http://forums.catholic-questions.org/picture.php?albumid=675&pictureid=5622
This picture represents the world of the ancient Hebrews. The picture is from the New American Bible, St. Joseph Edition. This pre-scientific Babylonian view of the world is the same one shared by the Mesopotamians, Canaanites, and other Semitic tribes.
Below are Biblical references to this world view.
Abyss
“…and darkness covered the abyss (Gn 1:2)
According to the ancient Semites the “abyss” was the primordial ocean. God divided the abyss into salt-water seas (Gn 1:9 ff), and fresh water:
[a] “God said, ‘Let there be a vault through the middle of the waters to divide the waters in two.’ And so it was. God made the vault, and it divided the waters under the vault from the waters above the vault. God called the vault ‘heaven’. (Gn 1:6 ff )”
Rakia; vault, firmament or dome:
[a] “The heavens declare the glory of God, the vault of heaven proclaims his handiwork (Ps 19:1)”
**“Alleluia! Praise God in his holy place, praise him in the heavenly vault of his power (Ps 150:1)”
[c] “Over the heads of the living creatures was what looked like a solid surface glittering like crystal, spread out over their heads, above them, and under the solid surface, their wings were spread out straight, touching one another, and each had a pair covering its body (Ez 1:22-23”)."
[d] “Beyond the solid surface above their heads, there was what seemed like a sapphire, in the form of a throne. High above on the form of a throne was a form with the appearance of a human being (Ez 1:26).”
[e] “Then, in vision I saw that above the solid surface over the heads of the winged creatures there was above them something like sapphire, which seemed to be like a throne. (Ez 10:1).”
The fresh water is contained under the earth, and above the dome (“rakia,” vault, firmament) of the sky, which holds the upper waters in place:
[a] “…and waters above the firmament (Ps. 148:4)”.
** “Waters above the heavens! Bless the Lord (Dn 3:60)”.
For the ancient Hebrews, and their Mesopotamian and Canaanite neighbors, the vault of the sky (firmament) was a solid dome. The English word “firmament” is derived from the Latin “firmamentum”, which represents the Greek “stereoma”, “a hard object”. These terms translate the Hebrew “rakia”, which designates a thin, beaten metal plate. The conception of the sky in Genesis is that of a thin bowl-shaped surface that covers the earth.
Rainwater (Gn 7:4, 12) pours down through apertures in the vault:
[a] “…and the sluices of heaven opened (Gn 7:11).”
** “The springs of the deep and the sluices of heaven were stopped (Gn 8:2”).
[c] “The equerry on whose arm the king was leaning retorted to Elisha, ‘Even if Yahweh made windows in the sky, could this word come true?’ ‘You will see it with your own eyes,’ Elisha replied, ‘though you will eat none of it.’ (2 K 7:2)”
In addition to the fresh water (clouds, rain, hail and snow) held above the firmament, fresh water was contained under the earth:
[a] “He collects the waters of the sea like a dam, he stores away the abyss in his treasure-house (Ps 33:7).”
** “The waters have made it grow, the deep has made it tall, pouring its rivers round the place where it is planted, sending rivulets to all the wild trees (Ez 31:4).”
Fresh water under the earth wells forth as springs and fountains:
[a] “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, and on the seventeenth day of the month, that very day all the springs of the great deep burst through, and the sluices of heaven opened (Gn 7:11).”
** “The springs of the deep and the sluices of heaven were stopped up and the heavy rain from heaven was held back (Gn 8:2).”
[c] “Through his knowledge the depths were cleft open, and the clouds distil the dew (Prv 3:20).”
The world******** or universe is imagined as a vast edifice, supported with pillars resting upon foundations laid in the abyss. There are chambers or storehouses for light and darkness, wind, snow and hail. The earth itself is a flat disc or platform (“Or who stretched the measuring line across it”), with edges (“to grasp the earth by its edges”) and is supported by pillars (“What supports its pillars at their bases?”).
Select verses from the Book of Job, Ch. 38 relevant to cosmology:
4 Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations? Tell me, since you are so well-informed!
5 Who decided its dimensions, do you know? Or who stretched the measuring line across it?
6 What supports its pillars at their bases? Who laid its cornerstone
13 to grasp the earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it?
16 Have you been right down to the sources of the sea and walked about at the bottom of the Abyss?
19 Which is the way to the home of the Light, and where does darkness live? -
22 Have you visited the place where the snow is stored? Have you seen the stores of hail, 23 which I keep for times of distress, for days of battle and war?
The Earth does not move:
“tremble before him, all the earth! The world is firm, it cannot be moved (1 Chr 16:30),”
“The world is indeed set firm, it can never be shaken; your throne is set firm from of old, from all eternity you exist (Ps 93:2).”
“Say among the nations, ‘Yahweh is king.’ The world is set firm, it cannot be moved. He will judge the nations with justice (Ps 96:10).”
“You fixed the earth on its foundations, for ever and ever it shall not be shaken (Ps 104:5).”
For additional discussion of Hebrew cosmology you can go to this page:
A COMMON COSMOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD**
Then why does my bubble say it is level? Actually I know a step grandparent that believed in the flat earth and that the travel to space was an elaborate hoax. Pretty funny. But we did not argue against the 90 year of man that died in the early 80’s. That’s not charity.