he World the Biblical Writers Thought They
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Heaven and Its Wonders, and Earth:
The World the Biblical Writers Thought They Lived In

Dr. Robert M. Price and Reginald Finley Sr.

=20

So-called biblical literalists find themselves in a strange double
bind when it comes to the numerous Old Testament references to the
common world-picture of the ancients. Such readers seek with all their
hearts to believe whatever the Bible may say on any subject. But the
challenge of believing Scripture where it speaks of unseen and
unverifiable realities is one thing. The challenge of believing it
when it says things contrary to massive amounts of irrefutable
evidence is another. And in the case of biblical cosmological
references, it is the second challenge they seem to be facing. Put
briefly, the Bible seems to any casual reader to describe the earth as
a flat disk afloat upon a vast cosmic ocean. The sky it represents as
a solid dome with windows and gates, and as resting upon great pillars
thrust up from below. The sun, moon, and stars appear to be set into
the heavenly vault, to be smallish, and at no great distance from the
earth. Very much ancient evidence both textual and archaeological,
makes it clear that this is simply the common world-picture yielded by
ancient natural philosophy, i.e., scientific speculation as yet
unaided by observational technology such as we possess. Indeed, we
should think the same thing were we in their place, for the world
surely appears to be flat, albeit of variable altitude. The sky
appears to enclose the flat vista on all sides and to descend to meet
its edges in whatever direction one looks. Rain falls from the sky and
water wells up from beneath. Such a view of the world is not the
product of stupidity but rather of shrewd and careful observation. The
unaided eye and mind could not be blamed for thinking this is what the
world was like. And of course it was the very same human ingenuity
that worked on the challenge of observational technology until such
wonders were created, and our views of cosmology were revolutionized.

So where does the literalist stand? He is in the impossible position
of trying to make the Bible the norm and source of his beliefs, on the
one hand, and yet to keep the Bible seeming believable by the
standards of modern knowledge on the other. He cannot bring himself to
deny what modern instruments have shown to be the truth of cosmology,
so he cannot believe the world looks as described in scripture, but
neither can he bring himself to admit that the Bible is mistaken. So,
in order to defend the literal truth of the Bible (the proposition
that it describes things the way they are, whether things on earth or
things in heaven), he must resort to non-literal reinterpretation of
the cosmic-descriptive passages of the Bible. It is an odd form of
"literalism"! What a choice! To take the Bible literally in all its
statements? Or to read it literally where its authors seem to have
expected to be taken literally? All biblical scholars face the same
dilemma, though our choice is different: we are willing to read it
literally but not to oblige ourselves to believe whatever it says.
That way we feel we can afford to be honest in our discernment of what
the text is saying. Fundamentalists may think we are risking terrible
danger that way. But we would have to return the question to them: are
you any better off twisting the text in the name of literalism?
Because if you can do it here, on this subject, you can probably do it
anywhere else you may sense you have to. Indeed, you probably already are.

Literalists remain in this conceptual Slough of Despond because they
feel trapped in it, mired in it. If they admit the Bible writers
pictured the world the wrong way, despite their ostensible divine
inspiration, they suspect they will not be facing Saruman (Darwin)
only, as menacing as that might seem. No, soon they will be facing
down the mighty Sauron (Bultmann) himself. They know there will be no
way to defend against his claim that Christianity cannot stop at
shedding the ancient three-story world picture but must strip away the
encumbrances of mythology, too. And that would be the end of
supernaturalism and miracles. And yet, it is too late for anything
else. Once you are even aware of the danger, the horse has escaped the
barn. To insist on a set of beliefs that would be more comforting just
because you dread the result of facing the truth is fatal to the
conscience. "Faith" from that point on rests on the rotten foundation
of self-deception, "suppressing the truth in unrighteousness." Indeed,
it is to that fatal misstep that we owe the pervasive dishonesty of
apologetics: anything to defend the party line.

In what follows, we want to summarize the work of J.Edward Wright,
Edward T. Babinski, and Stephen Meyers, demonstrating the identity of
the biblical and other ancient cosmologies. In a sense, it is all
wasted effort, because there is virtually nothing new to add, and
everything we say has long been common knowledge to anyone familiar
with the study of the ancient Near East. This essay is basically a
remedial course for those who have thought it best to shield
themselves from common, mainstream scholarly knowledge. And yet it is
always best for the student not to take for granted what "most
scholars say." It is better to know why they say so. It is best to
base one's opinions on a consideration of the evidence, and this essay
is a brief survey of sufficient of it.=20=20=20=20=20=20=20

One word of caution. Some readers will be tempted to evade the obvious
implications of this survey by supposing that, while the Bible does
indeed describe the world in the same terms as the ancient cultures
surrounding them, in the case of the biblical writers, all is but
metaphor and conventional speech, as when we casually remark, "Did you
happen to see the sun rise this morning?" But that is gross special
pleading. That is to make a gratuitous, though convenient, assumption
for "your side" that cannot be afforded to the "other side." If,
instead, we want to be consistent, we should have to suppose the same
is true of all the ancient writers and sculptors who portray the world
in the ancient way. We would then be assuming that references to
"ancient" cosmology were extravagant metaphor and that all the
ancients really understood the world to be arranged as modern
astronomy and geology tell us. But, save for the need to extricate
oneself from a tight spot, why suppose such a thing? And then what to
make of the history of astronomical discovery? They must already have
known everything. You see just how massive and indeed surreal it
becomes. That way, as the saying goes, lies madness.

In Heaven's Name

All the ancients, like many alive today, spoke of "heaven" and meant
"the sky." The Bible even uses the same words for both,
interchangeably. "The kingdom of heaven" is [literally] the same as
"the kingdom of the sky." The Greek Titan Ouranos (Uranus) is simply
the Sky, the Heaven, personified. You will say I have a sure grasp of
the obvious. Why is it necessary to point out such a truism? Simply
because modern thinking on heaven as the abode of God and the location
of the blessed afterlife has undergone a hasty retooling in light of
modern knowledge, namely that there is no absolute up or down, that
the sky and outer space are not up there but out there. Yuri Gagarin,
the first man in space, was not being frivolous when he announced
there was no God to be seen there. Most people in past ages would have
expected to see him there. Is that not where Jesus ascended? Jack
Chick and other contemporary sectarians are still quite happy to
pinpoint which nebula holds the gate of the divine realm! But most
Christians have reacted to this secularization of the sky and of space
by redefining the religious heaven, the theological heaven. And they
have done so in a vague manner drawn more or less from science
fiction. Nowpeople speak increasingly of heaven as "another
dimension," whatever that means. It is surprising how little comment
this great shift has occasioned. No one who says it appears to have
much in mind. It is simply a way of trying to fend off the facts of
science. "God turned out to be absent from the heaven of the sky?
Okay, then, there must be some other heaven for him to be in!" In what
follows, my goal is only to show that the Bible writers certainly drew
no such distinction. They would have bet Yuri Gagarin that he would
have seen God.

For the World Is Hollow, and I Have Touched the Sky

"Let there be a firmament to separate the waters from the waters"
(Genesis 1:6). Exactly what did the biblical writers picture when they
had God create "the firmament"? They must have been thinking of
something like a giant version of the Astrodome. The "firmament," as
the very word, containing the element "firm," implies, the underlying
Hebrew denotes a solid dome of metal or crystal. The Latin noun=20=20
firmamentum comes from the verb firmare , "to make firm." It is a good
word to choose to translate the Hebrew raqiya , which denotes "a dome
beaten out of metal sheets."

"Firmament" appears 17 times in the KJV in each case it is translated
from the Hebrew word raqiya, which meant the visible vault of the sky.
The word raqiya comes from raqa , meaning "to expand by beating out,"
such as beating out a metal to give it shape. Thus, Elihu asks Job,
"Hast thou with him spread out [ raqa ] the sky, [which is] strong,
[and] as a molten [cast] looking glass [mirror]? ( Job 37:18)" "And
gold leaf was hammered out (raqa )..." (Exodus 39:3); and "Silver
spread into plates (raqa ) " ( Jeremiah l0:9). Ezekiel 1:22 describes
the "likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature=85
as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their
heads above."

The biblical authors were men of their time, and they lived, quite
literally, in the world of their time. And it had a solid ceiling.
(Did you notice that even the English word "ceiling" is based on the
root word for heaven, as in "cel estial"?)

"For the Sumerians the universe was a tripartite structure =96 heaven
(the place of the high gods), earth (the realm of humans), and the
netherworld (the realm of deceased humans and the mortuary gods).
According to S.N. Kramer, since the Sumerian word for tin is `metal of
heaven,' it may be that the Sumerians thought that the floor of heaven
was made of tin or some comparable metal. It also appears that the
Sumerians considered the sky to be a vault or dome because we read of
heaven having a zenith." (J. Edward Wright, The Early History of
Heaven. NY: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 29.)

Speaking of the most ancient representations of a firm firmament, the
ancient Egyptians depicted the firmament in the form of a god's arched
body with toes and fingers on the horizons of the flat earth below
that was represented by a prone goddess. The Egyptians also employed
the less mythologized form of a "wall-ring" to represent the firmament
above the earth. The Babylonians in their creation epic, Enuma Elish,
depicted the firmament being constructed out of the body of a dead
goddess named "Tiamat," who was cut in half to form the firmament and
heavens above, and the earth below. One Babylonian tablet fragment
even mentions a "Tiamat eliti" and a "Tiamat sapliti," that is an
Upper Tiamat (or Ocean) and a Lower Tiamat (or Ocean) that corresponds
apparently to the Hebrew belief in "waters above and below the
firmament" in Genesis 1:7." (Ed Babinski)

Tiamat or Tiamu is the sky in ancient Babylon, the goddess of
watery chaos. Marduk splits "her like a shellfish into two parts: half
of her he set up and ceiled it as sky, pulled down the bar and posted
guards. He bade them to allow not her waters to escape."

Many scholars agree that Tehom (used in the Hebrew Creation
account) and Tiamat share a common ancient root that references deep
and chaotic waters.
=09

The Enuma Elish can be read here.

Gemstone Heavens

Though the very word underlying "firmament," as we have seen, implies
composition out of hammered metal plates, sometimes the solid matter
out of which the heavenly dome is constructed is pictured as
crystalline. "According to the Akkadian text Keilschrifttexte aus
Assur religi=F6sen Inhalts 307, the cosmos is composed of six levels:
three celestial and three terrestrial.

The upper heavens are luludanitu stone=85

The middle heavens are saggilmut stone=85

Bel sat there in a chamber of on a lapis-lazuli throne=85

They belong to the stars.

The lower heavens are jasper.

He drew the constellations of the gods on it. " (Wright, p. 34.)

This multi-story heaven appears to anticipate the later Ptolemaic
cosmology with its numerous crystalline spheres, but that is not our
concern here. We do not claim that all the ancients, even within a
single culture, had exactly matching conceptions of the universe, only
that the general trend certainly looked nothing like the universe as
portrayed by modern scientific calculation.

Exodus 24:9-10 assumes precisely the same sort of a sapphire (or
lapis-lazuli, same word in Hebrew) heaven pavement. "Then Moses went
up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel,
and they saw the God of Israel; and under his feet there appeared to
be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself" (NASB). Not
surprisingly, Ezekiel 10:1 takes for granted the same idea: "=85in the
firmament that was above the head of the cherubim there appeared over
them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of
a throne ."

Sitting Upon the Firmament

As "God Most High," the deity is naturally to be depicted as sitting
on a throne at the tip-top of the heavenly dome: where else? Thus it
is common to find both literary and pictorial representations of God
enthroned atop the firmament, both in the Bible and in adjacent
cultures. "One such depiction is the ninth-century tablet of king
Nabuapaliddina (885-882 BCE) from the temple of the sun god Shamash in
the city of Sippar=85The wavy lines at the bottom of this scene indicate
water, and beneath the waters is a solid base in which four stars are
inscribed. These waters, then, are the celestial waters above the sky.
This tablet depicts the god Shamash enthroned as king in the heavenly
realm above the stars and the celestial ocean." (Wright, pp. 36-37.)
In just the same manner, Yahweh "sits enthroned over the flood" (
Psalm 29:10a, RSV).

Isa 40:22 "[It is] he that sitteth [which can also mean rests] upon
the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof [are] as
grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and
spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in." This verse has occasioned
considerable debate, as fundamentalist apologists have seized upon it
as a foothold for their attempts to read modern cosmology
anachronistically back into the text. "According to [Henry] Morris
this verse describes a spherical earth. The Hebrew word is hwg. I
believe that this refers to the circular horizon that vaults itself
over the earth to form a dome." (Stephen Meyers, "A Biblical
Cosmology." Th.M. Thesis, Westminster Theological Seminary. 1989, pp.
63-69) Similar opportunistic use is made of Job 22:14, "Thick clouds
[are] a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the
circuit ( hwg ) of heaven." But it is vain. H wg is "a primitive root
to describe a circle:--compass," as per Strong's Concordance. Notice
that hwgis most definitely not a sphere. There are perfectly adequate
Hebrew words for sphere or spheroid if that is what one wanted to
mention. First, there is the word meaning "ball," rwd duwr . Second,
the word for "pot," dwd , duwd , a pot for boiling,or, by
resemblance of shape, a basket. Third, the word meaning "round," tlglg
gulgoleth, a skull (as round) or a head. Fourth, there is the
Babylonia loan word llg galal, the verb "to roll," based on the
description of a type of water pot shaped like a human skull. And the
Bible never once uses any of these fine words to describe the earth.
Again, we find the natural denotation of the word in cognate cultures
of the day.=20=20

Stephen Meyers makes this point well:

The Babylonian Map of the world clearly shows a circular earth
surrounded by a circular sea (Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets
in the British Museum 1960, part xxii, pl.48; for a translation see
Wayne Horowitz , "The Babylonian Map of the World." Iraq 50: 1988, pp.
147-165). The =E4ama=F6 Hymn which is written to the Sun-god says, "You
climb to the mountains surveying the earth, you suspend from the
heavens the circle of the lands." The phrase "the four corners of the
earth" which in Akkadian iskip-p=E1t tu-bu-qa-at eerbitti, can be
literally translated "the circle of the four corners" (Grayson,
Albert, Assyrian Royal Inscriptions. Vol. 1. Wiesbaden: Otto
Harrassowitz, 1972, p. 105).


Upper & Lower oceans with circular earth from Tutankhamun (King Tut)
14th Century BC.

In Egyptian literature the Hymn to Ramses II found on various stela
inside the temple of Abu Simbel says, "like Re when he shineth over
the circle of the world" (Adolf Erman, The Literature of the Ancient
Egyptians. Trans. Aylward Blackman. London: Methuen & Co., 1927, pp.
258-259). There is another similar phrase in "The War Against the
Peoples of the Sea" which comes from Ramses III's temple of Medinet
Habu which says, They laid their hands upon the lands as far as the
circuit of the earth" (James Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern
Texts. Princ eton: Princeton University Press, 1969, p. 262). Keel in
his book The Symbolism of the Biblical World (pp. 37-40). Has many
Egyptian drawings showing a circular earth surrounded by a circular
sea. ( http://www.bibleandscience.com/science/bibleandscience.htm)

Again, Babinski:

Round-earth creationists at this point usually change the subject by
concentrating their "scientific" attentions on another verse in the
book of Isaiah, "He who sits above the circle of the earth" (Isaiah
40:22), that they say implies a spherical earth. It doesn't. Just read
the verse in context: "Have you not understood from the foundations of
the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its
inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like
a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in" (Isaiah 40:21-22).

Isaiah's "circle" thus reflects ancient notions of a flat earth.
Isaiah 40:22 describes God as seated on the zenith, the highest point
directly overhead. Thus the verse implies that "earth's dwellers,"
"all mankind" according to Psalms 33:13, 14, are clearly visible from
a very high point directly overhead. Such imagery fits most naturally
the conception of the earth below as a flat disc, not a globe.
Moreover, there is an obvious link between Isaiah's "circle of the
earth" and the "circle" inscribed at creation on the flat surface of
the waters in Job 26:10 and Proverbs 8:27.


Enthroned Upon the Cherubim

Wright tells us,

As a king, Yahweh has a throne in heaven, and the image of this
heavenly throne was certainly patterned after the cherubim throne
Solomon had his Phoenician craftspeople fashion for the temple (1
Kings 6:23-28). The immense throne was placed in the Holy of Holies
inside the temple. The winged creatures (cherubim and seraphim)
described as part of the throne or as the means of transport in Isaiah
6, and Ezekiel 1 and 10 are common features in the iconography
associated with ancient Near Eastern thrones=85 Like any earthly king,
Yahweh, too, sits on a winged cherubim throne=85 The throne the prophet
Ezekiel saw in his vision was made of lapis-lazuli, a bluish stone
that was widely used on the thrones of ancient near eastern kings."
(pp. 76, 78)

Such cherubim-flanked thrones are depicted on the sarcophagus of King
Hiram of Byblos and on a carved ivory panel from Megiddo.

Yahweh's flying throne chariot is described with precision in Ezekiel
1:22-26: "And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the
living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched
forth over their heads above. And under the firmament were their wings
straight... And there was a voice from the firmament that was over
their heads... And above the firmament that was over their heads was
the likeness of a throne ( kicce ') , as the appearance of a sapphire
stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the
appearance of a man above upon it."

In Ezekiel 10:19-21 the Cherubim are at least partially described.
They are certainly not the angels of Christian folklore. In fact, the
word "angel" (Hebrew: malachi ) simply means "messenger" and is never
used of either seraphim or cherubim. "And the cherubim lifted up their
wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they went out,
the wheels also [were] beside them, and [every one] stood at the door
of the east gate of the LORD'S house; and the glory of the God of
Israel [was] over them above. This [is] the living creature that I saw
under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar; and I knew that they
[were] the cherubim. Every one had four faces apiece, and every one
four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man [was] under their
wings."

Cherubs occur frequently throughout Near Eastern iconography. They
usually appear as wing lions with human faces, winged humans, or, in
Assyria, winged bulls with human faces. They are like the Greek
chimaera, composed of parts of disparate animals. They serve two
purposes in the Bible. They are God's treasure guardians, which is why
he posts one at the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:24), two (symbolically)
atop the lid of the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:18-20), and one to
guard Adam in Eden before the Fall (Ezekiel 28:12-14, reading "With an
anointed guardian cherub I placed you."). Second, they were
personifications of the storm clouds which transported the flying
throne of the storm God Yahweh (precisely as they carried the chariot
of his Syrian counterpart Baal Hadad). This is what we see them doing
in Ezekiel 1, but they are also mentioned carrying the divine throne
chariot in Psalm 18:9-14: "He parted the heavens and came down, a dark
cloud beneath His feet. He rode on a cherub and flew, soaring on the
wings of the wind. He made darkness His hiding place, dark storm
clouds His canopy around Him. From the radiance of His presence, His
clouds swept onward with hail and blazing coals. The Lord thundered
from heaven; the Most High projected His voice. He shot His arrows and
scattered them; He hurled lightning bolts and routed them" (Christian
Standard Bible). Yes, one might, if one felt the need, dismiss all
this as metaphor, but then one must ask if that's all the Syrians next
door meant when they said the same things of Baal? Why should we think so?

Axes Mundi

In ancient Egyptian cosmology, J. Edward Wright says,

The celestial plane itself is either supported by pillars, staves, or
scepters, or is set on top of the mountains At the ends of the
earth=85Although these supports appear typically in pairs in Egyptian
iconography, the pair in fact represent four supports, thus `the four
corners of the earth.' The tombs of pharaohs Tutankamon, Seti I, and
Ramses II in addition to the figures of the celestial cow or woman
have alternative depictions of the sky being supported by pillars or
by people holding staves of some kind. These images also appear in
many texts.

I see the glory of thee and the fear of thee in all lands, the terror
thee as far as the four supports of heaven. [Victory Hymn of Thutmose III]

O thou=85 who shinest from thy Disk and risest in thy horizon, and dost
shine like gold above the sky, like unto whom there is none among the
gods, who sailest over the pillars of Shu=85 [the air god who supports
the heavens] [Book of the Dead 2:102]

Great Circle, the sea, the southern countries of the land of the Negro
as far as the marsh lands, as far as the limits of darkness, even to
the four pillars of heaven. [Luxor inscriptions of Ramses II]

The idea that these pillars kept the earth in place inspired the
scribe of Thutmose III to state in his inscription describing
Thutmose's renovations of the Karnak Temple in Luxor were done `in
order that this temple be established like the heavens, abiding upon
their four pillars'=85 Amenhotep III, regarding the many pillars in the
Karnak Temple , states" `Its pylons reach heaven like the four pillars
of heaven.' Otherwise, the sky rests on the tops of the mountains: "I
know that mountain of Bakhu upon which the sky rests=85" [Coffin Text
160]. Depictions of the sky resting on the mountains appear in two
forms: flat=85 or vaulted." "These images, and the hieroglyphic term for
sky or heaven, =85 (pet ) indicate that the ancient Egyptians thought
the celestial realm was a vast expanse that was either flat or
slightly convex." [Wright, pp. 13-16] "The celestial realm is often
thought to have a river or other vast body of water running across
it." [p. 10] For thou hast set a Nile in heaven, That it may descend
for them and make waves upon the mountains, Like the great green sea=85
[Hymn to Aton, period of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten, 1380-1362) (Wright,
p. 11)

Ed Babinski notes:

The Bible also talks about the pillars of the earth. In Job 9:6 it
says, "Who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars (ydwmu )
tremble." The LXX says, "Who shakes the earth under heaven from its
foundations and its pillars (stuloi ) totter." In Psalm 75:3 it says,
"The earth and all its inhabitants are melting away; I set firm its
pillars (ydwmu )." The LXX says, "I have strengthened its pillars
(stuloi )." In I Samuel 2:8 it says, "For the pillars of the earth are
the Lord's and he had set the world upon them." The Hebrew word for
pillar is yqxm . The root is qx meaning "to melt" (Brown, Driver,
Briggs, 1980, 848). Therefore, yqxm means, "a molten like pillar." The
only other place it occurs is in I Samuel 14:5 referring to a
mountain. Probably the pillars of the earth are the same thing as the
foundations of the earth which were mountains.

Stephen Meyers adds:

In Ugaritic we have seen that there are two mountains, trgzz and trmg
that bind the earth. Gibson says that these twin mountains were
founded in the earth-encircling ocean, and held up the firmament, and
also marked the entrance to the underworld (1978, 66). The mountains
are said to bind the earth. This may indicate that the mountains
surrounded, and supported the earth as well as confine the
netherworld. The mountains were seen as the foundations of the earth,
and the support pillars for the heavens. The Hebrews probably held a
very similar view as the verses above indicate, as well as later
Hebrew writings. So the phrase "pillars of heaven" and "pillars of
earth" are referring to the same mountains. One emphasizes the height
of the mountains holding up heaven, the other emphasizes the depth of
the mountains that hold the earth firm.
http://www.bibleandscience.com/...genesis1_pillarsearth.htm

Stairway to Heaven

It seems logical that, as Wright explains, "Those who ascend to the
celestial realm may also arrive there by ascending a celestial ladder
fashioned by the gods."

Now let the ladder of the god be given to me, let the ladder of Seth
be given to me, that I may ascend on it to the sky and escort Re as a
divine guardian of those who have gone to their doubles. [Pyramid
Texts 1:166]

Hail to you, daughter of Anubis, who is at the windows of the sky, the
companion of Thoth, who is at the uprights of the ladder! Open my way
that I may pass. [Pyramid Texts 1:93] (Wright, p. 22)

Of course, this is precisely what Jacob sees in Genesis 28:12, "He had
a dream, and, behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top
reaching to heaven; and, behold, the angels of God were ascending and
descending on it." (NASB) This certainly seems to presuppose no great
distance between the ground and the dwelling place of God. Nor is it
only angels ("messengers") who take the trip. The Bible is full of
tales of Yahweh coming down to see how man is doing and what man is up
to. This makes perfect sense if Yahweh was thought of as a man in the
sky. In many visions of Yahweh, he actually resembles man in some fashion.

How was God depicted?

This Phoenician silver drachma has the image of Yahweh on it. It was
made around 350 BC. It's now in the British Museum. It depicts a
bearded divinity enthroned over a winged chariot wheel. Admittedly,
this is a non-Jewish representation of Yahweh. But, it is the first
recorded effort of an ancient people to depict Yahweh as Zeus. Notice
the solar wheel, symbolic of the sun, and wings which represent being
aloft and in motion. Once again a man in the sky! Notice the eagle in
his hand. The inscription to the left of the eagle's head says,
Yahweh. Yahweh appears again looking like his Greek cousin Zeus in a
third-century CE/AD wall mosaic in a Jewish synagogue in Palestine. It
becomes more and more evident that the notion of a strictly formless
"aniconic" deity was exclusively the product of abstract
philosophizing on the part of the Deuteronomic priests during the
Babylonian Exile and did not represent any more ancient Israelite
belief. Not only so, but it did not even manage to drive the older
conceptions from the field, as we would tend to suppose from our
Sunday School assumption that biblical teaching simply equals ancient
Israelite belief, an illusion the Bible itself partly fosters but also
belies, in that it is clear the priests and prophets have their wok
cut out for them getting the people as a whole to shun polytheism and
to drop idolatry.

Ever since Erich von D=E4niken popularized the notion in the early 1970s
(in his silly book Chariots of the Gods?), many have adopted the idea
that the gods of ancient myths were astronauts, voyagers to earth from
distant planets. It is worth noting that, if you were to hop into your
time machine and go back to some ancient Greek, Mesopotamian, Viking,
Vedic Hindu (or biblical Hebrew!) and tell him, "Look, I hate to break
the news to you, pal, but what you took for gods were really just
aliens from space! They were people like us, but with powerful
weapons, flying machines, and maybe longer life-spans! They just came
from up there, not down here!" The recipient of your "news" would
probably say, "Yeah? So what else is new? That's exactly what we
thought!" You see, that's all the ancients meant by "gods." They
weren't Thomas Aquinas or Paul Tillich! And it is of such a god that
the Bible speaks. A deity with a posterior who uses it to sit upon a
throne, up there. Deuteronomy 26:15 beseeches God, "Look down from thy
holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the
land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a
land that floweth with milk and honey." And the Bible tells us that,
sometimes when he looked down, he did not like what he saw. And then,
we must assume, he took a climb down that ladder. The Tower of Babel
is a good illustration.

=20

"And the LORD [=3DYahweh] came down to see the city and the tower, which
the children of men built" (Genesis 11:5). Just before Yahweh destroys
the Tower, he says: "=85now nothing will be restrained from them, which
they have imagined to do" (Genesis 11:6). In other words, whatever
humans put to mind, they can accomplish. At this time, humans were
building a tower to heaven=85 it must have been a plausible task. The
idea that God had to come down from heaven to see what was going on=85
and had to stop them for fear that they would reach heaven, lends
credence to the idea that heaven is really a physical place in the sky
and not too far away, at that.

Now if Yahweh is troubled by man's accomplishments, why are the
Egyptian pyramids still standing? The largest pyramid (449.5 feet) is
much taller than any recorded ziggurat and still standing! Let us not
forget our modern day architectural buildings. A new building just
built in Taipei, Taiwan is 1,676 feet. We are already in God's Heaven.=20=20

The Waters

We have already observed that Genesis 1 has the flat earth resting
upon a cosmic ocean, with another whose waves pound downward against
the submarine hull of the firmament. Shamash's throne is shown resting
atop the waters above the stars. The second commandment makes
reference to the subterranean ocean when it urges us: "You shall not
make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is
in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the
water under the earth " ( Deuteronomy 5:8; Exodus 20:4 . Under the
earth? Good luck making sense of this passage in light of modern
science! We only have microscopic and small organisms in water found
under the earth's crust. Odd that God would be concerned with graven
images of protozoans! But the text makes perfect sense once we recall
that the ancients believed that the earth was flat and supported by
pillars over the dark waters underneath. They believed that huge,
massive creatures like whales came from beneath the Earth.

The first two lines in Genesis point the way to the truth of what they
believed. Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth." Nothing is said of creating water, at least not so
far. Then Genesis 1:2, "And the earth was without form, and void; and
darkness [was] upon the face of the deep . And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters." Here are the waters, but their presence
seems taken for granted. Nothing is said even here about their creation.

=20

Young Earth Creationists attempt to explain that the "waters above the
earth" reference an immense vapor canopy or pre-flood reservoir that
later drained during the Great Flood. Genesis 7:11" In the six
hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth
day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great
deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." Now of course
here, one could resort to metaphor, but this makes perfect sense using
the ancient model above. The firmament kept the waters back. God
opened the windows of the firmament and water began to fall and flood
the Earth. Young Earth Creationists state that these waters were
drained completely. Which is why we obviously don't see a vapor canopy
above us. But if true, after the flood, the waters shouldn't be
mentioned again in the Bible, but they are.

Psalm 148:4 "Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that
[be] above the heavens." Once again shamayim is used here in all
instances of "heaven." It is interesting to note that water is mayim
in Hebrew. In Aramaic: Heaven is dabashmaya , Water is maya . As you
can see the ya (Aramaic) and im (Hebrew) allude to the plurality of
what is being mentioned. As mentioned earlier, shamayim literally
means "from the waters."

For the next three sections, one can do no better than to condense and
reproduce some material from Ed Babinski's fine website,
http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/geocentrism/cosmology.html Here he
deals with the Bible's depiction of a flat earth. (But don't blame him
for our hilariously witty section headings!)

Welcome to the Flat Earth Society!

First, Daniel 4:10, 11 says, "There was a tree in the midst [or
center] of the earth, and its height was great. It reached to the sky,
and was visible to the end of the whole earth." Such visibility (i.e.,
"a tree of great height at the center of the earth and seen to the end
of the whole earth") implies a flat earth. However, this verse may be
explained away as depicting a "mere dream" of Daniel's, viz., a
"metaphorical image" of the extent of Nebuchadnezzer's kingdom.
However, the fact that flat earth imagery surprised no one in the
story of Daniel also implies that it was taken for granted. And a
similar verse that mentioned being taken to a great "height" and being
"shown" "all the kingdoms of the world [lit. Greek, cosmos ]," occurs
in the New Testament as well, where again it is taken from granted.

Second, Isaiah 42:5 and 44:24 state that at creation God "spread out
the earth"--the Hebrew verb for "spread" being used elsewhere in
Scripture to depict a "flattening" or "pounding." Also, if the earth
was not "spread out," but "rolled up tightly like a ball" at creation,
the writer could have said so. We find the requisite Hebrew
construction in Isaiah 22:18, where a man is "rolled up tightly like a
ball." Hence the earth at creation was spoken of as being "flattened
or pounded flat" at creation.

Third, Isaiah 11:12 declares, "Gather (them) from the four corners of
the earth," and Revelation 7:1 adds, "I saw four angels standing on
the four corners of the earth." Young earth creationist Henry Morris
suggests that rather than "corners," a more precise translation of the
Hebrew is "four quarters of the earth," which simply means the four
directions. This, of course, begs the question of why four (presumably
flat) directions (North, South, East, and West) remained the norm for
the ancient Hebrews, even to the extent of a psalmist rejoicing, "He
removes our transgressions from us, as far as the east is from the
west" (Psalm 103:12), which, on the globe, is not infinitely far away.

Fourth, Matthew 4:8 states that "The devil took him [Jesus] to a very
high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world [Greek,
cosmos ], and their glory." One could see "all" the kingdoms of the
world from a very high mountain if the world were flat. This verse has
been explained away as a "vision" of all the world's kingdoms, a
vision received on a very high mountain. However, such a "vision"
could have been granted Jesus in his sleep, so why did the devil "take
Jesus" to a "very high mountain" to show him such things? Furthermore,
Jewish writings composed between the Old and New Testaments, like, the
Book of Enoch, share an unquestionably flat earth perspective:
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/febible.htm

Fifth, Throughout Scripture the shape and construction of the earth is
assumed to resemble that of a building having a firm immovable
foundation, and a roof (or canopy). "He established the earth upon its
foundations, that it will not totter, forever and ever" (Psalm 104:5).
"The world is firmly established, it will not be moved" (Psalm 93:1).
"For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he set the world on
them." (1 Samuel 2:8) "It is I who have firmly set its pillars" (Psalm
75:3). "Who stretched out the heavens... and established the world"
(Jeremiah 10:12). "Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and
spreads them out like a tent to dwell in" (Isaiah 40:22). "Stretching
out heaven like a tent curtain" (Psalm 104:1-2). "In the heavens... in
the true tabernacle (tent), which the Lord pitched, not man" (Hebrews
8:2-3). "The One who builds his upper chambers in the heavens, and has
founded his vaulted dome over the earth" (Amos 9:6). "Praise God in
his sanctuary, praise him in his mighty firmament" (Psalm 150:1).

As readers may have noticed by now, it is impossible to demonstrate
the superiority of a spherical interpretation in any of the above
cases. Indeed, those who reject flat earth representations focus their
Biblical attention elsewhere, a favorite verse being Job 26:7 "He
stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on
nothing." The Hebrew for "on nothing" in this verse means literally,
"without anything," and thus it may be paraphrased, ".without support
other than God Himself." Foes of the flat earth interpretation of the
Bible emphasize the difference between this verse and ancient Hindu
cosmology wherein a flat earth was supported on a turtle's back, which
swam on the back of an elephant, which stood on the back of something
else, ad infinitum, proving that a flat earth requires supports ad
infinitum.

=20

However, leaving Hindu mythology aside, the ancient Egyptians, who
were also flat earthers, did not feel the need for supports ad
infinitum. An ancient Egyptian ideogram actually portrays a single
eye, connected with two hands and feet -- representing ka, a personal
power -- directly supporting a flat earth disc, i.e., without further
assistance. Other Egyptian texts speak of divine power as "The Support
of all things," and an Egyptian god claims, "I laid the foundations of
all things by my will." Khepra, another Egyptian god, "conceived a
place to stand. He uttered its name, the standing place at once came
into being." Thus, Egyptian flat earth notions only differed from
Job's verse in answering the question of "Who" "...hangs the earth on
nothing, or without anything."

Also compare Proverbs as raising a question that perhaps the author of
Job wished to answer in terms of "Who." -- "Who has established all
the ends of the earth?" (Proverbs 30:4) "He [Yahweh] hangs the earth,
without anything, on nothing." (Job 26:7). "He established the world
by his wisdom: and by his understanding he has stretched out Heaven."
(Jeremiah 10:12).

Most importantly, notice that Job 26:7 neglects to mention the earth's
shape at all, so it is even less effective than Isaiah 40:22 when
trying to find a verse in the Bible that speaks of a spherically
shaped earth. While other verses from Job declare, "(God's) measure is
longer than the earth" (Job 11:7, 9). "Who stretched the line on (the
earth)?" (38:5). And, "He looks to the ends of the earth and sees
everything under the heavens" (28:24). All of these are found in the
Book of Job and all imply a flat earth. Job also says, in one of his
tirades (26:5-7): "The departed spirits tremble under the waters and
their inhabitants. Naked is Sheol (the land of the dead) before him
and Abaddon [the place of destruction] has no covering. He stretches
out the north [the sky] over empty space, and hangs the earth without
anything, on nothing."

[God's rebuke is equally interesting for our purpose] (Job 38:16-18):
"Have you entered into the depths of the sea? Or have you walked in
the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to
you? Or have you seen the gates of darkness? Have you understood (or
examined) the expanse of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this!"

Moreover, in the Book of Job, God also harassed Job with questions not
only about how the earth was "supported," but concerning how it was
shaped, and those questions likewise implied a flat earth: "Where were
you when I laid the foundation of the earth?" (Job 38:4). "On what
were its bases sunk?" (Job 38:6). (One could also compare Jeremiah
31:37: "If the foundations of the earth (can be) searched out below,
then I will cast off Israel.")

What about the earth's movement? Are there any verses in the Bible
that imply the earth rotates daily on its axis? Young-earth
creationist, Henry Morris, asserts that he has found one, a single
verse in Job that implies the rotation of the earth: "It [the earth]
is turned as clay to the seal." (Job 38:l4, King James Version).
Morris claims, "The figure, in context, is of a clay vessel being
turned on a wheel to receive the design imprinted upon it by a seal or
signet, like the earth as it turns into the dawning sun, gradually
revealing the intricate features on its surface." Of course this
"rotating earth" interpretation of Job 38:14 is very modern (neither
Luther nor Calvin, nor Medieval scholars knew of it). Moreover, Morris
relies on the King James Version of the Bible without acknowledging
that other translations do not fit his interpretation:

"It is turned as clay to the seal."
--Job 38:14, King James Version (Morris' preferred translation)

"It is changed like clay under the seal." (Job 38:14, RSV & NASB)

"The earth takes shape like clay under a seal." (Job 38:14, NIV)

What Morris has failed to realize is that the King James Bible was
written during the time of King James, during which they spoke
Elizabethan English and the word "turned" was still used as a synonym
for "changed" or "takes shape." We even use it that way occasionally
today, as in "the milk turned sour." But that doesn't mean the milk
was literally "turning or spinning" in its carton. In fact, Morris not
only does not recognize the differences between Elizabethan English
and modern English usage, but he ignores the meaning of the original
Hebrew word being translated. The original Hebrew word in Job 38:14
does not mean literally "spinning or turning," it just means "changes
or takes shape."

Secondarily, Morris imagines that the clay being "turned" is a "pot or
vessel" on a spinner's wheel. But there is nothing in the verse to
suggest that a "pot or vessel" or a "wheel" of any sort is being
spoken of. So Morris has not only ignored the meaning of the original
Hebrew, and invented his own private interpretation of the meaning of
the Elizabethan word "turned" in this particular context, but also
invented a host of other false things to go along with it!
Archeological evidence suggests exactly the opposite, namely, that a
flat clay tablet is being spoken of, whose surface is "changed" or
"takes shape" by the pressing of a magistrate's (or businessman's)
seal upon the flat clay as was common practice back then. The seals
themselves could be flat or even cylinders rolled on the flat clay.
Today there are thousands of such ancient clay tablets known to
archeologists. And if the flat clay tablet is "changed" by the
impression of a seal pressed upon it, and the clay tablet is a
metaphor for "the earth" being changed by the light of dawn upon its
surface, then you can easily see that the Book of Job is speaking of a
flat earth after all. Consider the entire context of the verse in
question:

"Have you ever in your life commanded the morning,
And caused the dawn to know its place,
That it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
And the wicked be shaken out of it?
It [the earth] is changed like clay under the seal:
And they stand forth like a garment
And from the wicked their light is withheld,
And the uplifted arm is broken." (Job 38:12-15, NASB)

"Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him stars of light! Praise Him
highest heavens, and the waters that are above the heavens! (Psalm
148:3-4)

Furthermore, when the book of Genesis described a "flood" that covered
the whole world, and reduced the world to its pre-creation watery
beginning, the story states that the "flood gates of the sky" were
"opened." Neither did the author of that fable suppose that all the
water above the firmament fell to earth, but instead he assumed that
the "flood gates" had to be "shut" to stop more water from falling,
and the creator had to promise not to flood the earth again with such
waters. So, the Bible agrees with Luther that "the waters above the
firmament" remained "up there," held firmly in place by a
firmament--and this agrees completely with ancient tales of creation
in which the world arose from a division of waters that encompass
creation still, and which the creator keeps at bay via a firmament
above the earth.

Geocentrism Is Egocentism Writ Large

For most of recorded history people imagined that their feet were
planted on firm ground, terra firma. The view presented in the Bible
is no exception. The Bible depicts the earth as the firm, immovable,
"foundation" of all creation:

"Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth."
(Hebrews 1:10)

"The sun, moon, and stars were created only after "the earth" below
was created." (Genesis 1:9-18)

"Who hath established all the ends of the earth?" (Proverbs 30:4)

"He established the earth upon its foundations, so that it will not
totter, forever and ever."
(Psalm 104:5)

"The world is firmly established, it will not be moved." (Psalm 93:1 &
1 Chronicles 16:30)

"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who hath
stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof
fastened? Or who laid the corner stone thereof?" (Job 38:4-6)

"For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he set the world on
them." (1 Samuel 2:8)

"It is I who have firmly set its pillars." (Psalm 75:3)

"Who stretched out the heavens...and established the world." (Jeremiah
10:12)

The only time the Bible depicts the earth as moving is during an
earthquake: "The earth quaked, the foundations of heaven were
trembling." (2 Samuel 22:8)

"The earth quakes, the heavens tremble." (Joel 2:10)

"I shall make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from
its place." (Isaiah 13:13)

"There was a great earthquake...and the stars of the sky fell...as if
shaken from a tree." (Revelation 6:12-13)

The Bible says, "He [God] can command the sun not to rise" (Job 9:7),
rather than, "He can command the earth to stop moving." That God would
direct His command at the sun rather than the earth, is what one
should note in this case, just as Luther and Calvin did. Likewise,
Martin Luther pointed out that when the book of Joshua spoke of the
miracle of "Joshua's long day," that day was lengthened because,
"Joshua commanded the sun to stand still and not the earth." (Joshua
10:12) A modern reader must keep his eye on what object God's own
command was directed at in order to understand the nature of the
controversy. Did God "do" what the Bible depicts Him as "doing," or not?

The Bible also states: "The sun rises and the sun sets, and hastening
to its place it rises there again." (Ecclesiastes 1:5, NASB) The mere
mention of seeing something "rise" or "set" could be disregarded
depending on one's perspective, but speaking of the sun "hastening to
its place" so that it may "rise there again," is not so easily
explained away. It means the author of Ecclesiastes believed that the
sun moved daily around the earth. Compare Psalm 19:4-6, "In [the
heavens] He has placed a tent for the sun, which is as a bridegroom
coming out of his chamber; it rejoices like a strong man to run its
course, its [daily] rising from one end of the heavens, and its
circuit to the other end of them."

As for the stars, the Bible teaches that they too move: "From their
courses they [the stars] fought against Sisera." (Judges 5:20, NASB).
"The One who leads forth their [starry] host by number... Because of
the greatness of His might and the strength of His power not one
[star] is missing." (Isaiah 40:26, NASB) Keep in mind that the stars
in question are the ones the ancients saw circling nightly round the
pole star each night. And according to the book of Job, whole
constellations of stars are "led forth" by God, i.e., "Can you lead
forth a constellation in its season, And guide the Bear with her
satellites? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, Or fix their
rule over the earth?" (Job 38:31-33, NASB)

Modern astronomy teaches the reverse of the verses above:

The earth spins each day (rather than the sun "hastening to its place
to rise again").

The earth spins each night (rather than the stars "coursing" around
the heavens).

The earth is what God would have had to "command" not to move, and
what Joshua would have needed to command to "stand still" (rather than
God commanding the sun not to move).

The earth is what God would have had to "lead forth" and "guide" in
"its season[al]" movement around the sun (rather than God "leading
forth," "guiding," and "fixing" non-existent "ordinances of the
constellations").


Here Comes the Sun

The Bible does not list the number of planets in our solar system.
Back then, planets were called "wandering stars" because they appeared
to be tiny lights in the sky like all other "stars," but the ancients
noted that some "stars" did not rotate in the same enormous circle
each night round the pole star as did all the rest. In fact, the word
"planet" is derived from the Greek word for "wanderer." The "wandering
stars" known by the ancients included Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter
and Saturn. Add the above five "wanderers" to the sun and moon which
also traced their own unique paths across the sky, and you get a total
of seven major heavenly objects that stood out from the stars. The
ancients imagined that these seven were special gods overseeing the
earth below. For instance, the Babylonians referred to the "watchful
eye" of Shamash, the sun, who notes all things; and a prayer to Nergal
(Mars) states, "With Sin [the Moon] in Heaven thou perceivest all
things." Compare the Hebrew notion that "these seven [lights] are the
eyes of the Lord which range [wander] to and fro throughout the earth"
(Zechariah 4:10). Nor does the Bible reveal that its authors were
aware of the earth being one more "wandering star" like the rest.
Instead, "the heavens and the earth" are spoken of as the two halves
of creation with the earth forming a firm foundation and the heavens
"spread out" above it in an equally "firm" fashion.

Also, according to Genesis 1:16 only "two" great lamps were created
(the Hebrew term translated as "great lights" in Genesis, means
literally, "great lamps"--the two great lamps being the "Sun" and the
"moon"--with no recognition of the fact that every twinkle in the sky
might be another great lamp like the sun, or perhaps be a planetary
body larger than the earth with many moons (great lamps) of its own.
Rather, the Bible depicts stars as relatively small objects, created
after the earth and "set" in the firmament above it, which may even
"fall" to earth at its end when the "earth is shaken" and they "fall
like ripe figs" from the sky, and the "heavens are rolled up like a
scroll" to be "created" anew: "There was a great earthquake... and the
stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casts her figs
when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a
scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were
moved out of their places." Revelation 6:12-14; and, "I saw four
angels standing on the four corners of the earth" Revelation 7:1 "And
I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first
earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." Revelation 21:1

Heaven's Gate

Shamash , was the common name of the sun-god in Babylonia and Assyria.
Might it be purely coincidental that shamash, and shamayim are both
related to something aloft or a celestial body? Maybe not! Shemeshis
actually Hebrew for Sun. Why is this important? Shamash is often
depicted as a winged God rising from between twin mountain peaks with
rays emanating. Malachi 4:2 says, "the Sun ( shemesh ) of
righteousness arise[s] with healing in his wings"

Wright says, "The divine celestial bodies (sun, moon, and stars) pass
through doors or gates as they become visible in the sky. Descriptions
of the celestial bodies entering the visible sky via gates are
augmented by cylinder seals depicting the sun god rising between
mountains that are oftentimes surmounted by open gates. This image is
verbalized in prayers to the sun god Utu:

Utu [=3D Shamash], when you emerge from the great mountain, the mountain
of springs, when you emerge from the Holy Hill, the place where
destinies are decided, when you emerge from where heaven and earth
embrace, from heaven's base.

O Shamash on the foundation of heaven thou hast flamed forth, Thou
hast unbarred the bright heavens, Thou hast opened the portals of the sky.

(Wright, pp. 33-34)

=20

The Man in the Sun Came Down too Soon

The solar deity Shamash not only appears in liturgical vestiges of the
Old Testament, old sun hymns and the like. He also appears as a heroic
character. The Anglicized form of the name Shamash may be more
familiar: Samson. Anyone can see that, though numbered among the
Judges in the Book of Judges, he is very different from all the other
Judges and does not really fit in their ranks. He is no prophet, no
seer, no military commander, just a rogue with superhuman strength.
Samson is the Hebrew Hercules, perhaps literally. Both were originally
sun gods, as is clear from Samson's name ("the Sun"!), his long hair
(=3D the sun's rays), etc. As with Joshua and others, Samson retained
his place in scripture only by getting demoted to a legendary hero.
What Jaan Puhvel says of Indo-European myth applies equally to the
myths of ancient Israel:

Myth can be transmitted either in its immediate shape, as sacred
narrative anchored in theology and interlaced with liturgy and ritual,
or in transmuted form, as past narrative that has severed its ties to
sacred time and instead functions as an account of the purportedly
secular, albeit extraordinary happening=85 This transposition of myth to
heroic saga is a notable mechanism in ancient Indo-European
traditions, wherever a certain cultic system has been supplanted in
living religion and the superannuated former apparatus falls prey to
literary manipulation. (Comparative Mythology. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1989, p. 39)=20=20

There are two separate and partially parallel collections of Samson
tales, and they are full of evidence that Samson was the sun god.

First Cycle:

1. Miraculous Nativity (Judges 13:2-5) Manoah of Zorah has no
children; his unnamed wife is barren (like Sarah, the Shunammite,
Hannah, and Elizabeth). A man appears, promising that she will after
all conceive and commanding that the boy be raised with the strictest
discipline of the Nazirite vow for his whole life! The Nazirite vow
was for a period of weeks, not a whole life. The point here is to try
to explain Samson's long hair, unusual for Hebrew men, but
characteristic of him as a sun god.

2. The Lion and the Riddle (Judges 14:1-19) The story's "local color"
attests the Israelite-Philistine intermarriage legitimated about this
time by the Curse of Noah story (Genesis 9:27) We have two sun symbols
here: first, Samson kills a lion, just as Hercules does. The mane
represents the rays of the sun. Second, the wedding reception recalls
Psalm 19:4b-5, "In [the skies] he has set a tent for the sun, which
comes forth like a bridegroom leaving his chamber and like a strong
man runs its course with joy."

3. Foxes in the Field (Judges 14:20-15:8a) Samson gains vengeance on
the tricky Philistines by catching 300 foxes (how long would this have
taken, even for a man with superhuman strength? Tell me this is not
folklore!), tying their tails together, and setting them on fire. Then
he releases them into the Philistines' grainfields. The whole thing is
symbolic of the sun withering the grain.

4. The Jawbone of an Ass (Judges 15:8b-17) Pretending to come along
quietly, Samson lays into his captors with the nearest weapon to hand,
a sun-bleached donkey jawbone. With it he kills 1, 000 men! Did they
line up to get brained one by one? Didn't the bone break? It is an
etymological story told to supply a noble explanation for the
originally topographically named Ramath-lehi, "Hill of the Jawbone,"
i.e., a declining rocky ridge. The story is based on a
misunderstanding of the poem quoted, which originally meant, "At
Ramath-lehi, heaps upon heaps! At Ramath-lehi I have slain a thousand
men!"

5. The Miraculous Spring (Judges 15:18-19) Feeling thirsty after
killing a thousand foes, Samson petulantly calls out for God to
provide a drink, lest thirst finish him off where the Philistines
couldn't! God obligingly causes a spring to gush forth. It is an
etymological story in that it explains the old name, "En-hak-kore,"
the Spring of Him Who Calls. Also a geological story: explaining the
origin of the spring itself. Also, as in the hymn to Utu, we have here
the sun god associated with a mountain of springs. (Verse 20 concludes
the first cycle.)

Second Cycle

1. The Ambush at the Gate (Judges 16:1-3) Samson outwits a party of
ambushers who wait for him at the city gates as he spends the night at
a Philistine prostitute's apartment. He lifts the gates and carries
them to a hilltop, where they are discovered at dawn. Here is the
traditional image of the sunrise as the sun god entering the horizon
through mountain gates. Cf. the Pillars of Hercules.

2. Samson & Delilah (Judges 16:4-31) Yet another instance of the theme
of Samson and Philistine women. This is another version of the Lion
and the Riddle. As there, we see Samson marrying a Philistine who
betrays him to her countrymen by wheedling a secret out of him. As
before, Samson is temporarily outwitted but gains revenge, this time
at the cost of his life. Note the threefold structure common to
fairytales and jokes.

His identity as the sun is absolutely clear from this story: he loses
his strength when his hair is cut, i.e., when the rays of the sun are
obscured, the sun is no longer shining in its strength. And he is
blind ! And his positioning himself between the pillars (of the
earth--Boaz and Jachin) harks back to the hilltop (heavenly) gates of
the previous tale.

Conclusion

Heaven, according to ancient Judaism and Christianity, is merely the
sky. At the highest portion of the sky possible, God sits upon the
solid firmament, which keeps the higher and lower waters apart and the
firmament (sky) also houses the stars, sun and moon. Since the Bible
also states unequivocally that birds fly in heaven, a tornado can
take a person to heaven, clouds are in heaven, God lets waters
collect under heaven, and dozens of other examples, it's reasonable to
conclude that heaven is the sky. Almost anywhere in the Bible if you
replace "heaven" with "sky," it fits perfectly. The earth beneath the
firmament is a flat disk, supported by foundations as the firmament is
by pillars. One heaven weighs down upon the dome from above, another
buoys the earth up from below. This earth is anchored immovably and
forms the center of solar and planetary motion. It is a very different
world than the one we live on. But if we, like our ancestors, lacked
modern observational technology, we might still share these beliefs,
and we would be fools no more than they. In fact, ancient Jews did
readily accept major or minor elements of Greek cosmology, notably the
Ptolemaic schema whereby a still and spheric earth rests at the center
of a great number of crystalline spheres in which the sun, moon,
planets and stars were set, orbiting us in complex dances. They were
mistaken in those theories, too, but they were in all cases quite
correct to accept, however provisionally, the latest results of
careful thinkers on the subject. It is, then, doubly tragic that
today's biblicists, so eager to think the thoughts of the Bible's
writers after them, refuse to budge from the same obsolete world
pictures those scribes and prophets would have discarded in a moment
had better knowledge become available.=20=20=20=20

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FIG. 13 - The Ancient Hebrew Conception of the Universe (from Robinson
1913, p.13)

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Waters above and below the firmament.

=20

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More images

Reginald Finley's Video production about Heaven.

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Answering the critics:

*If what you say is true why does Paul mention a 3rd heaven in 2
Corinthians 12:2? - Pete M.

The mention of a third heaven by Paul is in reference to a period of
time, not an actual place. Most scholars agree with this view. Douglas
Ward of the The Christian Resource Institute states, "Paul described
his experiences in the only way that he had at hand. His point was not
to tell us how many levels of heaven there might really be." This also
make sense when one takes into account 2Peter 3:13: "Nevertheless we,
according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth."
Nothing about levels here. Both the Heavens and the Earth will be
eradicated and begun anew. - R. Finley=20