Genesis 1 Restored

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The Creation Concept

Contents

Genesis 1 Restored

Ancient Versions of Genesis 1

Genesis 1 AV restored

Psalm 19 Restored

The Bible and Information Theory

Genesis 1: the firmament chapter

Thanksgiving Hymn preserves ancient meaning of 'raqia'

Analysis of Genesis 1

More Parallel Creation Accounts

Report on the Firmament

Genesis 1: the 'firmament' chapter

Critical Bible scholars say the books of Moses were not written by Moses. They claim Isaiah was not written by a prophet named Isaiah. The book of Daniel, they say, was not written by Daniel. Most say that Matthew did not write the Gospel which bears his name. They claim that the book of 2nd Peter was written by someone other than the apostle Peter. But those scholars missed the corruptions that were introduced into Genesis 1 during the hellenistic period. One of these corruptions identified the 'raqia' formed on day 2 with 'Heaven', and others assign divine names to 'Day', 'Night', 'Earth', and 'Sea'.

The corruptions that were introduced in Genesis 1 are obvious, since the traditional English translations are overloaded with the word "firmament". In the JKV, the word occurs 9 times. It is mentioned more often in Genesis 1 than in all the remaining books of the Old Testament combined. Genesis 1 may well be called the 'firmament' chapter.

Why would none of the critics have noticed? How is it that no one said "Hmm... that's strange, I wonder what's going on here?" Apparently, none did.

Instead, they assumed every one of those 9 references to the "firmament" in Genesis 1 were original. But if that were so, "firmament" would have meant "heaven" or "sky" from the beginning, and in that case, the phrase "firmament of heaven" would be redundant. One word alone would be sufficient, either "heaven" or "firmament". There would be no need to use both words. It would be like saying "the sky of heaven" or "the terrestrial earth". No one uses such phrases. But that never occurred to the scholars. They accepted the phrase "firmament of heaven", because it translates the Jewish Bible, and because the Jews claim to have preserved their holy scriptures accurately from ancient times. The scholars who reject the traditional authors of many biblical books accepted the tradition of the Jews, but missed a clue that points to one of the most outrageous frauds in history.

They could have checked whether the things assigned names in Genesis 1, Day, Night, Heaven, Earth, and Sea, are listed in any of the Psalms. Is not the lack of such a list anomalous? How is it that only those things were named by God? Not even the sun and moon were assigned divine names. What is the significance of those particular items? The account of creation provided by Josephus adds that "Evening" and "Dawn" were given divine names. Was he making this up, or is something missing from our Bibles?

If the heavy use of 'firmament' in Genesis 1 was original, surely that would be reflected in some of the Psalms and in other books of the Bible. But that word occurs in only two of the Psalms, and in each case refers to the earth.

The corruption of Genesis 1 that involves the redefinition of 'raqia' was foretold in scripture, and it is referred to in the New Testament, by Paul, in Romans 1:25, where he wrote that men had "changed the truth of God into a lie." And also by Peter, who wrote in 2 Peter 3:5-6, "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished." Peter was aware of the attempt to redefine the 'raqia' as Heaven, which implied there were waters above the rigid heaven. He affirms that the earth's crust was formed with a water layer above, and one below; it was formed "in the midst of the waters". The subterranean water layer was the main source of the flood.

Chapter 8 of Daniel shows the cosmology of the Old Testament was modified in the time of Antiochus IV, one of the Seleucid kings. He is represented by the "little horn" that became great, in Daniel 8:9. The prophecy says the horn grew up to the stars, and cast stars, and the host of heaven to the earth, and trampled them.

The critics misinterpret this prophecy, saying it is about a lapsed temple ritual, but they base their explanation on faulty translations. The words "burnt-offering" or "sacrifice" have been added to the text where they do not belong. In many Bibles those extra words are italicized. The reference to stars and other astronomical phenomena in Daniel 8:10-12 is clear; the passage it is not about ritual sacrifices. When properly interpreted, the prophecy exposes the corruption of the cosmology of scripture that we find in Genesis 1.

Implementing the hellenization policies of Antiochus IV, the hellenized Jews of the 2nd century BC added support for the geocentric cosmology of the Greeks in Genesis 1. The geocentric cosmology implies a rigid sky that carries around the stars, and they wanted the creation account in Genesis 1 to support their idea that the sky was solid and went around the earth. The word "raqia" is derived from "raqa" meaning "pound" or "beat" or "stamp", and it is used in reference to the earth in Isaiah 42:5 and Isaiah 44:24. The "raqia" of Genesis 1 originally referred to the crust of the earth, but in the 2nd century BC it was identified with heaven in a systematic revision of the cosmology of the scriptures that was initiated by Antiochus IV. The scholars failed to understand what the prophecy of Daniel was about, and so missed the significance of all the references to "firmament" in Genesis 1.

The naming of 'Day', 'Night', 'Earth', and 'Sea' are corruptions introduced to hide the fraudulent redefinition of the 'raqia' as 'Heaven' in Genesis 1:8. These were all prominent deities in the hellenistic period. The rigid heaven was identified with Zeus, the supreme god of the pagan Greek religion. The same prophecy of Daniel that exposes these corruptions also predicts the scientific revolution, but because they view Daniel as a fraudulent work which relates history rather than prophecy, the critics misunderstand and misinterpret that prophecy too. They are vicims of the fraud of Antiochus IV!

Copyright © 2010 by Douglas E. Cox
All Rights Reserved.