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Hey guys welcome to Critical Thinking Aloud’s Biblical Cosmology teaching.
We are continuing with our third installment of our new series on What is the Bible? We will be building off of our other two installments so if you missed them you can check those out first by clicking here.
How we are going to learn
Today we will be looking at the topic of Biblical Cosmology. As I have done in the past with other teachings I want to quote from scholarly sources to make my point. I do this in hope that you will see this isn’t just my interpretation of the Scriptures but that this view is steeped in acadeemia.
We will be using two amazing sources which we highly recommend.
- Faithlife Study Bible: This is an amazing resource that is free if you download the app or use it online. To download the app or use this resource online visit their website here. This resource is also available in print which you can purchase here.
- The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible: This is my favorite resource for gaining a better understanding for the ancient Near Eastern worldview of the Biblical authors. This is available in a multitude of variations all of which you can find on our resource page here.
Let’s get started.
What is Cosmology?
It is probably best if we first define what cosmology actually is. Cosmology is a cultures belief about how the universe came into existence and continues to develop. For example our modern culture’s cosmology generally centers heavily around the Big Band Theory.
As we have stated so many times here on Critical Thinking Aloud it would be a massive mistake to assume that the Biblical authors in the ancient Near East believed the same as we do.
Here is an excellent quote from The Faith Life Study Bible to help remind us of this important fact.
“Proper interpretation of the Bible requires an understanding of the original context in which it was written. This is particularly true for the Old Testament. God chose a specific time, place, and culture- the ancient Mediterranean and the ancient Near Eastern world of the second and first millennia BC- in which to inspire faithful persons to produce what we read in the Old Testament.”
Faithlife Study Bible: in the Article: The Old Testament and the Ancient Near Eastern Worldview under the notes of Genesis 1:1-7
Biblical Cosmology
To find out what the Biblical authors believed about their cosmological perceptions of the universe we must look back into their culture. If we can learn about what the surrounding nations in the ancient Near East believed it will help us to better understand what Biblical authors worldview was.
Luckily for us we live in a time where the writings of the ancient Near Eastern population have not only been discovered but also deciphered. From these ancient writing we now know for a fact that the ancient Biblical authors shared the same cosmology as their surrounding nations.
Here are two quotes from both of our sources about the ancient Near Eastern cosmology
“The ancient Israelites shared many common cosmological (dealing with the structure of the cosmos) and cosmogonic (dealing with the origin of the cosmos) beliefs with the ancient Near Eastern world, although for them there was only one Creator. According to the Hebrew Bible, the cosmos consists of heaven, earth, underworld and sea. In both Egyptian and Mesopotamian thought, the world was understood as a disk resting on the primeval waters. Most people saw their own place as in the center, with the other countries on the periphery. Above the sky, studded with stars, which were thought to be engraved in the solid sky.”
The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible: Article about Cosmic Geography on pg. 836
“The Israelites believed in a universe structure that was common among the civilizations of the ancient Near East. This structure included three parts: a heavenly realm for the gods, and earthly realm for humans, and an underworld for the dead. The vocabulary of the Israelites’ cosmology is also similar to that found in the literature of the Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Canaan.”
Faithlife Study Bible: in the Article: The Old Testament and the Ancient Near Eastern Worldview under the notes of Genesis 1:1-7
Three Tiered Cosmology
Ok everyone did you catch that. There is a lot going on in these two quotes that we will break down for you guys now and over the next couple installments of Critical Thinking Aloud.
First of all every one of the ancient Near Eastern cultures shared in this same cosmological worldview. They believed in a three tiered cosmology consisting of a vaulted or domed sky/heavens, a flat Earth, and a watery Underworld/sea.
Here is a helpful graphic to show you the cosmology of ancient Biblical authors
Unenlightened
We must remember that the Biblical authors are writing in an unenlightened world. The goal of their works was not to validate our scientific perceptions but to teach us theology. When we use the Bible to prove our modern scientific discoveries our well intended motive can mislead us.
We cannot put our modern scientific precepts into the Biblical author mouths. This is a sure fire way to misinterpret the meaning that the author was trying to convey. We live in a world where scholars have translated the oldest writings known coming from the ancient Near East. All of them shared this cosmology.
If we were to say that the Biblical authors couldn’t have believed this way because our modern scientific perceptions prove other wise, we are inserting our own meaning into the text, thus fundamentally interpreting the Bible with a 21st century centric worldview in mind.
This is in opposition to the Biblical authors intentions and in the end we will be in opposition to how God Himself choose to relate to Humans through out time and space.
His Ways are Better Than Our Ways!
God chose the ancient Near East with their own culture’s worldview and cosmology to relate His truths to people, not ours. We must embrace the fact that God in His wisdom thought it fitting to use a prescientific people to relate His love story to all those that come after.
If God used our 20th and 21st century scientific understanding to relate truth to people so that we can claim it is “scientifically accurate”, then for 4,000 plus years no one would have understood what in the world was being said including the original authors.
For example:
All of the nations in the Ancient Near East including the biblical authors believed in a flat earth. They did not have rockets nor the technology to be able to prove otherwise. In the ancient Near Eastern cosmological worldview the deity reigned on top of the domed vault in the sky and ruled on his thrown.
The ancient biblical authors believed the same cosmological precepts except they knew that the deity was Yahweh. While our scientific preconceptions about the world have changed the more important and theological goal of the Scriptures remains just as relevant today as it did when it was first uttered.
If science was the goal of the scriptures there could be argued made that maybe the ancient Near East was not the best culture to carry this task. Since the goal of the scriptures was not to teach science but indeed theology this continues to prove to be an excellent culture for communicating to all people.
The Cosmology of the Biblical Authors
The three tiered cosmology of the ancient Near East is in fact shared by the Biblical Authors. I want to leave you with this last quote from the Faithlife Study Bible to cement my case.
“The three tiers are reflected in the Ten Commandments: ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth’ (Exod 20:4; compare Psa 33:6-8; Prov 8:27-29). This cosmology is also affirmed in Philipians 2:10 and Revelation 5:3.”
Faithlife Study Bible: in the Article: The Old Testament and the Ancient Near Eastern Worldview under the notes of Genesis 1:1-7
This is just one example that I have provided to help you see that this is unequivocally the cosmology of the Biblical authors.
Check out this short video series on Spiritual beings by our friends over at The Bible Project by clicking here. They are amazing and super helpful to better grasp what we will be covering in this series.
Citations:
Faithlife Study Bible. J. D. Barry et al. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2012.
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible Grand Rapids, Michigan USA Zondervan 2016
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