Mabbul - The Waters Above

A vapour canopy about the antediluvian earth has been proposed occasionally through the centuries. Jerome, translator of the Latin Vulgate (c. A.D. 400), described a canopy, 'compactae et densiores aquae'. White infers this to mean a canopy of ice. Immanuel Kant suggested more than two centuries ago that the Flood might have been caused by the collapse of a vapour "ring", an idea later proposed independently by Isaac N. Vail in 1874 Dillow recently hypothesised a forty-foot column of water vapour six miles above the earth.
Some proponents like a watery canopy; others prefer an icy model. But does the Bible suggest a canopy at all?
The following verses, when read together, particularly in a literal translation, are enough to cause one to suspect a canopy of some sort: GENESIS 1:6-7; 2:5-6,10; 3:8; 6:17; 7:6-12,17; 8:2; 9:11,15,28; 10:1,32; 11:10; PSALM 18:11; 29:10; and 2 PETER 3:5-6.
GENESIS 1:2 depicts a geoidal earth totally covered with water. Two Hebrew words, tehom, normally translated "the deep", and hamayim, "the waters", are both found in verse two. Driver says that tehom as used here does not mean what the deep, or the sea, would denote to the modern world, but rather "the primitive undivided waters; the huge watery mass which the writer conceived as enveloping the earth." These waters pictured in verse 2 completely covered our planet, forming a hydrosphere upon the earth and apparently a hot, steamy atmosphere for some miles above the earth - an utterly uninhabitable chaos. Such is the condition of the earth as the Spirit of God initiates His first creative act on Day One.
Following the creation of light, God deals with teom, the "bathic deep". Two acts are necessary for this: the separation of the waters above the earth from the waters below, and the raising of the land and the forcing of the oceans into their allotted areas. In verse 7, "God made the sky [firmament]" and He used the sky to "separate [i.e. establish order between] the waters under the sky from the waters above the sky." The words of verse 7 thus describe the establishment of the antediluvian vapour canopy. Without a perception of this canopy, Bible students are mystified about the significance of the second day's work.
"The waters above" were called mabbul, a specific Hebrew designation to distinguish the canopy from the waters below, teom, "the oceans". Although mabbul is not specifically used in chapter one, it does appear subsequently, particularly in the Flood narrative, as later biblical authors correctly recall the canopy's former existence. Von Rad exegetes the scripture brilliantly:
"An understanding... of the Flood depends materially on the correct translation of the word mabbul. Mabbul does not mean "flood", "inundation", or even "destruction", but it is a technical term for a part of the world structure, namely, the heavenly ocean. This heavenly sea, which is above the firmament (raqia), empties downward... We must understand the Flood, therefore, as a catastrophe involving the entire cosmos. When the heavenly ocean breaks forth upon the earth below, and the primeval sea beneath the earth, which is restrained by God, now freed from its bonds, gushes up through yawning chasms onto the earth, then there is a destruction of the entire cosmic system according to biblical cosmogony. The two halves of the chaotic primeval sea, separated - the one up, the other below - by God's creative government, are again united; creation begins to sink again into chaos. Here the catastrophe, therefore, concerns not only men and beasts... but the earth - indeed, the entire cosmos."
Mabbul then is the specific term for "the waters above", and our English versions should use the words "the canopy" or an appropriate synonym each time mabbul appears. Brown, Driver & Briggs, in their classic Hebrew lexicon, state that mabbul "seems... to be almost a proper name..." Indeed, twice it appears without the definite article, suggesting its use as a proper name. The word is found 13 times in the Old Testament, and it is commonly mistranslated, as Von Rad notes. Translating all the words except mabbul in these passages, we see as follows:
1."For behold, I will bring mabbul of waters upon the earth..." (GENESIS 6:17a).
2."Noah was six hundred years old when mabbul of waters came upon the earth" (GENESIS 7:6).
3."And Noah... went into the ark, to escape the waters of mabbul" (GENESIS 7:7).
4."And after seven days the waters of mabbul came upon the earth" (GENESIS 7:10).
5."Mabbul continued forty days upon the earth" (GENESIS 7:17a).
6."...[N]ever again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of mabbul..."
7."...and there is no longer mabbul to wipe out the earth" (GENESIS 9:11b,c).
8."...No longer shall there be the waters - namely, mabbul - to wipe out all flesh" (GENESIS 9:15b).
9."After mabbul Noah lived three hundred and fifty years" (GENESIS 9:28).
10."...[S]ons were born to them after mabbul" (GENESIS 10:1b).
11."...[A]nd from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after mabbul" (GENESIS 10:32b).
12."...[H]e became the father of Arphaxad two years after mabbul" (GENESIS 11:10c).
13."The LORD sat enthroned over mabbul, the LORD is enthroned as King forever" (PSALM 29:10).
2 PETER 3:5,13, which is such a helpful New Testament commentary on the Creation and the Flood, also confirms the two "waters" - Teom and mabbul.
"...[A]n earth formed out of water and by means of water, through which [Greek: di hon, plural] the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished." (2 PETER 3:5-6)
The writer's choice of the genitive plural "which", shows his astute perception of the actual conditions prior to the Flood.
As may be seen from GENESIS 9:11 and 9:15, mabbul no longer exists; it was condensed out during the Flood several millennia ago. Today the atmosphere scarcely contains even inches of water vapour. Yet even the psalmist correctly recalls - many centuries later - the canopy's earlier existence (PSALM 29:10).
Noah stepped out of the ark into a brand-new world - now with more water than land after 40 days of rain. The sons of Noah, no longer threatened by hostile "giants", found a new threat - an increasingly-severe climatic regime, without the protecting antediluvian canopy.
Von Rad has confirmed from his exegesis of Genesis that the Flood involved the entire cosmos. 2 PETER 3:5-6 likewise pictures both the heavens and the earth having been violently re-ordered during the Flood, and then verse 7 gives the most specific New Testament portrayal of the future universal destruction by fire.
Still we are given a glorious hope. God not only assures us in GENESIS 9:11 and 9:15 that "there will no longer be a mabbul to wipe out the earth," but He also promises in REVELATION 21:1 that even teom, the ever-threatening waters below, will one day be eliminated: "...and the sea was no more."
by R. Russell Bixler
Source: 'Bible Science Newsletter'
http://www.cai.org/bible-studies/does-bible-speak-vapour-canopy

The Breath of God

The work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
Julian Spriggs, M.A.

Through the centuries of history recorded in the Old Testament, we can see a progressive
development of understanding of the identity and work of God’s Spirit. This revelation leaves
room for the fuller doctrine of the Trinity that would be revealed in the N.T., where the Spirit
continues to perform the same activity and work as found in the O.T.

The Hebrew word for spirit

The Hebrew word for spirit, “ruach” is used nearly four hundred times in the O.T. It has a variety of meanings, which have a large measure of overlap. Sometimes the meaning can be determined with reasonable certainty by the context of the passage, but in other places the meaning is not so distinct.

(i) Wind
Over a quarter of the uses of “ruach” is to describe the wind, the powerful but invisible physical force of moving air. After the flood, God made a wind blow and the waters subsided (Gen 8:1). Also, during the plagues of Egypt, God sent the east wind which brought the locusts and the west wind removed them (Ex 10:13,19). Often it describes a strong, or even violent and frightening wind. God sent a strong east wind that divided the Red Sea (Ex 14:21), and Elijah witnessed the strong wind that broke rocks on Sinai (1 Kg 19:11). The Psalmist speaks about escaping from the raging wind (Ps 55:8). In many of these passages, the wind is described as coming from God, or being sent by God, so it can be understood as more than merely a physical wind. Jesus also drew a parallel between the wind and those born of the Spirit when he spoke to Nicodemus (Jn 3:8), as the Greek word for spirit, “pneuma”, also has a similar breadth of meanings.

(ii) Breath
Sometimes ruach describes the smaller quantity of moving air from human nostrils, or poetically, from God’s nostrils, like “the blast of the breath of God’s nostrils” (2 Sam 22:16), or “the breath of God’s mouth” (Ps 33:6). This can overlap with the following meaning, the breath of life.

(iii) Human life.
The spirit, meaning human or animal life. God sent the flood to destroy everything with the breath (ruach) of life (Gen 6:17). The Psalmist speaks of committing his spirit into the hands of God (Ps 31:5), thereby entrusting his life to God. Jesus quoted these words as his last words on the cross, when he gave up his life (Lk 23:46). Jeremiah stated that idols have no breath (ruach) in them (Jer 10:14). They have no life, especially when compared with the living God.

This spirit can be troubled, like Pharaoh after his dream (Gen 41:8), jealous (Num 5:14), angry (Ju 8:3), sullen (1 Kg 21:5), or stirred by God (1 Chr 5:26). In these cases, “ruach” is being used to describe an emotional response in a person.

(iv) The divine Spirit
In the O.T., this is often described as the Spirit of the LORD. In the N.T., he is the personal third member of the Trinity, together with the Father and the Son, Jesus.

Determining the meaning of “ruach”

In most cases it is not difficult to determine the intended meaning of ruach, whether it describes the wind, the human spirit or God’s Spirit. However, in some passages, the exact meaning can be debated. For example, in the creation account, the more familiar translation is of the Spirit of God hovering over the waters (Gen 1:2), as in the KJV or NIV. But some versions translate ruach as the wind of God (NRSV, NEB), which seems to reduce the supernatural aspect of the creation account.

In the earlier books of the O.T. revelation, little or no distinction is made between the divine and human spirit. Job states that as long as the spirit of God is in his nostrils he will not speak lies (Job 27:3), a poetic way of saying that while he was still alive he will speak the truth.

Ezekiel may have intentionally used all three meanings using a clever play on words in his vision of the dry bones (Ezek 37:1-14) . So the “ruach” was the Spirit of God who carried Ezekiel into the valley of dry bones (v1), and who will revive the house of Israel (v14). But it is also the breath that will enter the bones and give them life (v5, 10), as well as the four winds from where the breath will come from (v9).

The development in understanding of “ruach” through the O.T.

The doctrine and teaching of the Holy Spirit shows clearly the progressive nature of revelation through the Old Testament. In the early centuries, the Spirit was mostly seen as the power of God working in his creation and through his people. For example, the artistic and technical skills of Bezalel who made the tabernacle furnishings was described as him being “filled with the divine spirit” (Ex 31:3). This was because all wisdom and skill was understood to come from God. As the revelation through the O.T. progressed, God’s Spirit was described as being holy and having moral and even personal qualities.

When Ezra looked back over Israel’s history from the perspective of the return from exile, he referred twice to the working of the spirit of God. He stated that God gave his good spirit to instruct them in the wilderness (Neh 9:20), and that God had warned them by his spirit through his prophets (9:30). In the original account in the Pentateuch, there is no mention that the Spirit instructed the people. Normally it was Moses who instructed the people with the words that God had spoken to him (eg. Lev 18:1-2). This teaching role of the Spirit was not understood at the time. That revelation came later. This is similar to the role of the Spirit in the N.T. to teach and remind us of what Jesus said (John 14:26).

The Spirit’s work in creation

One important work of the Spirit in the O.T. was in creation (Gen 1:2). God’s spirit was active in the creation and in the sustaining of physical life. Elihu stated that if God should take back his Spirit then all flesh would perish and return to dust (Job 34:14-15). Without God’s spirit, there would be no life at all. The N.T. reveals that Jesus was also involved in creation (Col 1:16, Heb 1:2, Jn 1:3).

The picture in Genesis is of the Spirit of God hovering over the water (Gen 1:2), probably imparting God’s energy, order and design into the empty and formless world. This would indicate that Spirit did not create the world out of nothing, but worked with what the Son had already created, bringing order out of chaos and life from non-living matter. The creative role of the Spirit is also stated elsewhere in the O.T: The Psalmist states that “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath (ruach) of his mouth” (Ps 33:6).

The Spirit was particularly involved in the creation of mankind. After God formed Adam out of dust, he breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul (Gen 2:7). Elihu said the same, “The spirit of God had made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4). When put together, the revelation is of all three persons of the Trinity being directly involved in the creation of the world and especially of mankind in God’s image.

Take a scientific approach to understanding the breath of God:

http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/RelSci/Breath.pdf

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Is The Holy Spirit Feminine?

More Than Just a Controversy: All About The Holy Spirit
by R.P. Nettelhorst

The function of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament age is well known and several books have been written on the subject. Of more significant import is what the Spirit's job may have been prior to Pentecost. The only available book on the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament was done in 1976 by Leon J. Wood. It was entitled The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and was published by Zondervan. It is a useful book, but not without its faults. Leon J. Wood writes:

The evidence that spiritual renewal, or regeneration, was true of such Old Testament people lies mainly in two directions. One is that these people lived in a way possible only for those who had experienced regeneration, and the other is the avenue of logical deduction that argues back from New Testament truth. For some reason, the Old Testament itself does not speak of the matter directly. Chafer is quite correct when he asserts: "The Old Testament will be searched in vain for record of Jews passing from an unsaved to a saved state, or for any declaration about the terms upon which such a change would be secured." Then, because this is true, he states "No positive declaration can be made" whether Old Testament people were regenerated or not. Chafer's conclusion, however, is unwarranted in view of the two lines of support mentioned....
So what did the Holy Spirit do in the Old Testament? Nine functions (at least) can be listed.

•The Holy Spirit came upon people to empower them for specific tasks (Judges 6:34; 1 Chron. 12:18; 2 Chron. 24:20).
◦interpretation of dreams (Gen. 41:38, Dan. 5:11)
◦special skills (Ex. 31:1-7)
◦prophesy (1 Sam. 10:6, 2 Sam. 23:23, Ezekiel 11:5, 24, Joel 2:28-29)
•The Spirit of God was involved in creating the universe (Gen. 1:2, Prov. 8:22-31, Ps. 33:6, Is. 40:12,13).
•The Spirit gave wisdom (Prov. 8, Is. 11:1-3). mind=ruah.
•The Spirit moved people geographically (Ezekiel 2:2, 3:12-15, 11:24, 37:1, 37:14, 43:5).
•Brings righteousness (Psalm 143:10; Isaiah 4:4).
•Gives life (Gen. 2:7, Job 33:4).
•Sustains life (Psalm 104:10-14, 30).
•Takes life (Is. 40:7; Psalm 104:29; Job 34:14-15).
•The Spirit is omnipresent (Ps. 139:7-10).
The question of the gender of the Holy Spirit is rarely if ever discussed for the simple reason that the Spirit's masculinity is naturally assumed from the masculinity of God: God is masculine and is always addressed as "he", so surely the same must be true of the Holy Spirit, a member of the Trinity. Like most theologians I had always assumed this to be true. I don't know that anyone ever formally taught me that "the Spirit is masculine"; it would hardly seem necessary.

Is There a Question About the Gender of the Holy Spirit?

In my graduate Semitics program at UCLA, one of the languages I had to study was Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic written with rounded letters reminiscent of modern Arabic. Syriac was the language of people living in northern Mesopotamia, from at least 300 BC until the time Arabic became dominant in the region, around 1000 AD. Most of the Syriac documents available today were produced by a Monophysite branch of Christianity, today known as the Syrian Orthodox Church (monophysitism is the belief that Christ had but one nature). One striking puzzlement of the texts, at least to me, was the constant reference to the Holy Spirit as "she". I was aware, of course, that in Aramaic (and hence in the dialect known as Syriac) the natural gender of the word "spirit" was feminine; however, I was surprised to discover that this accident of grammar had resulted in a whole theology constructed around the femininity of the third person of the Godhead.

I was teaching advanced Hebrew, and I had decided to take the class through the book of Judges. As we read along, I noticed something odd about Judges 3:10:


The Spirit of Yahweh came upon Caleb's younger brother...
In English, this passage from Judges doesn't appear startling, but in Hebrew something strange leapt out at me: "came upon" was a third person FEMININE verb, indicating it's subject "Spirit" was being understood as a feminine noun. Hebrew is not like Aramaic in its use of the word "spirit". While the word is exclusively feminine in Aramaic, in Hebrew it is sometimes masculine. Therefore, the question that came to mind was why had the author of Judges chosen here to make the Spirit of Yahweh feminine, when he could just as easily have made it masculine? Oh well.

I just shrugged my shoulders and went on, not overly concerned. Occasionally, I thought, one finds something inexplicable in the Bible: no big deal. But then came Judges 6:34. Again, "Spirit of Yahweh" was feminine.

At this point I decided to consult the concordance. Much to my surprise, every occurrence of "Spirit of Yahweh" in Judges is feminine. As I pondered that, I recalled Genesis 1:2, the first occurrence of "Spirit of God" in the Bible, and realized to my shock that it too is feminine.

Back to the concordance. Out of 84 OT uses of the word "spirit", in contexts traditionally assumed to be references to the Holy Spirit, 75 times it is either explicitly feminine or indeterminable (due to lack of a verb or adjective). Only nine times can "spirit" be construed as masculine, and in those cases it is unclear that it is a reference to God's Holy Spirit anyway. (Please see Appendix 3 for a complete list and detailed discussion of the usages.)

The New Testament references to the Holy Spirit are not helpful for conclusively deciding on the gender of the Holy Spirit, since "spirit" in Greek is neuter, and so is referred to as "it" by the New Testament writers.

The conclusion of all this is that our traditional assumption of a masculine Spirit is questionable; in fact, the evidence seems overwhelming that the Spirit should be viewed as "She", which does seem to make sense, since the other two members of the Godhead are labeled "Father" and "Son".

What are the theological implications of a feminine Holy Spirit? There are four:

•A feminine Holy Spirit clarifies how women can also be said to be created in the "image of God". It has long been recognized that he Godhead must include some feminine aspects, since Genesis 1:26-27 explicitly states that both men and women were created in God's image.
•A feminine Holy Spirit explains the identity of the personified wisdom in Proverbs 8:12-31

•The third benefit of recognizing the femininity of the Holy Spirit is that it explains the subservient role that the Spirit plays. The Bible seems to indicate that the Spirit does not speak for itself or about itself; rather the Spirit only speaks what it hears. The Spirit is said to have come into the world to glorify Christ (See John 16:13-14 and Acts 13:2). In contrast, it should be noted that the Scripture represents both the Father and Son speaking from and of themselves.
•Finally, a feminine Holy Spirit, with a Father and Son as the rest of the Trinity, may help explain why the family is the basic unit of human society.

The Female Spirit:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/women/femininedivine_1.shtml

http://www.theology.edu/journal/volume3/spirit.htm

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