                   |
What
is the Expanse in Genesis 1?
Genesis 1:6-8, 14-19.
English translations: The King James Version translates the Hebrew noun raqiya (7549) as "firmament." This translation actually comes from Jerome's Latin Vulgate "firmamentum," which conveys the idea of something firm. According to Jonathan Sarfati, in his book, The Genesis Account, he refers to A. S. Kuliovsky, who stated that "The Hebrew word raqiya refers to something flexible or malleable which has been stretched out." 1 Sarfati prefers the translation "expanse," which is used by the NASB. Sarfati has a section in his book entitled, "God Stretched Out the Heavens." 2 In this section he identifies 17 verses that speak of the heavens being stretched out. Many of these verses employ the Hebrew verb natah (5186): Job 9:8; Psalm 104:2; Isa. 40:22; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; 51:13; Jer. 10:12; 51:15; Zech. 12:1. Two of the verses employ the Hebrew verb raqa (7554), "...to spread out" (excerpted from Accordance): Job 37:18; Isa. 44:24b. This verb is closely related to the Hebrew noun raqiya (7549). I concur with Sarfati and NASB that "expanse" is the best trranslation of raqiya (7549). The Uses of raqiya in Genesis 1.
THE INITIAL OCCURRENCE OF RAQIYA. Genesis 1:6-8. This noun appears five times in the space of three verses. Let us analyze it. The location of the raqiya: "in the midst of the waters." We read, in Genesis 1:6a, Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters ...." So, in the first appearance of this noun, we learn that God's intention was to place an expanse – a stretched out space – in the midst of the waters. It would divide the waters. But which waters? So far in the text, we do not know. But more information is coming. The purpose of the raqiya: "and let it separate the waters from the waters." Genesis 1:6b informs us that the purpose of the raqiya was separation of the waters. But we as readers are still in the dark as to which waters the author of Genesis is referring. But the action of God in the next verse more clearly defines the nature of the separation. The nature of the separation. Genesis 1:7. "God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so." So, we learn that God created the raqiya to separate the waters which were above the raqiya from the waters which were below it. We surmise that the waters which were below the raqiya were the waters of the ocean that covered the entire surface of the globe on the Second Day. We surmise, further, that the waters which were above the raqiya served as some kind of water vapor canopy or ethereal "protective blanket" that had a beneficial impact upon the earth below. One thing we can deduce for certain. For centuries, there was enough water in "the waters above the expanse" to produce a constant deluge of rain over the entire earth for forty days and forty nights during Noah's Great Flood (Genesis 7:4, 12). That is a prodigious amount of water that had been protecting the earth and its inhabitants from above. There was a completely different meteorological system before the Flood than there was after the Flood, a fact which we will demonstrate shortly. If it be argued that the opening of the windows of the heavens (Genesis 7:11) was simply rain descending from the clouds exactly as it happens today, I strongly object. There is simply not enough rain in today's clouds to cascade down from above upon the entire globe over a space of forty days and forty nights. The "waters above the expanse" did not consist of rain from clouds. The first occurrences of "cloud" ('anan, 6051) do not appear in the text of Genesis until after the Flood, in Genesis 9:13, 14, 16). The forty days and forty nights of rain came from the condensation of the global water vapor canopy, not from any clouds, for no clouds yet existed. A further identification of the raqiya. Genesis 1:8. "God called the expanse heavens (the plural noun shamayim, 8064) (JTB Translation). And there was evening and there was morning, a second day." Why did Moses, under the tutelage of God, further identify the singular raqiya as the plural "heavens"? First of all, because there are multiple heavens. There is the heaven in which birds and bats fly. Then there is the heaven in which the sun, moon, and stars navigate. There there is the highest heaven, the abode of God. Second, and this is an interpretation which I have heard no other scholar employ, because there were, at the completion of creation, two distinct raqiyas. The lower raqiya was created on the Second Day of Creation. It was the "Raqiya of the Waters" (Gen. 1:6-8). The upper raqiya was mentioned on the Fourth Day of Creation. It is the "Raqiya of the Heavens," housing the sun, moon, and stars (Gen. 1:14, 15, 17). During the first 1500 years of human existence, one could look upward and peer through the Lower Raqiya of the Waters and up into the Upper Raqiya of the Heavens, and never know there were two distinct, but overlapping Raqiyas. They were indistinguishable. But they were both there. Today, we have a lower atmosphere, and then we have Deep Space in which the sun, moon, and stars circle. But we cannot discern the difference from the earth. But, since the Flood of Noah upon the Earth, the Raqiya of the Waters has been missing. There is no longer any water vapor canopy. THE SECOND OCCURRNCE OF RAQIYA. Genesis 1:14-19. God's command: 14 Then God said, “Let there be lights The location of the lights: in the expanse of the heavens The functional purpose of the lights: to separate the day from the night, The time purpose of the lights: and let them be for signs
and for seasons
and for days and years; The luminary value of the lights: 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”;
The result of God's command: and it was so. The specificity of the lights: The Great Lights: 16 God made the two great lights, The Greater Light (the sun): the greater light to govern the day,
The Lesser Light: and the lesser light to govern the night; The
Distant Lights: He made the stars also. (Literally, "and the stars."
There is no pronoun "He" or verb "made" in the Hebrew text. Contrary to
modern secular cosmology, which believes that the main feature of the
heavens is the stars, in God's assessment, the stars are almost an
afterthought.)
The location of God's placement of the lights:17 God placed them in the expanse of the heavens
The repetition of God's purpose for the lights: to give light on the earth, 18 and to govern the day and the night,
and to separate the light from the darkness; God's assessment of His luminary creation on the Fourth Day: and God saw that it was good. The passage of time on the Fourth Day: 19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. Some Observations are in Order 1. There are two distinct raqiyas in Genesis 1. a. There is the Raqiya of the Waters described in Genesis 1:6-8
2. The vocabulary of the two raqiyas is different.(1) "Let there be expanse in the midst of the waters" (Gen. 1:6).
(2) "and let it separate the waters from the waters" (Gen. 1:6) (3) "God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. (4) God called the expanse "heavens" (JTB's plural translation of the plural Hebrew noun shamayim [8064]). b. There is the Raqiya of the Heavens described in Genesis 1:14-19 (1) Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens ...." (Gen. 1:14)
(2) "... and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. (Gen. 1:15) (3) "God placed them [the two great lights] in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth ...." (Gen. 1:17). a. The Raqiya of the Waters (Gen. 1:6-8) is repeatedly associated with the plural noun "waters" (mayim, 4325).
(1) Gen. 1:6 (three occurrences)
(2) Gen. 1:7 (two occurrences) b. The Raqiya of the Heavens (Gen. 1:14-19) is repeatedly associated
(1) with the plural noun "heavens" (shamayim, 8064),
(2) and with the noun light or lights (ma'or, 3974), appearing both in the plural (Gen. 1:14, 15, 16) and in the singular (Gen. 1:16 - twice), (3) and with the Hiphil Infinitive verb "to give light" (o'r, 215) (Gen. 1:15, 17 Footnotes
Updated September 25, 2026
|
|