Genesis' Firmament

Hardly anybody is aware that the technical recount about the nature of the universe can be traced back far in time to the dawn of the history. Based on the scheme corresponding with the King Lists compiled by Sumerian and Babylonian scribed about 2000 B.C., we can find the respectable king under the name of En-me-en-dur-an-na (Enmenduranki) who was believed to know about the secret of heavens, as the seventh ruler in the Mesopotamian dynasties reigning before the Flood1.

Enmenduranki was believed to have ascended into heaven, learned all the secrets of divination and thereby became the source of all human knowledge. The legend tells that while he was in the divine assembly, he was set on a large throne of gold and shown how to observe oil on water …2

It seems so straightforward that nobody must spend so many endeavors only to get such a simple thing. It was elementary teaching indeed, but hitherto nobody comprehends it, and so the knowledge of heavens remains buried in secret.

Let us talk a little bit more technical. Having an oil-water mixture, we observe that the oil and water are separated by a very thin surface (interface) which is a little bit tenser than the surroundings because of the effect of something we know as the interfacial tension.

Now, let us concentrate on this interface and compared it with the Genesis' firmament:

"And God said, "Let there be a space within the water, and let it separate between water and water." So God made the space, and it separated between the water that was under and the water that was above the space" (Genesis 1:6-7)3.

Fig. 1. Interpretation of the firmament as a 3-dimensional interface in a 4-dimensional frame of reference

The interpretation of the notions of Enmenduranki’s interface and Genesis' firmament is the same which is the space. This particular interface is three-dimensional and, therefore, what Enmenduranki meant by the oil and water are nothing but four-dimensional fluids. By the same token, what Genesis means by water is nothing but four-dimensional fluid.

The word space or more precisely firmament in English is the translation of the Hebrew word of “raqia." The root of this word refers to how a goldsmith hammers gold leaf very thin3. This connotation further supports the “technical” depiction of the space as a very thin interface just like what Enmenduranki did.

It suggests that everything in nature, space or higher dimensional hyperspace included, must have a thickness; otherwise, it would vanish into thin air. The consequence of this is that space [or hyperspace] must always be embedded in the higher dimensional surrounding(s), or else the former would have no thickness at all and would be completely flat.

We can draw other information that is related to the geometry of Genesis firmament can from Summerians ideas about Cosmos. For the Sumerians, the universe was tripartite structure – heaven, earth, and the netherworld. It is unmistakably comparable to Enmenduranki’s oil, interface wand water or the Genesis' water above, firmament and water below, respectively.  The Sumerians also used the word 'tin' representing the "metal of heaven." It is the oldest version of the Genesis firmament. According to S.N. Kramer, it may be that the Sumerians thought that the floor of heaven was made of tin or some comparable metals2. It is the one example of inaccurate interpretations which downgraded valuable ancient knowledge.

Do we know how thin our space is? Space's thickness should not be zero but a little bit thicker. Based on the current knowledge, we may put forward the number of 10-33 cm, the Planck distance, as the minimum thickness, below which no tangible thing would exist, only energy does. No skillful goldsmith could hammer the gold leaf so thin, not even in Moses magical time.

Why did the ancients talk about a very thin gold, tin or another comparable leaf of metals? The answer is because this very thin interface is the only place where material things are created giving an appearance as though it is a large piece of thin solid gold.

So how about Genesis' four-dimensional water or Enmenduranki’s four-dimensional oil and water? What is their actual physical reality? At everybody surprise, the answer is that it is nothing but the [four-dimensional] energy. The water above the firmament and the water below the firmament is the ancient representation of the opposite elements of energy: the positive and negative energies.

This elucidation about the creation as the act of separating a preexisting thing ("water" or energy) instead of creation out of nothing naturally raises a critical question. Which one represents the truth: Genesis Cosmology or Big Bang? The answer is the former.

References:

1.  Barmachi, Faraj: Treasures of the Iraq Museum, Iraq Ministry of Information, Baghdad, 1976.

2.     Wright, J.E.: The Early History of Heaven, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000.

3.     Friedman, R.E.: Commentary on the Torah, Harper San Francisco, New York, 2001

Genesis' Firmament