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The Bible was [[Biblical canon|formed over many centuries]], by [[Authorship of the Bible|many authors]], and reflects [[Internal consistency of the Bible|shifting patterns of religious belief]]; consequently, its concepts of cosmology are not always consistent.<ref>{{harvnb|Bernstein|1996|p=134}}</ref><ref name="Berlin 2011 188">{{harvnb|Berlin|2011|p=188}}</ref> Nor should the Biblical texts be taken to represent the beliefs of all [[Jews]] or [[Christians]] at the time they were put into writing: the majority of those making up [[Hebrew Bible]] or [[Old Testament]] in particular represent the beliefs of only a small segment of the ancient Israelite community, the members of a late Judean religious tradition centered in [[Jerusalem#Ancient period|Jerusalem]] and devoted to the exclusive worship of [[Yahweh]].<ref>{{harvnb|Wright|2002|p=52}}</ref>
The Bible was [[Biblical canon|formed over many centuries]], by [[Authorship of the Bible|many authors]], and reflects [[Internal consistency of the Bible|shifting patterns of religious belief]]; consequently, its concepts of cosmology are not always consistent.<ref>{{harvnb|Bernstein|1996|p=134}}</ref><ref name="Berlin 2011 188">{{harvnb|Berlin|2011|p=188}}</ref> Nor should the Biblical texts be taken to represent the beliefs of all [[Jews]] or [[Christians]] at the time they were put into writing: the majority of those making up [[Hebrew Bible]] or [[Old Testament]] in particular represent the beliefs of only a small segment of the ancient Israelite community, the members of a late Judean religious tradition centered in [[Jerusalem#Ancient period|Jerusalem]] and devoted to the exclusive worship of [[Yahweh]].<ref>{{harvnb|Wright|2002|p=52}}</ref>


According to the Torah, Planet Earth (Aretz in Hebrew), was originally composed of only water. God (Elohim in Hebrew), created a [[plate-like shield]] (firmament), to separate the waters above and below, on the second day (yom), of creation. The length of these [[creation days]] has been debated, as the Hebrew word "yom" can mean any length of time, not just a 24 hour day. <ref>http://www.godandscience.org/youngearth/six_days_of_creation.html</ref> The sun, moon, and stars appear to have already been created from the very first day of Creation, only they had not fully formed, as the Torah uses the words "atsah" to describe the making of the celestial bodies. Humans inhabited earth during life and the underworld after death, and the underworld was morally neutral;<ref>{{harvnb|Wright|2002|pp=117,124–125}}</ref> only in [[Hellenistic]] times (after c.330 BCE) did Jews begin to adopt the [[Hades|Greek idea]] that it would be a place of punishment for misdeeds, and that the righteous would enjoy an [[afterlife]] in heaven.<ref name="Lee 2010 77–78">{{harvnb|Lee|2010|pp=77–78}}</ref> In the Book of Job a [[spherical earth]] suspended in [[space]] at the [[geocentric|center]] is mentioned, which is amazing due to the time period Job was written in. <ref>https://untotheages.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/the-bible-and-a-spherical-earth/</ref>
According to the Torah, Planet Earth (Aretz in Hebrew), was originally composed of only water. God (Elohim in Hebrew), created a [[plate-like shield]] (firmament), to separate the waters above and below, on the second day (yom), of creation. The length of these [[creation days]] has been debated, as the Hebrew word "yom" can mean any length of time, not just a 24 hour day. <ref>http://www.godandscience.org/youngearth/six_days_of_creation.html</ref> The sun, moon, and stars appear to have already been created from the very first day of Creation, only they had not fully formed, as the Torah uses the words "atsah" to describe the making of the celestial bodies. Humans inhabited earth during life and the underworld after death, and the underworld was morally neutral; though the Psalms mention some sort of resurrection into a heavenly paradise. In the Book of Job a [[spherical earth]] suspended in [[space]] at the [[geocentric|center]] is mentioned, which is amazing due to the time period Job was written in. <ref>https://untotheages.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/the-bible-and-a-spherical-earth/</ref>


The opening words of the [[Genesis creation narrative]] (Genesis 1:1-26) sum up the authors' view of how the cosmos originated: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"; [[Yahweh]], the god of Israel, was solely responsible for creation and had no rivals. A trinity, however, is mentioned early on in the Genesis narrative, as the Hebrew text reads "Elohim", a plural form of the Hebrew word for "God". <ref>http://www.bible.ca/trinity/trinity-texts-genesis1-26.htm</ref>
The opening words of the [[Genesis creation narrative]] (Genesis 1:1-26) sum up the authors' view of how the cosmos originated: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"; [[Yahweh]], the god of Israel, was solely responsible for creation and had no rivals. A trinity, however, is mentioned early on in the Genesis narrative, as the Hebrew text reads "Elohim", a plural form of the Hebrew word for "God". <ref>http://www.bible.ca/trinity/trinity-texts-genesis1-26.htm</ref>

Revision as of 19:21, 11 February 2016

This article is about the Cosmology of the Bible. For an overview of approaches to the Cosmos in its totality, see Cosmology. For religious cosmology in particular, see Religious cosmology.
God creating the cosmos (Bible Moralisee, French, 13th century)

Biblical cosmology is the biblical writers' conception of the Cosmos as an organised, structured entity, including its origin, order, meaning and destiny.[1][2]

The Bible was formed over many centuries, by many authors, and reflects shifting patterns of religious belief; consequently, its concepts of cosmology are not always consistent.[3][4] Nor should the Biblical texts be taken to represent the beliefs of all Jews or Christians at the time they were put into writing: the majority of those making up Hebrew Bible or Old Testament in particular represent the beliefs of only a small segment of the ancient Israelite community, the members of a late Judean religious tradition centered in Jerusalem and devoted to the exclusive worship of Yahweh.[5]

According to the Torah, Planet Earth (Aretz in Hebrew), was originally composed of only water. God (Elohim in Hebrew), created a plate-like shield (firmament), to separate the waters above and below, on the second day (yom), of creation. The length of these creation days has been debated, as the Hebrew word "yom" can mean any length of time, not just a 24 hour day. [6] The sun, moon, and stars appear to have already been created from the very first day of Creation, only they had not fully formed, as the Torah uses the words "atsah" to describe the making of the celestial bodies. Humans inhabited earth during life and the underworld after death, and the underworld was morally neutral; though the Psalms mention some sort of resurrection into a heavenly paradise. In the Book of Job a spherical earth suspended in space at the center is mentioned, which is amazing due to the time period Job was written in. [7]

The opening words of the Genesis creation narrative (Genesis 1:1-26) sum up the authors' view of how the cosmos originated: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"; Yahweh, the god of Israel, was solely responsible for creation and had no rivals. A trinity, however, is mentioned early on in the Genesis narrative, as the Hebrew text reads "Elohim", a plural form of the Hebrew word for "God". [8] Not only that, but thorough the Book of Psalms, references to Christ are made. [9]

Cosmogony (origins of the cosmos)

"The Destruction of Leviathan" (Gustave Doré, 1865)
See also: Cosmogony

Divine battle vs divine speech

Two different models of the process of creation existed in ancient Israel. In the "logos" (speech) model, God speaks and shapes unresisting dormant matter into effective existence and order (Psalm 33: "By the word of YHWH the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their hosts; he gathers up the waters like a mound, stores the Deep in vaults"); in the second, or "agon" (struggle) model, God does battle with the monsters of the sea at the beginning of the world in order to mark his sovereignty and power.[10] Psalm 74 evokes the agon model: it opens with a lament over God's desertion of his people and their tribulations, then asks him to remember his past deeds: "You it was who smashed Sea with your might, who battered the heads of the monsters in the waters; You it was who crushed the heads of Leviathan, who left them for food for the denizens of the desert..."[10] In this world-view the seas are primordial forces of disorder, and the work of creation is preceded by a divine combat (or "theomachy").[11]

Creation in the "agon" model takes the following storyline: (1) God as the divine warrior battles the monsters of chaos, who include Sea, Death, Tannin and Leviathan, this however seems to be symbolic, as "death", among other things, are simply being personified; (2) The world of nature joins in the battle and the chaos-monsters are defeated; (3) God is enthroned on a divine mountain, surrounded by cherubim; (4) He speaks, and nature brings forth the created world,[12] or for the Greeks, the cosmos. In the Book of Revelation, an apocalyptic theme is introduced, where it is prophesied that the sun, moon, and sea will be no more.

The Genesis creation narrative (Genesis 1) is the quintessential "logos" creation myth. Like the "agon" model it begins with darkness and the uncreated primordial ocean:[13] God separates and restrains the waters, but he does not create them from nothing.[14] God initiates each creative act with a spoken word ("God said, Let there be..."), and finalises it with the giving of a name.[15] Creation by speech is not unique to the Old Testament: it is not emphasized in Mesopotamian cosmological thinking, but was prominent in some Egyptian traditions.[16] There is, however, a difference between the Egyptian and Hebrew logos mythologies: in Genesis 1 the divine word of the Elohim is an act of "making into"; the word of Egyptian creator-god, by contrast, is an almost magical activation of something inherent in pre-creation: as such, it goes beyond the concept of fiat (divine act) to something more like the Logos of the Gospel of John.[16]

Naming: God, Wisdom, Torah and Christ

In the ancient world, things did not exist until they were named: "The name of a living being or an object was ... the very essence of what was defined, and the pronouncing of a name was to create what was spoken."[16] The pre-Exilic (before 586 BCE) Old Testament allowed no equals to Yahweh in heaven, despite the continued existence of an assembly of subordinate servant-angelic being who helped make decisions about matters on heaven and earth.[17] The post-Exilic writers of the Wisdom tradition (e.g. the Book of Proverbs, Song of Songs, etc.) develop the idea that Wisdom, later identified with Torah, existed before creation and was used by God to create the universe, but this is clearly a personification of actual wisdom:[4] "Present from the beginning, Wisdom assumes the role of master builder while God establishes the heavens, restricts the chaotic waters, and shapes the mountains and fields."[18] The Wisdom tradition taught that God's Wisdom, Word and Spirit were the ground of cosmic unity.[19] Christianity uses the references to Christ throughout Psalms to apply to Christ his place in the Trinity: the Epistle to the Colossians calls Jesus "...image of the invisible God, first-born of all creation...", while the Gospel of John identifies him with the creative word ("In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God").[20]

Cosmography (shape and structure of the cosmos)

Heavens, earth, and underworld

The Hebrew Bible imagined a spherical world, floating in the cosmos (shamayim), and the underworld (sheol) below. Even the early Christians accepted this idea. [21]

Heavens

The Archangel Michael, a member of the host of divine beings who attend God in heaven, defeating Satan, the dragon of chaos.[22]

Form and structure

In the Old Testament the word shamayim represented both the cosmos/universe, and the dwelling place of God.[23] The raqia or firmament - the visible sky - was a solid inverted bowl over the earth, coloured blue. Rain, snow, wind and hail were kept in storehouses outside the raqia, which had "windows" to allow them in - the waters for Noah's flood entered when the "windows of heaven" were opened.[24] Grammatically the word shamayim can be either dual (two) or plural (more than two), without ruling out the singular (one).[25] As a result, it is not clear whether there were one, two, or more heavens in the Old Testament,[26] but most likely there was only one, and phrases such as "heaven of heavens" were meant to stress the vastness of God's realm.[27]

God and the heavenly beings

Israel and Judah, like other Canaanite kingdoms, originally had a full pantheon of gods.[28] The chief of the old Canaanite pantheon was the god El, but over time Yahweh replaced him as the national god and the two merged ("Yahweh-El, creator of heaven and earth" - Genesis 14:22).[28] The remaining gods were now subject to Yahweh: "Who in the sky is comparable to Yahweh, like Yahweh among the divine beings? A god dreaded in the Council of holy beings...?" (Psalm 89:6-9).[29] In the Book of Job the Council of Heaven, the Sons of God (bene elohim) meet in heaven to review events on earth and decide the fate of Job.[30] One of their number is "the Satan", literally "the accuser", who travels over the earth much like a Persian imperial spy, (Job dates from the period of the Persian empire), reporting on, and testing, the loyalty of men to God.[30]

The heavenly bodies (the heavenly host - sun, moon, and stars) were worshiped as deities, a practice which the bible disapproves and of which righteous Job protests his innocence: "If I have looked at the sun when it shone, or the moon ... and my mouth has kissed my hand, this also would be an iniquity..."[31] Belief in the divinity of the heavenly bodies explains a passage in Joshua 10:12, usually translated as Joshua asking the sun and moon to stand still, but in fact Joshua utters an incantation to ensure that the sun-god and moon-god, who supported his enemies, would not provide them with oracles.[32]

In the earlier Old Testament texts the bene elohim were not gods, but simply super beings, angels, the "messengers" (malakim), whom Jacob sees going up and down a "ladder" (actually a celestial mountain) between heaven and earth.[33] In earlier works the messengers were anonymous, but in the Second Temple period (539 BCE-100 CE) they began to be given names, and eventually became the vast angelic orders of Christianity and Judaism.[28]

Paradise and the human soul

There is defiantly a concept of a human soul, and of eternal life, in the oldest parts of the Old Testament. [34] Death is the going-out of the breath which God once breathed into the dust (Genesis 2:7), all men face the same fate in Sheol, a shadowy existence without knowledge or feeling (Job 14:13; Qoheloth 9:5), but there is mentioned, in the Psalms, a paradise, though it is mentioned indirectly. [35]

Temples, mountains, gardens and rivers

In the cosmology of the ancient Near East the cosmic warrior-god, after defeating the powers of chaos, would create the world and build his earthly house, the temple.[36] Just as the abyss, the deepest deep, was the place for Chaos and Death, so God's temple belonged on the high mountain.[37] In ancient Judah the "mountain" (actually little more than a hill) and the location of the Temple was Zion (Jerusalem),[36] the navel and center of the world (Ezekiel 5:5 and 38:12).[38] The Psalms describe God sitting enthroned over the Flood (the cosmic sea) in his heavenly palace (Psalm 29:10), the eternal king who "lays the beams of his upper chambers in the waters" (Psalm 104:3). The Samaritan Pentateuch identifies this mountain as Mount Gerizim, which the New Testament also implicitly acknowledges (John 4:20). This imagery recalls the Mesopotamian god Ea who places his throne in Apsu, the primeval fresh waters beneath the earth, and the Canaanite god El, described in the Baal cycle as having his palace on a cosmic mountain which is the source of the primordial ocean/water springs.[39]

The point where heavenly and earthly realms join is depicted as an earthly "garden of God", associated with the temple and royal palace.[40] Ezekiel 28:12-19 places the garden in Eden on the mountain of the gods;[41] in Genesis 2-3 Eden's location is more vague, simply far away "in the east", possibly in Asia. [42] In Jerusalem the earthly Temple was decorated with motifs of the cosmos and the Garden,[43] and, like other ancient near eastern temples, its three sections made up a symbolic microcosm, from the outer court (the visible world of land and sea), through the Holy Place (the visible heaven and the garden of God) to the Holy of Holies (the invisible heaven of God).[44] The imagery of the cosmic mountain and garden of Ezekiel reappears in the New Testament Book of Revelation, applied to the messianic Jerusalem, its walls adorned with precious stones, the "river of the water of life" flowing from under its throne (Revelation 22:1-2).[45]

A stream from underground (a subterranean ocean of fresh water?) fertilises Eden before dividing into four rivers that go out to the entire earth (Genesis 2:5-6); in Ezekiel 47:1-12 (see Ezekiel's Temple) and other prophets the stream issues from the Temple itself, makes the desert bloom, and turns the Dead Sea from salt to fresh.[46] Yet the underground waters are ambiguous: they are the source of life-giving rivers, but they are also associated with death (Jeremiah 2:6 and Job 38:16-17 describe how the way to Sheol is through water, and its gates are located at the foot of the mountain at the bottom of the seas).[47]

Underworld

Valley of Hinnom (or Gehenna), c. 1900. The former site of child-sacrifice and a dumping-ground for the bodies of executed criminals, Jeremiah prophesied that it would become a "valley of slaughter" and burial place; in later literature it thus became identified with a new idea of Hell as a place where the wicked would be punished.[48]
See also: Gehenna, Hell, Sheol, and Hades in Christianity

Sheol and the Old Testament

Beneath the earth is Sheol, the abode of the rephaim (shades),[49] although it is not entirely clear whether all who died became shades, or only the "mighty dead" (compare Psalm 88:10 with Isaiah 14:9 and 26:14).[50] Some biblical passages state that God has no presence in the underworld: "In death there is no remembrance of Thee, in Sheol who shall give Thee thanks?" (Psalm 6).[51] Others imply that the dead themselves are in some sense semi-divine, like the shade of the prophet Samuel, who is called an elohim, the same word used for God and gods.[52] Still other passages state God's power over Sheol as over the rest of his creation: "Tho they (the wicked) dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them..." (Amos 9:2).[53]

Satan and the end of time

See also: War in Heaven

The New Testament Hades is a temporary holding place, to be used only until the end of time, when its inhabitants will be thrown into the pit of Gehenna or the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:10-14).[54] This lake is either underground, or will go underground when the "new earth" emerges.[54] The Devil does not inhabit or supervise the underworld - his sphere of activity is the human world - and is only to be thrown into the fire at the end of time.[54] He appears throughout the Old Testament not as God's enemy but as his minister, "a sort of Attorney-General with investigative and disciplinary powers", as in the Book of Job.[54] It was only with the early Church Fathers that Satan was identified with the Serpent of the Garden of Eden and came to be seen as an active rebel against God, seeking to thwart the divine plan for mankind.[54]

See also

References

  1. ^ Lucas 2003, p. 130
  2. ^ Knight 1990, p. 175
  3. ^ Bernstein 1996, p. 134
  4. ^ a b Berlin 2011, p. 188
  5. ^ Wright 2002, p. 52
  6. ^ http://www.godandscience.org/youngearth/six_days_of_creation.html
  7. ^ https://untotheages.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/the-bible-and-a-spherical-earth/
  8. ^ http://www.bible.ca/trinity/trinity-texts-genesis1-26.htm
  9. ^ http://morningstar.arstudios.net/jc_n_psalms.htm
  10. ^ a b Fishbane 2003, pp. 34–35
  11. ^ Fishbane 2003, p. 39
  12. ^ Aune 2003, p. 118
  13. ^ Mabie 2008, pp. 47–48
  14. ^ Berlin 2011, p. 189
  15. ^ Walton 2006, p. 190.
  16. ^ a b c Walton 2011.
  17. ^ Page Lee 1990, pp. 176–177
  18. ^ Parrish 1990, p. 183
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kaiser 1997 28 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference Parrish 1990 183–184 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ http://www.lauramcalister.com/2013/03/07/when-the-earth-was-flat/
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wyatt 2001 106–107 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Pennington 2007, p. 41
  24. ^ Wright 2002, p. 57
  25. ^ Pennington 2007, pp. 40–41
  26. ^ Collins 2000, pp. 23–24
  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wright 2002 54 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  28. ^ a b c Wright 2002, p. 63
  29. ^ Wright 2002, pp. 63–64
  30. ^ a b Habel 2001, p. 67
  31. ^ Deist 2000, pp. 120–121
  32. ^ Deist 2000, p. 121
  33. ^ Wright 2002, pp. 61–62
  34. ^ http://www.bereanbiblechurch.org/transcripts/eschatology/resurrection02.htm
  35. ^ http://www.bereanbiblechurch.org/transcripts/eschatology/resurrection02.htm
  36. ^ a b Hoppe 2000, p. 24
  37. ^ Keel 1997, p. 114
  38. ^ Mills 1998, p. xi
  39. ^ Mabie 2008, p. 44
  40. ^ Burnett 2010, p. 71
  41. ^ Tigghelaar 1999, p. 37
  42. ^ http://io9.gizmodo.com/5948339/did-you-know-that-the-garden-of-eden-is-somewhere-in-china
  43. ^ Smith 2003, p. 169
  44. ^ Beale 2004, pp. 58–59
  45. ^ Delumeau & O'Connell 2000, p. 5
  46. ^ Bautch 2003, pp. 71–72
  47. ^ Bautch 2003, pp. 72–73
  48. ^ Berlin 2011, p. 285
  49. ^ Bernstein 1996, pp. 141–142
  50. ^ Habel 1975, p. 136
  51. ^ Bernstein 1996, p. 143
  52. ^ Bernstein 1996, pp. 138–139
  53. ^ Bernstein 1996, p. 144
  54. ^ a b c d e Kelly 2010, p. 122

Bibliography

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