Earth's Firmament Dome
Is there a firmament above the earth, encapsulating the entire world? Entrapping humanity in its enormous dome? And if so, are humans allowed to leave the Earth?
In ancient near eastern cosmology, the firmament signified a cosmic barrier that separated the heavenly waters above from the Earth below. In biblical cosmology, the firmament (Hebrew: רָקִ֫יעַ rāqīa) is the vast solid dome created by God during the Genesis creation narrative to divide the primal sea into upper and lower portions so that the dry land could appear.
Users on social media are saying people on Earth are living under a dome, also called a "firmament," without providing evidence to support the claim. Experts told Reuters that the idea, which originates with proponents of the Flat Earth theory, is false and that there is ample evidence of rockets reaching space without hitting a dome.
The translation “firmament,” however, is not so much a translation of the original Hebrew term as it is a transliteration of a term used in the Latin Vulgate (i.e., firmamentum) which was translated from the Greek Septuagint term (stereoma) that was used for the Hebrew raqia. The uninspired translators of the Septuagint, who were translating for an Egyptian pharaoh in Egypt,2 were apparently influenced by the then conventional belief in Egypt that the heavens are a stone vault.3 The Hebrew term raqia, however, does not suggest such a meaning. Rather, it refers to something that has been stretched, spread, or beaten out—like metal.4 The idea is that on day two, God divided the waters of Earth, spreading them out from one another and moving some above the Earth, and creating that which holds those waters apart—much like what a solid would do.