The Firmament of Genesis 1

Today's question has to do with the firmament or expanse that God created in the early days of the creation week.

The Bible says something about the waters being separated by sky. Is the sky water?

What we know: Genesis 1:6-8 describes how on the second day of creation, God created a vault or firmament. This firmament separated waters below from waters above.

We also know that God called this firmament "heaven" (some Bible translations) or "sky" (NIV).

We also know that in the Bible, heaven can refer to three things: the atmosphere that we breath and in which the birds fly; outer space where the sun and moon and planets and stars reside; and finally, it can refer to the place where God dwells. Sometimes these are called the first heaven, the second heaven, and the third heaven.

We also know that "heaven" in the original Hebrew language was in the plural, so "Heavens." You might have heard before a phrase like "turn your eyes toward the heavens and see the eclipse" or "the starry heavens above." There is only one atmosphere, and one outer space, and one Heaven where God lives, but we group them all together under the term "Heavens" in a way similar to how it appears in the plural form in Genesis.

We also know that in verse 9, the waters underneath the firmament were gathered together into bodies of water that we call seas or oceans. This allowed the dry land to appear. So we know the dry land was also under the firmament.

What we do not know for sure is how far the waters below were separated from the waters above. Some people have suggested that there is a layer of water around the universe, which we cannot see. A more common belief is that God created a sort of "canopy" of water above the earth, protecting the earth from harmful UV rays (that cause skin cancer) and maybe made the earth like a greenhouse where vegetation would grow very well. If this is true, the canopy was temporary, because it is no longer present. Probably it collapsed during Noah's flood and created some of the rains that flooded the earth (read about that in Genesis 6-9). But since we do not know these facts for sure, we hold them loosely and explain that they are potential theories, but we do not believe God is displeased if we do not know exactly what to believe about it.

Now, about the sky being water. It is not water, but it does contain a lot of water vapor (clouds, fog, mist, which create rain, snow, sleet and hail) mixed in with the oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc.