This is an expanded version of the second lecture I gave at the Take on the World 2019 conference.
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This is an expanded version of the second lecture I gave at the Take on the World 2019 conference.
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11:54 "to just a little before the Reformation"
I just checked what St. Thomas Aquinas in the 1200's was thinking in Postilla in libros Geneseos (some say it isn't his, I say it was an early work of his, with the Benedictines in Roccasecca, before he got to Paris).
Unde Scriptura haec dicit, quod fecit firmamentum quod aquas superiores ab inferioribus divisit. Dicuntur autem aquae superiores non aquae lubricae vel fluidae, sicut sunt istae inferiores aquae. Quare autem ibi ponantur aquae istae, credo hoc esse ad contemperandum calorem a calore caelesti et a stellis et planetis influentiae calidae generatum.
But what's called the upper waters are not liquid or fluid waters … the reason why they are called waters, I believe it is at the tempering of the celestial heat …
Firmamentum autem illud quod istas aquas dividit, est caelum ipsum in quo sunt stellae fixae, sub quo sunt septem planetae et eorum orbes: et dicitur a firmitate formae, quia est incorporale, neque recipit peregrinas impressiones. Dicitur etiam firmamentum a firmitate loci; quia quamvis maneat super polos suos, quantum ad singulas partes, tamen totum suum locum non mutat: et sic a firmitate actus dicitur etiam. Et nota quod istius firmamenti exprimit essentiam dum ait: fiat firmamentum. Et quia unumquodque debet locari secundum naturam, exprimit suum locum dum dicit: fiat in medio aquarum. Exprimit etiam suum necessarium actum dum inquit, et dividat aquas ab aquis. Sicut enim aquae superiores et inferiores sunt necessariae ad temperamentum caloris, ita firmamentum cum motu suo est necessarium aquis frigidis ad temperamentum nimii frigoris et humoris. Et ideo quia secundum philosophum 3 de anima, natura in superfluis non abundat, neque deficit in necessariis; ideo illud fuit satis rationabile: ideo sequitur, et fecit Deus firmamentum, divisitque aquas quae erant super firmamentum ab iis quae erant sub firmamento. Sed videtur quod hanc divisionem facere non debuit: quia unumquodque secundum exigentiam suae naturae locare debuit; et quae sunt propinquiora in natura, sunt etiam propinquiora secundum locum. Sicut aqua propinquior est terrae quam caelum, et cum ea magis convenit in natura. Igitur aquae debuerunt simul stare, vel saltem consequenter sine firmamenti interjectione.
Discussing whether God should have done that or it should have been expressed that way … any way, he seems to use the word "aquae" in very many senses, sometimes simply for something translucid through which heavenly bodies can shine down on earth …
9:57 "that's the culture, that's the world that it worked in"
Tell me when you find a working time machine!
If you say the firmament must be a cheese bell like object, a semi-globe, set on a flat disc, you pretend to say things of the ancient world I wouldn't venture to say of you.
For one thing … where the ancient peoples in the Near East sharing one and the same cosmology? Are people sharing one and the same cosmology now? No. Rob Skiba wasn't sharing the cosmology of Hugh Ross, and I as believer in geostasis but with a globe differ from both.
For another … how soon did Phoenicians figure out the sea surface was bent? Israel had contact with both Babylonians, presumed to be Flat Earth, and Phoenicians, presumed to be at least in the days of Hanno globe earth. What if the Bible authors deliberately remained neutral on that point?
9:30 The initial author as prophet of God may well have intended to communicate one thing to the immediate audience and another to the the end times audience, as long as they don't contradict.
9:12 Can we presume Moses meant partly Hydrogen molecules with "waters above the firmament"?
We cannot say Moses directly wrote it, but we can say Hydrogen is instant water. Just add Oxygen and a spark and you get water.
Can we say St. John meant a gematria in ASCII code? With Latin alphabet / English alphabet being very easy to access and each big and little letter having its own number value …
Can we say Nimrod tried to build a three step rocket? I mean, Saturn V and Apollo 11 would have looked pretty much like a tower just before take off, and only the top reaches heaven …
There is a difference between an accomodation which involves direct falsehood, that is totally out of the question, and that's why Joshua 10:12 proves Earth is not what's usually rotating, and not what Joshua stopped from rotating. And, on the other hand, an accomodation that involves approximation.
8:36 He's vested that human author with His authority.
Best description of the papacy I've so far heard of a Protestant.