The Second Day
Notes
Transcript
Handout
6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.
8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
What does the World Of the Text reveal to us about the second day of creation?
Let’s continue to look at the poetic structure of this cosmogony.
In verse 6a we have the first refrain repeated: “God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters...”
In verse 6b we have the repeated concept of separation, with the expanse separating the waters above and below.
In verse 7a we have the second partial refrain of “God made the expanse.”, which is stated in parallel to the first refrain.
In verse 7b we again observe God separated - here he separated the waters under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse.
In verse 7c we observe the third partial refrain, “And it was so.”
In verse 8a we have the repetition of the first partial refrain of “God called the expanse heaven”.
In verse 8b we have the third refrain repeated; “And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.”
Now that we have examined the structure, we turn our attention to the six investigative questions of: who, what, when, where, why, and how.
In verse 6a, what did God say?
Let there be an expanse.
In verse 6a, what is meant by the word “expanse”, “raqia” in Hebrew?
The noun, raqiya‘, is related to the verb, raqa‘). This verb is used eleven times in the Old Testament and is translated variously in the ESV (and similarly in other translations) as “hammer,” “spread out,” “beat,” “stamp,” or “overlay.” Often it refers to spreading, beating, or hammering a thin layer of metal (gold, silver, or bronze) onto an object. The idea is that Yahweh is spreading out the heavens.
Let’s look to the World of the Text (i.e., the Law) to understand how the word “raqia” (expanse) is being used.
Raqia is used nine times in the Law; each time it is used to refer either to the face of the sky or to space. In the current context, I think it refers to the second heaven, which is space.
I need to correct my previous sermon because I cited Genesis 1:6-8 as an example of the first heaven, but with further research and study, I believe that this is space, not our atmosphere.
In Genesis 1:20, it is used to refer to the first heaven, which is the sky.
In verse 6a, where is the expanse?
It is in the midst of the waters.
In verse 6a, what does it mean to be in the “midst of” - “towek” in Hebrew?
Towek is used a total of 133 times in the Torah. 129 times it is used to mean “midst” as location, and four times to mean the middle area. Both ideas apply here because it is between the waters, separating them.
In verse 6a, what does it mean by “waters”, “mayim” in Hebrew?
As we discovered July 11th and 12th, “mayim” is the general term for water, and Moses is pushing back on the ancient cosmogony that taught the god Tiamat was the waters above and below the sky.
In verse 6b, where are the waters?
The waters are under and above the expanse.
In verse 6b, how are the waters separated?
The waters are separated by the expanse, which is what we would call space.
Now let's look at 7a. What did God do?
“God made the expanse.” This is in parallel to “God said let there be the expanse.”
What is meant by the word “made”, “asa” in Hebrew?
Asa is used 850 times in the Torah with 18 senses. Here it is used to mean “to make”, or “to cause”. It is used 264 times this way in the Law.
We can conclude that God is the cause of the expanse.
In 7b, what did God do?
God “separated the waters”.
What is meant by the word “separated” - “badal” in Hebrew?
Badal is used 22 times in the Torah. It is translated 7 ways. 12 of the 22 ways, it is translated as “separate”. In verse 3, the light is separated from darkness to distinguish day and night. In the current context, the expanse is used to separate the two waters: the one under the expanse, and the one above the expanse.
Where did God separate the waters?
He separated them under the expanse and above the expanse.
In 7c, what is meant by the partial refrain “And it was so”?
It is used 6 times in the Torah; each time it is a concluding statement, communicating that God accomplished what he intended.
In verse 8a, what did God call the expanse?
He called it heaven.
What is meant by this term “heaven”, “samayim” in Hebrew?
We observe in Genesis, the World Of the Text, heaven being used three ways.
The first is in Genesis 1:20, which is in reference to the sky or the earth’s atmosphere on the face of the expanse.
The second is in Genesis 1:8, 14, which is in reference to space, where he created the stars, the sun, and the moon.
The third is in Genesis 11:4; 21:17, which is in reference to the abode of God and spiritual beings.
In verse 8b we see the third refrain repeated. Why is it repeated?
It is repeated to emphasize that God created in an ordered fashion, not from disorder.
Based on our observations of what God has done so far from the perspective of the earth, what does it look like?
Using AI, I generated this image.
Yet given the greatness of the expanse, one would not be able to see the waters above the expanse.
What function does it serve in the created order?
The current context has it functioning as the separation of the water below and above.
Now that we have made the observations from the World of the Text, we observe the world behind the text, which is ancient cosmogonies.
The ancient cosmogony, “Enuma Elish,” has the separation of waters as well, on tablet IV. It happens through the battle of Marduk and Tiamat. In this battle, Marduk is victorious over Tiamat, the chaos agent, and separated her below and above the sky.
But the commonality stops with the separation of the waters. In fact, we see Moses making a point to communicate that the Enuma Elish account is false, and that Tiamat, or “the deep”, is just general waters and that they are tools in the hands of the Creator God.
This is further confirmed by Genesis 7:11, where God uses the waters below and above to judge the earth by the flood.
The ancient mindset differed from ours in that they focused on God creating function more than him creating matter.
This is illustrated in the text, with the expanse serving the function of separating the waters below and above, and in the text last week with the naming of day and night to create the function of time.
Ancient cosmogonies also presented the earth as a disk. Here are two archaeological finds from Babylon and Egypt that illustrate this.
Did the ancient Israelite view the world this way?
Some scholars think so and created this illustration based on a very literal translation of Job 38, even though it is poetry.
We do not know if they all viewed the world this way because there is no evidence during their wilderness wanderings or any other time. Some probably had this view if they were following the other gods, but we cannot say all did.
This depiction is also in contradiction to the creation account of the fourth day in Genesis 1:14-19, where God said three times that the stars and the Sun and Moon are in the expanse, not under it as illustrated.
Moses is then correcting the disk-shaped concept of the Earth and declaring how God created the universe.
Despite Moses' teachings, this perspective of a disk-shaped Earth was popular until 1505. It changed through the work of Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish astronomer and pastor who formulated the heliocentric idea of the cosmos, which was first proposed by Aristarchus in the third century BC, but did not gain popularity.
We now find ourselves in the World in Front of the Text.
Here there are four interpretations for the meaning of the expanse. I will start with the least likely and move to the most likely.
The expanse is a hard shell, covering the atmosphere over a disc-shaped earth.
The expanse is simply the earth's atmosphere.
The expanse is the space between the waters of the earth and the waters above the earth, known as a vapor canopy. This canopy was used in the flood as an instrument of judgment. (Lindsay, Dennis Gordon. The Canopied Earth: World That Was. Creation Series. Dallas, TX: Christ for the Nations, 1991.)
The expanse is outer space where the stars, sun, and moon are. The Earth's atmosphere is the face of the expanse from an earthly perspective. The waters below are the Earth's oceans and lakes. The waters above have not been discovered, since they are at the end of space. (The Firmament: What did God Create on Day 2 by Dr. Terry Mortenson. Published on August 19, 2020. Answers Research Journal 13 (2020): 113–133. https://answersresearchjournal.org/firmament-what-did-god-create-day-2/ )
Come now, let us praise Yahweh, creator of outer space, with Psalm 148
Praise Yah.
Praise Yahweh from the heavens;
praise him in the heights.
Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all stars of light.
Praise him, highest heavens,
and waters above the heavens.
Let them praise the name of Yahweh,
because he commanded and they were created.
And he put them in place forever and ever,
by a decree he gave that will not pass away.
Praise Yahweh from the earth—
great sea creatures and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and cloud,
stormy wind doing his bidding,
the mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
beasts and all cattle,
creeping things and flying birds,
kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all judges of the earth,
young men and young women as well,
the old together with the young—
let them praise the name of Yahweh,
because his name alone is exalted.
His splendor is above earth and heavens.
And he has raised high a horn for his people,
praise for all his faithful—
for the children of Israel,
a people close to him.
Praise Yah.
