The Ancient Tradition

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Music

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You’re listening to The Ancient Tradition.  A Wonk Media Production.  Music provided by Joseph McDade.  He is your host, Dr. Jack Logan.

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Welcome to the Ancient Tradition.  I’m your host, Jack Logan.

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Glad to have you with me and welcome to all of our new listeners. Glad to have you along with us today too. Today’s episode is titled, The Cosmic Wall, The Compass  and the Firmament. So let’s just jump right in. For the past two episodes, we’ve been discussing another very important stubborn bit.  And by stubborn bit, I’m referring to those theological tenants that  stubbornly persist across the world.

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in different time periods and in different hemispheres that we can trace all the way back to the dawn of human history. I want to start by taking a  brief second to set up for our new listeners where today’s stubborn bit fits in the overarching theology that the ancients taught, which we’ve been reconstructing piece by piece on the program. If you’re new to the program,  know that this theology is

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fully supported by an incredible amount of textual evidence found in the world’s oldest written records. And the back catalog of the podcast is loaded with that evidence.  So if you’re interested in learning more about the theology the ancients taught, which we refer to on this program as the ancient tradition, then be sure to check out the back catalog because that’s where you’re going to find all of that textual evidence. And I guarantee that you’re going to learn something new.

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and you may even learn something that will truly enrich your life. To briefly recount where we are in the theology, the ancients tell us that upon conquering the dragon, the beloved son of the high god, be he called Marduk, Ninurta, Osiris, Baal, Christ, or by some other name, was crowned a heavenly king and he was given the power and the authority to create a cosmic kingdom.

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The ancients tell us that one of the first things that he did when he began building his cosmic kingdom was to build a cosmic wall of some sort around his kingdom, the cosmos, the space that he just cosmo-sized or sanctified to protect it, to protect all of his creations from the onslaught of the dragon and chaos. This cosmo-sized sacred sanctified space

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is referred to  as a temple or in this case, a cosmic temple. We saw in episode number 51, the holy barge and the water bolt that the ancient Mesopotamians and other peoples in the ancient Near East symbolized this sanctified, cosmicized space  as a holy barge or an arc. The arc itself

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defined the boundary between the sacred space that was within the boat from the profane waters of chaos outside of it. And we see this theology. The slaying of the dragon, the hero’s son, kingship, and the special boat come together very nicely in the epic poem, Jason and the Argonauts, which was written in the third century BC by Apollonius of Rhodes.

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He was for a time the head librarian of the Library of Alexandria. The poem is actually titled The Argonautica, which refers to Jason’s boat, the Argo. And we’re told  that this vessel was constructed by a man named Argus, who,  we’re not surprised to learn, constructed it with the help of the gods. According to Apollodorus,

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who was a renowned Greek engineer, the Argo was favored by the gods and it was considered the first ship to sail the seas. So you should see in this some cosmological significance. It’s what Jason’s boat was made out of that I want to emphasize here. See, Jason’s boat was considered special because the whole itself was made from the wood of a very sacred oak tree.

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And which oak tree was this? It was the sacred oak tree, which was the oracle found in the temple of Dadoena, which is the oldest oracle in Greece. And it was dedicated to the god Zeus, the king of Mount Olympus. A special plank of this wood was placed in the prow of the boat. And we’re told in book one that this plank spoke.

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to the Argonauts and guided them through the seas. Book one, lines 519 to 531 tell us this, quote, and yes, the ship itself, the Argo, called to them also, since its hull contained a talking plank. Athena had herself cut it from the Dédonan Oak to serve beneath them as the keel.

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And we learn later in the poem in book two, line 1267, that the golden fleece, which Jason is pursuing to affirm his kingship is actually hanging  in a sacred grove on an oak tree. The text reads, quote, the plane of acres and the God’s sacred grove where the snake kept watch and ward over the fleece spread on the leafy branches

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of an oak. If you’re a long time listener,  you should clearly see here that the poem of Jason and the Argo conceals significant esoteric truths. I’m not going to spell them out for you here, but  note how just as Gilgamesh used wood from the sacred cedar forest, where dwelt the gods, to build his sacred city, so too Jason uses the wood of the sacred tree to build his special boat.

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the Argo. And likewise in the Old Testament in first Kings chapter five, we see that King Solomon requests that Hiram, the king of Tyre cut down cedar trees for the building of a temple to Yahweh. Verses five and six read quote, and behold,  I propose to build an house and a house is a temple.

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And to the name of the Lord my God, now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon.” Hiram does this and then in 1 Kings chapter 6 verses 9 and 15, we read that Solomon used the cedar to build the temple. The text reads, quote, so he built the house and finished it and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.

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And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, both the floor of the house and the walls of the ceiling. We get the picture from this verse that the entire temple that Solomon built, both inside and out, was constructed out of this special cedar. And then listen to what it says in verse 16, quote, and he built 20 cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor

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and the walls with the boards of cedar. He even built them for it within,  even for the  oracle,  even for the most holy place. And the most holy place here refers to the innermost sanctum, the Holy of Holies. According to this verse, King Solomon used precious cedar trees for the floor and the walls of the Holy of Holies. And this makes absolutely perfect

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theological sense that he did so. But you have to understand what the cedar trees represent  symbolically to understand that and understand why. Many different types of precious materials were used to build King Solomon’s temple to Yahweh. But it should be pretty easy for you to see the parallel here between King Solomon’s use of cedar to build the temple, in particular the Holy of Holies.

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Jason’s use of the sacred oak tree to build the whole of the Argo and Gilgamesh’s use of cedar trees from the sacred cedar forest to build a magnificent gate for Anlil’s temple. The  esoteric message is the same. In all three of these instances, and there’s more, which we’re going to talk about in a future episode, the wood of the sacred tree  is the material that master builders use

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to build a temple. As I mentioned a couple of minutes ago, one of the first things the hero’s son did when he commenced building his cosmic kingdom was establish a clear barrier or enclosure of some type around his creations to protect them from the dragon and to hold back the waters of chaos. This barrier clearly established the boundary between sacred and profane space.

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In the ancient world, this boundary was conceived of as a wall. As we saw in our last episode, episode number 52, the Arab Aros and the Shenring. The ancient Sumerians built a massive wall around the world’s oldest true city, the city of Uruk founded according to the Sumerian King list by King Enmerkar around 4500 BC to reflect

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the barrier in the cosmos that separated sacred from profane space. The Sumerians built their cities to be mirror images of God’s kingdom in the cosmos.  As above, so below. The wall around the Sumerian city of Uruk was not unique. The practice of building these walls, despite the lack of evidence of large scale threat,

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was widespread in ancient Mesopotamia and across the entire ancient Near East. The city of Babylon was surrounded by an impressive double wall that was built by Nebuchadnezzar II and it stretched five miles. The ancient city of Nineveh was also protected by a massive wall, some eight to nine miles long. And in some cases, it was an astounding 70 to 80 feet high. If you’d like to see a picture of the footprint,

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of the wall around the city of Nineveh, can find it on the webpage for this episode. And we saw a similar thing in ancient Egypt where the city of Heliopolis was surrounded by a massive wall, as was the temple of Karnak. And both of these walls were constructed in that undulating manner to convey that outside that protective wall, the city or temple was encircled by the waters of chaos. These enclosure walls are a

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ubiquitous feature of ancient Egyptian communities and towns and temples. When we look across the entire ancient Near East, we see that walls are a major architectural feature of most temples in the ancient world. Scholars refer to these walls as temenos walls. The root here is temen, which should ring a bell for a lot of you, which is a Greek word for to cut or to cut off.

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If you recall, we talked about this a long time ago on the podcast. The Temin usually marked where the Carto, the north-south line of a city and the Decumanos, the east-west line of a city, cut across each other. Where those lines crossed marked the sacred center of all space, which  marked the site where the temple was to be built, which is why it’s used in English as the root for our word temple.

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which is why the wall that surrounds sacred space is called a temenos wall, because it cuts profane space off from sacred space, separating the two, thereby creating the boundary around the temple. Wikipedia defines a temenos wall like this, quote, a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a God such as a sanctuary, holy grove,

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or holy precinct.

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I mentioned this to emphasize that the walls that the ancients built around their cities, you know, even though they were really useful for protecting what was within from these physical threats or enemies, they were first and foremost built to serve as mirror images or miniature replicas of the wall that surrounds God’s home and all of his sacred creations. His temple. Don’t miss what the ancients by

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building these walls are attesting to. What they’re attesting is that the cosmos are structured. I don’t know if you’ve ever even thought about this before, but what the ancients are teaching here is quite fascinating. The ancients are attesting that there is an actual real physical or spiritual structure to the cosmos. And they’re testing that part of that structure consists of a real

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physical or spiritual barrier of some sort around God’s cosmic kingdom, which we refer to as a cosmic temple because everything within God’s cosmic kingdom is sacred. Now, this is a structure that  I can’t see, that none of us can presently see, but it’s a structure, a wall of some sort that the ancients tell us  exists

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in the cosmos and is real. Now that’s pretty fascinating. Canaanite cities like Jericho and Dan, they were also famously surrounded by impressive walls,  as was the city of Jerusalem.  Many of you know this, it was walled and some of that wall still exists today. Like all of the other ancient Near Eastern civilizations, the Israelites designed the city of Jerusalem to reflect

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the structure of the cosmos. Jerusalem was built to be a microcosm of the macrocosm. I can easily see that there’s a wall around Jerusalem, but I was wondering if there was anything in the Old Testament that specifically attests to this theology, that there’s a structure to the heavens, in particular that a real barrier or wall of some sort completely encircles God’s kingdom.  And yes,

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There definitely is. It is a strong, stubborn bit. So to see what I’m talking about, let’s jump into the Old Testament. Let’s start in the book of Job, chapter 26, verses eight, 10 and 12.  In these verses, Job is teaching a man by the name of Bildad about Yahweh’s power and strength. And this is what he says about Yahweh’s power. Verse eight reads,  and this is the King James Version, quote,

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He,  and He here is speaking of Yahweh,  bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds. Right here is a clear reference that Yahweh has the power to quote bind the waters. Verse 10 continues, quote, He, again speaking of Yahweh, hath compassed the waters with bounds.

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I really like this verse because here Job tells us that Yahweh, quote, have compassed the waters with bounds. And by using the word compass, we should get the picture of a compass in our mind.  And I’m not talking about the directional compass. I’m talking about the compass that you used in geometry class, where you place the pointed end of the compass on a specific point, and then you adjust the width between the arms.

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to your desired radius. And then you rotate the compass around that point, keeping the pointed end fixed. And when you do this, the pencil end will trace out a perfect circle. So when Job tells us that Yahweh compassed the waters with bounds, imagine Yahweh using a compass to draw a circle around his kingdom, which binds the waters. The waters are

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prohibited from going beyond the bounds that Yahweh has drawn. The English Standard Version translation of this verse actually reads, quote, he, Yahweh, has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness. The Amplified Bible translates it this way, quote, he has inscribed a circular limit

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on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness. The imagery of Yahweh inscribing a circle on the face of the waters using a compass  is highly symbolic because the compass is a builder’s tool. It’s one of a couple of very important tools that a carpenter uses to build a building. But the ancients aren’t talking about building any old building here. They’re talking about Yahweh building a

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cosmic temple. Temple building  is a metaphor for God creating the universe, his cosmic temple.  This is worth repeating. Temple building is a metaphor for creating  the universe,  God’s cosmic temple. And if you give that just a little bit of thought, you’ll probably catch that

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The compass is akin to the rope and the rod that we’ve talked about in the past couple of episodes. The rope and the rod that the ancient kings are depicted holding in their hands. Cause all you gotta do to draw a circle with a rope and a rod is to tie the rope to the rod, stick the rod in the ground, and then stretch out the rope and then walk around the rod. And then,  voila, you have a circle.

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We’ve produced a circle in nearly the exact same way that you would with a compass that you use in a geometry class. So for Job to tell us that Yahweh, quote, compassed the waters, we should glean two important things. Number one, that Yahweh by holding the compass in his hand had to have been a king.

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Because as we’ve learned from the ancient tradition, kings were the only ones who were given the compass or the rope and the rod, which  signified the right to build a sacred temple. And the only reason that they were given the right to build a sacred temple was because they had conquered the dragon. And as I just pointed out, temple building is a metaphor for creating the universe. So when a king is depicted holding a compass or a rope and a rod,

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temple building tools, it really conveys that he’s been given the right to create a  universe, a sacred cosmic temple. And number two, because of this, we glean that Yahweh is the creator and that his use of the compass here to inscribe a limit on the waters, the building of a boundary or wall to protect his cosmic creations,

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constituted a very important part  of the creation process, the cosmic temple building process. The notion that the establishment of this wall took place as part of the creation process is actually fully supported by the account of the creation that’s given in the Old Testament  in the book of Genesis.

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I want to walk you through the first couple of verses of this account in detail, because I’ve never read or heard anyone offer up the interpretation that I’m going to offer up. Now that’s not to say that someone hasn’t made the argument that I’m going to make. It’s just that  I have never come across it. So I’m guessing that you probably haven’t either. I think you’re going to find that the creation account given in Genesis, when we examine it intertextually with what is written in Job, reveals

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a clear picture of what God did in the beginning stages of the creation process. There are some notoriously difficult passages in the Genesis account which are cleared up almost instantly when we draw on the knowledge we have of ancient Near Eastern cosmology. I think you’re going to find that it sheds a whole lot of light on what’s written in the Genesis account.

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In Genesis chapter one, verse one, we read that quote, the beginning, God created the heaven and earth. In verse two, we’re told that the earth hasn’t been formed yet and that  darkness covered quote, the face of the deep. And the deep here refers to the primordial waters. These verses tell us  like the rest of the ancient world tells us that God

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looked out over the pre-creative state of the universe and he saw nothing but this endless sea of dark, profane, uncreated chaotic  matter, which the ancients symbolically conceived of  as water.  In verse two, we’re told that something of God’s essence permeated some of the chaotic matter, something which initiated the cosmicizing or creation process.

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something that initiated the sanctification process of that matter. We talked about this aspect of the creation quite a bit in episode number 13, the incomprehensible brooding wind. So if this interests you, be sure and check that episode out. It’s worth listening to. After this in verse three, we’re told that God commanded via divine utterance,  light to appear in the midst of the newly cosmicized matter.

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And verse four tells us that when God saw the light, he saw that it was good. Now listen to what God does next. Remember, all of this is happening on the first day. Verse four reads, and this is the King James version, quote, and God saw the light that it was good and God  divided the light from the darkness. Okay. The light here referred to in this verse,

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does not refer to the sun. According to the text, the sun wasn’t created until day four. So if the light that’s referred to here is not the sun, then what is it? And what is the darkness? If we look at the clues given in the two verses that precede verse four, we see that in verse two, darkness  is the descriptor that’s used to describe the profane chaotic elements, the primordial waters.

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It says, quote, darkness was upon the face of the deep.  And then in the latter half of verse two, and then in verse three, we see that light  is what appears  after God cosmo sizes or sanctifies a portion of the chaotic elements. As we discussed in episode number 29, who is God,  a glorious being of ineffable light. We  see that

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One of the fundamental principles taught within the ancient tradition is that sanctification  is always associated with light. The greater the sanctification, the greater the light. So it comes as no surprise that after God cosmicized or sanctified a portion of the profane waters, that God then commanded that light appear.

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Note that light in this passage is made directly in reference to the waters that God had just sanctified after he’d imbued those waters or chaotic matter with something of his essence. The point I’m trying to make is that darkness and light in these verses is directly associated with un-cosmocized and cosmo-sized matter. Un-cosmocized matter is associated with darkness and cosmo-sized matter is associated with light.

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There’s a lot of authors that I’ve read, in particular John Walton, who have made the argument that the Genesis account is not at all about the actual physical creation.  And  I respectfully disagree.  In the ancient world, the waters  are matter, physical matter, albeit matter in an inert, chaotic form. So when the text tells us that something of God’s essence, quote, moved upon the waters,

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It’s telling us that something of God’s essence moved upon the matter, physical matter, which transformed it and sanctified it. If we don’t understand the ancient Near Eastern conception of the waters, then we’re going to completely miss that this text is  actually teaching us something very important about how the physical creation was brought about. In particular, how God has complete power over physical matter.

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right down to the ordering of subatomic particles, as we’ve discussed numerous times on the program. If you’re interested in this, again, there’s a whole episode on this, episode number 30, the grand primordial singularity. You can check that out. So when verse four tells us that God, quote,  divided the light from the darkness,  I’m arguing that the text is telling us

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that God began his creative process by first  separating the sacred, cosmicized matter from the profane, chaotic matter. He separated the sacred from the profane. And as you’re going to see in just a second,  this interpretation is corroborated by what is actually written in verses six and seven. Now, of course, we know on this program that the ancients used symbols, which light and darkness can be.

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precisely because they have the ability to teach us many things about the reality of the spiritual realm. So there are probably layers of meaning that we can and  probably should cull from the statement that God divided the light from the darkness. But still the same, I contend that because this statement was made within the context of the cosmogony, the physical creation,

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And from the verses that we just read that link darkness with the primordial waters and light with the cosmicized waters, that the primary interpretation of this passage should be that on the first day of creation, God separated cosmicized sacred space from un-cosmicized profane space. This  interpretation is highly significant because

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What this means is that on the first day of creation, God began building a temple. To divide or separate sacred space from profane space is to build a temple. That’s the definition of a temple. Remember the word profane literally means to be outside of the temple. What this means is that the Genesis creation account is really

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account of how God built his cosmic temple. The process of creation  is temple building and temple building  is the process of creation. After I put this part of today’s episode together,  I reread the English Standard Translation of Job, chapter 26 verse 10, which I read to you a couple of minutes ago, and I was like, oh my goodness.

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Job chapter 26 verse 10 says exactly what I’m trying to argue. Listen again to Job chapter 26 verse 10. The text reads, quote, he, Yahweh, has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness. According to this verse, where did God inscribe the circle?

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text tells us that he inscribed the circle  on the waters. So we’re talking about the waters, the unorganized matter. And where on the waters did he inscribe the circle? The text tells us that he inscribed the circle on the waters at quote the boundary between light and darkness, which we just saw our descriptors for cosmicized and uncosmicized matter.

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Job tells us that God inscribed a circle right where he divided the light, the cosmicized matter, from the darkness, the uncosmicized matter. The contemporary English translation makes us even more clear. It reads, quote, on the surface of the ocean, God has drawn a boundary line between light and darkness.  Why is this verse so important?

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It’s important because this tells us that God began the creation of his kingdom, his cosmic kingdom, heaven and earth, by first separating the matter. The implications of this are unimaginably profound because this means that heaven itself, the spiritual realm where God dwells,  is  also made of matter, physical matter.

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If you’re a Gnostic, you’re probably screaming at the podcast right now, but that is what the text is telling us. Now, of course, the physical matter in the heavenly realm would be sanctified beyond anything that we’re familiar with here in the fallen world. But irregardless, the text attests that God’s cosmic kingdom is composed of sanctified matter. This text is also incredibly important because it tells us

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If we were able to peer into the farthest realm of God’s cosmic kingdom, to the end of the universe, so to say, we would find a boundary there, the divided God’s kingdom from un-cosmicized matter. On the cosmic level, this text tells us that there is a fixed structure to God’s cosmic kingdom, or the universe, so to say, that astrophysicists have yet to discover, which is

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pretty awesome. All right, let’s return to the Genesis account and keep reading. What does the text tell us that God did on day two? Well, this is where things get interesting and kind of confusing. The text tells us that on day two, God made a quote, firmament,  a firmament. Well, what is that?

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Well, a lot of biblical scholars don’t really know. A biblical scholar by the name of Gaines Johnson says this of the firmament. He says, quote, the term firmament  and its identity  has been one of the greatest puzzles concerning the creation account. One of the greatest puzzles. Nobody seems to be quite sure what this firmament thing is.

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If you’re familiar with the Genesis creation account and the Judeo-Christian tradition, take a minute and think about this. If somebody asks you to explain to them what the firmament is, what would you say? It’s not so easy. A lot of people say it’s the atmosphere, but that’s actually  quite problematic, which you’re going to see in just a second. You know, like most people, when I read about the firmament many, many years ago,

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the text just didn’t seem to make sense. I found the whole thing really confusing. Now that I’m familiar with the ancient world and I understand a lot more about ancient cosmology, what’s written in Genesis about the firmament makes complete sense. Let’s read Genesis chapter one, verses six and seven and see if we can figure out what this perplexing firmament thing is. God created it so it must be important.

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And it’s mentioned in the creation account, so it must be really important. Starting in verse six,  the text reads, and keep in mind that this happens on day two. Quote, and God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters. Let’s break this down. First,  note that God made this firmament via divine utterance. The text says, quote, and God said,

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let there be a firmament in the midst. Second,  note where God placed this firmament. Quote,  in the waters. Well, what waters? Seems kind of odd. Well, not if you’re a long time listener to the program. If you are, you know exactly what water this is referring to. See, without an understanding of ancient Near Eastern cosmology,

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we would be completely lost, which several early theologians were, like Scotus Aragina. Listen to what he says about these verses. And this is found in Aragina’s work, De Genesi Ad Literum, dated to the mid-19th century AD. Aragina says, quote,  only God knows how and why the waters are there.

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but we cannot deny the authority of Holy Scripture, which is greater than our understanding.

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makes me chuckle a little bit, but only because I know that the waters in this verse are symbolic. From Arijina’s statement, it sounds like he thought that the waters referred to in this verse referred to literal water, that the heavens were filled with literal water and that God built a firmament in those literal waters. So no harsh judgment on Arijina. He likely wasn’t privy to so much of what we know  now about ancient cosmology and symbolism.

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Those of you who are longtime listeners of the program who have been exposed to a measure of ancient cosmology know, as we’ve discussed on today’s program, that the waters refer to un-cosmized, profane  matter,  not literal water. Let’s continue reading to find out why God placed a firmament in the waters. Verse six continues, quote, and let it

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the firmament divide the waters from the waters. So  why did God place a firmament in the waters? He placed a firmament in the waters to divide the waters. When we understand what the waters are, this makes perfect sense. Are you following? This means that God placed a divider in the primordial waters and why would God do that? Well, we know why.

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because as we just saw in the verses that preceded this one, God separated the sacred from the profane on day one. Once he’d done that on day two, he placed what can only be understood as a permanent barrier of some type between them to separate the two, a barrier that the text calls  a firmament. I hope you’re following all of this because what you’re reading right here in the Bible

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is textual evidence that God created a cosmic wall of some sort around his sacred creations, protecting them from the profane waters.  This is remarkable because this means that all three ancient civilizations, the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Hebrews, attest to the exact same thing, to the exact same structure of the cosmos, a structure

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that’s not only fascinating to consider, but  undeniably a temple-based structure. It’s worth pausing here for a minute to look at the word firmament itself. It can teach us a little more about this divider. The word firmament is the English translation of the Hebrew word rakia,  R-A-Q-I-A. The Brown driver Briggs Hebrew and English lexicon defines rakia as

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quote, an extended surface, a solid expanse as if beaten out. This is interesting. The definition of the Hebrew word rakiah means an extended  solid expanse.  As if beaten out refers to the pounding out or the beating out of a piece of metal, which again indicates that we’re talking about something solid.

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It’s telling us that there’s some type of solidity to the barrier God established in the waters. Listen to what Wikipedia says about the translation of the Hebrew word rakia into the English word firmament. Quote, in English, the word firmament is recorded as early as 1250 AD in the Middle English story of Genesis and Exodus. It later appeared in the King James Bible.

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The same word is found in French and German Bible translations,  all from Latin firmamentum. And guess what firmamentum means? It means a firm  object, which was used in the Vulgate. This in turn is a calque. Now calque is a word that’s borrowed from another language of the Greek sterama.

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also meaning a solid or firm structure. And the Greek means rigid. So we can see the Hebrew word rikia indicates that the divider that God placed in the waters  is a solid or firm object of some type, which is precisely why the English translators translated the Hebrew word rikia as firmament. And this goes without saying, but

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This definition doesn’t mesh very well with the suggestion by many that the firmament is the atmosphere. I’d argue that the firmament itself is not the atmosphere. Instead, I’d argue that it’s the firmament’s enclosure of sanctified space that makes an atmosphere possible. Let’s continue reading in Genesis and see what else it tells us about this firmament.

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Genesis chapter one, verse seven reads, and this is the King James version, quote, 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. Anyone that’s not familiar with ancient cosmology and symbolism are going to find this verse utterly perplexing. Whoever heard of waters above the earth and waters underneath the earth.

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If the verse is talking about literal water, then it’s just crazy talk to say that the earth is surrounded by literal water. Anybody can see that this is not the case. This verse perplexed many early church fathers. St. Ambrose, a theologian who served as a bishop in Milan, Italy from 374 to 397 AD said this, speaking of the waters above and below the earth.

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quote,  wise men of the world say that water cannot be over the heavens. Well, if you interpret Genesis chapter one, verse seven as literal water, then yeah, it’s not surprising at all that the wise men of the world would say, yeah, no, there’s no water up there over the heavens. See the problem with the verse  is not the verse itself.

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It’s the reader’s lack of familiarity with ancient cosmology  and the reader’s lack of symbolism literacy that’s obscuring the verses true meaning. So what is the true meaning of the verse? I’m guessing that most of you long time listeners have figured it out. At this point in the creation account, the earth hasn’t been created yet.

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So the text is not talking about the earth being surrounded by water. It’s talking about cosmicized matter being surrounded by water. And the author, by telling us that there are waters above the barrier and waters below the barrier, is trying to help us grasp that the barrier is three-dimensional, that waters completely surround this barrier.

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So the image that you should be getting in your mind is the image of an air bubble, or as the Chinese old yellow one was taught, a peach pit. Or like we saw in episode number 51, the Holy Barge, as a spherical, coracle boat. In fact, the English translators of the new international version actually translate rakia as vault, like the vault of heaven, which connotates a dome or vaulted domed ceiling.

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which is actually a really great translation. They translate Genesis chapter one verse seven  as, quote, so God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. The firmament you should clearly be able to see is the wall. The firmament is the firm, solid,  rigid, cosmic wall.

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wall that God built around his cosmic kingdom on day two of the Genesis account to keep everything that is profane from entering the cosmic kingdom. Again, this is cosmic temple building. I hope that you can see now that the firmament spoken of in the Genesis account is  not in the slightest perplexing.

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It makes complete sense and it’s completely in conformity with what the ancient Mesopotamians and ancient Egyptians taught. Let’s return to the Genesis account and take a look at the last thing that the text tells us about the firmament. It’s found in verse eight.  Verse eight reads, and this is the King James version, quote, and God called the firmament heaven.

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So this verse, just like verse seven, confuses a lot of people. Does this mean that heaven is the firmament  or that the firmament is heaven?  Well, not exactly. When we interpret this verse in terms of everything else that we’ve learned about the firmament, in particular, that the firmament serves to wall off cosmicized, sanctified space, then  we deduce that everything  inside the firmament

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because it’s sacred and because God resides there  is heaven. So for God to call the firmament heaven is apropos because the firmament is what establishes the boundaries of heaven. And don’t forget, this is the same thing that is signified by the walls that the ancients built around Uruk and Babylon and Heliopolis and Jericho and Jerusalem.  Everything sacred is inside the wall.

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and everything profane is outside the wall. In Psalm 104 verses six to nine, we get a little more vivid picture of how this firmament was established. The text reads, and this is speaking of the creation, quote, the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke, they fled. At the voice of thy thunder, they hasted away.

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This verse clearly has reference to divine utterance. Here we see that God commands the waters to flee and we see that the waters do just that. The text says that they, quote, hasted away. This indicates that the profane elements obeyed God’s command. And it could also mean, because we know that these waters are filled with the ruined gods, that this could also refer to the ruined gods fleeing God’s presence.

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They aren’t allowed  access to his kingdom. Verse nine continues, quote, that has  set a bound that they may not pass over. So here we clearly see that the profane elements and the ruined gods that have been relegated to those waters  are forbidden to pass over the boundary. They cannot penetrate the firmament.

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We see the same thing in Jeremiah chapter five, verse 22. The text reads, and this is the King James Version, quote, I think it’s interesting here that the text tells us that God’s decree

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that the sea cannot pass this boundary  is perpetual. It’s an eternal decree. The rest of the verse tells us that no matter how much the seas desire to cross the boundary  and throw themselves into a tizzy to do so, they still won’t be able to pass over the boundary. The text reads, quote, and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail though they roar.

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yet can they not pass over it. I find the statement, though they roar, really interesting because if you remember, one of the most notable characteristics that’s ascribed to the dragon  is his screaming and wailing. One of the texts said that he continues on in his own shouting. This text tells us that no matter how much the dragon kicks and wails and all of the other ruined gods,

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that they will never be able to pass over this boundary. They are perpetually  locked out of God’s cosmic kingdom. Job also confirms that the seas will not be able to penetrate this boundary. In Job chapter 38, verse eight and 11, it reads, quote, who shut up the sea with doors? know, doors obviously symbolize that the seas shut out. Hitherto shalt thou come,

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but no further. And here shall thy proud waves be stayed.” It’s interesting that Job refers to the sea’s quote, proud waves. Pride, especially in the biblical canon, is also one of the characteristics of the sea serpent, Rahab. If you remember, the Hebrew word Rahab actually means pride or arrogance. And here,  like we see in the other books,

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Job tells us that the sea is shut out or stayed. In the Judeo-Christian tradition,  all of these biblical passages attest that God began the creation of his cosmic kingdom by first dividing the waters, dividing the sacred from the profane, and second by erecting a cosmic wall, a firmament in the midst of the waters to permanently separate them from his kingdom.

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both of these things happened before any dry land was ever called forth or could ever be called forth. When we understand this, then it’s quite easy to see that the creation account in Genesis is an account of Yahweh building a temple, a temple  on an  unbelievably cosmic scale. Before I close out this episode, I wanna make two more observations.

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First, I want to note how closely the account of Moses parting the Red Sea parallels the account of Yahweh parting the waters in Genesis. In Moses’ account, the Israelites are trapped. To their east is the Red Sea and to their west, in hot pursuit, are 600 Egyptian chariots racing to bring death and destruction to the Israelites. Starting in verse 14, this is what we’re told happened.

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While I read, see if you can’t pick up the parallels to the creation account. Verse 14 starts with Moses addressing the frightened Israelites. Moses tells them, quote, the Lord shall fight for you and ye shall hold your peace. And the Lord said unto Moses, wherefore cryest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward.

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And forward here refers to them going forward into the Red Sea. But lift thou up thy rod. Now, remember, the rod that Moses holds is a branch of the sacred tree, and it represents in part God’s power. And stretch out thine hand over the sea  and  divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

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And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left.

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The parallels are pretty obvious and I’m not going to go through them, but I do want to note how the divided waters created a safe, protective space for the Israelites. And also note how the text describes the parted waters as a wall. The text says, quote, the waters were a wall. Of course, if you’re familiar with this text, the only reason why the Israelites were able to escape from their Egyptian enemies was

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because God parted the waters, created a dry space. Otherwise, they would have been drowned in the sea. There are so many creation parallels and esoteric temple messages in this account. The second observation I want to make is found in the New Testament in the Gospel of St. Mark, chapter six, verse three, which reads, speaking of

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Jesus. Quote, is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary? I want to draw your attention to the description of Christ as a carpenter. Carpenter is the English translation of the Greek word tecton, which according to Strong’s lexicon refers to a craftsman or builder, specifically a carpenter. Now, of course, it’s entirely possible that Christ worked as a carpenter.

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while on earth. But  there’s no missing the greater esoteric message taught  in the Judeo-Christian tradition that Christ, the Yahweh of the Old Testament, isn’t the craftsman of any old building. He’s the master carpenter of an unimaginably grand, magnificent,  and glorious cosmic temple. He is

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the cosmic Christ.

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That wraps up our discussion of the cosmic wall. We’ll pick up right here in the next edition of the ancient tradition. With that, I’ll leave you with the words of William Shakespeare,  knowledge  is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.  I’m Jack Logan.

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You’ve been listening to the Ancient Tradition.  A Wonk Media Production.