Biblical cosmology

The Bible says very little about cosmology , such as the position of the earth in the universe , the nature of the fixed stars and planets , seeing as its main emphasis was on the history of God’s dealings with man.

And the evening and the morning were the first day. Genesis 1: 3-5 The various authors of the Hebrew Bible ( Tanakh , or Old Testament ) and New Testament provide glimpses of their insight regarding cosmology . The cosmos was created by Yahweh , the god of Israel: in the best-known and most complete account, that in Genesis 1, this was done by divine command. The cosmos therefore has three levels: the habitable world in the centre, with an underworld below and the heavens (always written in the plural) above. The underworld contains Sheol , the place of the dead, while Yahweh has his throne above, and resting on, the heavens. Many Near Eastern cosmologies describe our world world as a vast fresh water ocean in which the earth floats like a bubble. The earth itself is a flat, circular single continent surrounded by a salt-water sea. Some read the Hebrew Bible's view the world as a cosmic ocean are separated from the habitable earth by a solid stellar vault, or "firmament," with apertures to allow the passage of the sun, moon and stars, as well as rain and the various winds.

God creating the cosmos (Bible Moralisee, French, 13th century) Biblical cosmology is the biblical writers' conception of the Cosmos as an organised, structured entity, including its origin , order , meaning and destiny . The Bible was formed over many centuries , by many authors , and reflects shifting patterns of religious belief ; consequently, its concepts of cosmology are not always consistent. Nor should the Biblical texts be taken to represent the beliefs of all Jews or Christians at the time they were put into writing: the majority of those making up Hebrew Bible or Old Testament in particular represent the beliefs of only a small segment of the ancient Israelite community, the members of a late Judean religious tradition centered in Jerusalem and devoted to the exclusive worship of Yahweh . The universe of the ancient Israelites was made up of a flat disc-shaped earth floating on water, heaven above, underworld below. Humans inhabited earth during life and the underworld after death, and the underworld was morally neutral; only in Hellenistic times (after c.330 BCE) did Jews begin to adopt the Greek idea that it would be a place of punishment for misdeeds, and that the righteous would enjoy an afterlife in heaven. In this period too the older three-level cosmology was widely replaced by the Greek concept of a spherical earth suspended in space at the center of a number of concentric heavens . The opening words of the Genesis creation narrative (Genesis 1:1-26) sum up the authors' view of how the cosmos originated: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"; Yahweh , the god of Israel, was solely responsible for creation and had no rivals. Later Jewish thinkers, adopting ideas from Greek philosophy, concluded that God's Wisdom , Word and Spirit penetrated all things and gave them unity. Christianity in turn adopted these ideas and identified Jesus with the creative word : "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" ( John 1:1 ).

Biblical writers' conception of the cosmos as an organised, structured entity God creating the cosmos ( Bible moralisée , French, 13th century) Biblical cosmology is the biblical writers ' conception of the cosmos as an organised, structured entity, including its origin , order , meaning and destiny . The Bible was formed over many centuries , involving many authors , and reflects shifting patterns of religious belief ; consequently, its cosmology is not always consistent. Nor do the biblical texts necessarily represent the beliefs of all Jews or Christians at the time they were put into writing: the majority of those making up Hebrew Bible or Old Testament in particular represent the beliefs of only a small segment of the ancient Israelite community, the members of a late Judean religious tradition centered in Jerusalem and devoted to the exclusive worship of Yahweh . The ancient Israelites envisaged a universe made up of a flat disc-shaped Earth floating on water, heaven above, underworld below. Humans inhabited Earth during life and the underworld after death; there was no way that mortals could enter heaven, and the underworld was morally neutral; only in Hellenistic times (after c. 330 BCE ) did Jews begin to adopt the Greek idea that it would be a place of punishment for misdeeds, and that the righteous would enjoy an afterlife in heaven. In this period too the older three-level cosmology in large measure gave way to the Greek concept of a spherical earth suspended in space at the center of a number of concentric heavens . The opening words of the Genesis creation narrative (Genesis 1:1–26) sum up the biblical editors' view of how the cosmos originated: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"; Yahweh , the God of Israel, was solely responsible for creation and had no rivals, implying Israel's superiority over all other nations. Later Jewish thinkers, adopting ideas from Greek philosophy, concluded that God's Wisdom , Word and Spirit penetrated all things and gave them unity. Christianity in turn adopted these ideas and identified Jesus with the Logos (Word) : "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" ( John 1:1 ). [...] Yahweh, the Israelite god, had no rivals, and in a world where nations claimed that their gods were the supreme beings in the universe and that all others were subject to them, the Israelites' claim for the superiority of Yahweh enabled them to imagine that no other nation could rival her [...]. Phrases such as 'Yahweh, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth' [...] and related phrases for Yahweh as creator and almighty master of the cosmos have parallels in earlier Canaanite terminology for the god El. [...] In fact, the Israelites did not create these phrases but inherited them from earlier Canaanite civilizations.

Account of the universe and its laws in the Bible This article is about the cosmology of the Bible. God creating the cosmos ( Bible moralisée , French, 13th century) Biblical cosmology is the account of the universe and its laws in the Bible . The Bible was formed over many centuries , involving many authors , and reflects shifting patterns of religious belief ; consequently, its cosmology is not always consistent. Nor do the biblical texts necessarily represent the beliefs of all Jews or Christians at the time they were put into writing: the majority of the texts making up the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament in particular represent the beliefs of only a small segment of the ancient Israelite community, the members of a late Judean religious tradition centered in Jerusalem and devoted to the exclusive worship of Yahweh . The ancient Israelites envisaged the universe as a flat disc-shaped Earth floating on water, heaven above, underworld below. Humans inhabited Earth during life and the underworld after death; there was no way that mortals could enter heaven, and the underworld was morally neutral; only in Hellenistic times (after c. 330 BCE ) did Jews begin to adopt the Greek idea that it would be a place of punishment for misdeeds, and that the righteous would enjoy an afterlife in heaven. In this period too the older three-level cosmology in large measure gave way to the Greek concept of a spherical Earth suspended in space at the center of a number of concentric heavens . The opening words of the Genesis creation narrative (Genesis 1:1–26) sum up the biblical editors' view of how the cosmos originated: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"; Yahweh , the God of Israel, was solely responsible for creation and had no rivals, implying Israel's superiority over all other nations. Later Jewish thinkers, adopting ideas from Greek philosophy, concluded that God's Wisdom , Word and Spirit penetrated all things and gave them unity. Christianity in turn adopted these ideas and identified Jesus with the Logos (Word) : "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" ( John 1:1 ). [...] Yahweh, the Israelite god, had no rivals, and in a world where nations claimed that their gods were the supreme beings in the universe and that all others were subject to them, the Israelites' claim for the superiority of Yahweh enabled them to imagine that no other nation could rival her [...]. Phrases such as 'Yahweh, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth' [...] and related phrases for Yahweh as creator and almighty master of the cosmos have parallels in earlier Canaanite terminology for the god El. [...] In fact, the Israelites did not create these phrases but inherited them from earlier Canaanite civilizations.