likewise were united
in their belief that the vault was solid. Though it may be surprising for modern minds
to learn, the testimony of historical evidence shows that most people in the ancient
world believed the sky was solid. The idea that it’s not is a thoroughly modern notion.
Pictorial representations throughout the ancient Near East portray waters above and
below, which demonstrates that this was a common feature of ancient cosmic geogra-
phy. In Mesopotamia the god Marduk assigns guards to keep the heavenly waters from
flooding the earth. In Egyptian texts, the sun-god’s barque travels from horizon to
horizon across a heavenly ocean. In the OT, the heavenly waters are sometimes called
the mabbul, above which Yahweh is enthroned (Ps 29:10) and which are released in
the time of Noah (Ge 7:10).
The concept of heavenly waters is the natural deduction to be drawn from the
experience of precipitation. If moisture comes from the sky, there must be moisture
up there. Thus the sky becomes the pivotal phenomenon associated with weather.
continued on next page
seas, and let the birds increase on the
earth.” t 23 And there was evening, and
there was morning — the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce liv
ing creatures according to their kinds:
the livestock, the creatures that move
along the ground, and the wild an
imals, each according to its kind.”
And it was so. 25 God made the wild
animals u according to their kinds, the
livestock according to their kinds,
and all the creatures that move along
the ground according to their kinds.
And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us v make
mankind in our image, w in our like
ness, so that they may rule x over the
fish in the sea and the birds in the
sky, over the livestock and all the
wild animals, a and over all the crea
tures that move a long the ground.”
1:22 t ver 28;
Ge 8:17
1:25 u Jer 27:5
1:26 v Ps 100:3
w Ge 9:6; Jas 3:9
27 So God created mankind in his own
image, y
in the image of God he created them;
male and female z he created them.
x Ps 8:6‑8
1:27 y 1Co 11:7
z Ge 5:2;
Mt 19:4*;
Mk 10:6*
1:28 a Ge 9:1, 7;
Lev 26:9
1:28 Be fruitful and increase in number. Contrary to
concerns about overpopulation that are evident in
early Mesopotamian literature, in Genesis God desires
28 God blessed them and said to
them, “Be fruitful and increase in
number; fill the e arth a and subdue it.
Rule over the fish in the sea and the
a 26
Probable reading of the original Hebrew text (see
Syriac); Masoretic Text the earth
that people multiply without restriction — t hey may
fill the earth. In contrast, in the Akkadian Atrahasis epic,
the gods are distressed because, with the multiplica-