I am pleased to learn that you are reading the commentary on Genies by Delitzsch and that you apparently still have a healthy mind. Delitzsch was, as you have observed for yourself, more critically minded than was Keil. When I wrote that Delitzsch was more accurate, I was not at all referring his degree of critical thinking, I was referring to his words that you quoted,
“There is nothing in these poetical similes to warrant the idea that the heavens were regarded as a solid mass [or dome], a σιδήρεον, or χάλκεον or πολύχαλκον, such as Greek poets describe. The רקיע (rendered Veste by Luther, after the στερέωα of the lxx and firmamentum of the Vulgate) is called heaven in Genesis 1:8, i.e., the vault of heaven, which stretches out above the earth. The waters under the firmament are the waters upon the globe itself; those above are not ethereal waters.”
Genesis 1-11 was written in a genre of literature that does not employ similes or metaphors of any other kind. Furthermore, there is very much in Genesis to warrant the idea that the heavens were regarded as a solid mass or dome.
In the Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, we find an excellent article (Vol. III, pp. 568-569 [two lengthy columns of fine print per page] on the word רָקִיעַ. Of special importance is the following from the article,
The verb רָקַע, raká, means to expand by beating, whether by the hand, the foot, or any instrument. It is especially used, however, of beating out metals into thin plates (Exod. xxxix, 3, Numb. xvi, 39), and hence the substantive רַקֻּעַים “broad plates” of metal (Numb. 16:38). (The italics are theirs).
Furthermore, the Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament by Brown, Driver, and Briggs published by Oxford University gives us the following meaning of the word רָקִיעַ in Gen. 1:6, “the vault of heaven, or ‘firmament,’ regarded by Hebrews as solid, and supporting ‘waters’ above it.” (p. 956). Moreover, John Skinner, the late Principal and Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature at Westminster College, Cambridge, in his commentary on the Hebrew text of Genesis, writes,
6-8 Second Work: The Firmament.—The second fiat calls into existence a firmament, whose function is to divide the primeval waters into an upper and lower ocean, leaving a space between as the theater of further creative developments. The “firmament” is the dome of heaven, which to the ancients was no optical illusion, but a material structure, sometimes compared to an “upper chamber” (Ps. 104:12, Am 9:6) supported by “pillars” (Jb 26:11), and resembling in its surface a “molten mirror” (Jb 37:18). Above this are the heavenly waters, from which the rain descends through “windows” or “doors” (Gn 7:11, 8:2, 2 Ki 7:2, 19) opened and shut by God at His pleasure (Ps 78:23).
In the Septuagint, the Hebrew word רָקִיעַ is translated as στερέωμα.
A Greek–English Lexicon, often referred to as Liddell & Scott, gives us the following definition of the στερέωμα
στερέ-ωμα ,
ατος,
τό,
A.solid body,
Hp.Flat.8,
Anaxag. ap.
Placit.2.25.9.
b. ἄϋλα ς. immaterial
solids,
Dam.Pr.425, cf.
205.
2. foundation or
framework, e.g. the skeleton, on which the body is, as it were, built,
Arist.PA655a22;
στερεώματος ἕνεκα τοῦ περιτρήτου to
strengthen it,
Hero Bel.95.8: metaph.,
solid part, strength of an army,
LXX 1 Ma.9.14; also,
ratification,
ἐπιστολῆς ib.
Es.9.29;
steadfastness, “
τῆς πίστεως”
Ep.Col.2.5.
3. =
στεῖρα (of a ship),
Thphr. HP5.7.3.
4. firmament, i.e. the sky, the heaven above,
LXX Ge. 1.6,
Ez.1.22, al.; “
τὸν τῶν οὐρανίων ς.
δεσπότην”
Tab.Defix.Aud.242.8 (Carthage, iii A.D.).
In the Latin Vulgate, the Hebrew word רָקִיעַ is translated as στερέωμα.
Martin Luther’s statement on the meaning of the Hebrew word רָקִיעַ in Gen. 1:6,
Scripture simply says that the moon, the sun, and the stars were placed in the firmament of the heaven, below and above which heaven are the waters… It is likely that the stars are fastened to the firmament like globes of fire, to shed light at night… We Christians must be different from the philosophers in the way we think about the causes of things. And if some are beyond our comprehension like those before us concerning the waters above the heavens, we must believe them rather than wickedly deny them or presumptuously interpret them in conformity with our understanding.
[
Luther’s Works. Vol. 1. Lectures on Genesis, ed. Janoslaw Pelikan, Concordia Pub. House, St. Louis, Missouri, 1958, pp. 30, 42, 43 ]
Oh, and by the way, the article is anonymous, as all the articles there are, so nobody can correct their error. I don't allow my students to quote from anonymous sources in their research papers because of that lack of accountability. And before you ask, my real name is John R. Himes, as I've said numerous times on the BB, so no, I'm never anonymous.
