Post by b***@allvantage.comRe: Water or waters...what is the biblical meaning?
I see the words water, or waters throughout the bible, and it
usually means people, but I'm sure there are other hidden or
subtle meanings. Please comment on this and share your
interpretation ideas.
Thanks, Gordon
Gordon,
There are many uses for the word "water", depending upon its context
-a symbol of some destructive force. (Ps 69:1, 2, 14, 15; 144:7, 8)
-a military force at Jeremiah 47:2
-a "sin-cleansing" agent for Levite priests. (Ex 29:4; Nu 8:6, 7)
-God is "the source of living water" making possible everlasting life.
(Jer 2:13)
-the Bible as a cleansing water. (Eph 5:25-27)
Those are some examples. I hope this has helped you.
(the material above taken from the publication "(Insight On The
Scriptures, Vol. 2, p. 1172,1173)
Sincerely, James
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James, thanks for your response. This has been a trying subject
for me for a very long time. I feel there is a lot of "buried"
information within the allegory, metaphor, simile, etc.
expressions used in the Bible, but I do not know how to dig this
buried information out and correctly interpret it.
One such story that I am especially interested in understanding
is Genesis 1:6&7 concerning the waters above the firmament and
the waters below the firmament. We are told that the firmament is
analogous to the "blue vault of heaven" or sky, in today's
vernacular. So, what are/were the waters above the sky and the
waters below the sky?
Some have said that this is in reference to spiritual beings in
heaven and to earth creatures. Others have said that this is in
reference to good, above the sky (heaven) and evil below the sky
(earth)...another rendition of the removal from the garden of
Eden.
Others argue that this is an actual reference to ordinary H2O
common garden variety water, and they posit that when the earth
was first formed it had a crepe ring ice crystal structure
similar to that around Saturn, today.
This argument leads on to the school of thought that the flood of
Noah's time was produced with the waters that were previously
above the sky (firmament). This is an interesting concept, but it
has some loopholes.
How would the water/ice in the crepe rings above the firmament be
brought down into the atmosphere? Those ice crystals would have
been moving, relative to the earth, at orbital velocity. That
momentum and the energy it represents would have to have been
dealt with, some way.
If, perhaps, a swarm of meteorites passed near the earth,
resulting in such perturbations as would cause the orbiting ice
crystals to deviate from their normal orbital paths and pass into
the atmosphere, the heat of friction would elevate the
temperature to a very high level. This process would bring the
earth's atmosphere well above any temperature that living beings
could tolerate. In effect, the whole earth would have been steam
sterilized in this process.
The earth would have eventually cooled and this moisture would
then have fallen out of the atmosphere, over a long span of time
(40 days and nights), as rain, but there would not have been ANY
people or animals left to get into the boat.
James, I certainly would like to discuss this with you and with
anyone else who has some rational insights into the matter.
Gordon