The north and the south, you have created them...

I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him, so that my hand shall be established with him...

and in my name shall his horn be exalted.

I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers...

My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him.

I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens.

Isa 51:9-16 Was it not You who cut Rahab in pieces, Who pierced the dragon?

Was it not You who dried up the sea, The waters of the great deep; Who made the depths of the sea a pathway For the redeemed to cross over?...

[Y]ou have forgotten the LORD your Maker, Who stretched out the heavens And laid the foundations of the earth...

"For I am the LORD your G.o.d, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar (the LORD of hosts is His name). "I have put My words in your mouth and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, 'You are My people.'"

[a reaffirmation of the Sinai covenant through Moses]

Isa. 27:1; 6-13 In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea...

In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit...

And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of a.s.syria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem. [the future consummation of the Mosaic and Davidic covenant in the New Covenant of Messiah]

In these texts, and others,[77] G.o.d does not merely appeal to his power of creation as justification for the authority of his covenant. More importantly, He uses the creation of the heavens and earth, involving subjugation of rivers, seas, and dragon (Leviathan), as poetic descriptions of G.o.d's covenant with his people, rooted in the Exodus story, and reiterated in the Davidic covenant. The creation of the covenant is the creation of the heavens and the earth which includes a subjugation of chaos by the new order. The covenant is a cosmos-not a material one centered in astronomical location and abstract impersonal forces as modern worldview demands, but a theological one, centered in the sacred s.p.a.ce of land, temple, and cult as the ancient Near Eastern worldview demands.[78]

It has been noted by scholars that the motif of Chaoskampf is absent from Genesis 1 where G.o.d creates the heavens and the earth, painting a very different picture of the Hebrew creation story than its ANE neighbors. However, its very absence in that text is most likely a part of the covenantal polemic in the text. For a close look at the original Hebrew shows us that the word for dragon that we have been talking about (tannin) is in fact used of the "great sea creatures" (tanninim) that G.o.d created on Day five: Gen. 1:21-22 So G.o.d created the great sea creatures (tanninim) and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm... And G.o.d saw that it was good. And G.o.d blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."

The ancient Near Eastern audience would read this text and know full well what was being implied against their cultural familiarity with the sea dragon. Apparently, the ANE notion of struggle against the dragon is subverted in this text by depicting G.o.d creating the dragon by the mere words of his mouth, rather than wrestling with a preexistent monster for control over the sea. And then G.o.d blesses that dragon as one of the many "good" creations that he commands to reproduce. This picture amounts to the reduction of the dragon to a mere domesticated pet in the language of Genesis 1.

In this text, the conspicuous absence of the struggle of Chaoskampf is evidence of its subversion to the greater purposes of the Hebrew creation story. Sometimes Leviathan is used as a covenantal expression for the establishment of G.o.d's world order out of chaos, and sometimes, it is used as a symbol of G.o.d's authority over pagan religious expressions. In any case, its Biblical meaning is connected to its ancient Near Eastern symbolic context, not to a modern interpretation of a merely physical sea monster.

Appendix d Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography

in the Bible

In my novel, Noah Primeval, I depict the universe as it was thought to be through the eyes of ancient Mesopotamians, as a three-tiered universe with a flat disc earth, surrounded by waters, which includes the watery Abyss and beneath that, the underworld of Sheol. Above the earth is a solid dome of the heavens, beyond which is the waters of the "heaven of heavens" where G.o.d's throne sits on the waters. A generic ill.u.s.tration of this cosmography is the old public domain image depicted below. I decided to use this cosmic geography as creative literary license to capture the way the ancients saw and experienced the world. This essay explains the Scriptural expression of this worldview as held by the Biblical writers.

Cosmography is a technical term that means a theory that describes and maps the main features of the heavens and the earth. A Cosmography or "cosmic geography" can be a complex picture of the universe that includes elements like astronomy, geology, and geography; and those elements can include theological implications as well. Throughout history, all civilizations and peoples have operated under the a.s.sumption of a cosmography or picture of the universe. We are most familiar with the historical change that science went through from a Ptolemaic cosmography of the earth at the center of the universe (geocentrism) to a Copernican cosmography of the sun at the center of a solar system (heliocentrism).

Some ancient mythologies maintained that the earth was a flat disc on the back of a giant turtle; animistic cultures believe that spirits inhabit natural objects and cause them to behave in certain ways; modern westerners believe in a s.p.a.ce-time continuum where everything is relative to its frame of reference in relation to the speed of light. Ancients tended to believe that the G.o.ds caused the weather; moderns tend to believe that impersonal physical processes cause weather. All these different beliefs are elements of a cosmography or picture of what the universe is really like and how it operates. Even though "pre-scientific" cultures like the Hebrews did not have the same notions of science that we moderns have, they still observed the world around them and made interpretations as to the structure and operations of the heavens and earth.

A common ancient understanding of the cosmos is expressed in the visions of 1 Enoch, used in the novel Noah Primeval. In this Second Temple Jewish writing, codified around the third to fourth century B.C., and probably originally written much earlier, Enoch is taken on a journey through heaven and h.e.l.l and describes the cosmic workings as they understood them in that day. Here is just a short glimpse into the elaborate construction of this ANE author: 1 Enoch 18:1-5 And I saw the storerooms of all the winds and saw how with them he has embroidered all creation as well as the foundations of the earth. I saw the cornerstone of the earth; I saw the four winds which bear the earth as well as the firmament of heaven. I saw how the winds ride the heights of heaven and stand between heaven and earth: These are the very pillars of heaven. I saw the winds which turn the heaven and cause the star to set-the sun as well as all the stars. I saw the souls carried by the clouds. I saw the path of the angels in the ultimate end of the earth, and the firmament of the heaven above.[79]

The Bible also contains a picture of the universe that its stories inhabit. It uses cosmic geographical language in common with other ancient Near Eastern (ANE) cultures that shared its situated time and location. Believers in today's world use the language of Relativity when we write, even in our non-scientific discourse; because Einstein has affected the way we see the universe. Believers before the 17th century used Ptolemaic language because they too were children of their time. It should be no surprise to anyone that believers in ancient Israel would use the language of ANE cosmography because it was the mental construct within which they lived and thought.[80]

The Three-Tiered Universe Othmar Keel, leading expert on ANE art has argued that there was no singular technical physical description of the cosmos in the ancient Near East, but rather patterns of thinking, similarity of images, and repet.i.tion of motifs.[81] A common simplification of these images and motifs is expressed in the three-tiered universe of the heavens, the earth, and the underworld.

Wayne Horowitz has chronicled Mesopotamian texts that ill.u.s.trate this multi-leveled universe among the successive civilizations of Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia, and a.s.syria. The heavens above were subdivided into "the heaven of Anu (or chief G.o.d)" at the very top, the "middle heavens" below him and the sky. In the middle was the earth's surface, and below that was the third level that was further divided into the waters of the abyss and the underworld.[82]

Let's take a look at the Scriptures that appear to reinforce this three-tiered universe so different from our modern understanding of physical expanding galaxies of warped s.p.a.ce-time, where the notion of heaven and h.e.l.l are without physical location. Though the focus of this essay will be on Old Testament context, I want to start with the New Testament to make the point that their cosmography did not necessarily change with the change of covenants.

Phil. 2:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth.

Rev. 5:3, 13 And no one in heaven, or on earth, or under the earth, was able to open the scroll, or to look into it... And every creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and in the sea...

Ex. 20:4 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Matt. 11:23 Jesus said, "Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. [the underworld].

Both apostles Paul and John were writing about the totality of creation being subject to the authority of Jesus on his throne. So this word picture of "heaven, earth, and under the earth" was used as the description of the total known universe-which they conceived of spatially as heaven above, the earth below, and the underworld below the earth. And not only did the inspired human authors write of the universe in this three-tiered fashion but so did G.o.d Himself, the author and finisher of our faith, when giving the commandments on Sinai.

One may naturally wonder if this notion of "heaven above" may merely be a symbolic or figurative expression for the exalted spiritual nature of heaven. Since we cannot see where heaven is, G.o.d would use physical a.n.a.logies to express spiritual truths. This explanation would be easier to stomach if the three-tiered notion were not so rooted in a cosmic geography that clearly was their understanding of the universe (as proven below). A figurative expression would also jeopardize the doctrine of the ascension of Jesus into heaven which also affirms the spatial location of heaven above and the earth below, in very literal terms.

Acts 1:9-11 He was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

John 3:13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

John 6:62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

John 20:17 Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my G.o.d and your G.o.d.'"

Eph. 4:8-10 Therefore it says, "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men." (In saying, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) The location of heaven being above us may be figurative to our modern cosmology, but it was not figurative to the Biblical writers. To suggest that they understood it figuratively would be to impose our own modern cultural bias on the Bible.

Now let's take a closer look at each of these tiers or domains of the cosmos through the eyes of Scripture in their ANE context.

Flat Earth Surrounded by Waters I want to start with the earth because the Scriptures start with the earth. That is, the Bible is geocentric in its picture of a flat earth founded on immovable pillars at the center of the universe. Over a hundred years ago, a Babylonian map of the world was discovered that dated back to approximately the ninth century B.C. As seen below, this map was unique from other Mesopotamian maps because it was not merely local but international in its scale, and contained features that appeared to indicate cosmological interpretation.[83] That map and a translated interpretation are reproduced below.[84]

The geography of the Babylonian map portrayed a flat disc of earth with Babylon in the center and extending out to the known regions of its empire, whose perimeters were surrounded by cosmic waters and islands out in those waters. Of the earliest Sumerian and Akkadian texts with geographical information, only the Babylonian map of the world and another text, The Sargon Geography, describe the earth's surface, and they both picture a central circular continent surrounded by cosmic waters, often referred to as "the circle of the earth."[85] Other texts like the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh, and Egyptian, and Sumerian works share in common with the Babylonian map the notion of mountains at the edge of the earth beyond which is the cosmic sea and the unknown,[86] and from which come "the circle of the four winds" that blow upon the four corners of the earth (a reference to compa.s.s points).[87]

The Biblical picture of the earth is remarkably similar to this Mesopotamian cosmic geography. When Daniel had his dream from G.o.d in Babylon, of a tree "in the middle of the earth" whose height reached so high that "it was visible to the end of the whole earth," (Dan. 4:10) it reflected this very Babylonian map of the culture that educated Daniel. One cannot see the end of the whole earth on a globe, but one can do so on a circular continent embodying the known world of Babylon as the center of the earth.

"The ends of the earth" is a common phrase, occurring over fifty times throughout the Scriptures that means more than just "remote lands," but rather includes the notion of the very physical end of the whole earth all around before the cosmic waters that hem it in. Here are just a few of the verses that indicate this circular land ma.s.s bounded by seas as the entire earth: Isa. 41:9 You whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners Psa. 65:5 O G.o.d of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas Zech. 9:10 His rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Mark 13:27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

Acts 13:47 'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'

Job 28:24 For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

Remember that Mesopotamian phrase, "circle of the earth" that meant a flat disc terra firma? Well, it's in the Bible, too. "It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like gra.s.shoppers" (Isa. 40:22). Some have tried to say that the Hebrew word for "circle" could mean sphere, but it does not. The Hebrew word used here (g) could however refer to a vaulted dome that covers the visible circular horizon, which would be more accurate to say, "above the vault of the earth."[88] If Isaiah had wanted to say the earth was a sphere he would have used another word that he used in a previous chapter (22:18) for a ball (kaddur), but he did not.[89]

Two further Scriptures use this "circle of the earth" in reference to G.o.d's original creation of the land out of the waters and extend it outward to include the circ.u.mferential ocean with its own mysterious boundary: Prov. 8:27, 29 When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep... when he a.s.signed to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth.

Job 26:10 He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness [where the sun rises and sets].

Even when the Old Testament writers are deliberately using metaphors for the earth, they use metaphors for a flat earth spread out like a flat blanket.

Job 38:13 Take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it.

Job 38:18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?

Psa. 136:6 To him who spreads out the earth above the waters.

Isa. 44:24 "I am the LORD, who spread out the earth by myself."

Geocentricity In the Bible, the earth is not merely a flat disk surrounded by cosmic waters under the heavens; it was also the center of the universe. To the ANE mindset, including that of the Hebrews, the earth did not move (except for earthquakes) and the sun revolved around that immovable earth. They did not know that the earth was spinning one thousand miles an hour and flying through s.p.a.ce at 65,000 miles an hour. Evidently, G.o.d did not consider it important enough to correct this primitive inaccurate understanding. Here are the pa.s.sages that caused such trouble with Christians who took the text too literally because it did not seem to be figurative to them: Psa. 19:4-6 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them.

Psa. 50:1 The Mighty One, G.o.d, the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Eccl. 1:5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.

Josh. 10:13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies...

The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.

Matt. 5:45 Jesus said, "For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good."

Two objections are often raised when considering these pa.s.sages. First, that they use phenomenal language. That is, they describe simply what the viewer observes and makes no cosmological claims beyond simply description of what one sees. We even use these terms of the sun rising and setting today and we know the earth moves around the sun. Fair enough. The only problem is that the ancient writers were pre-scientific and did not know the earth went around the sun, so when they said the sun was moving from one end of the heavens to the other they believed reality was exactly as they observed it. They had absolutely no reason to believe in a "phenomenal distinction" between their observation and reality.[90]

The second objection is that some of the language is obvious metaphor. David painted the sun as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber or of being summoned by G.o.d and responding like a human. This is called anthropomorphism and is obviously poetic. But the problem here is that the metaphors still reinforce the sun doing all the moving around a stationary immobile earth.

1Chr. 16:30 Tremble before him, all the earth; yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.

Psa. 93:1 Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.

Psa. 96:10 Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved."

Understandably, these texts have been thought to indicate that the Bible is explicitly saying the earth does not move. But the case is not so strong for these examples because the Hebrew word used in these pa.s.sages for "the world" is not the word for earth (erets), but the word that is sometimes used for the inhabited world (tebel). So it is possible that these verses are talking about the "world order" as does the poetry of 2Sam. 22:16.

But the problem that then arises is that the broader chapter context of these verses describe the earth's physical aspects such as oceans, trees, and in the case of 1Chron. 16:30, even the "earth" (erets) in redundant context with the "world" (tebel), which would seem to indicate that "world" may refer to the physical earth.

Lastly, world can be interchangeable with earth as it is in 1Sam. 2:8, "For the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, And He set the world on them."

And this adds a new element to the conversation of a stationary earth: A foundation of pillars.

Pillars of the Earth The notion of an immovable earth is not a mere description of observational experience by earth dwellers; it is based upon another cosmographical notion that the earth is on a foundation of pillars that hold it firmly in place.

Psa. 104:5 He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved.

Job 38:4 "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, Who set its measurements, since you know? Or who stretched the line on it? "On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, 2Sam. 22:16 "Then the channels of the sea were seen; the foundations of the world were laid bare.

1Sam. 2:8 For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and on them, he has set the world.

Psa. 75:3 "When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars.

Zech. 12:1 Thus declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens, and founded the earth.

Ancient man such as the Babylonians believed that mountains and important ziggurat temples had foundations that went below the earth into the abyss (apsu) or the underworld.[91] But even if one would argue that the notion of foundations and pillars of the earth are only intended to be symbolic, they are still symbolic of a stationary earth that does not move.

Some have pointed out the single verse that seems to mitigate this notion of a solid foundation of pillars, Job 26:6-7: "Sheol is naked before G.o.d, and Abaddon has no covering. He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing." They suggest that this is a revelation of the earth in s.p.a.ce before ancient man even knew about the spatial location of the earth in a galaxy. But the reason I do not believe this is because of the context of the verse.

Within chapter 26 Job affirms the three-tiered universe of waters of the Abyss below him (v. 5) and under that Sheol (v. 6), with pillars holding up the heavens (v. 11). Later in the same book, G.o.d himself speaks about the earth laid on foundations (38:4), sinking its bases and cornerstone like a building (38:5-6). Ancient peoples believed the earth was on top of some other object like the back of a turtle, and that it was too heavy to float on the waters. So in context, Job 26 appears to be saying that the earth is over the waters of the abyss and Sheol, on its foundations, but there is nothing under those pillars but G.o.d himself holding it all up. This is not the suggestion of a planet hanging in s.p.a.ce, but rather the negative claim of an earth that is not on top of an ancient object.

Sheol Below Before we ascend to the heavens, let's take a look at the Underworld below the earth. The Underworld was a common location of extensive stories about G.o.ds and departed souls of men journeying to the depths of the earth through special gates of some kind into a geographic location that might also be accessed through cracks in the earth above.[92] Entire Mesopotamian stories engage the location of the subterranean netherworld in their narrative such as The Descent of Inanna, The Descent of Ishtar, Nergal and Ereshkigal, and many others.

Sheol was the Hebrew word for the underworld.[93] Though the Bible does not contain any narratives of experiences in Sheol, it was nevertheless described as the abode of the dead that was below the earth. Though Sheol was sometimes used interchangeably with "Abaddon" as the place of destruction of the body (Prov. 15:11; 27:20),[94] and "the grave" (qibrah) as a reference to the state of being dead and buried in the earth (Psa. 88:11; Isa. 14:9-11), it was also considered to be physically located beneath the earth in the same way as other ANE worldviews.

When the sons of Korah are swallowed up by the earth for their rebellion against G.o.d, Numbers chapter 16 says that "they went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the a.s.sembly (v. 33)." People would not "fall alive" into death or the grave and then perish if Sheol was not a location. But they would die after they fall down into a location (Sheol) and the earth closes over them in that order.

The divine being (elohim), known as the departed spirit of Samuel, "came up out of the earth" for the witch of Endor's necromancy with Saul (1Sam. 28:13). This was not a reference to a body coming out of a grave, but a spirit of the dead coming from the underworld beneath the earth.

When Isaiah writes about Sheol in Isaiah 14, he combines the notion of the physical location of the dead body in the earth (v. 11) with the location beneath the earth of the spirits of the dead (v. 9). It's really a both/and proposition.

Here is a list of some verses that speak of Sheol geographically as a spiritual underworld in contrast with heaven as a spiritual overworld.

Amos 9:2 "If they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down.

Job 11:8 It is higher than heaven-what can you do? Deeper than Sheol-what can you know?

Psa. 16:10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

Psa. 139:8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

Isa. 7:11 "Ask a sign of the LORD your G.o.d; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven."

These are not mere references to the body in the grave, but to locations of the spiritual soul as well. Sheol is a combined term that describes both the grave for the body and the underworld location of the departed souls of the dead.

In the New Testament, the word Hades is used for the underworld, which was the Greek equivalent of Sheol.[95] Jesus himself used the term Hades as the location of d.a.m.ned spirits in contrast with heaven as the location of redeemed spirits when he talked of Capernaum rejecting miracles, "And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades" (Matt. 11:23). Hades was also the location of departed spirits in his parable of Lazarus and the rich man in Hades (Luke 16:19-31).

In Greek mythology, Tartarus was another term for a location beneath the "roots of the earth" and beneath the waters where the warring giants called "t.i.tans" were bound in chains because of their rebellion against the G.o.ds.[96] Peter uses a derivative of that very Greek word Tartarus to describe a similar location and scenario of angels being bound during the time of Noah and the warring t.i.tans called "Nephilim."[97]

2Pet. 2:4-5 For if G.o.d did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into h.e.l.l [tartaroo] and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah.

The Watery Abyss In Mesopotamian cosmography, the Abyss (Apsu in Akkadian) was a cosmic subterranean lake or body of water that was between the earth and the underworld (Sheol), and was the source of the waters above such as oceans, rivers, and springs or fountains.[98] In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah, tells his fellow citizens that he is building his boat and will abandon the earth of Enlil to join Ea in the waters of the Abyss that would soon fill the land.[99] Even bitumen pools used to make pitch were thought to rise up from the "underground waters," or the Abyss.[100]