A missing Link to Genesis 1:6 God said, “I command a dome to separate the water above it from the water below it.”

[Clete]

I just wanted to say here that I'm content with living with the uncertainty in the passages in question. The firmament that God called "Heaven" is clearly talking about that which we are looking at when we look up at the sky. What it means by the firmament dividing waters from waters is rather confusing but it just seems like we aren't given enough detail to make sense of it. It seems to me to be details that we do not need and so I'm okay with it. The bible isn't a geology book nor is it a book about cosmology. It's a book about the relationship between God and His creation and with mankind in particular. As such, it isn't surprising that there are details left out about how God pulled off creating the Earth and the rest of the universe.

In other words, if the lack of detail here affected some matter of doctrine then it would be a big deal but it really doesn't do that and so, I don't see the need to force it to make perfect sense.

That is not to say that I fault anyone for discussing it and poking around with the issue, making some effort to make sense of it. Maybe such an effort will result in some important insight. If so, great! If not, then C'est la vie.

 

[Derf]

You say, "No" and then make the exact argument that you just denied that you were making. Talking about confusing.

You're saying "it's confusing to the reader" and therefore that isn't the way to understand it because God is not the author of confusion.

Are you not?

Well, just because you're confused doesn't prove that your simpler interpretation is true, both Occham's Razor and I Corinthians 14:33 not withstanding.


If no one is disputing it, why did you bring it up?

I didn't. You did.

The two are the same, are they not? I'm really not following you here at all. Sorry.

"Author" can mean creator or explainer in words. Moses was the author of Genesis, God was the author (by inspiration) of the words and the author of the heavens and earth. "Author of confusion" is about how things are supposed to be done in the church, and applies more to "creator" usage. If God wants people to do things in a slipshod way in the church, then He is an author of confusion. If He gives historical information that uses the same word in the same passage to apply to multiple and opposite concepts (remembering that the whole passage is about the creation of two things: heaven and earth, which He defines specifically in the passage), He is making it confusing to His readers. It's not a matter of simplicity and complexity, but a matter of what words mean and how He uses them.