<< -Is there a solid "Firmament" holding back "waters above the sky"?
(This is an interesting issue. The Old Testament cosmology believed in
a solid-dome firmament and waters above the sky. Many Old Testament
passages refer to it. However, the Greeks figured out that the earth
was spherical several centuries before the New Testament. That
knowledge must certainly have made its way to SOME Jews by the first
century A.D. This certainly would have been known by well-educated
Jews who used the Septuagint and lived all over the Roman Empire. Did
the apostle Paul know about this? What about the average person-on-
the-street (or the average religious leader) living in Palestine at the
time of Jesus? Did they know that the earth was spherical? Did they
see a conflict with the Old Testament cosmology and references to the
firmament and waters above the firmament? How did they deal with this?
I would like to see someone dig in and answer those questions
sometime.)
>>
Educated Christians knew that the earth was spherical (although the NT
reflects a flat earth), and the waters above the firmament did become an
issue. The early Church fathers went on believing there really were waters
above the firmament but had to face the jeers of Greeks who believed in the
solidity of the firmament but could not see how waters could stay in place
above a spherical firmament. One of the fathers, Ambrose as I recall,
replied that there could be a holding tank above the spherical firmament in
the shape of a bowl and explained how it could be held in place. I address
this issue on pp 37 and 38 of my paper on the water above the firmament.
Paul S.