Scholarly writings frequently refer to Genesis as myth, for while the author of Genesis 1–11 "demythologised" his narrative by removing the Babylonian myths and those elements which did not fit with his own faith, it remains a myth in the sense of being a story of origins. Robert Alter described the combined narrative as "compelling in its archetypal character, its adaptation of myth to monotheistic ends". The combined narrative is a critique of the Mesopotamian theology of creation: Genesis affirms monotheism and denies polytheism. The two sources can be identified in the creation narrative: Priestly and Jahwistic. The first major comprehensive draft of the Pentateuch (the series of five books which begins with Genesis and ends with Deuteronomy) is thought to have been composed in the late 7th or the 6th century BCE (the Jahwist source) and was later expanded by other authors (the Priestly source) into a work very like Genesis as known today. The authors of the Hebrew creation narrative borrowed themes from Mesopotamian mythology, but adapted them to their unique belief in one God. Eve, the first woman, is created from Adam's rib as his companion. There he is given dominion over the animals. In the second story God (now referred to by the personal name Yahweh) creates Adam, the first man, from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden. In the first, Elohim (the Hebrew generic word for god) creates the heavens and the Earth in six days, then rests on, blesses, and sanctifies the seventh (i.e. The narrative is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. Tycho Brahe's studies of the nova of 1572 and the comet of 1577 were the first major challenges to the idea that orbs existed as solid, incorruptible, material objects.The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity. There were seven inner orbs for the seven wanderers of the sky, and their ordering is preserved in the naming of the days of the week.Įven Copernicus' heliocentric model included an outer sphere that held the stars (and by having the earth rotate daily on its axis it allowed the firmament to be completely stationary). The outermost orb contained the stars and the term firmament was then transferred to this orb. This cosmology involved celestial orbs, nested concentrically inside one another, with the earth at the center. The Medieval Scholastics adopted a cosmology that fused the ideas of the Greek philosophers Aristotle and Ptolemy. The Greeks and Stoics adopted a model of celestial spheres after the discovery of the spherical Earth in the 4th to 3rd centuries BC. Calvin's " doctrine of accommodation" allowed Protestants to accept the findings of science without rejecting the authority of scripture. "As it became a theologian, had to respect us rather than the stars," Calvin wrote. "He who would learn astronomy and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere," wrote Calvin. In 1554, John Calvin proposed that "firmament" be interpreted as clouds. The Copernican Revolution of the 16th century led to reconsideration of these matters. Thomas Aquinas, the firmament had a "solid nature" and stood above a "region of fire, wherein all vapor must be consumed." Saint Basil argued for a fluid firmament. "We may understand this name as given to indicate not it is motionless but that it is solid." he wrote. So slight is this elevation that birds may rise to it and fly along its expanse.Īugustine wrote that too much learning had been expended on the nature of the firmament. To this vault are fastened the lights, the stars. Over this is arched the solid vault of heaven. The Hebrews regarded the earth as a plain or a hill figured like a hemisphere, swimming on water. Like most ancient peoples, the Hebrews believed the sky was a solid dome with the Sun, Moon and stars embedded in it. It is derived from the root raqa‘ ( רקע), meaning "to beat or spread out", e.g., the process of making a dish by hammering thin a lump of metal. The word "firmament" is used to translate raqia, or raqiya‘ ( רקיע), a word used in Biblical Hebrew. The word is a Latinization of the Greek stereōma, which appears in the Septuagint (c. This in turn is derived from the Latin root firmus, a cognate with "firm". The word is anglicised from Latin firmamentum, used in the Vulgate ( 4th century). It later appeared in the King James Bible. The word "firmament" is first recorded in a Middle English narrative based on scripture dated 1250.
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