-
†. Gen 1:6a . . God said: Let there be an expanse
The word for "expanse" is from raqiya' (raw-kee'-ah) and means: a great
extent of something spread out, a firmament, the visible arch of the sky.
Raqiya' is distinct from shamyim in that it indicates the earth's atmosphere;
which is sort of sandwiched between the surface and the vacuum of space.
†. Gen 1:6b-8 . . in the midst of the water, that it may separate water from
water. God made the expanse, and it separated the water which was below
the expanse from the water which was above the expanse. And it was so.
And God named the expanse Sky.
At this point in time, I think we can safely assume that "water" is no longer
a place-card name for the colossal soup of particles God created in Gen 1:2
but the molecular combination commonly known as H[sub]2[/sub]0.
We can easily guess what is meant by water that's below the sky. But is
there really water that's above it? Yes, and it's a lot! According to an article
in the Sept 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine, Earth's atmosphere
holds roughly 3,095 cubic miles of water in the form of vapor. That may
seem like a preposterous number of cubic miles of water; but not really
when it's considered that Lake Superior's volume alone is estimated at
nearly 3,000.
Our planet is really big; a whole lot bigger than people sometimes realize.
It's surface area, in square miles, is 7,868,514,463. To give an idea of just
how many square miles that is: if somebody were to wrap a belt around the
equator made of one-mile squares; it would only take 24,900 squares to
complete the distance; which is a mere .000312% of the earth's total
surface area.
Some of the more familiar global warming gases are carbon dioxide,
fluorocarbons, methane, and ozone. But as popular as those gases are with
the media, they're bit players in comparison to the role that ordinary water
vapor plays in global warming. By some estimates; atmospheric water vapor
accounts for more than 90% of global warming; which is not a bad thing
because without atmospheric water vapor, the earth would be so cold that
the only life that could exist here would be extremophiles.
How much water is below the expanse. Well; according to the same article;
the amount of H[sub]2[/sub]0 contained in swamp water, lakes and rivers, ground
water, and oceans, seas, and bays adds up to something like 326.6 million
cubic miles; and that's not counting the 5.85 million cubic miles tied up in
living organisms, soil moisture, ground ice and permafrost, ice sheets,
glaciers, and permanent snow.
To put that in perspective: if we were to construct a tower 326.6 million
miles high, it would exceed the Sun's distance by 233.6 million miles.
†. Gen 1:8b . . And there was evening and there was morning, a second
day.
†. Gen 1:9 . . God said : Let the waters below the sky be gathered into one
area, that dry ground may appear. And it was so.
If you're a student of geology, then you know Gen 1:9 speaks volumes and
fully deserves some serious consideration. Shaping the earth's mantle in
order to form low spots for the seas and high spots for dry ground was a
colossal feat of magma convection and volcanism combined with the titanic
forces of tectonic plate subduction; all of which require beaucoup centuries
to accomplish.
At the ocean's deepest surveyed point-- the Challenger Deep; located in the
Mariana Islands group, at the southern end of the Mariana Trench --the
water's depth is over 11,000 meters; which is about 6.8 statute miles
(36,000 feet). That depth corresponds to the cruising altitude of a Boeing
747. At that altitude, probably about all you're going to see of the airliner
without straining your eyes is its contrail.
Africa's Mt Kilimanjaro is the tallest free-standing mountain on earth at
19,341 feet above its land base. If Kilimanjaro were placed in the Challenger
Deep, it would have about 16,659 feet of water over its peak. Were the
tallest point of the Himalayan range-- Mt Everest --to be submerged in the
Challenger Deep, it would have about 7,000 feet of water over its head.
The discovery of fossilized sea lilies near the summit of Mt Everest proves
that the Himalayan land mass has not always been mountainous; but at one
time was the floor of an ancient sea bed. This is confirmed by the "yellow
band" below Everest's summit consisting of limestone: a type of rock made
from calcite sediments containing the skeletal remains of countless trillions
of organisms who lived, not on dry land, but in an ocean.
"He established the Earth on its foundations, so that it shall never totter.
You made the deep cover it as a garment; the waters stood above the
mountains. They fled at your blast, rushed away at the sound of your
thunder-- mountains rising, valleys sinking to the place you established for
them. You set bounds they must not pass so that they never again cover the
Earth." (Ps 104:5-9)
Psalm 104 is stunning; and clearly way ahead of its time. It says that the
land masses we know today as mountains were at one time submerged; and
it isn't talking about Noah's flood. The speech of "mountains rising, and
valleys sinking" isn't Flood-speak, no, it's geology-speak. I seriously doubt
that the Psalmist knew about the science of tectonic plates, magma
pressure, and the forces of subduction, but he was clearly somehow aware
that the Earth's crust is malleable. And that's true. With just the right
combination of temperature and pressure, solid rock can be made to bend;
even forced to hairpin back upon itself like taffy.
†. Gen 1:10 . . God called the dry ground Land, and the gathering of waters
He called Seas. And God saw that this was good.
"good" meaning not that the dry ground and seas are morally acceptable,
but rather, perfectly suitable for the purposes that God had in mind for
them.
NOTE: There are Hebrew words in the Bible for marshes, impoundments,
rivers, and streams; but I've yet to encounter one for natural lakes and
ponds. In other words "seas" suffices not only for oceans; but also for all the
smaller accumulations of naturally occurring water.
Cont.
/
†. Gen 1:6a . . God said: Let there be an expanse
The word for "expanse" is from raqiya' (raw-kee'-ah) and means: a great
extent of something spread out, a firmament, the visible arch of the sky.
Raqiya' is distinct from shamyim in that it indicates the earth's atmosphere;
which is sort of sandwiched between the surface and the vacuum of space.
†. Gen 1:6b-8 . . in the midst of the water, that it may separate water from
water. God made the expanse, and it separated the water which was below
the expanse from the water which was above the expanse. And it was so.
And God named the expanse Sky.
At this point in time, I think we can safely assume that "water" is no longer
a place-card name for the colossal soup of particles God created in Gen 1:2
but the molecular combination commonly known as H[sub]2[/sub]0.
We can easily guess what is meant by water that's below the sky. But is
there really water that's above it? Yes, and it's a lot! According to an article
in the Sept 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine, Earth's atmosphere
holds roughly 3,095 cubic miles of water in the form of vapor. That may
seem like a preposterous number of cubic miles of water; but not really
when it's considered that Lake Superior's volume alone is estimated at
nearly 3,000.
Our planet is really big; a whole lot bigger than people sometimes realize.
It's surface area, in square miles, is 7,868,514,463. To give an idea of just
how many square miles that is: if somebody were to wrap a belt around the
equator made of one-mile squares; it would only take 24,900 squares to
complete the distance; which is a mere .000312% of the earth's total
surface area.
Some of the more familiar global warming gases are carbon dioxide,
fluorocarbons, methane, and ozone. But as popular as those gases are with
the media, they're bit players in comparison to the role that ordinary water
vapor plays in global warming. By some estimates; atmospheric water vapor
accounts for more than 90% of global warming; which is not a bad thing
because without atmospheric water vapor, the earth would be so cold that
the only life that could exist here would be extremophiles.
How much water is below the expanse. Well; according to the same article;
the amount of H[sub]2[/sub]0 contained in swamp water, lakes and rivers, ground
water, and oceans, seas, and bays adds up to something like 326.6 million
cubic miles; and that's not counting the 5.85 million cubic miles tied up in
living organisms, soil moisture, ground ice and permafrost, ice sheets,
glaciers, and permanent snow.
To put that in perspective: if we were to construct a tower 326.6 million
miles high, it would exceed the Sun's distance by 233.6 million miles.
†. Gen 1:8b . . And there was evening and there was morning, a second
day.
†. Gen 1:9 . . God said : Let the waters below the sky be gathered into one
area, that dry ground may appear. And it was so.
If you're a student of geology, then you know Gen 1:9 speaks volumes and
fully deserves some serious consideration. Shaping the earth's mantle in
order to form low spots for the seas and high spots for dry ground was a
colossal feat of magma convection and volcanism combined with the titanic
forces of tectonic plate subduction; all of which require beaucoup centuries
to accomplish.
At the ocean's deepest surveyed point-- the Challenger Deep; located in the
Mariana Islands group, at the southern end of the Mariana Trench --the
water's depth is over 11,000 meters; which is about 6.8 statute miles
(36,000 feet). That depth corresponds to the cruising altitude of a Boeing
747. At that altitude, probably about all you're going to see of the airliner
without straining your eyes is its contrail.
Africa's Mt Kilimanjaro is the tallest free-standing mountain on earth at
19,341 feet above its land base. If Kilimanjaro were placed in the Challenger
Deep, it would have about 16,659 feet of water over its peak. Were the
tallest point of the Himalayan range-- Mt Everest --to be submerged in the
Challenger Deep, it would have about 7,000 feet of water over its head.
The discovery of fossilized sea lilies near the summit of Mt Everest proves
that the Himalayan land mass has not always been mountainous; but at one
time was the floor of an ancient sea bed. This is confirmed by the "yellow
band" below Everest's summit consisting of limestone: a type of rock made
from calcite sediments containing the skeletal remains of countless trillions
of organisms who lived, not on dry land, but in an ocean.
"He established the Earth on its foundations, so that it shall never totter.
You made the deep cover it as a garment; the waters stood above the
mountains. They fled at your blast, rushed away at the sound of your
thunder-- mountains rising, valleys sinking to the place you established for
them. You set bounds they must not pass so that they never again cover the
Earth." (Ps 104:5-9)
Psalm 104 is stunning; and clearly way ahead of its time. It says that the
land masses we know today as mountains were at one time submerged; and
it isn't talking about Noah's flood. The speech of "mountains rising, and
valleys sinking" isn't Flood-speak, no, it's geology-speak. I seriously doubt
that the Psalmist knew about the science of tectonic plates, magma
pressure, and the forces of subduction, but he was clearly somehow aware
that the Earth's crust is malleable. And that's true. With just the right
combination of temperature and pressure, solid rock can be made to bend;
even forced to hairpin back upon itself like taffy.
†. Gen 1:10 . . God called the dry ground Land, and the gathering of waters
He called Seas. And God saw that this was good.
"good" meaning not that the dry ground and seas are morally acceptable,
but rather, perfectly suitable for the purposes that God had in mind for
them.
NOTE: There are Hebrew words in the Bible for marshes, impoundments,
rivers, and streams; but I've yet to encounter one for natural lakes and
ponds. In other words "seas" suffices not only for oceans; but also for all the
smaller accumulations of naturally occurring water.
Cont.
/
