by Brian Godawa
When the sons of Korah are swallowed up by the earth for their rebellion against God, Numbers chapter 16 says that “they went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly (v. 33).” People would not “fall alive” into death or the grave and then perish if Sheol was not a location. But they would die after they fall down into a location (Sheol) and the earth closes over them in that order.
The divine being (elohim), known as the departed spirit of Samuel, “came up out of the earth” for the witch of Endor’s necromancy with Saul (1Sam. 28:13). This was not a reference to a body coming out of a grave, but a spirit of the dead coming from the underworld beneath the earth.
When Isaiah writes about Sheol in Isaiah 14, he combines the notion of the physical location of the dead body in the earth (v. 11) with the location beneath the earth of the spirits of the dead (v. 9). It’s really a both/and proposition.
Here is a list of some verses that speak of Sheol geographically as a spiritual underworld in contrast with heaven as a spiritual overworld.
Amos 9:2
“If they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down.
Job 11:8
It is higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?
Psa. 16:10
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
Psa. 139:8
If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
Isa. 7:11
“Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”
These are not mere references to the body in the grave, but to locations of the spiritual soul as well. Sheol is a combined term that describes both the grave for the body and the underworld location of the departed souls of the dead.
In the New Testament, the word Hades is used for the underworld, which was the Greek equivalent of Sheol.[95] Jesus himself used the term Hades as the location of damned spirits in contrast with heaven as the location of redeemed spirits when he talked of Capernaum rejecting miracles, “And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades” (Matt. 11:23). Hades was also the location of departed spirits in his parable of Lazarus and the rich man in Hades (Luke 16:19-31).
In Greek mythology, Tartarus was another term for a location beneath the “roots of the earth” and beneath the waters where the warring giants called “Titans” were bound in chains because of their rebellion against the gods.[96] Peter uses a derivative of that very Greek word Tartarus to describe a similar location and scenario of angels being bound during the time of Noah and the warring Titans called “Nephilim.”[97]
2Pet. 2:4-5
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell [tartaroo] and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah.
The Watery Abyss
In Mesopotamian cosmography, the Abyss (Apsu in Akkadian) was a cosmic subterranean lake or body of water that was between the earth and the underworld (Sheol), and was the source of the waters above such as oceans, rivers, and springs or fountains.[98] In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah, tells his fellow citizens that he is building his boat and will abandon the earth of Enlil to join Ea in the waters of the Abyss that would soon fill the land.[99] Even bitumen pools used to make pitch were thought to rise up from the “underground waters,” or the Abyss.[100]
Similarly, in the Bible the earth also rests on the seas or “the deep” (tehom) that produces the springs and waters from its subterranean waters below the earth.
Psa. 24:1-2
The world, and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the rivers.
Psa. 136:6
To him who spread out the earth above the waters.
Gen. 49: 25
The Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that crouches beneath.
Ex. 20:4
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Leviathan is even said to dwell in the Abyss in Job 41:24 (LXX)[101]. When God brings the flood, part of the waters are from “the fountains of the great deep” bursting open (Gen. 7:11; 8:2).
The Firmament
If we move upward in the registers of cosmography, we find another ancient paradigm of the heavens covering the earth like a solid dome or vault with the sun, moon, and stars embedded in the firmament yet still somehow able to go around the earth. Reformed scholar Paul Seely has done key research on this notion.[102]
Gen. 1:6-8
And God said, “Let there be an expanse [firmament] in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse [firmament] and separated the waters that were under the expanse [firmament] from the waters that were above the expanse [firmament]. And it was so. And God called the expanse [firmament] Heaven.
I used to think, what is that all about? Waters below separated from waters above by the sky? Some try to explain those waters above as a water canopy above the earth that came down at Noah’s flood. But that doesn’t make sense Biblically because birds are said to “fly over the face of the firmament” (Gen. 1:20) with the same Hebrew grammar as God’s Spirit hovering “over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2). But the firmament cannot be the “water canopy” because the firmament is not the waters, but the object that is separating and holding back the waters. If the firmament is an “expanse” or the sky itself, then the birds would be flying within the firmament, not over the face of the firmament as the text states. So the firmament cannot be a water canopy and it cannot be the sky itself.
The T.K.O. of the canopy theory is the fact that according to the Bible those “waters above” and the firmament that holds them back were still considered in place during the time of King David long after the flood:
Psa. 104:2-3
Stretching out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters;
Psa. 148:4
Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!
Seely shows how the modern scientific bias has guided the translators to render the word for “firmament” (raqia) as “expanse.” Raqia in the Bible consistently means a solid material such as a metal that is hammered out by a craftsman (Ex. 39:3; Isa. 40:19). And when raqia is used elsewhere in the Bible for the heavens, it clearly refers to a solid material, sometimes even metal!
Job 37:18
Can you, like him, spread out [raqia] the skies, hard as a cast metal mirror?
Ex. 24:10
And they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement [raqia] of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.
Ezek. 1:22-23
Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of an expanse [raqia], shining like awe-inspiring crystal, spread out above their heads. And under the expanse [raqia] their wings were stretched out straight.
Prov. 8:27-28
When he established the heavens… when he made firm the skies above.
Job 22:14
He walks on the vault of heaven.
Amos 9:6
[God] builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth.
Not only did the ancient translators of the Septuagint (LXX) translate raqia into the Latin equivalent for a hard firm solid surface (firmamentum), but also the Jews of the Second Temple period consistently understood the word raqia to mean a solid surface that covered the earth like a dome.
3Bar. 3:6-8
And the Lord appeared to them and confused their speech, when they had built the tower… And they took a gi
mlet, and sought to pierce the heaven, saying, Let us see (whether) the heaven is made of clay, or of brass, or of iron.
2Apoc. Bar. 21:4
‘O you that have made the earth, hear me, that have fixed the firmament by the word, and have made firm the height of the heaven.
Josephus, Antiquities 1:30 (1.1.1.30)
On the second day, he placed the heaven over the whole world... He also placed a crystalline [firmament] round it.
The Talmud describes rabbis debating over which remains fixed and which revolves, the constellations or the solid sky (Pesachim 94b),[103] as well as how to calculate the thickness of the firmament scientifically (Pesab. 49a) and Biblically (Genesis Rabbah 4.5.2).[104] While the Talmud is not the definitive interpretation of the Bible, it certainly illustrates how ancient Jews of that time period understood the term, which can be helpful in learning the Hebrew cultural context.
When the Scriptures talk poetically of this vault of heaven it uses the same terminology of stretching out the solid surface of the heavens over the earth as it does of stretching out an ANE desert tent over the flat ground (Isa. 54:2; Jer. 10:20)—not like an expanding Einsteinian time-space atmosphere.
Psa. 19:4
He has set a tent for the sun.
Psa. 104:2
Stretching out the heavens like a tent.
Isa. 45:12
It was my hands that stretched out the heavens,
Isa. 51:13
The LORD... who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.
Jer. 10:12
It is he who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
Jer. 51:15
“It is he who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
Keeping this tent-like vault over the earth in mind, when God prophesies about the physical destruction he will bring upon a nation, he uses the symbolism of rolling up that firmament like the tent he originally stretched out (or a scroll), along with the shaking of the pillars of the earth and the pillars of heaven which results in the stars falling from the heavens because they were embedded within it.
Isa. 34:4
All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine.
Rev. 6:13-14
[An earthquake occurs] and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Matt. 24:29
“The stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”
Job 26:11
“The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astounded at His rebuke.
2Sam. 22:8
Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked.
Is. 13:13
Therefore I shall make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place at the wrath of the LORD of hosts.
Joel 2:10
The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble.
Waters Above the Heavens
Now on to the highest point of the Mesopotamian cosmography, the “highest heavens,” or “heaven of heavens,” where God has established his temple and throne (Deut. 26:15; Psa. 11:4; 33:13; 103:19). But God’s throne also happens to be in the midst of a sea of waters that reside there. These are the waters that are above the firmament, that the firmament holds back from falling to earth (Gen. 1:6-8).
Psa. 148:4
Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!
Psa. 104:2-3
Stretching out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters.
Psa. 29:3, 10
The voice of the LORD is over the waters... the LORD, over many waters… The LORD sits enthroned over the flood [not a reference to the flood of Noah, but to these waters above the heavens][105] the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.
Jer. 10:13
When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
Ezek. 28:2
“I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas.”
The solid firmament that holds back the heavenly waters has “windows of the heavens” (“floodgates” in the NASB) that let the water through to rain upon the earth.
Gen. 7:11
All the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
Gen. 8:2
The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the heavens was restrained.
Isa. 24:18
For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.
So, What’s Wrong With the Bible?
The sheer volume of passages throughout both Testaments illustrating the parallels with Mesopotamian cosmography seem to prove a deeply rooted ancient pre-scientific worldview that permeates the Scriptures, and that worldview consists of a three-tiered universe with God on a heavenly throne above a heavenly sea, underneath which is a solid vaulted dome with the sun, moon, and stars connected to it, covering the flat disc earth, founded immovably firm on pillars, surrounded by a circular sea, on top of a watery abyss, beneath which is the underworld of Sheol.
Some well-intentioned Evangelicals seek to maintain their particular definition of Biblical inerrancy by denying that the Bible contains this ancient Near Eastern cosmography. They try to explain it away as phenomenal language or poetic license. Phenomenal language is the act of describing what one sees subjectively from one’s perspective without further claiming objective reality. So when the writer says the sun stood still, or that the sun rises and sets within the solid dome of heaven, he is only describing his observation, not cosmic reality. The claim of observation from a personal frame of reference is certainly true as far as it goes. Of course the observer describes what they are observing. But the distinction between appearance and reality is an imposition of our alien modern understanding onto theirs. As Seely explains,
It is precisely because ancient peoples were scientifically naive that they did not distinguish between the appearance of the sky and their scientific concept of the sky. They had no reason to doubt what their eyes told them was true, namely, that the stars above them were fixed in a solid dome and that the sky literally touched the earth at the horizon. So, they equated appearance with reality and concluded that the sky must be a solid physical part of the universe just as much as the earth itself.[106]
If the ancients did not know the earth was a sphere in space, they could not know that their observations of appearances were anything other than reality. It would be easy enough to relegate one or two examples of Scripture to the notion of phenomenal language, but when dozens of those phenomenal descriptions reflect the same complex integrated picture of the universe that Israel’s neighbors shared, and when that picture included many elements that were not phenomenally observable, such as the Abyss, Sheol, or the pillars of earth and heaven, it strains credulity to suggest these were merely phenomenal descriptions intentionally unrelated to reality. If it walks a like a Mesopotamian duck and talks like a Mesopotamian duck, then chances are they thought it was a Mesopotamian duck, not just the “appearance” of one having no reality.
It would be a mistake to claim that there is a single monolithic Mesopotamian cosmography.[107] There are varieties of stories with overlapping imagery, and some contradictory notions. But there are certainly enough commonalities to affirm a generic yet mysterious picture of the universe. And that picture in Scripture undeniably includes poetic language. The Hebrew culture was imaginative. They integrated poetry into everything, including their observational descriptions of nature. Thus a hymn of creation such as Psalm 19 tells of the heavens declaring God’s glory as if using speech, and then describes the operatio
ns of the sun in terms of a bridegroom in his chamber or a man running a race. Metaphor is inescapable and ubiquitous.
And herein lies a potential solution for the dilemma of the scientific inaccuracy of the Mesopotamian cosmic geography in Scripture: The Israelite culture, being pre-scientific, thought more in terms of function and purpose than material structure. Even if their picture of the heavens and earth as a three-tiered geocentric cosmology, was scientifically “false” from our modern perspective, it nevertheless still accurately describes the teleological purpose and meaning of creation that they were intending to communicate.
Othmar Keel, one of the leading scholars on Ancient Near Eastern art has argued that even though modern depictions of the ancient worldview like the illustration of the three-tiered universe above are helpful, they are fundamentally flawed because they depict a “profane, lifeless, virtually closed mechanical system,” which reflects our own modern bias. To the ancient Near East “rather, the world was an entity open at every side. The powers which determine the world are of more interest to the ancient Near East than the structure of the cosmic system. A wide variety of diverse, uncoordinated notions regarding the cosmic structure were advanced from various points of departure.”[108]
