This study explores cosmology of the Ancient Near East and the Old Testament, and compares its differences and similarities between them. The cosmology reflects how humanity see and imagine the physical form and structure of the surrounding universe. ...
This study explores cosmology of the Ancient Near East and the Old Testament, and compares its differences and similarities between them. The cosmology reflects how humanity see and imagine the physical form and structure of the surrounding universe. The cosmology of one culture demonstrates the world view of the contemporary people and their experience and observation of the properties of the universe as a whole. The modern scientific cosmology focuses on solar system among infinite expanding galaxies. The planet earth as a part of the solar system orbits the Sun with other planets and rotate a day 24 hours. The six continents of the planet earth is surrounded by five oceans. The modern people share this knowledge of scientific cosmology. The ancient Near East people, however, imagined a different cosmology from that we have nowadays. Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Canaanites , Hittites, and Israelites commonly shared the understanding of the structure of universe with three layers. The upper layer is the heaven, the middle is the earth, and the lower is the nether land. The heaven is the dwelling place of the gods according to their hierarchical structure. The sky regarded as firmament is in the middle between the heaven and the earth. The function of the heaven is to sustain the water in the sky. They thought that there are gates of heaven where sun, moon, stars, clouds go in and out through them. The ANE people recognized that the earth is like a flat disk shape and their dwelling territory is the center of the earth. There are mountains in the four corners of the earth that reach to the sky, supporting the heaven and these mountains rooted in the nether land. At the center of the earth, there is a cosmic tree. The sea surrounding the earth is divided into the upper water and the lower water of the earth, but the water is not the separated entity but joined together. The ANE people thought that there are nether land under the earth where the deceased go down. In this nether land, there are temples where the gods maintain their hierarchical organization. The Old Testament description of the cosmology is as follows. The Old Testament depicts the shape of the heaven with the words such as firmament(Eze 1:25,26), the dwelling place of God(Ex 24:10), the vaulted heavens (Job 22:14), skies over empty space (Job 26:7-10), the heavens life canopy (Isa 40:22), the floodgates of the heavens (Gen 7:11,12). The earth is described as the foundation upon the water (Ps 24:2), the pillar of the earth (Job 9:6-7), its cornerstones (Job 38:4-6), the cosmic mountain in the center of the earth(Mic 4:1,2). The descriptions regarding the nether land are as follows. The realm of the death below (Deut 32:22), go down alive to the grace(Ps 55:15), Sheol and heaven (Isa 14:9, 10, 13). The cosmology of the Old Testament is similar to that of ANE. Then what is the difference between the two. The ANE cosmology describes the structure of the universe with its relationship to the polytheistic perspective. However, the Old Testament describes from the perspective of the monotheism that the one God, the creator, governs the universe. The cosmology of the ANE people was affected by the observance of the universe and their faith system upon the function of the gods. The cosmology of Israelites also was shaped by the similar elements. Even though there are similarities between the two cosmologies, there are also differences caused by polytheistic and monotheistic perspective of theologies. God utilized the sharing cosmology of Israelites and the surrounding nations in order to communicate with them, but the theology behind it is different. The modern interpreters should be aware of the ideology and world view of the ANE in order to acquire the mature understanding of the biblical text and interpret it properly.