When dealing with Biblical language in one of the better translations (my gold standard is the King James, a masterpiece of English literature in it’s own right), knowing that the Hebrew of Genesis can and does combine different concepts from English, into the “bucket” of a given word is very helpful.
This is somewhat alien to those who haven’t spent time with scripture, and is especially so if no language other than English has been studied. In this particular instance, you’ve touched upon an instance that I’ve found fascinating, that appears several times throughout the Bible, pertaining to the use of the word “water” or the plural “waters,” and also the related “sea.”
There can be a “sea” or great multitude, most often of people. This idiom is easier to grasp for the unfamiliar because it exists in English, sea of humanity. “Great multitude” is one of those shades of meaning there for the discovery due to the differing conceptual “buckets” called words between Hebrew (or any other language really) and English.
“Water” is no doubt the same, with broader meaning and specific, deeper shades of meaning depending upon context. That there is a deeper shade of meaning that is compelling to a scientifically inclined individual that rings true does not surprise me, I’ve often thought that book is alive in some way that is beyond our understanding. It’s surprised me many times over the course of my life, with new (to me) meaning leaping off the page after having known it for decades in some cases, validated elsewhere in scripture which was equally surprising.
I’ll have to admit, though, that I’m usually disturbed by attempts to force fit scripture into current scientific dogma. Science changes. Biblical truth is unchanging. For some reason, your insight does not disturb me.
Thanks for posting, I enjoyed reading it.
I am traveling on business, and so do not have my usual group of references with me, so forgive me as i attempt to quote from memory ...
After all matter was created - and you should look, but I believe “created” is used only the first time - by his “Face” upon the “waters” (the flash front of the Big Bang’s as it expanded). So, the formation of matter is the first use of “waters” - here, it represents a shepherd’s view of the waves of energy expanding, cooling into the vibrating nuclei and quirks and high-energy “waves” we recognize today in the labs.
He divided the “waters above” from “the water below”, right?
So, waters above - the second time! - are certainly and literally the fluids of interstellar ions and electron streams, plasma, gases, dust clouds and particles and radiation waves) right?
And, rightfully, “waters below” (at that time) are the liquid rock, the oceans, air, and gases and vapors in our atmosphere, right?
Each divided from the other by the vault, or dome, or firmament of the sky arching over a man’s head from horizon to horizon.
But, once the Creator has formed the earth and soalr system as separate creations after the “waters” as the universe’s atoms and nuclei are formed, the Story needs to only focus on the earth - man’s (future) home.
So now “waters” are used a third time, in a third way with a third meaning: our “usual” thought of liquid water in the oceans and seas and rivers. yet, here, as I mentioned above causally, only ONE “sea” was separated from the land. Which is true if our present theories of continental drift are correct. With all the continents gathered on one place - before the plates moved them apart into continents we now recognize - there was only one “sea”.