Study 2.

Deep Supernatural Truths are Hidden in the Ancient Hebrew Cosmology.

Ancient Hebrew Cosmology.

In the ancient Hebrew creation story, the world was not a planet spinning through space. It was a layered set of realms—a flat landmass encased in a celestial tent. These realms were inhabited by living beings, both natural and supernatural. Like their neighbours in the Ancient Near East (ANE), the Hebrews had no concept of galaxies, solar systems or planets. Instead, they saw a supernaturally structured cosmos: the heavens above, the earth in the middle, and a dark ocean of chaos beneath. Their worldview was ancient—it was rooted in simple earth based observation but inspired by holy revelation.

The layers of the Biblical Cosmos.

The ancient Hebrew worldview described creation as a series of descending layers—each a distinct realm, inhabited by living beings with different forms, powers and roles:

1. God’s Throne and Temple — above all creation, the source of divine light and pure waters.

2. The Firmament (Hebrew: rakia) — a shining habitable expanse forming the upper sky which housed the sun, moon and elohim.

3. The Atmosphere — mist‑covered, home of clouds, winds and birds. Together with the firmament and God’s Temple above, it formed the layered “heavens” (shamayim).

4. The Earth (erets) — where humans, animals, fish and birds lived safely under God’s tent, a flat single landmass surrounded by a dangerous ocean of chaos.

5. The Underworld (Sheol) — a shadowy realm beneath the surface of the land, mingled with the chaotic ocean and inhabited by death and dark powers.

If we are to understand how these layered realms inform the biblical story, we must first step back from our modern assumptions. For the Hebrews, there was no universe, solar systems or planets – so let’s explore their cosmos on their terms.

As biblical scholar Michael S. Heiser often said:

“The Bible was written for us, but not to us.”

It is not surprising that ancient Hebrew cosmology was scientifically inaccurate, after all, it was based on a flat earth and a ground-based human perspective. Within a worldview that knew nothing of modern astronomy. Yet God apparently did not view this as problematic! He allowed the biblical authors to write for their contemporaries using the flawed and simple cosmology of their time. At the same time, their writings vehemently opposed the surrounding pagan creation myths in order to protect the Hebrews from idolatry. But even this polemical stance of Scripture relied on ancient images and myths that made sense within their culture rather than non‑existent modern astronomy. Had God supernaturally inserted today’s astronomy into the text, the message would have been incomprehensible to them. Besides, astronomical theories shift over time, so even if He had done so, it would only have served one generation and confused all others. No, instead, every generation since then has had to accept and navigate the ancient worldview in a journey toward fathoming ancient biblical truth.

Given all this, it’s clear that the cosmology reflected in Scripture had to be one that the original audience could grasp. Consequently, understanding the ancient Hebrew worldview is essential if we want to understand the original creation story and the bible because their cosmology permeates it from beginning to end. Resources like the Second Temple literature found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and especially the ancient pictographic translation of the Old Testament, should be required reading for any dedicated Bible student.

One modern English translation that captures part of this is the Contemporary English Version (CEV). Its rendering of the early creation story reflects the idea that a pre-existing, chaotic ocean originally covered the land and blocked out the light, preventing it from fulfilling its divine purpose:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was barren, with no form of life; it was under a roaring ocean covered with darkness...”
(Genesis 1:1–2a, CEV)

The ancient picture of the land rising from the depths with the setting of the boundaries of the chaos ocean is reused later in Scripture to highlight the Godhead’s sovereign power. For example:

[For the ocean], I set its boundaries and wrapped it in blankets of thickest fog.
Then I built a wall… locked the gates, and said, “Your powerful waves stop here! They can go no farther.”
(Job 38:8–11, CEV)

Another verse combines both creation and chaos imagery—now easier to see once we use the ancient Hebrew cosmological lens:

[Of the earth] He built it on the deep waters beneath and laid its foundations in the ocean depths. (Psalm 24:2, GNT)

Therefore, in the ancient creation story, this humanly uninhabitable chaos ocean was commanded by Ruach Elohim to make room for a single landmass—“the circle of the earth” which rose to the surface. This phrase did not describe a perfectly circular continent in a modern geometric sense. Rather, it reflected the perspective of an earthbound observer turning in a full circle and seeing the horizon stretch equally in all directions.

It is God who sits above the circle (Hebrew: chug) of the earth. (The people below must seem to him like grasshoppers!) He is the one who stretches out the heavens like…[tent sections] and makes his tent from them. (Isaiah 40:22 TLB emphasis added)

The World was in a Vaulted Dome Tent.

The Hebraic idea of a nomadic tent with the land as its floor is sometimes translated into English as the ‘vault’ of the sky above that appeared to sit on the single circular land mass and rested on the edges at the horizon like a vast dome. Then the earth with this tent above sat atop the chaos ocean with mountain roots as pillars that plunged deep into the depths and somehow held it fast.

Given that it is necessary to understand the ancient historical context of creation before the language itself makes sense, later obscure passages that contain elements of the creation story can be very helpful.

God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him! He spreads out the heavens… and makes his [vaulted dome] tent from them. (Isaiah 40:22 NLT)

And God said, “Let there be a vaulted dome in the midst of the waters, and let it cause a separation between the waters.” So God made the vaulted dome, and he caused a separation between the waters which were under the vaulted dome [lakes, rivers and streams] and between the waters which were over the vaulted dome [in God’s Temple above]. And it was so. And God called the vaulted dome “heaven.” And there was evening, and there was morning, a second day. (Genesis 1:6-8 LEB)

Common Ancient Cosmology.

The ANE pagan cultures had the same ancient, but wrong, astronomy as the Hebrews. So in important ways understanding ANE cosmology, while disagreeing with paganism, can be helpful due to the way the ancient biblical writers often wrote in opposition to idolatry. Paganism was always extremely evil, but ironically the ancient Hebrews wrote against it so frequently that understanding their shared cosmology helps reveal the way that the ancient Hebrew taught about God, creation and the supernatural realm from within their then common ANE flat earth and cosmological dome perceptions.

Brian Godawa explained that in the minds of the biblical writer, the earth was geocentric: a flat land founded on immovable pillars at the center of the cosmos¹. Over a century ago, archaeologists discovered a Babylonian map dating to around the ninth century BC that shows striking similarities with this worldview. Unlike other Mesopotamian maps that focused on local regions, this one was international in scope and also cosmological in nature.

This map depicted a flat disc of land, with Babylon at the center, radiating outward into the known regions of the empire. These were surrounded by cosmic waters and a ring of distant islands. Other ancient texts—like The Sargon Geography, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and various Egyptian and Sumerian sources—share this concept of a central continent encircled by the great ocean of chaos. Due to early post‑flood civilisations living mainly in the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys and plains many also described mountains at the edges of the earth, beyond which lay the unknown.

This worldview helps make sense of biblical imagery. When Daniel, living in Babylon, received a dream of a tree “in the middle of the earth” whose height reached to the heavens so that “it was visible to the ends of the whole earth” (Daniel 4:10–11), the image reflects the flat, circular cosmology of the surrounding culture. Such visibility makes no sense on a globe—but it fits perfectly on a circular land surrounded by horizon and sea.

Invisible Stars, Misty Mountains, and the Chaos Ocean.

Unfamiliar with the concept of planets and outer space, the ancient Hebrews envisioned the chaos ocean as an immense abyss stretching endlessly beneath the land and outward beyond the circular horizon. In contrast to these dangerous waters there were also good waters that flowed down the mountains. There was no rain and the pre-flood world was enveloped in a perpetual mist (Genesis 2:6). The ancients could not see the mountain peaks—and so they imagined those peaks reached up into the lowest levels of God’s heavenly Temple, where they collected the pure waters into mountainous rivers that flowed down to nourish the land.

Later, after the thick mist rained out of the atmosphere during the flood, the stars became visible. Pagan cultures then began to worship them as gods but in contrast, the Hebrews believed that stars, like the sun and moon and all creation, were under the delegated authority of holy angels who served God.

“And he made the powers, the two large lights… the large light for a ruler of the work in chaos and the small light for a ruler of the darkness.” [Genesis 1:16, Translation of Pictographic Hebrew by Benner and Calpino.]

“It is interesting to note that the words ‘sun’ and ‘moon’ are not used until after the story of the flood, in the story of Avraham specifically. The reason for this could very well be that the separation of the ‘waters’ diffused the light in the sky to the point where it was just light with no specific observable source. This would also explain why the rainbow was such a unique sign to Noah, it would have been impossible to observe in these atmospheric conditions [i.e. no pre‑flood rainbows without direct sunlight]. That being the case, what about the stars? Certainly they would have been impossible to see through the haze. That is true, the stars could not be seen and you will notice we do not include it in our translation. The phrase ‘and the stars’ was added later, it is not in the versions of Genesis in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Even so, we can talk about them here because we know they were there, and have been there for millions of years even if the pre-flood world could not see them².”

But back to the mountains: to the ancient Hebrew they did not simply rise up—they also reached down. Their roots extended deep into the chaotic deep beneath the earth, like great trees anchored in the abyss. This underworld was not only a structural mystery but also the realm of the dead. The biblical writers called it Sheol.

This layered image is echoed vividly in Jonah’s poetic prayer from within the belly of the great fish. His descent into the sea is portrayed as a journey into Sheol itself, when the chaos waters closed around him and he sank toward the “roots of the mountains”:

“Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, and he said, ‘I called out of my trouble and distress to the LORD, and He answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried for help, and You heard my voice. For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current surrounded me; all Your breakers and billowing waves passed over me... Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, seaweed was wrapped around my head. I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars closed behind me forever, yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.’”
— Jonah 2:1–6, Amplified Bible (emphasis added)

The idea of supports for the land—whether from mountain roots or something more higher—varied in the Hebrew imagination. At times, they spoke of the land and sky‑dome‑tent all being suspended from God’s heavenly Temple itself. In the poetic language of Job:

“God stretches out the heavens [rakia – top of the tent] over empty space and hangs the earth upon nothing.”
— Job 26:7, TLB

Evidently, even in the ancient world, cosmological explanations were not uniform. Like modern theories of the universe, the Hebrew models included both layered complexity and interpretive flexibility—always grounded in the conviction that all creation hung on the sustaining presence of God.

Contrary to modern assumptions, the cosmological worldview of the ancient Hebrews did not indicate that the land and sea were created ex nihilo at the moment the land appeared. Instead, the creation account describes a transformation of pre-existing elements in preparation for humanity, land included. The Hebrew word for “land,” erets, simply means “land” or “ground”—not “planet.” There was no ancient Hebrew word for “planet,” and while kaddur can mean “sphere” or “ball,” it is never paired with erets in the creation story. In contrast, modern Hebrew uses kaddur erets to mean “planet Earth.” Further supporting this distinction is grammatical gender. Throughout Genesis 1:1–27, erets is consistently feminine, while kaddur is masculine—another indication that a spherical planet was not what the ancient authors had in mind.

Genesis 1:9–10 further affirms that the land was not newly created, but rather revealed. At this point in the narrative, it is no longer referred to as erets (as in verse 2), but instead as yabesh—“the dry”—indicating it had emerged from beneath the chaotic waters in the third day. In addition the earlier grammar in verse 2 also uses hayetah (“it was”), suggesting that the land already existed, though it was submerged beneath the chaotic deep, and thus kept from its divine purpose. Significantly, the Spirit of God (Ruach Elohim) is also initially said to hover, not over the land, but over the face of the waters—implying that the chaos ocean was all that could be seen before the land rose.

Nowhere in the biblical text—nor in any ancient Near Eastern literature—is there evidence that the ancients conceived of themselves as living on a planet, or within a solar system, galaxy, or universe. Projecting such concepts back into the text imposes modern assumptions onto the ancient cosmology, leading to flawed translations and distorted theological interpretations. Instead, Jesus resurrection from the realm of chaos on the third day is typified in this ancient raising of land suitable for humanity in the third day of creation!

Ancient Cosmological Layers: Ancient Context meets Modern Confusion.

God allowed the ancient writers to describe the world through their perceived cosmological layers of the heavens and the earth. Furthermore, they also used these layers to represent domains for natural and supernatural living beings and their relationships. They existed from the depths of the underworld to the highest heaven. Furthermore, the Godhead was revealed in different ontological forms in each of these layers.

1. The self-existent God of unapproachable light on the throne in the uncreated realm;

2. Ruach Elohim as Spirit in the supernatural realm;

3. The Son of Man as a human in the natural realm;

4. Christ as a disembodied soul in sheol for three days (as described in the New Testament).

Not even Tartarus, the prison of Sheol, could keep God out (Job 26:6). This was a theme reused in the New Testament of Jesus willing descent into sheol where death couldn’t hold him! All these layers will be explored in depth throughout these studies, but for now this study begins at the top with Father God who is made of unapproachable light in the uncreated realm above all of creation. Next he will be contrasted with Ruach Elohim below in the supernatural realm but still above the sky and earth in a protective reduced radiant shekinah light form. So why bother with this distinction? The answer is that created beings are also made with forms that suited the layered domains below the uncreated realm.

Modern Western paradigms conflate these two top ancient domains, confusing their inhabitants and their very specific ancient forms. To correct this, we must let the biblical writers speak from within their own ancient cosmology to reveal the roles of all these different inhabitants. Distinguishing it from the uncreated realm they named the top of the atmosphere rakia and believed that it had sufficient volume to house the sun, moon, pre‑existing angels, and God in the form of Ruach Elohim. It had both a natural function as a tent for creation but it was also the domain of spiritual beings. It was the supernatural realm! Modern theology often incorrectly equates this with the higher uncreated realm of God, conflating the two. The Father was outside the tent! But the ancient Hebrews made an important distinction: the supernatural realm was part of creation, while Father's throne existed outside and beyond all creation in an uncreated realm. And again, as mentioned already, the ontological forms of the Godhead were different in each realm. In the highest uncreated realm their form was unapproachable divine light, but in the supernatural realm, it was reduced radiant shekinah glory.

Separating the Uncreated and Supernatural Realms.

Before anything was created, the Godhead formed a plan of light, which was also their unspoken word. In all of Genesis 1, their name in the uncreated realm is not mentioned, instead the Father was simply referred to as “He” (Hebrew: Hei). But in John 1:1–6 in Greek Father is called Logos. Unlike the New Testament, to describe the form of the Godhead in this transcendent uncreated realm, the ancient Hebrew’s would have instead have described Father as:

The Self-Existent God who is the Source of All, dwells in the uncreated realm alone as unapproachable light.

In this form of full unapproachable radiant glory ironically he was hidden outside creation. Again, he was outside the tent! To become comprehensible to the pre‑existing angels the Godhead reduced their radiance to the level of shekinah glory as the angelic form of Ruach Elohim. Thus the ancient Hebrews described God differently in the supernatural and uncreated realms. However, this does not undermine the doctrine of the Godhead as three persons but instead adds specific details about the levels of radiance of each member. To help understand why this distinction is needed and to better understand the creation story, it will be important to learn that the original meaning of Elohim was not one of Godhead’s names but a specific reference to their reduced radiant presence in the supernatural realm. (Supporting Hebrew grammar will be provided in the next study.)

The supernatural realm was created to house eternal beings and to serve as a place where the Godhead as Ruach Elohim could dwell among them without overwhelming them with unapproachable glory. This is a central theme in the creation story. Their desire to create and dwell with their children required that they reduce their radiance. Otherwise the overwhelming unity of divine love would have dissolved these children’s separate existence as they were drawn back into the Godhead's fully expressed heart of unity in the uncreated realm and the work of creation would have reversed.

The biblical writers believed there were two reductions of the Godhead’s glory after they left the uncreated realm:

1. From the uncreated realm of unapproachable light down to the Shekinah level of glory in the supernatural realm as Ruach Elohim.

2. From the supernatural realm of the shekinah glory of Ruach Elohim down to human form in the natural realm as The Son of Man. As a human he walked in the garden, appeared as the Angel of the Lord that walked with the Patriarchs and was also emptied of divine radiance to be born of Mary in the first century.

Sadly modern translations lack this perspective and so modern Christians can’t see this protective reducing of radiance by the Godhead. They also can’t understand that it relates to Jesus' incarnation in the first century and his voluntary emptying himself of glory in order to help humanity:

“Instead, He emptied Himself of His outward glory by reducing Himself to the form of a lowly servant. He became human! He humbled Himself and became vulnerable…” (Philippians 2:7–8a TPT).

Logos, Rhema, and the Living Word.

This earliest part of creation was repurposed in the Greek language of the New Testament to explain how the Godhead began to speak the divine plan. The plan transitioned from being a yet unspoken and invisible plan called the Logos, to the spoken, active and visible Rhema, namely Jesus. The Rhema also carried the power to bring the divine plan into being.

Through faith we understand that the [pre-existing] worlds [Greek: aionas – eons] were framed by the word [Greek: Rhema – spoken Logos] of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear [i.e. the worlds were all made as the divine plan emerged].

(Hebrews 11:3, AMP.)

Similarly, John 1:1-5, 14 identifies Jesus as the Logos in order to explain that he was just a human form of the Father of unapproachable light in the uncreated realm. However, the Greek definition of Logos lacks the emotional and personal depth of the Hebrew concept of God and it merely describes a dispassionate and distant external intelligence. This limited range of meaning stemmed from pagan religious and philosophical traditions which falsely claimed that they sourced superior knowledge from their demonic god’s rather than YHWH’s. The Hebrew worldview, in contrast, taught that this pagan “divine knowledge” was forbidden, perverse, deceptive and destructive and was originally sourced from the Fallen Watchers and then passed on by their children the nephilim that became the pagan gods and demons. (1 Enoch 7:1-6).

Now, looking just at the uncreated and supernatural realms, the true divine plan first emerged from out of the uncreated realm as the creative shekinah light of Ruach Elohim. The sharing of shekinah light also provided the divine image and plan for humanity and at the same time revealed that the Godhead was the only source of divine light. This light provided life and then also called forth the divine purpose of every faithful living being. It will be shown in later studies that there were many angels (Hebrew: elohim) that had existed and that been created before humanity. Some were good and embraced God as their life source and considered themselves privileged to help with the preparation of the world for humanity. They were awestruck by the work and rejoiced in the purpose and harmony of this new part of creation (Job 38:7). However, there were also pre-existing rebel angels, whose chaos rule was designated as spiritual darkness (Genesis 1:4). In a later study the fire of the final judgement will prove to be the final end of these rebels.

Restoring the Ancient Picture.

The conceptual context of the layering of domains illuminates an obscure New Testament passages. For example, Hebrews 1:8 translated from the Nestle‑Aland version, speaking of Jesus, says:

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

However, in the earlier Koine Greek, there was no definite article here, so the phrase may be more accurately translated to say that Jesus was also the Father:

[The Father says:] Throne, you are the eternal uncreated God.

Jews were not permitted to speak God’s highest name and sometimes substituted “Throne” or “The Name” (Ha-Shem) or other. Thus, this statement in the book of Hebrews affirms Jesus' identity as Creator God of the uncreated realm but in human form. Recall that in all of Genesis 1 the form of the Godhead in the uncreated realm was not named but instead was merely referred to as Hei.

Furthermore, modern English, rooted in the Greek and Latin languages and Greco-Roman philosophy, also inherits limitations and this leads to conceptual errors in New Testament translations. The poverty of Greek for expressing such deep Hebrew concepts helps explain why Jeff Benner created his New Testament Greek to Hebrew Dictionary. It also highlights the value of reviewing Aramaic translations of the New Testament that are historically more Hebraic. Another important part of the problem is that the ancient Hebrew concepts are so foreign to modern readers that even if correctly translated they are still obscure. However, both these errors can be corrected with the help of the ancient Hebrew worldview.

Finally, the difference between ancient Hebrew cosmology and modern astronomy is at the heart of why the Hebrew worldview contrasts so sharply with a modern Western one. However, the fact that these stark cosmological differences exist between the two offers a valuable clue for formulating a strategy to study the ancient biblical worldview. Instead of first examining the quagmire of centuries of western Christian debates, as is common, this series of studies has begun with the ancient Hebrew cosmology. Furthermore, like other ancient pictographic Hebrew scholars, Jeff Benner notes that the ancient Hebrew people were nomadic and their vocabulary reflected elements of daily tribal life with focus on such simple necessities as tribes, families, tents, livestock, food, and water. Initially this adds another layer of complexity but it too will eventually help to uncover the ancient Hebrew worldview.

Conclusions.

Now that the challenge has been defined and a workable strategy identified, modern Christianity can begin to recover the worldview of the biblical writers by starting with their simple, albeit flawed, cosmology. Then following that, with more study of the ancient Hebrew language and culture, a rich depth of long hidden supernatural truth will gradually emerge. Then the ancient story of a cosmos filled with spiritual beings, supernatural relationships, and divine purposes will burst into life. Sadly however, at the same time, a foreboding historical backdrop of pitch‑black ANE paganism will also appear that will be off‑putting at first. However, it will eventually only serve to highlight the transcendent brilliance of God’s light, love and power that will emerge from the ancient Hebrew worldview.

The modern western reader new to this research will find that parsing the obscure ancient Hebrew worldview is like solving a jigsaw puzzle with many mismatched pieces that have been incorrectly forced into the wrong place. This has created malformed sections that represent erroneous modern western paradigms and that have in turn forced out deeper ancient Hebrew truths. Correcting these errors requires dismantling these false paradigms and letting the ancient worldview emerge. It's as if we must remove our very dark sunglasses to finally see the rich but mismatched colours of the existing puzzle. Colours that provide important clues to dismantling and then correctly re‑joining the pieces!

Endnotes:

1. Godawa, Brian. “When Giants Were Upon the Earth: The Watchers, the Nephilim, and the Biblical Cosmic War of the Seed (Chronicles of the Nephilim)”, pp. 93-95, Warrior Poet Publishing, Kindle Edition.

2. Benner, Jeff and Calpino, Michael. Genesis, Zen and Quantum Physics: A Fresh Look at the Theology and Science of Creation, Ancient Hebrew Research Center, Kindle Edition, 2018, Location 948.