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A place called "Heaven" וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֔ים יְהִ֥י רָקִ֖יעַ בְּתֹ֣וךְ הַמָּ֑יִם וִיהִ֣י מַבְדִּ֔יל בֵּ֥ין מַ֖יִם לָמָֽיִם׃ וַיַּ֣עַשׂ אֱלֹהִים֮ אֶת־הָרָקִיעַ֒ וַיַּבְדֵּ֗ל בֵּ֤ין הַמַּ֨יִם֙ אֲשֶׁר֙ מִתַּ֣חַת לָרָקִ֔יעַ וּבֵ֣ין הַמַּ֔יִם אֲשֶׁ֖ר מֵעַ֣ל לָרָקִ֑יעַ וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן׃  וַיִּקְרָ֧א אֱלֹהִ֛ים לָֽרָקִ֖יעַ שָׁמָ֑יִם And God said "Let a space be in between the waters to separate them." Then God formed a space between the lower waters and the upper waters. That's how it happened. So, God called space "Heaven". -- Genesis 1:6-8a (author's translation) Translators are sometimes forced to choose between interpretations in the use of the Hebrew word "Shamayim". I have followed the Hebrew in uses the most general term to reflect a basic understanding of the act of creation of this space. In order for an artist or an artisan to work, he must have plenty of space. Though the whole universe, as information, migh...

וְעֹוף֙ יְעֹופֵ֣ף עַל־הָאָ֔רֶץ Flyers flying over the earth As with the swarm, the flock of "birds" is a large general category. The verb form, עוּף ( `uwf ), is used to designate flying. The root further points to the most common flyer, the birds, due to their using their wings to wrap, or cover, their young. The noun form is עוֹף (`owf), with the pointing of the vowel different. עַל־פְּנֵ֖י רְקִ֥יעַ הַשָּׁמָֽיִם The face of the firmament There has been much discussion on the nature of the firmament and its relationship with the heavens. As we saw on the second day, the firmament is called "heaven". However, many translate this simply as the air. This seems to be the sense of the birds. But what is the surface of the sky? Where does the air begin? These concepts are defined by the observer. The air that every living thing on earth and in the sky breathes begins at the surface of the earth. However, the surface of the heavens is to be viewed from below. ...

הַמַּ֔יִם אֲשֶׁ֖ר מֵעַ֣ל The waters which are above Proponents of a local firmament, that is the atmosphere, hold to one of two interpretations. The ambiguity allows either one. The most natural and expected is that the waters above are the clouds. Faced with evidence from the text of different conditions on the early texts and clues to a milder overall climate, others have proposed some kind of vaporous or ice layer in the upper atmosphere. However these waters above ( מֵעַ֣ל ) the firmament were possibly much further away. The format with both below and above appears to have the positions at extremes. The prefixes "m" and "l" are used in format " from here to there". Compare " מֵעַ֣ל לָרָקִ֑יעַ" with " מִתַּ֣חַת לָרָקִ֔יעַ". This leads some scientists to merge the text with observations of nature. The result works well both in nature and supernatural metaphor. The waters that once were together are now separated by insurmou...

רָקִ֖יעַ בְּתֹ֣וךְ An expanse within Left to itself, the new "water universe" was a competitive community of electrons, nuclea and photons with gravity overpowering the other forces. If God had not spoken again, His work so far would have collapsed in on itself. But once God starts something, He doesn't stop. He speaks again, beginning another day of creation . This time, he calls on the majority of the universal waters to be spread out (Heb: רָקַע raqa` ). The noun form in the text is רָקִ֖יעַ (raqi`a), an expanding wall of water coming from deep within ( תָּוֶךְ tevek) the sphere . God proves to be several steps ahead of nature from the very beginning. As the water is agitated, perhaps by microwaves of compressed light, it rises through the mass toward the voice that called it.

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶ ץ   First, the Almighy created that which is stretched out and that which is dry.  I know, I know, the creation at this point is literally, the lofty realm and solid ground. However, the text defines the stretched stuff and the dry stuff as "heaven/sky/air" and "earth/land/ground". So, it is my contention that the building blocks of all that we see was original quite literally invisible, and the space containing it was much smaller. Space was bound by the "hand" of God as a place to organize the quanta (the truly indivisible particles). There apparently were at least 4×10^58 of these partcles in the singularity that God tore apart to make the expanding universe. Though quanta are so tiny, they are packed with all the potential energy that became all the matter in the vastness of space. This is my humble attempt to tie the theories of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein to the raw data in Gen...

הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם The Heavens The first thing God created was what we now call space. The collective name in Hebrew is Ha Shamayim , as in the heading. Dual in form, for the single form  Shamah never being used, is apparently from an old root meaning "to be aloft". However, God names the so-called expanse by this name, so it is to 1:9 that one must go for a definition. Working from the specific to the general, and taking the name as synonymous with the thing named, the expanse ( רָקִיעַ) , that is stretched out fabric of space is the same a s heaven, or the heavens. Usage determines the translation of שָּׁמַ֖יִם. Often it is localized, sometimes it is global, but most often the space occupied by heavenly and spiritual beings. The ancient readers may have expected a tiny unseen world smaller than dust, but the Bible does not reveal anything along those lines. However, they understood that the heavens extended far above the mountaintops. ...