> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Seely [mailto:PHSeely@msn.com]
> Sent: Sunday, June 18, 2006 6:38 AM
> If Ptolemy is c. 350 BC, I can't think of any Jewish writings
> except the OT
> which are earlier. He may have reinforced Jewish views about
> the solidity of
> the firmament, but that the Jewish view was taken from the OT
> is evident in
> that they held on to the ocean above the firmament, which
> Ptolemy did not
> accept.
Paul,
That is not what I am asking. I am not asking if ptolemy (2nd century AD I
will use the vernacular AD) or Aristotle (4th century BC) influenced the
original writers. I am asking if they influenced the 1st century Jews who
then changed the way they viewed the meaning of the word Raqiya.
> In the rabbinical commentary Genesis Rabbah the rabbis
> discussed the water
> above the firmament, clearly indicating that they understood
> it to be a body
> of water (4.5.2 E) above a solid firmament (4.5.2 A-D).
> Clouds, on the other
> hand, were below the firmament and rose up to it in order to
> be filled with
> water from the water above the firmament (b. Taàan 1.9b).
Yes, but this is long after Aristotle and they were in the Hellenistic
world. Did the Hellenistic world influence their understanding of
cosmology? Did the Hellenistic world cause them to re-define raqiya in the
1st or 2nd century?
You didn't deal with the verses I listed which I think show that Raqiya had
a different meaning than a solid dome.
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Received on Sat Jun 17 21:20:34 2006
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