The sun, planets and angels and the firmament. Woodcut dated 1475.

The firmament is the sky, conceived as a vast dome.^[1] According to Genesis, God created the firmament to separate the "waters above" (the source of rain) from those below (in the underworld). The word is anglicised from Latin firmamentum, which appears in the Vulgate.

Etymology[link]

The word "firmament" is first recorded in a Middle English narrative based on scripture dated 1250.^[2] It later appeared in the King James Bible. The word is anglicised from Latin firmamentum, used in the Vulgate (4th century).^[3] This in turn is derived from the Latin root firmus, a cognate with "firm".^[3] The word is a Latinization of the Greek stereoma, which appears in the Septuagint (c. 200 BC).^[1]

Translation[link]

The word "firmament" is used to translate raqia, or raqiya` ( רקיע), a word used in Biblical Hebrew. The connotation of firmness conveyed by the Vulgate's firmamentum is consistent that of stereoma, the Greek word used in the Septuagint, an earlier translation. The notion of solidity is advanced explicitly in several biblical passages.^[4]

The original word raqia is derived from the root raqa ( רקע), meaning "to beat or spread out", e.g., the process of making a dish by hammering thin a lump of metal.^[3][5] Raqa adopted the meaning "to make firm or solid" in Syriac, a major dialect of Aramaic (the vernacular of Jesus) and close cognate of Hebrew.^[3]

Conservatives and fundamentalists tend to favor translations that allow scripture to be harmonized with scientific knowledge, for example "expanse".^[6] This translation is used by the New International Version and by the English Standard Version. The New Revised Standard Version uses "dome", as in the Celestial dome.

Biblical use[link]

The word is used in the Genesis creation narrative:

Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.^[7]

The modern bible, and non-canonical related texts, present a cosmology that is incompatible with modern scientific knowledge.^[8] The firmament was a great tent-like^[9] ceiling made of solid crystalline-like material,^[10] which, according to the pseudepedigraphic 2nd or 3rd century book of 3 Baruch, might be pierced by tower and gimlet.^[11] It had many windows, some of which opened and closed for the sun and moon to travel through^[12] or to let water, which was held above, fall through as rain.^[13] On top there were also warehouses of snow and hail.^[14] Stars were small objects that were attached tenuosly to its surface.^[15]

The Jewish Encyclopedia describes the firmament as follows:

The Hebrews regarded the earth as a plain or a hill figured like a hemisphere, swimming on water. Over this is arched the solid vault of heaven. To this vault are fastened the lights, the stars. So slight is this elevation that birds may rise to it and fly along its expanse.^[16]

Christian views[link]

Augustine wrote that too much learning had been expended on the nature of the firmament.^[17] "We may understand this name as given to indicate not it is motionless but that it is solid." he wrote.^[17] Saint Basil argued for a fluid firmament.^[17] According to St. Thomas Aquinas, the firmament had a "solid nature" and stood above a "region of fire, wherein all vapor must be consumed."^[18]

The Copernican Revolution of the 16th century led to reconsideration of these matters. In 1554, John Calvin proposed that "firmament" be interpreted as clouds.^[19] "He who would learn astronomy and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere," wrote Calvin.^[19] Genesis had to conform to popular prejudice regarding cosmology, or it would not have been accepted. "As it became a theologian, [Moses] had to respect us rather than the stars," Calvin wrote. Calvin's "doctrine of accommodation" allowed Protestants to accept the findings of science without rejecting the authority of scripture.^[19] According to present Catholic doctrine, the bible simply reflects the cosmological ideas that were prevalent at the time it was written.^[20]

Scientific development[link]

The Greeks and Stoics adopted a model of celestial spheres after the discovery of the sphericity of the Earth in the 4th to 3rd centuries BC. The Medieval Scholastics adopted a cosmology that fused the ideas of the Greek philosophers Aristotle and Ptolemy.^[21] This cosmology involved celestial orbs, nested concentrically inside one another, with the earth at the centre. The outermost orb contained the stars and the term firmament was then transferred to this orb. (There were seven inner orbs for the seven wanderers of the sky, and their ordering is preserved in the naming of the days of the week.)

Even Copernicus' heliocentric model included an outer sphere that held the stars (and by having the earth rotate daily on its axis it allowed the firmament to be completely stationary). Tycho Brahe's studies of the nova of 1572 and the comet of 1577 were the first major challenges to the idea that orbs existed as solid, incorruptible, material objects.^[22]

In 1584, Bruno proposed a cosmology without firmament: an infinite universe in which the stars are actually suns with their own planetary systems.^[23] After Galileo began using a telescope to examine the sky, it became harder to argue that the heavens were perfect, as Aristotlean philosophy required. By 1630, the concept of solid orbs was no longer dominant.^[24]

Different cultures[link]

The Flammarion engraving (1888) depicts a traveller who arrives at the edge of a flat Earth and sticks his head through the firmament.

The notion of the sky as a solid object (rather than just an atmospheric expanse) was widespread among both ancient civilisations and primitive cultures, including ancient Greece, Egypt, China, India, native Americans, Australian aborigines, and also early Christians.^[25]

The sky is depicted as a solid dome arched over the earth in both Mesopotamian and Indo-European mythologies (e.g., creation myths) and poetry. The Sumerian sky-god An ruled these firmament-like "heavens", which the wind-god had separated from the flat disc of the earth below, and there were primordial seas above the firmament. Ancient Indians also believed in a solid sky: "Firm is the sky and firm is the earth," says the Rig Veda.^[25] This approach to cosmology is probably universal, and is also encountered in mythologies of the New World.^[25]

See also[link]

• Shamayim
• Hebrew astronomy
• Biblical cosmology
• Hollow Earth
• Primum Mobile
• Celestial spheres
• Observable universe
• The Sky is Falling

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up firmament in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• The Vault of Heaven.
• Denver Radio / YouTube Debate on the Firmament between well-known creationist and atheist opponents.
• Banks, Robyn. Biblical Conception of the Universe. University of the Pacific.

William Thongrasamy, known under the pseudonym Willy Denzey (born 19 August 1982) is a Contemporary R&B and soul French-born singer of Laotian origin.

Biography[link]

Denzey was born in Melun, France, and spent his childhood in Le Mée-sur-Seine. At 15, he formed with his friends a band named Prodyge. In June 2000, he participated in the broadcast Graines de star and reached the final.^[1] A producer noticed him and proposed him to release a disc. In 2001, Denzey participated in the Francofolies of La Rochelle, then in 2002 released his first single, "Que te dire".

Denzey released in May 2003 a second single, "Le mur du son", which earned a gold disc in France for over 300 000 copies sold. 03 November 2003, he released his first album, # 1, in which many artists participated, including The Weasel (La Fouine), Diam's, Kader Riwan & Ol Kainry. His single "L'Orphelin" also become a top ten hit in France. Reloaded in March 15, 2004 with bonus track "Badaboom Remix" (French Version) (Feat B2K).

September 27, 2004, Denzey released a new album entitled Act II, composed of hip-hop and R&B songs and romantic ballads, including a collaboration with Wayne Beckford, XS, Neje, Mathieu 8, Darren & Little D. Then he released in January 2005 the song "Et si tu n'existais pas", a cover of Joe Dassin. Inclus, "Hello" by Lionel Richie. Thereafter, Denzey toured throughout France.

He also performed the song "Double Mise (Bet on it)", used in the movie High School Musical 2, produced and broadcast by Disney Channel remixed par Kore (DJ Kore).

However, after the failure of his last single, "Mon Royaume" (Feat Eloquence), which did not appear on the chart, his third album, originally scheduled to be released in 2006, was cancelled.^[2]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

See also[link]

• Oxaï Roura

References[link]

This article incorporates information from the revision as of 2009-10-18 of the equivalent article on the French Wikipedia.

External links[link]

• Official site