These two chapters describe in detail Earth’s water cycle, mentioning multiple forms of liquid water falling from the troposphere and multiple forms of frozen water likewise falling from the sky above Earth’s surface. Job 37–38 provides a much more detailed description of what happened on creation day 2. I believe Genesis 1:6-8 is best understood as a brief comment on how relative to Earth’s surface there is water above (in the troposphere) and water below (in the oceans and lakes). This online paper refutes the claim that ancient peoples held such a belief: Note, too, that in Genesis 1:8 God called the raqia’ sky. The translation as vault or dome is based on the myth that the ancient peoples surrounding Israel believed that a solid dome was fixed over a flat earth with a reservoir of water above the solid dome. Since 1970, new translations of the Bible translate raqia’ as expanse, sky, space, horizon, canopy, vault, or dome. The firmament was an Old English translation of sky used in the King James Version and other older translations of the English Bible. According to Eastons Bible Dictionary, from the Vulgate firmamentum. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament defines raqia’ as “expanse” or the “broad expanse of heaven. Merriam-Webster simply defines the firmament as the vault or arch of the sky heavens. A sheet or dome used by God to separate cosmic waters from the earth on the second day of creation (Gen 1:6-8), forming the sky.
Previous to 1970, all English translations of the Bible translated raqia’ as expanse or firmament. My Answer: The Hebrew word translated as expanse is raqia’. Question of the Week: How do you explain what Genesis 1:6-8 means in regard to water being in the expanse?
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