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What the Biblical Authors Meant by the Word “Earth”

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This session is from the BibleProject Classroom class Heaven and Earth, taught by Dr. Tim Mackie. The entire class is available for free on the BibleProject app at http://classroom-beta.bibleproject.com/heaven-and-earth.

What did the biblical authors intend to communicate when they used the word “earth?” Genesis 1 is an ancient cosmology that uses specific words and images to describe the ordered world as understood by ancient people. When we study this chapter, we can discover how the writers of the Bible understood the structure of the world and its origins

In Hebrew, the word for “earth” (‘erets) typically means land rather than a globe or sphere floating in space. The raqia’ is the solid dome above the land that holds back the waters above, and the creation of the raqia’ creates a place where life can flourish. Dive into Genesis 1 and explore how these Hebrew words can help us see the important theological claim being made through this cosmology picture.

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23 Comments

  2. This is way cool, but I will nitpick one thing: the Earth being a sphere was far from being a niche, radical notion at the time of Christ's earthly ministry—in fact, it had been nigh-universally accepted throughout the educated Hellenistic world for hundreds of years, since around the 4th century BCE.

  6. By Greeks surely you mean the conquerors of the Ancient Near East who were the role models for the Romans, the conquerors of Europe and the Mediterranean. This included Judea, and the Jewish thought world eventually, as we can tell from the existence of the Septuagint. By the time of Jesus, everyone in Mediterranean civilization was very Hellenized, even the Egyptians.

    So I would like to further point out that just about anyone who lived in the age of seafaring, which was the ancient world, and who lived on the coast could tell that the Earth was round. All you have to do is to see how quickly a mast disappears compared to the rest of the boat to see that the Earth is round.

    I cannot believe that this myth that people did not believe or know that the Earth was round has continued for so long. Even the popular imagination at the time of Magellan knew that the Earth was round. This is true even in ages upon ages past.

    It is simply misleading to use space photography as if that is the first time a globular earth existed in the popular imagination. All it takes is two eyes and a ship out to sea in order to observe the roundness of the earth. It would be enough to say that Moses did not have that, not that peoples since also did not have that.

  7. I am grateful for the questions that were asked because I too was a bit confused (still kind of am). That whole separation of the waters has long confused me. It's a bit clearer now, but God bless the students who were brave enough to express their need for clarification. Btw would have loved to hear the answer to the first lady's question about the water being held in reserve for a possible time of divine punishment. Thanks to the whole class. Tim's biblical enthusiasm is infectious!

  8. One thing, the amount of water as water vapor in the earth's atmosphere is arounds 37.5 million billion gallon. it's enough to thrown every land. maybe God is talking about the water which is in the air and is in thermodynamic equilibrium already. maybe once upon a time it shifted to one side so all of that water vapor condensed into water.

  13. I’m confused about the rain part of this class. Everything else is great and amazing but Tim was speaking as if the water cycle didn’t exist and that cloud are just poured into by water above the clouds but the water above the clouds are are free from droplets of condensed moisture.

  15. Crazy that so many people believe that their senses fail to understand that they’re spinning through space at over a thousand miles an hour…. But despite this, the stars are perfectly predictable and always aligned with many ancient pyramids and other sites year after year. The earth is stationary, the pics are CGI. Tryst your senses. Trust logic. Trust many pilots, railroad designers etc etc… never is anything made with the curvature in mind.

  16. The Raqia or separation between the ocean above and below could be a description of the earths atmosphere. The earths atmosphere keeps us safe and enclosed. Outer Space would be the place above the Raqia. According the Wikipedia, the water in Outer Space is 25–50 times the volume of earths water. It all ties together perfectly.

  18. So is it fair to say that the "raqia" is not actualy earths fermament, but rather a conceptual representation of the fabric of space? separating space, and the matter within it, from the waters above outside of space/universe? This "waters" sounds a lot like the "premordial soup" in physics.

  22. I understand that there are powers beyond our understanding, but when you talk about raqia and what holds back the waters above… how can I reconcile the differences in these biblical concepts with the astronomical and scientific? I understand that it's really not that important, what's important is my belief that God is my creator and it doesn't matter that I can comprehend it.
    Do you think there is any point in trying to reconcile the differences at all?
    In other words, do we need to discredit what we are taught in school? Surely scientific knowledge and the biblical cosmology can co-exist right? I just need someone to say Yes I guess.
    But in the end, whatever the answer may be to those questions, it doesn't change my view of God and my spiritual struggle to stay humble and content in God's love.