Re: [asa] Two questions...

On Sat, 7 Feb 2009, Bethany Sollereder wrote:

> James,
>
> Psalm 19:1-4 is a very interesting choice. You are aware, I hope, that the
> word which in your translation is made to be "skies" comes from "raqia".
> This is better translated "firmament" or "vault" (See Gen 1 in TNIV) and
> refers to the hard dome of the sky holding up the heavenly oceans. This is
> basic ANE cosmology and can be seen in Egyptian, Babylonian and Sumerian
> creation accounts, and yet I assume when you read skies you think
> "atmosphere" - which is certainly not what the Psalmist had in mind.
>
> You said " If what we discover about the world and how he created it and us
> is true to God, then it should (and does, IMO) agree with his Word." If you
> are going to do this, and agree with what concordism demands, then
> ultimately you would have to agree with their cosmology as well. If in fact
> you don't think the sky is a hard dome keeping up a heavenly ocean (and that
> NASA has indeed sent space ships out which have not run into any such
> firmament) then you have already taken the first steps in rejecting the need
> for concordism.
>

Bethany,

You and James may be using different definitions of concordism. If
concordism is defined in such a way that noone is a concordist, it ceases
to be a useful topic of discussion.

In Psalm 19 David is not trying to tell us that the sky is solid. That is
not his topic. He is remarking about what viewing the sky tells him about
God. He uses a word that happens to be derived from ancient cosmology.
What other word should he have used? Even though he presumably believed
the ancient cosmology, it makes no more sense to say that he was trying
to teach that cosmology than it would be to accuse me of teaching
geocentricity if I refer to beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

One can easily find many clues in OT poetical passages to what their
cosmology was. You can also find passages such as the last few chapters of
Job where the language about creation would presumably appear figurative
even to people who accepted ancient cosmology.

Gordon Brown (ASA member)

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Received on Sat Feb 7 22:34:09 2009