Adam,
I appreciate that you are not a classical concordist; but, with regard to
science in the Bible I see only divine accommodation to the science of the
times, so reject all concordism. That leaves the spiritual message without
rival.
<<But what then is the thick darkness that the Earth is wrapped in aka Job?
And I don't think the ancients conceived the sky-dome as "rock solid"...
isn't it more "hammered out" and likened to a layer of transparent
sapphire???>>
Job 38:4-7 is about the founding of the earth, which is Day 3; Job 38:8-11 is
about the establishing of the sea, Day 3 again. Therefore Job 38:8 is about
Day 3. You might move your theory to Day 3. That way you at least have an
ocean and a sky; but the dryness of the earth is emphasized, which doesn't
fit your scenario; and you would still be missing the sun. Also, even after
the ocean is put in place, it is not on the earth but around and under the
earth. The earth is on the ocean (Ps 24:2; 136:6), rather than the ocean on
the earth.
There may have been more than one idea of what the firmament was made of.
metal or rock. But, the rock concept seems to dominate historically. The
rock, however, is transparent, crystal, looking like "ice" Ezek 1:22. (The
sapphire seems to be the throne above the firmament, Ez 1:26)
<<Thanks Paul... I accept what you say, but like the words of the prophets
that weren't understood in their relevance until Christ fulfilled them,
perhaps God has hidden data in the Genesis account for us to divine?>>
The problem arises with the subjectivity of the hermeneutic that is necessary
to "divine" the hidden message. With Christ, there are objective themes in
the OT, like the coming of a new covenant and the Gentiles coming into the
kingdom which give some framework for the rest; and of course, that spiritual
message fits the proclaimed purpose of biblical inspiration (II Tim 3:16).
<<As for the global ocean being incompatible with science I've read that quite
a few geoscientists still hold out on that concept for the earliest aeons of
the Earth - a Panthalassa with mostly submerged proto-continents until c.
800 mya.>>
It seems that your "mostly submerged" indicates that not all was submerged.
But the historical background of Gen 1:2 and the implication of Gen 1:9 is
that there was no dry land until Day 3. If you know of any evidence or even
authoritative opinion for a totally submerged earth at any time in the
earth's history, I would certainly like to know about it, as I regularly twit
concordists by saying that they cannot get past the second verse of the Bible.
Best wishes,
Paul
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