Recently I received a comment from a reader who brought up some complex questions which I believe deserve clarification. One of the first things brought up was the term hermeneutics. I believe I owe the reader at least a rough idea of what this means.

Hermeneutics is, “The science and art of biblical interpretation.” It is a science and an art; there are textbooks written on this subject, so it is not a simple discipline.

However, there are four rules of Bible interpretation used often in hermeneutics. For brevity I will give you a quick rundown on the four, the first of which is called the Golden Rule of Interpretation.

“When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning, unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic [self-evidently true] and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.”

The second law is more complicated.

The Law of Double Reference takes place when a passage of Scripture refers to two different events or people together, yet there is a time gap between their fulfillments.

The third law too is complicated.

The Law of Recurrence deals with the recording of an event in chronological order in one passage and then goes back in another passage to fill in more details that took place during that period.

A good example is Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 wherein God details the six days of creation, and His seventh day of rest. Then beginning at Genesis 2:4-25 God gives a great deal of information about His work during that period, including the creation of Adam’s wife Eve.

The fourth law, The Law of the Context. This one is simple but quite useful it states: “A text apart from its context is a pretext.”

If you need more clarification these rules were formulated by Dr. David L. Cooper founder of the Biblical Research Society

All four of these laws are explained on pages 4-7 in the book “The Footsteps of the Messiah” by Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, pub. by Ariel Ministries, WWW.ariel.org. This is a book on the end times and may be in your church library.

The first comment made on this subject was: “Waters are waters, period. Basic hermeneutics. I do not understand the need for theories. Take the word ‘waters’ as literal.”

All these comments are made in reference to things I wrote in my post, “Waters Above and Below, Genesis 1:6-8 posted on 8-19-21.

I agree with this man’s comment, waters are waters, however it was my intention to provide a visual image for the reader to understand how there could be a firmament between the waters.

To do this I visualized a little boat floating on an endless sea with the waters above us in the form of a suffocating fog so dense that it might even have killed a person if they were in it. As we sat in the boat with the waters below and the fog enveloping us God caused the fog to rise until it was out of sight above the sky (firmament). See below for the verse that I attempted to clarify.

“Then God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters [mayim], and let it divide the waters [mayim] from the waters [mayim].’” Genesis 1:6.

Three times the Hebrew word for waters is mayim these are God’s words, not Moses’ nor mine.

Waters are waters. Fog is a cloud which touches the ground. It is made up of water droplets or ice crystals. Clouds are made up of ice crystals or water, ice is frozen water and steam is heated water where the molecules break off in a gaseous state.

“He binds up the water [mayim] in His thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it.” Job 26:8

“To establish a weight for the wind, and mete out the waters [mayim] by measure.” Job 28:25.

“So He [Jesus] sent out two of His disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water [Greek, hoo’-dore]; follow him.’” Mark 14:13.

So, yes indeed, water is water… except?

“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, ‘Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters [Greek, hoo’-dore] …’” Revelation 17:1.

“And he said to me, ‘The waters [Greek, hoo’-dore] which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.’” Revelation 17:15.

So, we see that the same word can be used to describe water like drinking water, lake water, or just water, however it is also used symbolically for other things like nations, peoples or multitudes.

Notice too that Revelation 17:1 uses the word waters symbolically, and then Revelation 17:15 goes on to tell us the meaning of the word waters as used in verse 17:1.

Watch carefully, Scripture will often explain a symbolism in another passage. Parables and symbolisms are often a necessary part of the narrative, but God will show the meaning to an honest heart.

Let us now consider firmament. The comment was made: “The solid firmament idea is simply the fault of unregenerate translators in a heretical King James court. Extant literature is here-say at best.”

“Then God said, ‘Let there be a firmament [raqia] in the midst of the waters [mayim], and let it divide the waters [mayim] from the waters [mayim].’ Thus God made the firmament [raqia], and divided the waters [mayim] which were under the firmament [raqia] from the waters [mayim] which were above the firmament [raqia]; and it was so.” Genesis 1:6-7.

J. Vernon McGee simplified the word firmament by saying it is air spaces. That is correct, we can just accept that and drop the subject.

Having said that, it appears that my theory of us sitting in a boat under waters above consisting of a dense fog (of water) may not be possible because God created the firmament (air space) between the waters. “Then God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters’…” indicating that this firmament did not exist until God created it.

Consider this, did God create a firmament which surrounded earth X number of feet below the surface of the waters, and as the firmament expanded it raised the waters above it up to their final location on the second day?

I think I just sunk my little boat!

I hope that this clarifies the fact that I was never disputing that the waters mentioned in Genesis 1:6 were anything but water. Though the use of a boat to illustrate how the waters were separated may have been a bit clumsy.

Now let us go on to try to understand the word firmament, raqia.

The statement was made: “The solid firmament idea is simply the fault of unregenerate translators in a heretical King James court.”

Setting aside the question of firmament being a problem of a heretical translation, what in the world does it mean?

Let us begin with the what the Hebrews believed: The word raqia or firmament was considered by the Hebrews to be solid and supporting the waters above.

If this is a reference to ancient Hebrews it would follow that they were translating this definition from a far older manuscript than we currently have. This would minimize the possibility of the manuscripts being corrupted by human error.

A few of the Bible translations using the word firmament in Genesis 1:6 are as follows.

King James Version, New King James Version, American standard Version, Douay-Rheims 1899 Version (Catholic Version), 1599 Geneva Bible, New Catholic Bible, Revised Standard Bible, Wycliffe Bible.

The word expanse is used in some such as: Darby Version, and the New American Standard Bible.

The word dome is used in some such as the New Revised Standard Version. All of these are an extremely small sampling of the many different Bible translations that exist to show that firmament is a legitimate translation, not a word made up by heretics.

“To establish a weight for the wind, and mete out the waters by measure.” Job 28:25.

It wasn’t until 1643 when Evangelista Torricelli learned of air pressure and its changes by weather. Odd how the Creator of everything mentioned the weight of air so many thousands of years earlier.

The air that we breathe is made up of 78.1% Nitrogen, 20.9% Oxygen, 0.9% Argon, the remaining 0.1% composed of Neon, Carbon Dioxide, Helium, Methane, Krypton and Hydrogen. These gases remain mixed together evenly by the constant movement of the wind, like the stirring of coffee evenly distributes the cream and sugar.

These elements have mass and weight which works out to 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level. Because the pull of gravity diminishes at greater altitudes so does the weight of the air.

At an altitude of 5280 feet Denver’s pounds per square inch diminish by 17% from sea level. We live in a sea of air, which like the ocean gets heavier as you descend to greater depths.

Let’s now look at another phenomena called Earthgrazers, these are meteoroids which hit the earth’s atmosphere at a very low angle and after a fiery show they exit our air space without hitting the ground.

You can research this anomaly on the internet by punching in Earthgrazers which will bring up numerous articles about them. Much harder to locate, but quite interesting, go to the site listverse.com and look up the article “10 Times a Meteor Fell to Earth and Flew Back into Space”.

One of the most spectacular events of this sort occurred on 8-10-72 at 2:30 pm over Utah in front of many witnesses. This sighting then flew as far as Alberta Canada before it exited our atmosphere at an altitude of 63 miles. The lowest altitude this meteoroid dropped to was 36 miles above Montana, with one person quoted as having heard two sonic booms.

This meteoroid was estimated to weigh 570 tons and at 46 feet long was about the size of a truck and traveled at a speed of 33,616 mph. Had it hit the earth the destructive force would have been that of an atomic bomb. It is called the Great Daylight Fireball.

While Earthgrazers are rare there are eyewitness accounts of them over Europe and Japan for instance, these are not hysterical visions, they have been recorded on scientific equipment and documented.

So, what causes a 570-ton object which comes to within 36 miles of the earth’s surface then to bounce to an altitude of 63 miles to exit earth’s atmosphere?

A meteoroid that enters the atmosphere at an extremely high angle will plow through the atmosphere no matter what. In this case the meteoroid will either burn up from friction or what remains will impact earth.

The Earthgrazers on the other hand seem to consistently enter at a very shallow angle, and as one person noted, it will skip across our atmosphere like a stone skipping across water.

So then, if our air space has mass and it has weight it will have resistance, resistance that will through atmospheric friction burn meteoroids up, or to nearly nothing.

Our firmament, or expanse if you like is a gift from God. This air space is not just empty air, it is a cushion to protect us from meteoroids which would not burn up, but instead be like bullets which fall from heaven and kill whoever or whatever they hit, and it at times protects us from 570-ton meteoroids!

I agree with the Hebrews who defined firmament/raqia as “solid and supporting waters above” in Genesis 1:6-7. Raqia is more than empty space, it has mass, weight and resistance it gives us oxygen, weather, and protects from space dangers. God is good all the time.

“He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the water in His thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it. He covers the face of His throne, and spreads His cloud over it. He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, at the boundary of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at His reproof. He stirs up the sea with His power, and by His understanding He breaks up the storm. By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent. Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?” Job 26:7-14.

Since this was lengthy, I am going to cover the other half of these comments in part 2. “The solid firmament idea is simply the fault of unregenerate translators in a heretical King James court.”

Waters are Waters, Part 1, taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 2-11-24 ck.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.