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Raqia‘[]

The article seems to favor a definition for raqia‘ (רָקִ֫יעַ) as incontrovertibly meaning "firmament", which is outrageous. It claims that "Conservatives and fundamentalists" translate the word to mean "expanse" so that it would fit with modern cosmology, which is also outrageous. It goes on to imply that Catholics believe the Bible was just being consistent with the cosmologies of the time. We know, however, that Genesis 1 goes against the surrounding pagan cosmologies of the time in which it was written.

The Syriac triliteral root cognate rq‘ can indeed be translated as "to make firm", but it can also mean "to hammer out" as when hammering metal into a certain shape. This is especially true for Samaritan Palestinian Aramaic word, which gives the same meaning of "to hammer out", and gives derivative name to hammered metal, rqw‘. A short definition could be "to press", but other derivatives of rq‘ can be defined as "compress" or "compression".

I understand that this article is strictly about the word "firmament", and that it is trying to explain how the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible derived the meaning from the Greek Septuagint's "stereoma" (στερέωμα). But I think it is far from accurate when the article targets "Conservatives and fundamentalists" as those in favor of the word "expanse" instead of "firmament". The article even cites a source that goes into great detail about the use of raqia‘ in the Old Testament (here), but I would only focus on that, and not the apologetics, for this article. Here is another reference that can be considered, though admittedly written by an apologist. --Ano-User (talk) 12:55, August 14, 2013 (UTC)

It probably means "shield" as in "atmospheric shield". Granpa (talk) 03:04, August 15, 2013 (UTC)
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