Firmament Structure and Post-Flood Oxygen Levels
The term "firmament" in biblical texts, particularly in Genesis 1, translates the Hebrew word raki'a, which signifies an "expansion" or "expanse" [1, 3]. While the Latin Vulgate rendered raki'a as firmamentum, implying a solid body, the original Hebrew suggests a stretched-out or spread-out entity, like a curtain or canopy [1, 3, 8]. This expanse was established by God to divide the "waters above" from the "waters below" [1, 6].
The concept of the firmament has been interpreted in various ways across different theological traditions. John Gill, a Baptist commentator, describes it as something "stretched out and spread like a curtain, tent, or canopy" between the "heaven of heavens and our earth" [3, 6]. He further explains that the "waters above the firmament" refer to the clouds in the atmosphere, which hold water and from which rain descends, while the "waters under the firmament" were those remaining on the earth before being gathered into seas [6]. The Midrash Rabbah likens the firmament to a dome above a pool of water, where condensation forms thick drops that descend as rain without intermingling with the salt water below, a process described as miraculous [2].
Eastern Orthodox theology, as articulated by John of Damascus, views water as one of the four elements and a fundamental creation of God, with the "deep" mentioned in Genesis 1:2 referring to a vast quantity of water [5]. The firmament's role in separating these waters is a key aspect of the creation narrative.
Catholic scholastic thought, particularly through Thomas Aquinas, emphasizes the importance of interpreting Scripture without wavering from its truth, while acknowledging that it can be understood in multiple senses [4]. Augustine, as cited by Aquinas, suggests that the order of creation in Genesis might not be strictly chronological but rather an order of origin and nature [7]. This approach allows for flexibility in understanding the precise scientific nature of the firmament while upholding the theological truth of God's creative act.
The "waters above the firmament" have been a subject of particular interest. Some interpretations suggest these waters formed a protective canopy or vapor layer around the pre-Flood Earth. Adam Clarke, a Methodist commentator, discusses the composition of water as hydrogen and oxygen, noting that the "heavens" in biblical passages can refer to the entire atmosphere [9]. While Clarke's commentary on 2 Peter 3:10 focuses on the passing away of the heavens, his scientific observations about water's composition are relevant to discussions about atmospheric conditions.
The idea of a pre-Flood "water canopy" has been proposed by some to explain various phenomena, including potentially higher oxygen levels and a more temperate global climate before the Flood. This canopy, if it existed, would have been the "waters above the firmament" that collapsed during the Deluge, contributing to the forty days and nights of rain. However, the biblical text itself does not explicitly detail the structure or composition of this canopy beyond stating its existence and its role in separating the waters. The primary focus of the biblical account and subsequent theological interpretations remains on God's creative power and the ordering of the cosmos.
Sources
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: 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”
- Midrash Rabbah (Jewish (Rabbinic)) “Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit Rabbah 4:5: The firmament is similar to a pool of water and above the pool is a dome. Because of the pool there is condensation of thick drops, and they descend into the salt water but do not intermingle. Rabbi Yona said: Do not wonder; the Jordan passes through the Sea of Tiberias but does not intermingle [with its water]. There is miraculous process involved in this matter. 12 The matter of rainfall. When a person sifts wheat or stubble in a sieve, before they fall two or three fingerbreadths they are already intermingled, but these [raindrops] travel a distance of ”
- Genesis (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Genesis 1:6: And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,.... On which the Spirit of God was sitting and moving, Gen 1:2 part of which were formed into clouds, and drawn up into heaven by the force of the body of fire and light already produced; and the other part left on the earth, not yet gathered into one place, as afterwards: between these God ordered a "firmament to be", or an "expanse" (v); something stretched out and spread like a curtain, tent, or canopy: and to this all those passages of Scripture refer, which speak of the stretching out of the heave”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part (Prima Pars), On the Work of the Second Day, Art. 1: Article: Whether the firmament was made on the second day? I answer that, In discussing questions of this kind two rules are to observed, as Augustine teaches (Gen. ad lit. i, 18). The first is, to hold the truth of Scripture without wavering. The second is that since Holy Scripture can be explained in a multiplicity of senses, one should adhere to a particular explanation, only in such measure as to be ready to abandon it, if it be proved with certainty to be false; lest Holy Scripture be exposed to the”
- CCEL (Eastern Orthodox) “John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, section 24: Chapter IX .— Concerning the waters. Water also is one of the four elements, the most beautiful of God’s creations. It is both wet and cold, heavy, and with a tendency to descend, and flows with great readiness. It is this the Holy Scripture has in view when it says, And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters 1743 1743 Gen. i. 2 . . For the deep is nothing else than a huge quantity of water whose limit man cannot comprehend. In the beginning, indeed, the water lay a”
- Genesis (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Genesis 1:7: And God made the firmament,.... By a word speaking, commanding it into being, producing it out of the chaos, and spreading it in that vast space between the heaven of heavens and our earth (z), And divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; the lower part of it, the atmosphere above, which are the clouds full of water, from whence rain descends upon the earth; and which divided between them and those that were left on the earth, and so under it, not yet gathered into one place; as it now does between the clouds ”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part (Prima Pars), On the Work of the Third Day, Art. 1: Article: Whether it was fitting that the gathering together of the waters should take place, as recorded, on the third day? I answer that, It is necessary to reply differently to this question according to the different interpretations given by Augustine and other holy writers. In all these works, according to Augustine (Gen. ad lit. i, 15; iv, 22,34; De Gen. Contr. Manich. i, 5, 7), there is no order of duration, but only of origin and nature. He says that the formless spiritual and formless corporeal na”
- Ezekiel (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Ezekiel 1:22: And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature,.... This was not a real firmament, but the likeness of one; it was like the firmament which God created on the second day, which divided between the waters above and below, and which he called Heaven; and is no other than the airy and starry heavens. Its name is in Hebrew "an expanse"; from its being stretched out as a curtain, and a tent to dwell in; and a "firmament" from its firmness and continuance; and therefore called the firmament of his power, Gen 1:8, Psa 150:1; and this visionary one w”
- 2 Peter (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on 2 Peter 3:10: The day of the Lord will come - See Mat 24:43, to which the apostle seems to allude. The heavens shall pass away with a great noise - As the heavens mean here, and in the passages above, the whole atmosphere, in which all the terrestrial vapours are lodged; and as water itself is composed of two gases, eighty-five parts in weight of oxygen, and fifteen of hydrogen, or two parts in volume of the latter, and one of the former; (for if these quantities be put together, and several electric sparks passed through them, a chemical union takes place, and water is the prod”