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“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the heaven were opened.” Gen. 7:11
Before reading this post, you should read my previous posts “Was Moses Dumb and Did God Lie?”, and also “What’s in the Water?”.
I read an article yesterday by Joseph Farah, the editor of WND. You can find it here. The article talks about how scientists believe that the earth makes it’s own water deep beneath the mantle, giving validation to the Genesis flood and in particular the floodwaters that erupted from the earth.
It’s a fascinating article with very important implications, not only with regard to the Genesis narrative, but also for potential benefit for mankind. But that is not the focus of this post. I want to comment on the last part of Gen. 7:11 – the floodgates of heaven. Is this metaphorical or literal?
I pointed out in my previous posts mentioned above that the ancient Hebrew believed that there was a solid dome firmament over the earth and above that firmament was the throne of God in the ‘waters above’. I have no doubt that they also believed that Moses literally meant that God opened the firmament and water blasted through to the earth along with the water that exploded from the deep.
The Hebrew word in Genesis 7:11 is ‘arrubah’ and it means window, lattice, sluice or floodgate. Secular science says that it is metaphorical because a literal translation does not jive with the Copernican Helios-centric concept. It’s interesting that if this same science now implies that the first part of the verse is literal – that there is unimagined amounts of water beneath the mantle that could have added to the Great Flood, yet it dismisses the ‘window of heaven’ as a whimsical way of describing a huge thunderstorm that lasted for 40 days.
Also, the word for heaven in this verse is ‘shamayim’, which is the same word used in Gen. 1:8 for heaven as God named the expanse, or firmament. Most would like to translate this word in 7:11 as sky, but there is no basis to do that other than to make it fit the Helios-centric viewpoint.
In the creation narrative the only ‘heaven’ to be used as singular is the firmament or expanse. The other times in the creation narrative the NASB uses heavens as plural but gives no indication that sky is included. In Genesis, ‘shamayim’ is only singular when describing the firmament or where God resides (the 3rd heaven).
Jacob saw a gate in the firmament when the angels were ascending and descending the ladder. He said it was THE gate of heaven (Gen. 28:17). The word here is ‘sha’ar’, which means entrance, as to a palace. In this verse it makes sense as the main entrance because Jacob said it was the house of God and the gate was the entrance to His house. This spot where Jacob’s head rested became the location of the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s Temple. This indicates there are different openings (windows and entrance) through the firmament.
Moses was literal when he said water erupted from the deep. Why would he not be literal when he says God opened the firmament and dumped water from the third heaven?
Dan Baker