is widely diffused; it is perhaps embodied in our word 'heaven' (from heave?) and O.E. 'lift.' A graphic illustration of it is found in Egyptian pictures, where the god Shu is seen holding aloft, with outstretched arms, the dark star-spangled figure of the heaven-goddess, while the earth-god lies prostrate beneath (see Je. ATLO2, 7).[1] But the special form in which it appears here is perhaps not fully intelligible apart from the Bab. creation-myth, and the climatic phenomena on which it is based (see below, p. 46).
Another interpretation of the firmament has recently been propounded
(Winckler, Himmels- u. Weltenbild, 25 ff.; ATLO2, 164, 174) which
identifies it with the Bab. šupuk šamē, and explains both of the Zodiac.
The view seems based on the highly artificial Bab. theory of a point-for-point
correspondence between heaven and earth, according to which
the Zodiac represents a heavenly earth, the northern heavens a heavenly
heaven (atmospheric), and the southern a heavenly ocean. But whatever
be the truth about šupuk šamē, such a restriction of the meaning
of רקיע is inadmissible in Heb. In Ps. 192, Dn. 123 it might be possible;
but even there it is unnecessary, and in almost every other case it is
absolutely excluded. It is so emphatically in this chapter, where the
firmament is named heaven, and birds (whose flight is not restricted to 10°
on either side of the ecliptic) are said to fly 'in front of the firmament.'
9, 10. Third work: Dry land and sea.—The shoreless
lower ocean, which remained at the close of the second
(trans.), 'stamp firm,' 'consolidate' (Is. 425 etc.). It is curious that
the vb. is used of the creation of the earth, never of heaven, except
Jb. 3718.—ויהי מבריל] on ptcp. expressing permanence, see Dri. T. § 135,
5.—בֵּין־לְ: Kön. S. § 319 n.—וַיַבְדֵּל] G supplies as subj. ὁ θεός.—7. ויהי כן]
transposed in G to end of v.6, its normal position,—if indeed it be not
a gloss in both places (We.).—8. G also inserts here the formula of
approval: on its omission in Heb., see above, pp. 8, 9.
9. יִקָּווּ] in this sense, only Jer. 317. For מָקוֺם read with G מִקְוֶה = 'gathering-place,' as in v.10. Nestle (MM, 3) needlessly suggests for the latter מִקְרָה, and for יקוו, יִקְּרוּ.—מִתַּהַת] not 'from under' but simply 'under' (see v.10); G-K. § 119 c2.—וְתֵרָאֶה] juss. unapocopated, as often near the principal pause; G-K. § 109 a.—At the end of the v. G adds: καὶ συνήξθη τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ὑποκάτω τοῦ οὐρανοῦ εἰς τὰς συναγωγὰς αὐτῶν καὶ ὤφθη ἡ χηρά: i.e. וַיִּקָּו הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר מִתַּהַת אֶל־מִקְוֵיהֶם וַתֵּרָא הַיַּבָּשָׁה. The addition is adopted by Ball, and the pl. αὐτῶν proves at least that it rests on a Heb. original, ὕδωρ being sing. in Greek (We.).—10. יֵמּים] the pl. (cf.
- ↑ Comp. also the Maori myth reported in Waitz, Anthrop. vi. 245 ff.; Lang, Custom and Myth, 45 ff.
