verybody has at least a basic knowledge of Genesis 1. The phrase “Let there be light” is so famous that there probably isn’t a person alive in the western world who hasn’t heard it. Genesis 1 follows a basic pattern of God saying let there be a thing, then God looking at the thing he just spoke into existence and seeing that it is good, then it’s a new day. This process is repeated six times over with man being created on the sixth day, followed by God resting on the seventh day. 

“Let there be light” comes from day 1 of creation, and everybody knows that one. Day two, however, is a lot weirder and ultimately a lot more fascinating and that’s what I want to talk about in this chapter. 

After God creates Heaven and earth in Genesis 1:1 it is stated in Genesis 1:2 that the world is formless and covered in water. Doesn’t really seem like a nice place to live, but then, in Genesis 1:6 God does something that seems really bizarre.

6

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7

And 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.

8

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

So wait, there’s a bunch of water in the sky? And this water dome is Heaven? 

So the Heaven thing is pretty easy to explain. God created Heaven as you and I would think of it back in Genesis 1:1, so that’s not what this is. To the ancient Hebrews there were actually multiple “Heavens”. One is the one God lives in, one is the place where the stars are (what you and I would think of as outer space), and one is the atmosphere where the birds fly. All The Bible is saying by calling this “Heaven” is that it’s an area above the surface of the earth. 

The water thing, however, is much more interesting. When I first read this passage I thought to myself “What, did these bronze age yokels think there was a bunch of water in the sky? Is that their explanation for why it’s blue?” as far as I was concerned this was very silly. However, The Bible is a ridiculously complex work in general, and Genesis in particular is a shining example of this. Many things that can be found within it are never stated outright. You often have to do very careful reading or you;ll miss important details. What’s happening with this water thing is a lot more intricate than it appears at first glance. No, those bronze age yokels didn’t think there was a big dome of water in the sky, because as you read on you’ll find out that the water dome isn’t there in the present day. The story is going to go on to explain what happened to it and why it’s not there anymore. 

In Genesis 2 we get to the Garden of Eden. Contrary to popular belief, Genesis 2 is not a separate and contradictory creation story to Genesis 1. It is, in fact, a “midquel” to Genesis 1 that takes us back to day 6 of the creation week. God simply creates Adam, and then takes the plants and animals that he had already created and sticks them in a garden for him. That’s not really relevant to the water thing, it’s just a good opportunity to clear up a misconception that I myself had for a long time. 

Back on the topic of the water dome: In Genesis 2 there’s a weird little detail that often gets overlooked.

5

And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

6

But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

Eden is a wonderful lush garden paradise filled with plants that are bursting with delicious fruit, and yet it never rains there. Ever. That seems a little weird, doesn’t it? Who would come up with such a bizarre detail? 

But trust me, it gets weirder. 

Anyone who has ever read The Bible always has to let out something of a sigh when they get to the genealogies. There are a few genealogies throughout The Bible, and they tend to be pretty boring and contain a lot of names which have no obvious relevance to anything. Genesis has several of them. One is a genealogy showing the descendents of Adam in Genesis 5. Another one can be found in Genesis 11 for the descendents of Noah after the flood. One of the odd things that people always notice about these genealogies is that everybody in this section of the bible appears to be living for a VERY long time. In the generations of Adam it seems that living for more than 900 years is the norm. In the Generations of Shem, Noah’s son, it seems to range from about 200 to 400 years. Still quite the impressive lifespan.

That being said, 900 years is an awful lot longer than 200 years, so what happened? Why did people live so much longer before the flood? In fact, Methuselah, the guy whose sole claim to fame is being the oldest dude in the bible, shows up in Genesis five and clocks in at an impressive 969 years! By comparison the 205 years of Abram’s father Terah look like nothing. How did things get to the point where people’s lifespans were cut so drastically? 

And more importantly, what does this have to do with the water dome?

Well that’s the thing, remember how it had never rained back in Genesis 2 and how all the water came from underground? Guess when that all changes. Here’s a look at Genesis 7 when the Great Flood of Noah’s time shows up. 

10

And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

11

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

12

And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

This is the first mention of rain in the bible, and the heavy implication is that Noah’s flood wasn’t just some unusually bad rain. It was, in fact, the first time there had been any rain on the planet EVER. Notice also that verse 11 mentions that the “fountains of the great deep” were broken up. This isn’t just a flood to cleanse the world of evil, it’s also an explanation for why the water cycle on the planet changed from the sprinkler system of Adam and Eve’s time to the rain system that we know today. 

And where did all that rain come from? Enough to cover the entire planet? Why that very same dome in the sky where the water that had been covering the planet previously was being stored! Notice that the text says “the windows of Heaven were opened”. That’s not talking about the Heaven that God lives in, because as you’ll recall the water dome was also called “Heaven”. It’s such a cool little detail and I’d never heard it discussed in my church ever. 

As for the lifespans, it seems to me that without the water filtering the rays of the sun, everyone’s lives started getting shorter. It’s never stated outright, but clearly something about the flood halved or even quartered the lifespan of humans. 

Also after this time Eden is never seen again. Eden didn’t just disappear when Adam and Eve were kicked out. Their son Cain, for example, went to live in the land of Nod which is described as being “east of Eden”, so it was still a physical place on the earth even if humans weren’t allowed there anymore. After the flood, however, it never shows up again.