Firmament

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HELEN
Hey guys,
Everyone knows I'm not the English major on this list, but doesn't
"firmament" mean air or atmosphere in Elizabethian/Jacobean English. I
believe Hamlet at one point refers to "the brave and hanging firmament".
Firmentations is derived from this would because it causes gas (CO2)
to appear in an airtight barrel. So the waters were divided by air,
the sky is blue because there's a lake up there, and when it rains
heaven simply
springs a leak. God said it and I believe it.
Helen

SJW
Helen is correct in her definition of firmament:  I guess I should
have done a bit of research so I could get the "clear picture".


>From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Firmament \Fir"ma*ment\, n. [L. firmamentum, fr. firmare to make firm:
cf. F. firmament. See {Firm}, v. & a.] 1. Fixed foundation;
established basis. [Obs.] 
Custom is the . . . firmament of the law. --Jer. Taylor. 
2. The region of the air; the sky or heavens. 
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and
let it divide the waters from the waters. --Gen. i. 6. 
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament. --Gen. i. 14. 
Note: In Scripture, the word denotes an expanse, a wide extent; the
great arch or expanse over out heads, in which are placed the
atmosphere and the clouds, and in which the stars appear to be placed,
and are really seen. 
3. (Old Astron.) The orb of the fixed stars; the most rmote of the
celestial spheres. 


>From WordNet (r) 1.6 (wn)

firmament n : the apparent surface of the imaginary sphere on which
celestial bodies appear to be projected [syn: {celestial sphere},
{sphere}, {empyrean}, {heavens}, {vault of heaven}, {welkin}] 


>From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary (easton)

Firmament from the Vulgate firmamentum, which is used as the
translation of the Hebrew _raki'a_. This word means simply
"expansion." It denotes the space or expanse like an arch appearing
immediately above us. They who rendered _raki'a_ by firmamentum
regarded it as a solid body. The language of Scripture is not
scientific but popular, and hence we read of the sun rising and
setting, and also here the use of this particular word. It is plain
that it was used to denote solidity as well as expansion. It formed a
division between the waters above and the waters below (Gen. 1:7). The
_raki'a_ supported the upper reservoir (Ps. 148:4). It was the support
also of the heavenly bodies (Gen. 1:14), and is spoken of as having
"windows" and "doors" (Gen. 7:11; Isa. 24:18; Mal. 3:10) through which
the rain and snow might descend. 

SJW
I must therefore revise my vision of the 1st 6 verses (day one) of
Genesis 6:
And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,
and let it separate the waters from the waters." 

There is this blob of water with God's face floating around upon it
with a wall of sky and stars ( with windows and doors)  separating the
blobs.  Hmmm.  Sounds kind of like a tornado.
Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore.

SJane Weisiger
weisiger@yahoo.com

~o~o~o~o~"Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a flea, yet he
makes gods by the dozens."~o~o~o~o~
-Michel De Montaigne





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